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Living on Lothal wasn’t that bad. Jyn hadn’t expected much, having lived on Coruscant for most of her twelve years, before her family had moved here a month ago. Life on Lothal was certainly quieter than on Coruscant, but Jyn enjoyed the quiet.
She’d enrolled in Spine Tree Primary School a few weeks back, and it was certainly interesting so far, though that might just be the novelty of her first day in a new school. Spine Tree Primary had been recommended by the senator that often met with her parents for reasons unknown to Jyn. They’d only moved in the first place because Jyn’s father had been going into work more often, and his family had moved to be closer to the station where he worked.
As Jyn wandered through the cafeteria, looking for a table, not wanting to sit alone but not wanting to intrude on anyone’s conversations, she noticed a girl waving in her direction. Jyn looked around before gesturing at herself in confusion. The girl nodded, and Jyn recognized her as the girl who’d sat in the desk across from hers in her first class of the morning—it was hard not to recognize her with the extremely colorful pink-purple-and-orange shirt she wore. Jyn supposed it would be nice to have a friend here.
She sat down at the girl’s table, getting a good look at her for the first time. The girl had chin-length black hair and tan skin, but there was a gleam in her brown eyes that Jyn hadn’t noticed before.
The girl grinned.
“You’re Jyn, right?”
Jyn nodded.
“I’m Sabine. Sabine Wren.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Sabine.”
Neither one said anything for a moment, then Sabine asked, “So… do you have anyone to eat with?”
Jyn shook her head, and Sabine continued, “Do you want to eat together? I usually have my friend Ketsu with me, but she’s been sick these past few days.”
Jyn smiled back at her.
“Sure!”
She sat down beside Sabine, who immediately began, “So, how’s your first day so far?”
Jyn shrugged.
“Well, it’s not awful. I actually think I’m going to like it here.”
“That’s good! Are you from Lothal? Because I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”
Jyn laughed.
“It’s… a very long story. I’m from Coruscant, I’ve lived there since I was two. My parents wanted to move when I was little, but we never did.”
Jyn remembered secretly being scared that something was wrong, with the way her parents acted like they were running from something, until they’d met with Senator Amidala, who’d seemed to make everything better.
“But recently my dad’s had to go in to work a lot more, and the ships he works at are far away from Coruscant, so this senator offered us a nice home on Lothal.”
Sabine nodded.
“I get it. I’m from Mandalore originally. And my… little brother’s friends are from Mustafar, if you can believe it.”
Jyn raised an eyebrow.
“Isn’t that the lava planet?”
Sabine laughed.
“It is! I don’t even know why they live there.”
There was a slight lull in the conversation before Sabine announced, “I know! If we’re getting to know each other, why don’t we play Two Truths And A Lie?”
“Sounds fun!”
Sabine smiled at her.
“I’ll go first.”
She held up a hand, counting her statements on her fingers.
“One… I like to draw.”
Jyn couldn’t help laughing as she noted the datapad and digital pen next to Jyn’s tray, the datapad open to a drawing program.
“That’s obviously not the lie.”
Sabine blushed.
“Yeah, I probably should have gone with a better one. Two, I moved here a year ago, and three, I’m planning to dye my hair soon.”
Jyn tilted her head.
“Well… your hair is black, so that’s kind of hard to dye, but you also seem like the kind of person to do that… I’d say moving here a year ago?”
Sabine nodded enthusiastically.
“Yep! I actually moved here two years ago.”
The young Mandalorian’s face fell for a moment, but she quickly smiled again and pointed at Jyn.
“Your turn.”
Jyn rested her head in her hands, trying to come up with three statements.
“I was born in a prison. My dad’s name is Galen. He calls me Starlight.”
After thinking for a minute Sabine guessed, “You were born in a prison?”
Jyn shook her head.
“That’s actually true. The lie was my nickname. He actually calls me Stardust.”
Sabine held up a hand.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You were born in a prison?”
Jyn shrugged, feeling awkward for some reason.
“My dad does research on Kyber crystals, and back during the Clone Wars, the Separatists wanted his studies for weapons, and he refused, so he got thrown in prison with my mom. But then he got hired by the Republic. The guy who hired him is the same guy who gave him his current job.”
Sabine just stared for a second, causing Jyn to laugh nervously.
“Sorry… did I make this awkward? Sometimes I don’t know what to share…”
Sabine shook her head.
“No, it’s okay. I tend to overshare, too. It’s funny, I don’t want to tell people too much about myself, but I also can’t help it.” She smiled slightly and glanced at her tray. “And I’m doing it now, too.”
Jyn sent her a supportive smile.
“That’s alright. I don’t mind.”
Both girls were silent for a moment before Sabine propped her head on her hands and remarked, “Your dad’s name is Galen?”
Jyn nodded, unsure where this was going.
“Yeah. Galen Erso. Do you know him?”
Sabine shook her head, her dark hair swaying.
“No, but one of my brother’s best friends is named Galen.”
“That’s interesting! Is he the one who lives on Mustafar?”
Sabine threw up her hands slightly in a gesture of mock exasperation.
“All three of them do! I don’t know how he meets these people!”
“I didn’t know Mustafar was that populated!”
“Neither did I! My… dad used to say that planet is cursed, that it’s where, uh, heroes go to die.”
Once again, Sabine looked distracted, like she’d said something wrong. Abruptly, she continued, “But my brother’s friends all seem really nice to me.”
By that time, both girls had finished their lunches, and it was almost time for their next classes.
Sabine sighed, getting up.
“Well, it was nice meeting you, Jyn. Do you want to meet up again tomorrow?”
Jyn nodded quickly—Sabine’s enthusiasm was catching.
“I’d love to!” Feeling shy all of a sudden, she added, “Do you want to meet up sometime outside of school as well?”
Sabine smiled.
“I think that’s a great idea!”
Jyn smiled back, pleased to have made a new friend.
“Your house? Mine? Somewhere else?”
Sabine grimaced for a second before seemingly realizing how rude that looked.
“Well, we probably don’t want to visit my house. I live on a ship, for one, and for another thing, there’s a lot of people living in the area, and… not everyone there is too comfortable with strangers visiting. It took the longest time for our… one family friend to be comfortable with my… older brother’s boyfriend coming around… though he has his reasons for not trusting that person specifically…”
She trailed off, her expression going blank.
“I’m… I’m sorry, that was… probably very awkward for you. Forget I said anything.”
Sabine went to walk away, but turned back around to clarify, “We should absolutely meet up this weekend, though. Let’s plan it better next time we see each other.”
Jyn nodded.
“Sounds good.”
As she watched the young Mandalorian leave, Jyn couldn’t help feeling a little strange about Sabine. She hadn’t thought much about it during their conversation, but it was a little odd how Sabine seemed to be measuring every word half the time. Not to mention her apparent home life—what situations could these people be in that they would mistrust everyone who came to visit?
Mentally, Jyn reprimanded herself. Never judge others’ situations, especially not as someone who was literally born in a prison because her father’s research was so valuable.
But she couldn’t deny there was something strange about this Sabine Wren, though not off-putting at all—in fact, Jyn was looking forward to getting to know her better. And not just out of curiosity, either. She really felt like she could make a friend here.
Luke felt as if he’d been waiting for this day his whole life. The whole ride home, he couldn’t stop grinning, and he knew his sister Leia shared his excitement from the way she kept fidgeting with her black tunic, which matched Luke’s own. As soon as the shuttle pulled into the station, Luke practically flew out of his seat, Leia jumping up at the exact same time.
Luke heard another pair of feet hit the ground from the seats behind him and turned to see a familiar face with brown skin, blue eyes, and haphazardly-styled black hair that looked almost blue in the light. Ezra saw the twins’ expressions and grinned back.
“I know! I still can’t believe I’ll get to spend extra time with you guys almost every day!”
A tall boy with short dark hair that matched his identical-to-the-twins’ tunic, yet made him look mysterious with his pale skin, stood up slowly from where he’d been sitting beside Ezra. Galen didn’t join in his friends’ excited running off the shuttle, or their impromptu bouncing around on the ground of the station, but Luke had known him long enough that he could tell they felt the same.
As soon as nobody was watching, Ezra began to walk towards his home. It was something he did every time they arrived, all the other kids would head towards the towns, but Ezra, who Luke knew lived in a large home on the outskirts of pretty much everywhere, would wait until nobody would notice before he walked the other way.
Luke had never attempted to follow him, and neither had Galen or Leia. He couldn’t say he understood exactly why Ezra needed to be so secretive about where he lived. But he didn’t want to cause any trouble for his friend, so he went along with it, and so did Leia. Galen had never pried, either, as he certainly knew a thing or two about having to be secretive.
But today Ezra didn’t give his friends the look that had come to mean, It’s time for me to go. Luke, Leia, and Galen didn’t wait to meet with PROXY, Galen’s guardian droid, who would fly them back to their homes on Mustafar.
Today, Galen and the twins followed Ezra to his home, where the twins’ father had agreed that they could begin their new lessons, learning from Vader’s most trusted allies how to properly wield the Force.