Time Falls Away

Chapter 1:

First Day of School

Caitlyn Solo trudged along with her twin brother Han to their new school in Naboo. Caitlyn was a pretty girl with chocolate curls and big, clear, sky blue eyes. Her brother had equally chocolate hair, but unlike his sister, he had brown eyes. The two were orphans but what mainly made one unique from the other was that Caitlyn was force sensitive.

School was going to be rough and they knew it. They would be seen as outcasts. Rumours- most if not all of which would not be true- would spread about them. But they were used to it. Being orphans was seen as something disgraceful. They were treated like it was their fault. Caitlyn wished her parents were alive.

"Are you ready?" she turned to her brother, who nodded and held out his hand to her which she gratefully took. They walked into school and everywhere heads turned and whispers were heard. One red head looked Han up and down and Caitlyn knew what she was thinking, even without the force. She shot the girl a death glare but that didn't seem to work. She just kept on staring and Caitlyn sighed. Then she noticed that everyone else was staring and she looked down at their hands and finally got it.

"He's my brother smart ones." She said with a roll of her big, blue eyes. Han smirked at his sister.

"They would have figured it out when they realized we had the same name but then again, maybe not." Caitlyn giggled at her brother's obvious insult. She looked around for her locker number where she could put her books after she got them from the book room. A brunette girl with brown eyes caught her attention. The girl was smiling at Han and then looked across at Caitlyn.

"Hi, I'm Leia Skywalker. I understand why you two did that. It was like that when my brother and I came to this school too. People were so annoying. The red head that was looking your brother up and down, her name's Tia Mara and she goes after every good looking guy including my brother, Luke." The girl introduced herself. Caitlyn smiled.

"I'm Caitlyn and that's Han. He is good looking but don't tell him that it would just feed his already oversized ego." Han shook his head.

"I can hear little sister." He said.

"One minute, Han, only one." She replied. Leia smiled. She and her brother had this argument all the time too. He was born a minute earlier than she was as well.

"So Leia, can you help me find the book room? We kind of just got to Naboo two days ago and I have no idea where anywhere is. And where's locker number...two hundred?" Caitlyn asked as she and Han walked along with Leia.

"Two hundred is really close to mine and my brothers'. What's your last name?" she asked.

"Solo." Caitlyn replied. Her mother's maiden name was Omarion and on Corellia, it was customary for the girl to take on the mother's maiden name but Caitlyn had never liked that custom.'

"No wonder. There's only one person separating you and me Caitlyn and that's my brother. Look there he is at locker one hundred and ninety nine." Caitlyn looked up to see a blonde boy. She couldn't see his eyes because he was backing her. But Leia passed by the lockers and led Caitlyn and Han straight to the book room, where they got their books and schedules.

"Caitlyn, you have the same classes as my brother and I do. And Han's in a few of them. Why don't you two have the same things?" Leia asked. Caitlyn and Han exchanged a look.

"Well...we like different things. I like History and Science; he likes wood work and carpentry." Caitlyn explained.

"Yeah and also she's force sensitive and I'm not." Han said. His tone wasn't bitter like it would have been a year ago. He had gotten over the fact that his sister had that special power that he didn't. It didn't make him less of a person. Leia nodded. Both she and her brother were force sensitive so she didn't understand how Han was feeling but she bet that her mother would.

"Is your father Anakin Skywalker? My mom used to tell us about him a lot. She said that he was the one who stopped Chancellor Palpatine from destroying the Jedi and executing order 66. Is it true?" Caitlyn had always been curious about this. When she had heard the name Skywalker she had tried to restrain herself from asking those questions but curiosity got the best of her. They had reached their lockers by now.

"Well...yes he is my father but he doesn't talk much about Chancellor Palpatine. He prefers not to talk about it. I think that the Chancellor caused daddy to go through something really rough but he won't tell us anything about it, not even mom and he tells her everything. They're so in love it's sickening sometimes." Leia said. Caitlyn only nodded. The bell for the first class of the day, Geography for Caitlyn and Leia and Trigonometry for Han, rang. Caitlyn and Han reluctantly said goodbye and went separate ways for their classes.

As soon as Caitlyn entered the classroom she wanted to leave again. Many people were seated in little groups talking and Caitlyn felt out of place. She saw the same blonde guy but now she saw that his eyes were the same colour as hers. The teacher came into the classroom just then and arranged everyone in their seats. Caitlyn was seated behind the blonde guy. Luke, she remembered from what Leia had told her.

"Class, we have a new student to this school." The teacher, an eccentric brunette with green eyes said. Caitlyn slumped lower into her seat. The teacher continued. "Her name is Caitlyn Solo and I trust that you will make her feel welcome. Caitlyn would you raise your hand to show us where you are?" Caitlyn inwardly groaned but obediently raised her hand, taking it down when all eyes turned to her. She hated parts like this, where dozens of eyes would stare at her like she was a different colour or something.

The class passed by quickly and Caitlyn was out just seconds after the bell rang. Walking a little too quickly, she bumped into someone and her books dropped.

"I'm so sorry; I wasn't watching where I was going. I'm sorry." She said bending to pick up her books.

"You should be sorry. Watch where you're going next time new girl or I might have to teach you a lesson." The blonde girl that Caitlyn had bumped into said rudely. All thoughts of apology were gone from Caitlyn's head now. They were replaced by anger which she instantly squelched. She hadn't had a Jedi Master to train her as a padawan but she read enough to know that anger, jealousy, greed and anything of that sort led to hatred which led you to the dark side of the force and she tried her hardest not to let her anger get the better of her. Instead, she focused on better things like her parents, even though they were gone now and her brother.

"Well maybe next time you should accept someone's apology before you go all freaky on them." She said calmly. Eyes turned to the two of them in shock as Caitlyn picked up the rest of her books and stood up. She understood how school worked. There were the populars, then the not-so-populars and then the outcasts. She was an outcast and obviously the blonde girl was a popular and therefore she wasn't supposed to cross her but Caitlyn couldn't care less about school hierarchy.

"Well maybe you should take your place new girl. You don't have what it takes to stand up to me." The blonde girl said, stepping up in Caitlyn's face.

"You know, you shouldn't stand that close to people, they'll see all that plastic surgery you had to make your face look better but guess what it only looks worse." Gasps of shock were heard and the hallway was deathly silent. Caitlyn saw Leia give her a thumbs up and Han smirking. The blonde raised her hand to hit Caitlyn but another hand caught it.

"She's right Tymara; you really shouldn't go so close to people." Leia's brother said to the blonde. Tymara's big, emerald eyes narrowed in shock. Leia's brother smiled at her. He continued, "Go away before you make an even bigger fool of yourself if that's even possible. And the rest of you need to mind your own business." Frowning, Tymara turned away and stalked towards her next class and the others quickly went back to what they were doing. Leia and Han walked up to Luke and Caitlyn.

"Thank you. But you didn't have to. By the time I was finished with her the plastic surgery would have been undone. Oh, that was a bad thought I shouldn't think like that." She took a deep breath and smiled up at Luke.

"You're welcome and no you shouldn't think like that but we all do, it's only human." He said. "I'm Luke Skywalker by the way."

"Caitlyn Solo." She replied and bit her lip.

"Guys we'll be late for class come on!" Leia yelled as she grabbed her brother's hand.

"Hey this is actually one class we have together." Han said, taking his sister's arm. Caitlyn saw Luke looking at them jealously and giggled.

"Luke this is Han Solo, my twin brother." The jealous look was instantly replaced by one of relief. He shook Han's hand.

"We're all so late it's not funny let's go." Leia said, pulling Luke along. Caitlyn rolled her eyes as she and Han walked along behind them. When they reached the class they were surprised to see that the teacher wasn't there yet. They were seated in rows going across so Caitlyn was between Han and Luke. Finally the teacher came.

"I'm incredibly sorry for being late. My mother was really sick so I had to get her to a...oh never mind. Today I'll be assigning partners and whoever you're picked with has to be your partner for the rest of the year. Let's start from the back shall we...Winton and Windu, Yin and Yang, Caitlyn Solo and Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia Skywalker..." the teacher's voice faded as Caitlyn moved her chair closer to Luke's and smiled at him.

"Thank the Force I have someone I already met as a partner." She said. Luke laughed.

"I'm not sure if I should take that as an insult or a compliment. But I'll take it as a compliment." He smiled at her and she blushed and looked down.

Get a grip Caitlyn, you just met the guy. You can't like him already. Never mind the fact that he's incredibly hot and sweet and...Oh my gosh I did not just think that.

Luke looked across at Caitlyn and suddenly felt the urge to kiss her. Where the hell did that come from? He'd just met her. But she was so pretty and she had fire which he liked.

Leia's gonna tease me unmercifully when she finds out about this. How do I even like her already? Oh hell, she's talking to you idiot you're supposed to answer her.

"What?" Luke asked.

"I asked how old you are." Caitlyn repeated her question and giggled at him.

"Oh...umm...I'm fifteen." He said. She nodded.

"Fourteen...and a half. I'll be fifteen in a few days and so will Han. He always makes a big deal about being a minute older than I am." Luke smiled at that.

"I'm born a minute before Leia." He said.

"Oh god not another one." She shook her head and looked back down at her book. Luke found himself staring at her and he saw a bit of sparkle around her neck. Without thinking he reached for it and saw a silver pendant depicting an arrow going through a heart on a silver chain around her neck. He let it go and saw her looking at him curiously.

"That's really pretty." He said. She nodded and looked down again, trying to hide the tears in her eyes.

"My mother gave it to me, for my birthday." She said and he noted the sadness in her voice. He wanted to ask her what had happened to her mother but decided to let it go for the moment until he knew her a little better.

Han looked across at Caitlyn and Luke from his seat next to Leia. He saw Luke reach inside her shirt for the necklace their mother had given her for their birthday and every protective bone in his body screamed at him to sock the guy for touching his baby sister. But he held back because Caitlyn could take care of herself and she'd kick him in the place where the sun don't shine before she let him hurt her.

"Han?" he turned his head at Leia calling his name and smiled at her. "We should umm...try to get to know each other since we have to be partners for the rest of the year...if that's okay with you." Leia felt shy which was totally uncharacteristic of her. She was usually bold and outgoing, ready to say whatever was on her mind but around such a good looking guy as Han she found herself being cautious. And Han exuded a mysterious aura that made her hold back from him.

"Okay, it's cool. What do you want to know, partner?" he asked, smiling down at her pretty face. She looked down to hide her blush and asked him his age and what he liked to do other than woodwork and carpentry.

"Well, I like to fly." He said. Leia smiled.

"So does my brother." She said.

"Speaking of your brother it is taking every inch of my self control not to go over there and slam his face into the ground for being near my sister but you probably didn't need to know that and Caity would kill me if I did that. She says I'm too overprotective but she's all I have left." Han watched Caitlyn and Luke laugh together and ogle each other with that love sick puppy eyed look.

"Don't worry Solo, Luke feels the same way about you. And what do you mean by she's all you have left?" Leia asked against her better judgement. She instantly regretted it as she saw the pain in his eyes.

"Last year, two weeks after our birthday we came home late one day and it was dark so Caitlyn lit some candles. We forgot about them when we went to bed and sometime in the middle of the night we heard screaming and saw our parents rushing into our room telling us to get out of bed and hurry. Our pet, Rancid, had knocked against the table and the candles had fallen over. The house was on fire. We couldn't get out through the door so Caitlyn and I climbed through the window. Our mother climbed out after us but our father had gone back to get Rancid. My mother screamed and went back into the house after him and Caitlyn was going to run back in after her but I held her back and didn't let go. The fire reacted to the gas that we had on the stove and...the house exploded. Our parents died and Caitlyn has never forgiven herself. When we left Corellia all we had were my ship, five hundred credits that I'd earned and kept in a safe place on the ship and some clothes we always keep there in case of an emergency. We came here because we wanted to go to someplace peaceful and try to forget what happened but...we can't ever forget it." Leia looked horrified at the story Han told. She couldn't imagine something that terrible happening to her.

"I'm so sorry." She said. Han smiled painfully at her.

"It's okay." He said bravely. "When I say that Caitlyn is the only thing I have left, I mean it. I would die for her. The thought of losing her pains me so much sometimes it makes me want to cry. Wow that was a major freak out moment."

"I admire you greatly Han Solo. I don't think I would be able to go through that." Leia said. Han sighed.

"Thanks for the compliment, Skywalker." He replied and got up from his seat two seconds before the bell rang. All Leia could think about was how lonely she felt without him next to her as she watched his back as he headed out the door...

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At the end of the day Han and Caitlyn said goodbye to Luke and Leia and headed toward their ship which was an incredibly far walk from the school but they didn't mind. Luke and Leia exchanged glances and Luke called out to them.

"Yo, Solos!" they looked back at him expectantly. "Need a ride?"

"Yes." Caitlyn blurted just as Han said no. He gave her a look. "Look at me as weird as you want bro, I ain't walking that far again. If you wanna walk, suit yourself." She walked back over to the Skywalkers and climbed into the back of their speeder. She smiled at them and then raised her eyebrows at her brother. Han groaned, cursed under his breath and headed towards them getting into the back with his sister. Ten minutes later they were at their ship and waving goodbye to Luke and Leia. They were tired and fell asleep instantly both of them thinking that it had been one crazy first day of school.