When the lift started moving, Zoe panicked. She grabbed onto Jaina's arm, her nails digging in. Her eyes were closed tight and she got as close to Jaina as possible.

Jai gritted her teeth and supressed a yowl of pain. She put a comforting arm around Zo's shoulders and held her close.

"Ok...something else we need to do: get you a manicure. Whew...Cm'on kiddo." Of course, Zoe's culture had no word for 'manicure' so that word went untranslated by the mini-translator attached to Zoe's shirt.

Once the lifted stopped, Jai pryed Zo off of her arm and walked to a metallic blue, streamlined, sporty speeder.

"This is my second baby, next to my MJF...you'll see it later. It's a YT-1300, but this here is a EV910 SuperNovara, X-class. But...uh...I guess that doesn't mean anything to you..ahem...right. Well, off to downtown, eh? Cm'on, Zo'."

Zoe looked at the vehicle warily. She had never been in a speeder any newer than an XP-38 before.

To make a long story short...

The ride to the department store was as wild as PMS'ing Corellian Sand Panther...and that's putting it mildly. When Jai finally got the speeder parked and managed to tumble out---with Zoe clinging madly to her thigh---the usual ten minute ride had taken them an hour and a half.

Somehow, Jai dragged Zoe back into a lift and they whooshed down to the children's department of the store. After a bit of coaxing and sweet talk, Zoe unclamped herself from Jai and held her hand meekly as they strolled through the girls clothes.

"Anything you want, Zo'...anything. I have 2 weeks worth of pay to blow."

Zoe looked at all the clothes, totally dumbstruck. She'd never seen so many fine things in one place. She went to a rack that had a simple white shirt and some white pants and looked at them, then took them to Jaina and smiled up at her.

Jai smiled and shrugged, "Well...alright, kiddo. This'll work...but you got about ten million more credits to go before we'll be in the poorhouse. You can pick up about 30 more outfits, you'll need 'em. And shoes too, at least 5 pairs. And pajama's, and underwear too...so go wild. Here, I'll make it easy on you..."

Jai knelt down and laid the clothes over her thigh as she spoke to Zoe, "You've played pretend right? Yeah...well...look, pretend your a princess. The princess of Tatooine and your uber-rich and you have everything you want. But your going on a trip to another planet and your going to be gone a long time, so you need a whole new wardrobe for the trip....if you were a princess, you'd need more clothes than this, wouldn't you?"

Jaina gave Zoe and sly smirk, "Now, g'on...go wild."

Zoe looked at Jaina, then looked around, then looked back at Jaina and shook her head vigorously. She felt she didn't deserve all this.


No....that's enough.....that's fine......

"Are you sure, Zo'? There's so many nice things..."

Jai was shocked that the girl didn't want any thing more. It was downright odd.

Zoe shook her head vigorously again, then got a kind of a distant look in her eyes. Her master had once taken her shopping, telling her that she had done good and deserved a reward. He said that she could have whatever she wanted. When she grabbed many things, he put them all back, then took her home and beat her for being a selfish, greedy little girl. In the end she had gotten nothing.

Jai shook Zo' gently.."Kiddo? You alright? Hey, if you're sure we'll check out and go."