fandomhighdorms | 2nd Floor Common Room, Tuesday Afternoon

It was their sixteenth birthday today. Sholeh hadn't told anyone because she couldn't think of a way to do so without it coming across as self-aggrandizing. What was one supposed to do? Just walk up to random people and announce that it was your birthday? Wasn't that a little...rude?

It had been her plan to spend the rest of the day curled up with a new book she'd gotten as a birthday gift for herself, but Zhahar had pointed out that it was their birthday, too, and surely her sisters deserved a little something for willingly remaining in the background for weeks at a time. Which was how Sholeh had ended up in the common room, making cream cheese caramel brownies. Unsure of the recipe, even with Zhahar whispering directions in her ear, Sholeh had decided to make multiple batches just to make sure she ended up with enough to share with her sisters.

The only problem with making a lot in preparation of failure? When you actually succeeded, you ended up with more than you bargained for. A lot more. Sholeh was pretty sure they couldn't eat all of the brownies she'd made even divided among the three of them.

Well, maybe...

Okay, yeah probably not.

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Sholeh nodded and immediately felt bad for making him feel bad. "Oh no, I didn't assume you did! It's just like I think it's wonderful you can do all those things. I'm better at reading about them than doing them."

She offered him another brownie as an apology just in case.

. . . well, Anakin wasn't going to turn it down, so he nodded at her in thanks and, you know, took the brownie.

"Does reading about things ever make you want to go out and do them?" he asked.

"Sometimes," Sholeh said. "Like, go out on adventures and do exciting things like that. Meet new people and learn about new cultures and things. But then I remember I'm shy with people I know, so I probably won't be much good at the other stuff, either."

She shrugged, like it was no big deal. "Sometimes I try out other things I find. Like these brownies!"

"Who knows? You could be better at it than you think," Anakin said, encouragingly. "The brownies were definitely a success. It might signal a trend."

. . . nerd.

"But you can't suggest a trend based on only one datapoint," Sholeh objected, because she was also a giant nerd. "Or even two. One might be an outlier! You need at least three to even start making a judgment on trend."

Anakin opened his mouth to respond, then shut it again when he realized she had a point.

"Well . . ." he tried, not quite ready to concede just yet. "There's only one way to find out if it is, obviously."

Sholeh laughed and nodded. "That's a fair point. I guess I can't prove that it isn't a trend, either, not without additional data, too. So the next thing to do is try two more things from books and see if I'm any good at them."

"At least two more," Anakin suggested, "but what kinds of things?"

He wasn't trying to push for anything; his tone was genuinely curious.

"Oh, I like all sorts of things," Sholeh said. It wasn't a helpful answer, but she really was a sponge for information and new things to try. "It's hard to narrow it down, because of all the new things that I'm learning about on the island that I wouldn't ever have at home, so there are things that I don't know I like yet!"

She had a learner's enthusiasm for everything, really.

Anakin dug a hand into his hair (and immediately regretted it when he realized he'd be shaking brownie crumbs out for a while) and chuckled. "Well . . . that means you have plenty of options, I guess. What's your home like?"

"Very different from here," Sholeh said, unable to keep the tone of wonder from her voice. "We're much smaller for one. I grew up in a nice, bustling village, but it's smaller even than the town on the island. We have farms and livestock and things, but no electricity or motor vehicles or anything."

They did have indoor plumbing, though. Which meant they weren't complete barbarians.

"And yours?"

2nd Floor Common Room, Tuesday Afternoon

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