moreofaponchoguy | Outside the School, Early Friday Morning

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Outside the School, Early Friday Morning

So, it turned out that when you let people with no fear of heights visit the Eiffel Tower as part of Earth Tourism, they returned to the island with some amazing ideas. Cal had been eying the tower on top of the school since he'd arrived in Fandom, and he only needed the tiniest bit of encouragement from Arden to be convinced to try to scale it. He didn't want his Jedi abilities to get rusty, after all.

Not wanting to be foolish enough to try this in broad daylight, they'd gotten started before sunrise, working up the main portion of the building, with Cal leading the way and Arden following behind. He wanted to encourage her climbing skills, like a good friend, and there were enough ledges and bricks that Cal could pull loose for her to have a clear path. The second part, on the other hand, was going to be a little more treacherous, and they'd stopped on the roof to catch their breath.

"It's already a nice view, huh?"

[For the partner in crime!]

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"Not at all. Usually, I'm doing this to get out of danger, or to be sneaky. Climbing for fun is a rare experience," he said, scooting them around the tower a little faster just to show her he could. He definitely wasn't trying to compete with her experience flying with Gray, that would be ridiculous. This was just a matter of general pride and practice. "What do you think we're going to find up there?"

Why would he be trying to compete with her description of getting swept up in the arms of a handsome angel and then flown about the sky? That would just be silly.

"Oh, it's definitely gotta be some kind old, abandoned tower, where nobody's been in, like, a hundred years," Arden said. "We're gonna find a bunch of weird shit from the earliest days of the school, like old uniforms and maybe creepy pictures, and equipment that looks like maybe old torture devices but are probably weird gym equipment and stuff that Dean Skywalker would want to use on Wednesdays."

"I wonder if that's where he keeps all the costumes and props," Cal said as they scaled closer to the window openings. "Maybe we can find his stash and make it disappear so everyone's Wednesdays will be calm again. We'd be like secret heroes."

"What the kriff are you doing up there?" came an extremely annoyed voice from the ground.

"Oh shit," Arden hissed. "Uhhh..."

Did that sound like the Dean to Cal? Cause it kinda sounded like the Dean to Arden. "Climb faster! Maybe we can make it inside before he gets a good look at us!"

Right, Anakin definitely wouldn't be able to narrow down who could scale a wall like this from the vast number of Jedi who were on the island. He froze momentarily like he was still a padawan getting yelled at by his Master, and then climbed as fast as he could. "Hold on, this is getting more like my usual experience," he whispered to her.

"At least he probably won't start shooting at us?" Arden said and she managed to cling on a little tighter.

She wished she could sound more sure about that.

"...Is it weird I'm still actually having fun?"

"Yes," came that annoyed voice from halfway up the tower. He'd jumped there because Jedi are gonna Jedi.

Oh, that was a very undignified noise that came out of Cal. "Maybe if we just stay here, he won't see us?" he stage-whispered to Arden. He could hang off the side of the tower forever, right?

"Is he like a T-Rex where he can only see movement?" Arden asked, because that seemed unlikely but who was she to say for sure. "...Can you jump like that?"

Children, this was less stealthy than you might think.

"You know I can hear you, right?" Anakin commented dryly.

From, again, way closer than he should be.

Okay, Cal could be a wimp and continue to hide, or he could man up and face the consequences. It probably took longer than it should have for him to make the right choice and pull them up into the tower to face Anakin. "Uh. Hi. You're in excellent shape, has anyone mentioned that to you recently?"

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Anakin told him.

But it helped that he'd been working out in a warehouse passively and then actively trying to kill him for years now.

It wasn't until Arden realized that Cal was bringing them towards Anakin instead of away did she realize that she could maybe get expelled over this. Then what would she do? Would she be allowed to stay in Midnight if she got expelled? Could they kick her off the island? Would she have to move back to North Carolina? Would she have to go back to Callista? Worse if she did end up on her own, how soon until the Duskwatch found her?

The bottom dropped out of her fun pretty much immediately and for a moment, she cowered behind Cal, like he could maybe be her shield, seeking out the steady thump of his heartbeat to try to stave off a panic attack. It was hard, but she breathed through that first spike of panicfearterror!, long enough to push those thoughts away. If she did get expelled, she could figure something out. Marc and Steven and Watts wouldn't kick her out right away, probably. Her rent was paid through the summer and that would give her time to plan.

Okay. Focus.

She unwound herself from Cal, stepping down on shaky legs, holding onto him long enough to make sure she was good for balance, and then stepped up next to Cal. If her hand sought out his to hold onto for courage, shut up about it, okay?

"Hi, Dean Skywalker. Um...we were..." She glanced back to Cal, who was so worried about the opinions of the on-island Jedi, and made a decision.

I'll have the summer. I have time.

"I'm so sorry, sir, this is all my fault."

Cal held her hand tightly, instinctively, ready to take the fall, and whipped his head around to stare at Arden before looking to Anakin and shaking his head. "No, no, this is my fault, this whole thing was my idea. I was trying to show off to Arden. She didn't even want to be here."

He wasn't really a student, he didn't belong here, he had--well, he had a lot to lose, but less than she did.

Sweet goddess, Cal, shut up! She was doing you a solid here!

Cal was stuck here, already miserable about it. The last thing she wanted was to make it any worse for him. Which it would be, if Anakin and the other Jedi thought he was bad news or ostracized him or whatever. Their respect were so important to him--far to important to lose.

"Didn't even want to be here?" Arden scoffed. "You wouldn't even be here if I hadn't encouraged you! This is entirely on me. I wanted the tower picnic, not you."

"I didn't say no, did I? I was the one doing the climbing, I could have said no at any point," Cal said. "We could have had a picnic on the manor roof, but I wanted to do something different, and that's all on me. You have classes to go to." You know, like a student doing important school things she couldn't get in trouble for.

Arden was glaring at him now for not taking the very good out that she was providing. Did you have to be so damn stubborn, Cal Kestis?

"You mean like the yoga class we both have in a few hours?" she retorted. "Or the paintball class we both have on Monday? Or the Earth Tourism class where I egged you on about this? because we're both in it on Tuesdays?"

She turned back to Anakin. "Please don't listen to him, sir. He's just trying to protect me because he's a good--" Jedi "--person like that."

"Don't listen to her," Cal said at almost the same time. "Again, this was all my idea, you can do whatever you feel is necessary to me, but Arden didn't do anything wrong."

At this point, BD-1 finally made his way up into the tower as well. "They're both lying, I sent them here," he said, perching on Cal's shoulder with the saddest of beeps.

"Buddy, you really should have stayed below," Cal replied.

Okay, that was unfair. Arden didn't speak beep yet.

"Oh baby, you climbed all this way?" Arden didn't steal him off of Cal's shoulder to cuddle and that was very gucci of her. She did reach over and try to pet him, though, because he was just so good.

"What did he say?"

"He tried to take the blame for himself, like a crazy droid."

"It's what friends do!" BD said, resisting the urge to tilt his head in Arden's direction for emphasis.

"You weren't even there when I came up with the idea." Because no, he wasn't letting this go.

"Oh, that is crazy," Arden agreed with a sage nod. "Because it's all my fault."

"What if I say it's everyone's fault," Anakin said. "Including the droid?"

He wouldn't put it past a droid, either, but his thoughts were skewed by knowing Artoo and Threepio.

"I would understand, but BD-1 and I will take the brunt of the responsibility, and the punishment." So there, Arden.

She was gonna pitch you out of the goddess-damned window, Kestis, just you watch.

"I'm sure the Dean appreciates your willingness to be responsible, Cal--" You did notice it, right, Anakin? Cal was such a good Jedi that way! "--that's bullshit. This is still mostly on me, so it would be unfair for you to try to take it all on your shoulders."

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