As it was in most cases of fateful meetings, Damaeo Niveh had heard of Lewix Winchard before actually meeting the student. While the Jedi Temple was filled with people of average to above average intelligence, genius was still rare. The title of genius was only bestowed upon people who were not only talented within the Force but also sharp of mind. One could find several students who could levitate various objects when they were only small Creche children but how many of these same kids could do astrophysics as if it were a simple tic-tac-toe game? Not many. So, the day Damaeo had heard two students mention in Master Badu's advanced chemistry class that a "certified genius" was going to be joining their class, the normally seclusive student had felt a spike of interest. "Winchard's only thirteen," commented one padawan. "Bloody thirteen and he's taking advanced chemistry." "Great," came the irritated puffed reply. "Our class curve average is gonna be killed thanks to him." Sitting at his desk on the side, Damaeo thoughtfully tapped the pencil he held in his hand against his chin. The thin-faced sixteen year old usually took on that habit whenever he went into deep thought. Which was often. Being more of an observer of the world rather than an action type person, Damaeo had earned himself the reputation of being one of the most mild mannered students at the Temple, despite having a thatch of bright red hair. Usually, Damaeo kept to himself during most of his classes, dutifully listening to lectures and copying lessons. He rarely spoke or rarely contributed much. He was a good student but as it was often reported to his Master on his score cards, "Could be more interactive." The only one teacher of his that never gave him much grief about it was Master Badu who only gave out marks but almost no comments. Most of the students guessed it was due to the fact that Badu was rather old and most likely somewhat too senile to remember the faces of the students that came through year after year. But this particular morning, a rather beaming smile was on old Badu's face as he hobbled into the classroom. Badu was most likely over 400 years old though his true age was probably only known by Master Yoda or Master Yaddle who were of the same species as Badu. They would be able to tell. Damaeo could barely tell at times Master Badu apart from Master Yoda. Walking into the classroom on a short, knobbly gimmer stick of his own, Badu was followed by a young dark haired boy. "Attention students!" croaked the old teacher, banging his stick on the floor for good measure. All murmurs of chatter ceased at the command. Including Damaeo, 21 pairs of eyes stared in attention to both Badu and the padawan who stood next to him with an expressionless face. "New student, we have," said Badu, the smile all the more apparent. "Lewix Winchard, he is." Lifting his gimmer stick, he poked one end at the aforementioned student's side. "Passed all nine elementary levels did you?" he asked, obviously knowing the answer but wanting to hear it nonetheless. Damaeo watched in slight fascination as the other thin student nodded and gave a polite, "Yes." Badu smiled wider in rapt happiness. "Good student, he is. Loves chemistry, he does. Learn something from him we all may, hmmmm?" "Oh, bloody Sith," Damaeo heard a student mutter from one side. Badu quickly ushered Lewix into a seat, one that was in the front row, just in front of him. Lewix sat down stiffly in his seat, placing his data pad off to one side of the desk and putting his hands flat on the table, as if to inspect them. But the dark eyes remained staring straight forward. Damaeo's pencil began to tap at his chin again as he carefully studied the back of Lewix's head. The boy didn't look thirteen. He looked more like he was ten. As time went on and Badu continued his lecture, Damaeo noticed Lewix not taking any notes but continuing to stare with almost a blank look up at Badu whose stick clicked in rhythm as the teacher marched up and down the classroom. Maybe geniuses don't need to take notes, supposed Damaeo, not out of bitterness but honest guessing. "Padawan Niveh," called Badu in a commanding tone. "Sir?" Damaeo answered, quickly, his voice sounding slightly hoarse from not much use. He hadn't talked to his Master this morning nor had he spoken to anyone else. Many people would have been amused by the fact that "Sir?" had been the first word out of Damaeo Niveh's mouth that day. "What element is missing from this equation, hmmm?" asked the green Jedi Master, tapping the board with his stick. Damaeo looked up at the board and ran his eyes across the massive chemical equation that made his head slightly dizzy. After a few moments of thought, he came up with a useless, "Oxygen?" Badu only snorted at the response. "Padawan Winchard, know the answer do you?" "It's iodine," answered the youngest student, not taking a moment to even blink. Badu nodded with an approving glow while Damaeo felt his face grow slightly red at his elementary mistake. He only had a few more moments to glower at the event when Badu announced it was time for trying out the experiment. Immediately, the students paired themselves off. While it was an even number, leaving everyone with a partner, a group section themselves off as a three, leaving Lewix obviously to himself. "Padawan Meris, work with Padawan Winchard, you will," ordered Badu. "But Sir, I've always worked with Chis and Bei. We've got a system worked," explained Meris. At the tone in his voice, Damaeo noticed Lewix turn slightly from his solitary desk to observe Meris. Badu tapped his stick on the floor for a few seconds before grunting. "Work by yourself, can you?" he asked Lewix. "That's fine," replied the dark-haired student with a passive look. "I'm telling you, we're in the sodding nip, now," muttered Bref, whom Damaeo usually worked with. The slightly shorter boy brought over his materials to Damaeo's desk to begin their work. "Averaging curves is what kept me alive in this bloody class. With him in it, it's done for sure," he groused. "He can't help doing well in the class," said Damaeo, softly, starting to pour out chemicals. His eyes remained divided on his task and watching Lewix begin setting out his materials, oblivious to the other students talking about him or the looks of slight resentment he was getting. "Why couldn't he just stay in his section? Advancing only messes you up," said Bref. "You mean, messes YOU up," corrected Damaeo with a wry look. "Both." CRACK! Both Damaeo and Bref looked up at the loud sound to notice Lewix standing over a set of broken test tubes. "Oops," said the younger student. "Padawan Winchard!" came a startled exclaimation from Badu. Even under the wrinkles, Damaeo could plainly see the look of surprise on the old Master's face. "I dropped it," said Lewix, pointing out the painfully obvious. A few other students smirked. "More careful, you must be," said Badu, trying to chalk up the mistake to nervousness. Lewix only nodded, still looking somewhat vacant in the eyes as he set about his task. "Are geniuses allowed to be clumsy?" asked Bref, giving Damaeo a mocking look. The redheaded student only gave a slightly exasperated smile as he shook his head. As time went on, the only sounds in the room were the clinks glasses and the sounds of liquids being poured from vial to vial. But every now and then, a thud or a crack could be heard coming from Lewix's station as the student continuously managed to either drop things or knock over glassware with his sleeve. By the second half of the experiment, it looked rather obvious that Lewix would need a new desk as half of the lab chemicals were now drenching the area. "My Force, kid's a disaster!" Bref commented, though Damaeo noticed he had replaced comments like that from his previous grousing about Lewix destroying the class average. "Is he TRYING to start a fire?" Damaeo looked over at Lewix who was now currently struggling with getting an end of rubber tubing into the pipe of flask. It was a task more easily performable with a partner who could hold the end of the tube while the other twisted the end in. But being alone, Lewix only twisted it fiercely while the end of the tubing dangerously flopped near other breakable glassware. Seeing the look of frustrated concentration in Lewix's eyes, Damaeo felt a slight pang of sympathy. Handing over the flask in his hand to Bref, he said a quick, "Hold on," and walked over to Lewix's desk. "Um..do you need a hand?" asked Damaeo, politely. Lewix seemed not to hear him as continued to twist at the rubber tubing. "Uh...do you need a hand?" repeated the redhead, a bit louder this time. Lewix looked up at the taller boy, his hand in mid-twist. "No. Thank you. Leave it," he replied. "Your other end is hitting your glassware," said Damaeo, being persistent for the first time in his life. "It's fine," gritted Lewix, still twisting. "You'll break your flasks." "It's fine!" "Look, I'll just hold it," said Damaeo, reaching over and taking the tubing safely in his hand. "I've got it, leave it," ordered Lewix, tugging from his end. "It's okay, just twist it now. I've got it," replied the redhead, feeling slightly frustrated at the lack of gratitude from Lewix. "Let it go!" Lewix tugged at the tubing that Damaeo now firmly held in his hand. "You'll break glassware if you do!" For some reason, Damaeo felt a sudden compulsion not to give in. He was trying to help the kid for Force's sake! And maybe in the head of a genius, you had to do everything yourself but Damaeo knew it would only earn Lewix more grief in the end. "I've got it," he repeated, holding on tighter and gritting his teeth. "I said, let go!" ordered Lewix, now yanking on the tubing that began to stretch. "Problem, you have?" demanded Badu, finally beginning to hear the squabbling and walking over. "Let go!" said Lewix, pulling. "YOU let go!" replied Damaeo, pulling on his own end now. With one mighty wrench, Lewix managed to pull the tubing out of Damaeo's grasp. Unfortunately, as it left Damaeo's hand, it flew with enough force to whip past Lewix and hit Master Badu square in the face. A mightly SLAP was heard throughout the class as Badu yelped in pain and clapped a tiny green hand over his eye. Damaeo stared in horror at the result while Lewix whipped around at the sounds of the old Jedi Master yelling something in his native tongue. And then the other disaster happened. In his haste to turn around, Lewix had momentarily forgotten the tubing still in his hand, the other end now resting on the table. And as he turned, the tubing whipped along the table, finally managing to knock into to some glassware. Damaeo saw it almost in slow motion as half filled glasses of miscellaneous liquids began to fall over. It was a moment of decision making. A moment where one could take action or just stand there in muted horror. And since Damaeo was a born observer, it would have been more intelligent of him to simply stand there and watch the destruction play out. Instead, he tried to help. Unfortunately, his desire to help the situation was not followed by a terribly good plan on how to go about the manner. Instead of coming up with a decent idea to try and catch the falling glassware or at least push Master Badu out of it's path, Damaeo simply....ran forward. This motion, not terribly aided by the fact that Lewix only stood in his way, resulted in Damaeo knocking some additional flasks as well as the already flying ones causing the chemicals not to land ON Badu but crashing just behind him in a great heap. A heap that soon turned into a big ball of fire. As sounds of Badu screeching in both pain and alarm...but mostly out of alarm filled the air amongst other screaming and panicking students, only Damaeo and Lewix stood now stock still, watching the overblown event with wide eyes. +++++++++++++++++ "So, I attempted to prevent the glassware from falling-" "And what was your exact plan in preventing that from happening, Padawan Niveh?" interrupted Depa Billaba. "Umm..." Damaeo felt his face burn as brightly as his hair as he stood in front of twelve sets of intrigued eyes. "I sort of...well, I moved forward..." "Did you intend on catching all the falling glassware?" asked Mace Windu. "Well....no." "What was your intention?" "I guess...I sort of...acted," said Damaeo, reddening even more. Mace sat with his elbows on his knees, leaning forward. His fingers, weaved into each other were pressed against his lips in a look that was rather thoughtful. No one else knew that the dark-skinned Jedi Master had adopted this pose to hide the fact that he was trying hard not to laugh. "And then when the fire happened?" "Um...well, we managed to get Master Badu-" "We?" "Me and Padawan Winchard." "Ah, yes." "We got Master Badu under the lab shower and pulled the lever. Only we-" "The right lever or the left?" asked Mace, vaguely remembering his own chemistry class. "The right," admitted Damaeo, miserably. "The 10 gallon water one? Not the sprinkler one?" "Yes. We, umm....well, I'd forgotten the right one causes the ten gallons to come down." "I see. And then what happened?" "Well, there was a bit of a flood. We had to chase after Master Badu down the classroom for a few seconds." "Chase?" "The tide was taking him away...." "Oh, yes. Of course." "But the fire was out," concluded Damaeo. "Which was.....good." A few seconds of silence rose in the air as the twelve Council members looked at the redheaded student who now stood in acute embarrassment. "Thank you, Padawan Niveh. That was a very....accurate report," said Adi Gallia. Mace pressed his fingers to his lips as will power was no longer helping in keeping them from grinning. "Spoken with Badu, I have," said Yoda from his chair. "Very......irritated he is. More than one way." The slight lighthearted air of the Council was completely lost on Damaeo as the younger Jedi expected all Sith hells to rain down upon him. "Spoken with Padawan Winchard, we have as well," added Yoda. "Genius, the boy is." "Oh yes?" commented Depa, curiously. "I'd heard marvelous reports about him from his Master. Healer Tolm coincidentally treated Badu, didn't he? On his burns?" "Yes," said Plo Koon. "Tolm seemed rather surprised his padawan caused all of this. He always described Padawan Winchard as a contemplative boy." As the other Council members began to continue their light conversation, Damaeo wondered just what was going on. Was he to be punished? He and Lewix had managed to set an entire classroom on fire, not to mention a Master. Surely this was grounds for a flogging. If not an eternity in corner time. "Well, dismissed you are, Padawan," stated Yoda, waving his gimmer stick. "Umm..sir?" "Dismissed, you are." "Dismissed? As in...from the Temple?" he asked, fearfully. Depa looked surprised. "Don't be silly, Damaeo. It was an accident. We can all plainly see that. Lewix explained to us before that you were clearly only trying to help but it just got out of hand." Lewix had explained what? "But...." "He said you were only trying to prevent him from doing something rather destructive and it all escaladed to this rather unfortunate set of events. Just bad luck, I'm sure," said Mace from behind his hands. "Oh." "So, you may go." Walking out in a slight daze from the Council room, Damaeo noticed a familiar figure sitting on one of the waiting benches off to the side. It was Lewix. He looked different somehow than he had in the classroom. While in class he had appeared nearly lifeless and dulled, the dark haired student now seemed alert. Seeing the redheaded student almost immediately, Lewix trotted up to him. "Didn't get punished, did you?" asked the dark-haired boy. "Ummm...no," replied Damaeo, still slightly surprised. Lewix nodded. "Good. I told them it wasn't your fault. You were only trying to be helpful." "Yes, that's what they said, too." Damaeo regarded the smaller student, whose eyes now seemed rather sharp in contrast to the slightly vacant look he had before in class. "Did you get punished?" Lewix gave a crooked smile. "Master Badu kicked me out of Advanced Chemistry." "That's awful!" exclaimed Damaeo to which Lewix freely rolled his eyes. "Force, you're still in the dark, aren't you? What do you think I destroyed half of my lab materials for? You can't possibly think someone is THAT clumsy for real, do you?" he demanded. "You mean.....all that glassy-eyed, blank looks you had in class....that was just an act?" "Mostly. I sort of zoned out. Kind of easy when you're in chemistry class." "Did you MEAN to set the place on fire?" asked Damaeo, his eyes widening. To that, Lewix grinned. "Erm....no. I'd only meant to just break a lot of things, get Badu irritated so he'd kick me out eventually. He was just so mad about the idea that a thirteen year old was in his class that I thought if I acted like a moron he'd have me out of there in a flash. The fire thing was just......inspiringly helpful." Damaeo wasn't really sure what to do or say to that so only did the first thing that came to mind, which was laugh. "You are a genius then, aren't you?" Lewix rolled his eyes in an impatient gesture. "Genius, genius, whatever. I might just be a bit clever, that's all." "No, I'd say they're right when they call you a genius," said Damaeo, grinning. "I thought you loved chemistry, though. Why'd you want to get kicked out?" he asked. "Are you kidding me? Chemistry's the dullest subject this universe has to offer. Why'd you think I worked to get placed out of all the classes in my level?" Lewix replied. "Everyone just had it in their heads that I loved it just because I could do it. Frankly, I'd rather get my bum scorched like Master Badu then take the advanced class." Damaeo could only laugh shortly again. "Besides," added Lewix. "I don't think anyone else in the class was terribly thrilled with having me there." That got Damaeo feeling bad. So Lewix had heard the others talking about him. "They're just grade crazy. It's not really anything," he said, quickly. "I don't really care," brushed off Lewix, though Damaeo wondered how true that statement was. The redhead felt a bit fazed by the day's events as well as the realization of how Lewix's brain worked. And while Damaeo wouldn't want to relive today for any reason whatsoever, he wondered if he'd miss having Lewix around in class already. "Well....thanks for the interesting day, Lewix," said Damaeo. "I guess I'll see you.....do you take any other advanced classes?" "Mostly healer courses. I've only got the one advanced astrophysics class." "With Master Hab?" "That's the one." Damaeo grinned, inwardly. It seemed he'd be seeing Lewix sooner than he thought. And he was glad of it. Despite thinking he was slightly off, Damaeo found he rather liked the younger student. "You don't hate astrophysics too, do you?" he asked. Lewix shook his head with an appalled stare. "No way. Astrophysics is wicked good fun," he exclaimed. Damaeo wasn't sure if he was kidding or not but he guessed that was the point. |
 |
| If you have enjoyed this story please consider leaving feedback, no matter how short or long. Many thanks! Add Comment |
| Your Reputation Precedes You... By Jedi Joon |