fandomhigh | Laying Low for Beginners, Thursday, Period 1

The kid at the front of the room today, for better or for worse, was definitely the teacher of this class, yes. He was a bit on the short side, being only fifteen and not having quite hit a growth spurt just yet, with a brown robe over his too-practical-to-be-fashionable tunic and pants, all of which were in shades of white, black, or brown.

Oh, and he had the same stupid hair as Anakin. It was a whole thing.

He probably felt about as out of place as he looked, if that was any consolation.

"Uh, hi," he said, awkwardly. "I'm Caleb. And I guess I'm a teacher today." It would be good practice for when he was a Master himself, someday. Right? "I'm supposed to be teaching about laying low, but that's a little bit out of my area of expertise, but I think I've figured out a lesson that can benefit everyone in the room anyway. It's actually pretty simple. The whole lesson? Ask questions."

If Master Kenobi or Master Windu had been in the room to hear him tell that to a whole class full of students, they probably would have groaned and buried their faces in their hands. Caleb had a bit of a reputation at the Temple as the one who did entirely too much of that.

"The thing is, you can't really lay low unless you know what kind of situation you're in and what you can use to your advantage. And maybe you'll find yourself on a planet you don't know, or in a situation you haven't encountered before, and simply observing might not be enough. But maybe somebody else will know that one thing you need that can get you through." He ran a hand through his hair, embracing that awkward tell he'd mentioned he once had in a class he couldn't remember teaching, now. "You do need to be careful about who you're talking to and what questions you're asking, I think. I mean, if you ask the wrong person something that immediately identifies you as someone that should be in a lot of trouble, at best they'll try to distance themselves from you, and at worst they'll try to kill you. But if you ask the right questions, if you work your way toward the answer you're trying to get to maybe a little sideways, so that they answer it without even realizing that's what you were looking for, then that's even better, right?"

Yeah, he needed a lot of work before he could ever even think of teaching a Padawan of his own someday. This was way too awkward.

"So, today, we're going to ask questions. That's the whole assignment. There's this game that's entirely about doing that, where one person asks questions and the person answering them can only say yes or no. The one asking the question gets twenty attempts, and if they can't guess what the first person is thinking about in those twenty turns, they lose. So, everybody team up. One of you pick something on the island that your partner is likely to be at least sort of familiar with, and give that a try."

Yes, Caleb was assigning a game of Twenty Questions today. Which was probably at least slightly more fun than Kanan's planned lesson of self-evaluation and trying to figure out your own weaknesses, so enjoy this, guys. This, and snickering at his hair.

[OOC: Have at!]

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"I bet you didn't think you'd be doing this today," Sabine said.

The name thing was interesting, but as someone whose surname was on her records and she still hadn't introduced herself with it because she didn't want to answer questions... she got it.

"Not even a little bit," Caleb confirmed, looking up at the -- Mandalorian! -- girl and giving her a tiny smile. "It's strange... I feel like I should be more worried about why I'm here. I have no idea, you know? But it isn't... bad?"

He'd probably needed the break anyway. Mygeeto had been rough.

"You're Sabine, right? The TA?"

He had no idea what TA meant. But it was in the notes that he'd apparently left for himself.

"That's me," she confirmed. "Here for all your helper needs."

And then she thought to ask, "Seriously, do you need help with anything?"

Because he was probably around her age but he was still a baby.

"I... have no idea," Caleb admitted, grimacing for a moment before gesturing to where he'd been standing when addressing the class. "... How bad was it?"

The lesson. He'd never done anything quite like it before.

"You did good," Sabine said, barely holding back a "kid." Because she didn't want Kanan saying anything about it later.

Didn't matter that she was maybe like a month older than him.

"I'd tell you if you didn't."

For what it was worth, whatever her reason for holding back that 'kid,' Caleb appreciated it!

"Oh, good," he replied, and visibly slumped a little in relief. "I didn't really have time to come up with anything, but questions, I'm good at."

"Apparently. And you can add improvising to your list of skills," she said.

"Not a bad thing for a future Knight to have," Caleb agreed, his expression brightening a little. "Not, uh, not that I don't have a long way to go there, of course."

He was still new. So new.

"How long do you think that'll take you?" As of right now, it was hard to picture.

"That depends on how long the war goes on," Caleb admitted after a pause. "My training's been kind of put on hold because of it. I learn a lot in battle, but there are a lot of things to cover that we can't, while camping out with clones in the middle of nowhere."

Well, the good news was it probably wouldn't go on too much longer. The bad news was...

Also this wasn't her first conversation the last couple days about the clones, and she figured she should stay away from that fit now.

"Do you at least use downtime for training?"

"What little downtime we have," Caleb agreed, nodding. "If we're not on assignment, we're healing up, you know?"

He'd basically tripped out of a bacta tank into a transport to Mygeeto, not long ago. There wasn't much downtime when you were floating half-naked in a tube full of goo.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

She didn't know why she asked it, except that he clearly had issues with it in the future.

That question seemed so out of left field to Caleb that he actually blinked and looked a little taken aback by it.

"It's my whole life," he replied.

"So yes," she assumed, as someone whose identity was also tied to where they came from.

"So yes," Caleb confirmed, nodding. "I mean... it isn't always easy, but it's not something I've ever wanted to walk away from, either."

He was going to be a Jedi. He was going to find a purpose in the galaxy. He was going to make a difference.

"Just checking," she said, nodding. If you were going to go through all that for something, you should like it.

It probably didn't hurt that it was the only life Caleb had ever known, and he'd been... what was the word Sear had used about him back at the temple? Indoctrinated?

It felt weird to think of it that way, though.

"Okay," he replied, and then shrugged. "I mean, I'm happy. This is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life."

Oh honey.

Oh honey.

And there was that uncomfortable realization that this was probably what she'd looked like back in the day. Like a year-ish ago.

"Yeah, but teaching a bunch of kids on a weird island probably has its perks, too."

"... You figure?"

Because Caleb was coming up short on those, here.

"I mean, the TA for this class is great."

Of course she went there.

Caleb blinked, needing a moment. And then he broke into a little grin, a little laugh, ducking his head and running a hand through his hair.

"She's pretty okay," he allowed. "She seems to know what she's doing more than the teacher does, anyway."

"I wouldn't say that..."

Considering what she did with the trooper helmet.

Kanan would have found that way more hilarious than Caleb, alas. Caleb still thought the clones were pretty great.

"No? Why not?"

Seriously, Caleb was so lost here.

Yeah, if he was camping with them...

"Uhh. I kind of stand out, considering the class," she hedged. Totally innocent here. Yep.

Re: Talk to Caleb!

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