Chapter Text
Ahsoka was glad she had worn basketball shorts.
The heat was still bad, but she was faring better than Korkie, who had settled on jeans and a black t-shirt— and should probably get checked for heat exhaustion when they got home.
“I can’t believe we don’t know anyone who can give us a ride home,” she groaned. “Aren’t you old enough to have a license?”
“I have it,” Tup replied, “But I don’t have a car.”
“Tell you what, I’ll buy one for you if you drive me home after school every day, ‘kay?”
“You don’t even have a job,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“Where there’s a will there’s a way, my friend.”
“A legal way?”
“We’ll see.”
“I’d rather not.”
Ahsoka sighed and looked down the long, straight stretch of sidewalk in front of them. The cars passing on the road should have provided some breeze, but they somehow only made it hotter. The trees of the residential part of town were still just a green haze on the horizon, with their promise of shade, and each step did little to draw them closer.
“You’re being awfully quiet,” Tup remarked, looking at Korkie.
“That would be because I’m dying,” the other boy replied. “How are you not?”
Tup shrugged. “I actually dressed for the weather. Do you not have shorts?”
“No,” Korkie huffed.
“ Why not? ”
“I don’t go outside during the day in summer! I stay indoors until the sun starts to set like a sane person.”
“Do you also avoid garlic and mirrors?”
Korkie shot him a glare, and Tup returned to readjusting his hair so that it would stay off of his neck.
“What’re your brothers’ excuses for not driving us, again?” Ahsoka asked. Anakin was supposed to be in class right now, but there was no way that there was no one in the Fett family that could pick them up. There were too many of them.
Tup started counting off on his fingers. “Fives is at football practice. Echo’s staying with him because he has chess club and it’s hard for him to drive with the prosthetics. Fox has to stay until the new parent information meeting is over. Bly, Jesse, ‘Case, Rex, and Kix are still on campus, and everyone else works for at least another hour.”
“I used to be in chess club,” Korkie said wistfully.
“Yeah, and we saw you maybe twice a week,” Ahsoka said.
“That wasn’t because of chess club,” he replied, “That was because of Model UN and Debate and Student Council and Honor Society on top of chess club.”
Tup stared at him in awe. “No wonder Satine made you drop it.”
“She let me choose. Chess was the least flattering on a college application.”
Ahsoka shook her head. “You need to get your priorities straight.”
Korkie was the king of extracurriculars. And he actually seemed to enjoy them. Being raised by an academic and a lawyer did things to your mind that she couldn’t understand.
Korkie opened his mouth to reply, but before he could say anything, a car with familiar flame decals pulled up next to them and rolled down the window.
“You guys need a ride?” Anakin called.
“I call shotgun!” Ahsoka cried. She had never been so relieved in her life. She owed Anakin a favor, for sure. She owed him all the—
“Already taken.” Padme leaned out from behind Anakin and waved, smiling.
Never mind.
The teenagers collectively groaned as they squished themselves together in the back seat, holding their backpacks on their laps and trying to avoid getting their sweat all over each other. At least it was air conditioned.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at a lecture right now?” Korkie asked. Funny. Ahsoka was about to say the same thing.
“Class got canceled,” Anakin replied shortly. Lucky for them, she supposed. Still no guaranteed rides in the future.
“So,” Padme sing-songed, twisting around in her seat as they pulled away from the curb, “First day of high school. How was it?”
“It was pretty good,” Ahsoka replied. “My teachers seem okay, and the classes don’t look too bad—”
“Did you get lost?” Anakin interrupted, “Because I got lost. So many times.”
“Nah,” Ahsoka said. It was the truth, too. She’d been paying attention during orientation, which highly doubted Anakin had at her age. “You must just have a terrible sense of direction.”
“Hey! I—”
“Just let her talk, Ani.” Padme cut him off and he returned his gaze to the road, grumbling.
Which, of course, he would do for no one else in this car.
“As I was saying, it was pretty good. The middle school was newer and nicer but I think I’ll be okay. I have like half of my classes with Barriss, too, so that helps.”
“Barriss…she’s one of Obi-Wan’s friends’ kids, right?” Padme said.
“Niece, actually, but yeah.” They’d met when Professor Unduli had come over to drop off some books she’d borrowed from Obi-Wan, and brought Barriss as an extra set of arms. They didn’t know each other super well, but it was nice to have a familiar face.
Anakin pulled off onto their neighborhood street and parked the car by the front walkway. The difference between walking and driving time was absolutely ridiculous. A twenty-minute walk should not be equivalent to a three-minute drive.
“Here we are.”
Tup opened the door and they all piled out into the yard. He waved before jogging down the street to his own house.
“Oh, by the way,” Anakin called, “I gotta take Padme to pick up her car from the shop, so tell Obi-Wan I’m gonna be late to dinner.”
Ahsoka flashed him a thumbs-up, and he rolled away.
The mechanic was like fifteen minutes away. Dinner wasn’t for another two hours at least. Could he be any more obvious? Padme needed to stop humoring him and his painfully visible crush on her. Just because she was a family friend didn’t mean that she had to put up with it.
Ahsoka made her way down the front walk, stepped into the blissfully cool air of the house, closed the door, and dumped her backpack on the floor. Artoo darted underfoot, tail wagging furiously. She moved to stand under the vent, where Korkie was lying face-down on the cold tile of the entryway.
“We need a friend with a car,” he mumbled.
“Agreed.”
Fifteen minutes later, Ahsoka was collapsed on the couch with a sports drink and a bowl of frozen grapes. Korkie had dragged himself into the living room and was now unloading the contents of his bag on the coffee table.
“Do you have homework already?” she asked, craning her neck to look at the papers he was pulling out.
“A little,” he replied, shrugging. “For my honors classes.”
“Which is what? All of them?”
“Just English and History.”
Ahsoka nodded. She was in honors bio, but the teacher had had mercy on the freshmen and decided against giving homework for the first week.
She returned to staring up at the ceiling as Korkie began working. Shutting her eyes, she let the exhaustion from the walk halfway home and the scratching of his pencil lull her into a weird limbo somewhere between sleep and alertness where time lost all meaning.
By the time Ahsoka woke up, the light had changed from the sluggish golden rays of a late summer afternoon to the sharp, slanted rays of early evening. At some point, Artoo had climbed up next to her on the couch and tucked himself between the back cushions and her legs, which she took to mean that Anakin wasn’t home yet. It was uncomfortably warm. Korkie had left, and her drink had been moved to the coffee table with a coaster under it, which she took to mean that Obi-Wan was home. She was proven correct by the sound of his voice from the other room.
Stretching and grabbing her drink, she groggily tracked the muffled conversation to the kitchen. Obi-Wan and Korkie looked up as she entered, Artoo on her heels.
“Time is it?” she grumbled.
“Five exactly,” Obi-Wan replied, glancing at his watch. “I take it you had a restful afternoon?”
She grunted assent, draining the rest of the neon blue liquid from her bottle and tossing it in the recycling. She wasn’t awake enough to make conversation yet. Especially not with Obi-Wan. He talked like an English textbook that was trying to teach you vocabulary words.
Artoo’s ears pricked, and he made a mad dash for the garage door just as it opened.
Anakin’s voice echoed from across the house. “Hey, bud— NO! No! Down, boy! I’m holding soda!”
He appeared in the kitchen a few moments later, reusable grocery bags in one hand, the other buried in Artoo’s neck fur as the dog continued to stick to him like a barnacle.
“I guess I’m not as late as I thought I’d be,” he said, unloading his haul onto the counter, “I got three liters and a twelve-pack. You think that’ll be enough?”
So Padme had managed to shake him. Sort of.
Obi-Wan shrugged. “Probably not.”
“Well, we’ll just have to make it work, ‘cause I’m not going back to the store.” Obi-Wan shook his head, and Anakin turned to Ahsoka. “Want to help me carry this over to Rex’s place?”
“Sure.”
Anakin placed two liters of soda in her arms and pointed at the door. Ahsoka obediently shifted her burden to one side to open it, holding it for Anakin and following him back out into the heat and humidity.
Too late, she realized she wasn’t wearing any shoes, hopping from the hot concrete of the front walk onto the cool grass. Sure, she could turn around and put some flip-flops on, but where was the fun in that? Besides, the grass felt good on her soles.
A few yards down, Anakin stepped off the curb, and she took a deep breath, standing at the edge of the grass and staring down the stretch of gray asphalt, shimmering with heat. Taking two steps back, she launched herself onto the burning surface, stretching her legs as far as they would go.
Three steps later, she was on the other side of the street, and Anakin was yelling at her. “Don’t run, you’ll shake it up!”
She turned around and stuck her tongue out at him, then walked through the open gate into the Fetts’ backyard.
Surprisingly, the only person she could see was Fives, who was unloading something from his trunk.
“Hey, traitor,” she greeted him, kicking his shin as she walked past him into the garage.
“Look,” he said, “I can’t just skip practice. Coach would kill me!”
“Whatever,” she called back.
Someone opened the garage door from the other side, and she walked into the kitchen, setting the soda down on the counter. Anakin followed a few moments later.
“We brought drinks,” he declared.
“And they’re almost enough,” Rex remarked.
“Obi-Wan said the same thing,” Anakin complained, “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“Since when?”
“Since always.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to that,” he turned to Ahsoka, “Do you remember me agreeing to that.”
“Nope.”
Anakin rolled his eyes.
“You’re also an hour early, so we’d better get them in the fridge.”
After getting the soda put away, they ended up in the backyard, throwing a football.
“So,” Rex began, “How was your first day of high school?”
“Padme just asked her the same thing,” Anakin said.
“Yeah, but I didn’t get to actually tell her anything.” Ahsoka caught the ball and tossed it awkwardly to Rex. Her hands were still too small to fit around it right. “That’s okay, though. I’m gonna wait until everybody’s here so I only have to say it once.”
“Fair enough.”
Anakin caught the ball as Rex threw it to him, then immediately turned and lobbed it at Ahsoka. It came straight for her face. She ducked, narrowly avoiding it. The hollow thunk of leather hitting flesh came anyway.
“Hey! Watch it!” Wolffe snapped. “I’m holding lighter fluid here!”
Ahsoka waved apologetically, and Wolffe grumbled as he made his way over to the grill, taking the football with him.
“We’re not getting that back, are we?” Anakin asked, turning to Rex.
“Nah.”
That turned out not to be a problem, though, since they were all quickly recruited for set-up. Ahsoka wasn’t really sure how except that at some point she ended up getting a box of silverware shoved in her hands and sent out to dodge the gauntlet of rolling folding tables between the back door and the buffet table. And then again with the salad.
By the time she was done running food and dishes to the long table, and all of the round tables and folding chairs had been set up across the yard, the meat was on the grill. It smelled amazing. Wolffe had abandoned it at some point, and was now depositing a pitcher of lemonade and several packs of oreos at the end of the table. Tup followed with a pitcher of water, and then pulled out his phone.
“Right on time,” he remarked.
“So when do we get to eat?”
“When the rest of your family shows up and the meat comes off the grill.”
Her stomach rumbled, loudly. Tup laughed. “If you wanna speed it up, you can run back over there and tell them to hurry up.”
“And run on the asphalt barefoot again? No thank you.”
Tup glanced down at her feet and did a double take.
“Why aren’t you wearing shoes ?!”
Ahsoka shrugged. “I forgot.”
“Do you want to borrow some of mine?”
“Nah, I’m good.” His wouldn’t fit her, anyway.
Ahsoka appreciated that he didn’t feel the need to ask how someone could forget to wear shoes. She didn’t feel like explaining just then.
“Looks like you won’t be needing them anyway.”
Ahsoka turned to where Tup was pointing. Obi-Wan was walking through the gate, holding a large glass pan. He somehow managed to weave deftly through the tables despite being absorbed in a conversation with Cody and Satine, who followed just behind.
He set his dessert down next to the oreos, looked over at Ahsoka, and frowned in confusion.
“Ahsoka, where are your shoes?”
Top ten sentences to make you feel like a three-year-old.
“I forgot them at home.”
Obi-Wan’s look of confusion deepened for a moment, and he opened his mouth to say something, but then he just sighed and shook his head.
“Just be careful, please.”
“Okay.”
Come to think of it, she was pretty sure his amount of gray hair had doubled since she’d started living with them. Anakin’s fault. Definitely.
An indistinct shout came from the other side of the yard, and Ahsoka suddenly found herself caught in a rush of Fett brothers moving towards the grill.
Ah. Dinner.
She heard several mutters along the lines of “women and children first,” and quickly found herself shoved to the front of the line.
“Hotdog or hamburger?” Fox asked from behind the grill (at least, she was pretty sure it was Fox, the mirrored aviators made it kind of hard to tell).
“Uhhh.”
“Both it is,” he said briskly, flipping one of each onto her plate. Relieved of the burden of choice, she moved down the line to get the rest of her food.
Emerging with a fully-loaded plate, it fell to her to pick a table. She selected one in the shade of the live oak tree, far enough from the grill that the heat wouldn’t be any worse than it already was. Then she stabbed a crouton with her fork and waited.
Cody was the last to sit down, and by then, Ahsoka was halfway through her dinner. Her mouth was full when Anakin turned to look at her. “Okay, everyone’s here now. How did it go?”
Ahsoka gestured to her mouth, raising her eyebrows as everyone else looked over expectantly.
“Manners schmanners,” he said, waving his hand, “I’ve been waiting for two hours to hear this.”
“Oh no, a whole two hours,” Tup muttered, rolling his eyes. Korkie nearly choked on his lemonade.
“Why are you so invested in this?” Rex asked as Ahsoka swallowed, “You hated that school.”
“Exactly!”
“Well, I didn’t hate it,” Ahsoka retorted.
“Disowned!” Anakin cried.
“Well, then, you’re going to have to disown me as well,” Obi-Wan said placidly, “It was still high school, but it wasn’t horrible.” Ahsoka had nearly forgotten that Obi-Wan had gone to the same high school she was attending now. Except, like, a gazillion years ago.
“What is wrong with you people?”
“You can’t say anything,” Rex countered, ”Your favorite teacher was Principal Palpatine. ”
“What?!” Ahsoka exclaimed, dropping her fork. “He’s so creepy!”
She’d been getting weird vibes from him ever since he’d spoken at orientation. Something about him made her skin crawl, but she couldn’t put her finger on what.
“He’s nice!” Anakin protested, “Like a grandpa!”
“Have you ever actually had a grandfather?” Rex asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I do!”
“Correction,” Obi-Wan interjected, “You have Dooku.”
Satine stifled a laugh and Anakin opened and closed his mouth, unable to come up with a retort. Ahsoka made a mental note to ask Korkie about that later.
“I know what grandfathers are supposed to be like!”
“Sure.”
Anakin glared at Rex and turned back to Ahsoka.
“What classes did you have?”
Ahsoka had to think for a moment. Everything had sort of blended together, with introductions and syllabi and classroom rules.
“Well, I had math first period.”
“Oh, good. Better to get that over with.”
“Unless you fall asleep.”
“Then I had bio, American lit, gym—” Korkie winced in sympathy— “Lunch, world history, Spanish, yearbook, and health.”
“Your electives are yearbook and health?” Rex asked between bites, “Did you wait until the last day to register or something?”
“Nah. It was just that nothing else sounded interesting, but I’ve heard yearbook is easy and health is at least useful.” Ahsoka wasn’t much of an artist— that was Tup’s department. She didn’t like acting or public speaking or sports. She had no interest in learning about finance or cooking or child development. She certainly wasn’t about to take an advanced literature or history class as an elective— she had enough homework as it was.
“I still think you should have taken Theatre I,” Korkie said.
Ahsoka shrugged. “I don’t like acting or props or whatever.”
Korkie shook his head. “It’s mostly about reading and analyzing plays, with a little bit of acting in-class. They don’t really get into actual performance until the sophomore level class.”
“No offense, but that sounds even worse.”
“You could take Intro to Automotive Engineering,” Anakin suggested.
“That’s what I have you for.” Ahsoka pointed out, picking up her fork again.
“But—”
Satine cut him off with a wave of her hand from across the table. “She already made her choice, and she’s clearly sticking to it for now. Let her be.”
“I’m still hoping to get them to count my external PE credits,” Ahsoka said through a mouthful of salad, garnering reproachful glances from both Obi-Wan and Satine, “But I’m not sure what I would do with the empty class period.”
“You could always try soccer,” Cody chimed in.
Ahsoka rolled her eyes. Cody was convinced she had the potential to be a stellar goalkeeper. She wasn’t sure why he kept trying to convince her to join the high school team, since she’d be playing against the one he coached for more often than not.
“No thanks.”
“Worth a shot,” he said, shrugging.
After dessert (and her interrogation) were finished, everyone slowly stood up and began to clear the remnants of dinner away. It took a lot longer than setting up. Everyone was feeling full and sluggish and more than a little chatty.
“Is that the last of it?” Ahsoka asked, putting the lid on the leftover potato salad.
“Yup.” Rex pulled something out of the fridge and slid it down the counter to her. Ahsoka picked up the cold soda can and gave him a raised eyebrow.
“Last one,” he said, shrugging, “It’ll only cause fights if we leave it. Don’t tell anyone I gave it to you, though.”
She grinned. “Thanks, Rexter.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he replied, waving away the thanks (and the nickname), “Just go back outside.”
Ahsoka grabbed the soda and slipped out the back door. The sun was setting, staining the clouds a million shades of lilac and coral and gold. A cool breeze stirred the suffocating air.
She joined Tup where he was lying on the grass, crossing her legs and staring up at the sky.
“I’m surprised you’re not taking pictures of this for a watercolor or something,” she commented.
“The sky never looks as good in pictures as it does in person,” he said, “I’ll just have to memorize it instead.”
Ahsoka nodded, and let a comfortable silence fall over them. She could hear the chatter from where the adults were standing on the porch, Satine and Obi-Wan loosely holding hands as they reminisced with Cody about when the Fetts had first moved into this house and the neighborhood. Anakin was with Rex, Bly, and Korkie at the grill, laughing and making s’mores over the last glowing embers.
She took a sip of her soda and looked up at the sky again.
Life was pretty good, actually.