The Jedi Code

IV : The Race on Boonta Eve

"Finish the race, of course," Kitster said in a somewhat sassy tone.

By the look Padmé was now shooting in our direction I couldn't help but feel the heat rushing to my cheeks and practically feeling like melting right now. "You've never won a race?" She asked both of us in a largely disapproving and somewhat angered tone that practically had me shaking with even more nerves swarming in my veins than before.

"Well . . .," I started but couldn't finish as my face was growing pale from embarrassment and shame.

"Not exactly," Anakin managed to say with a slight grimace now that the truth was out for both of us.

"Not even finished?" Padmé continued to integrate us with a very stern look.

"Kitster's right! We will this time," I said with a nervous laugh as I wrapped an arm around Anakin and Kitster's neck trying to boost the optimism in the room but from the look Padmé was still sending me I'll say I didn't even give her emotions a boost.

"Of course you will," Qui-Gon said in an encouraging tone as he placed his hands on Anakin's and my shoulders and shot Padmé a look. Padmé just continued to stand there with her jaw ajar and staring at the three of us like we were all psychotic, which you had to admit we were a little.

After that, we got back to work on the pod. "Hey, Artoo," I called out to the droid and R2-D2 was quick to head over to where I was squatting beside one of our engine panels. "Will you check the oil levels and the electric currents for me? I wanna make sure all of that is in good order before we officially take the pod outside."

R2-D2 gave me a few beeps and whistles which I assume indicated he was glad to help as he connected to our engine port and begin checking the pod as I requested. The little droid seemed to like me since yesterday he spent all day with me and even today he tended to stick to either 3PO or myself. It wasn't long before we were back in the stadium preparing for the race with R2-D2 carrying the pod while Anakin, Kitster, and myself helped the droid by standing on the sides and behind the pod pushing it across the sand.

"We are all gathered here today to celebrate and cheer for our favorite event of the month. Now we can all take a moment to check out all the Podracers," a voice boomed throughout the stadium in Huttese.

"That's absolutely right," another voice boomed out this time in a language everyone could understand. Especially since they broadcasted the races over the galaxy, the announcers would need to be able to speak so that the entire galaxy could understand them, and let me tell you, not everyone knows Huttese. "And a big turnout here from all corners of the outer rim territories. I see the contestants are making their way out onto the starting grid."

The announcers then started going through all the contestants and naming them off along with their amount of wins if they had any. Like usual I just blocked all of that out and tried to stay focused on the race and what we needed to do to win. I found that always helped me during a challenge, just staying focused and pushing everything else out.

I managed to keep my focus for a good while until the announcer shouted a certain Dug's name and I couldn't help but turn my attention over that way. Sure enough, Sebulba was leaping into his pod before he raised his arms towards the crowd and the crowd responded with hollers and screams for their favorite racer. If I wasn't a Podracer myself he would probably be my favorite too. Then again, he won mostly by cheating so I actually might hate him. I couldn't help but let out a groan and roll my eyes as Sebulba started blowing kisses to the crowd.

Either way, I must have been handling it better than Anakin because when I looked over at him he looked like he practically had steam coming out of his ears as he watched Sebulba. "Ani," I called out to him and he turned his head in my direction, his face calming down when he saw me. "Don't think about him, just think about the race," I said softly to him with raised eyebrows and he sent me a stiff nod in response before he got back to work.