Rey swiveled in her desk chair, just 1,000 more words to go. She could do this. Easy peasy. Right. Focus. She re-read her last sentence,

'Hester is forced to wear a red 'A' on her clothing to identify herself as an adulterer. The novel forces us to question our own attitudes towards adultery and morality in general. For example, can right and wrong always be defined in black and white terms? Or should we consider the ambiguous gray divide that offers us an alternative explanation for the actions of others?'

That looked okay...urgh could she just write 'I'm bored' 500 times and hand it in?

The sun streamed through her window and she pouted longingly. Why was she stuck inside on a beautiful day like this?

Because you have to finish this essay, stop procrastinating!

Knock knock knock.

Hurray! A reason to procrastinate! ha ha! Suck it brain!

Rey turned in her chair, "Come in!"

"Hi hunny." Rey's mother entered the room looking as beautiful as ever with her carefully set brunette locks swaying gently as she beamed at Rey. Rey sighed. She had long since given up hope of ever being considered the 'pretty' one in the family. Nope. That mantle would always go to her MILF of a mother, Qi'ra. Even her bloody name was cool. She didn't really mind. She couldn't love her mother more if she tried. She just wished she would stop stealing her clothes and stretching out her vest tops- it really put a dent in her confidence when she tried to wear it later and found herself severely lacking in the chest area.

"Uh oh, you've got that look in your eye."

"What look?" Her mother asked innocently, with her hands suspiciously behind her back.

"The look that says 'I have something to tell you that you don't want to hear but I'm going to tell you anyway.'"

"Okay, I do have that look." Her mother pulled out a pile of university brochures from behind her back.

"Surprise!" She sung cheerfully.

Rey put her head in her hands,

"Mom, we discussed this. I don't want to go to university yet. I want to travel first...see the world...find myself….."

Her mother reached forward and pinched her arm.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"There, I found you. Now look at these brochures."

Rey rolled her eyes and held out her hand. It was easier just to agree. She could always just throw them in the bin once her mom left.

"Just promise me you'll at least look at them?"

"Okay."

Her mom smiled, "Right. I'm off to work. Be good. No parties."

Rey rolled her eyes. As daughters go, she wasn't exactly the rebellious type. Basically her life was, what was the word? Oh yes, boring with a capital 'B.'

"Okay, I'll see you later mom."

Rey tried to return to her essay, but now there was a pile of university brochures she didn't want to look at catching her eye. She should really have a little look...just in case her mom asked any questions. Definitely not because she didn't want to finish her essay. She began flicking through the brochures: looking at pictures of old campuses, new campuses, basketball courts, swimming pools, and happy, happy students enjoying their uni experiences.

Maybe uni isn't so bad, at least these guys seemed to be having fun. Except for this guy. Woah! Who is that?

On page 21 of the UCL prospectus, was a picture of a huge hunk of brooding man candy leaning up against a wall with his sizable arms folded across his enormous chest, his head turned to the right and his chin length dark hair fanned out across his pale cheek. Rey's eyes wandered over the image. Apart from his very attractive packaging, Rey noted he looked completely out of place and, quite frankly, rather pissed off. Rey wondered why on Earth they would choose to use his sulky ass in a catalogue that was supposed to persuade you to want to go their institution?

Erm, because look at him, he is drop dead gorgeous.

Rey looked at the caption underneath the picture.

Ben Solo, History Alumnus and Research Associate.

Rey swung around in her chair. Okay, she would definitely give uni a go if she was guaranteed a boyfriend like Benny boy. On a whim she ripped the picture out of the brochure.

'Hi Ben, I'm Rey. What's that? You've been stunned into silence by my unique beauty? Oh Ben! You do know how to make a girl blush!'

She laughed out loud and placed the page on her desk, after depositing the rest of the catalogues in the bin she returned to her essay. For five minutes. Until she needed a snack, because who can work on an empty stomach?

Beep Beep Beep.

Alarms. The enemies of sleep. She cracked open an eye.

7:03 A.M.

Well she couldn't get up on an odd number. She closed her eyes and opened them again.

8:30 A.M.

Shit.

Rey fell out of bed, and pulled on yesterday's clothes. She swept her hair up into a messy bun and shoved her books off her desk and into her book bag. Please don't let this be the day the bus decides to go MIA she prayed.

"So what did you do this weekend?", Rose asked sweetly as they sat next to each other in class. Rose Tico and Rey had been best friends since the first day they met in nursery school. Rey had punched a kid in the nose for trying to steal Rose's moon shaped necklace and Rose had drawn Rey a picture of her favourite animal a fathier by way of a thank you. They had been inseparable ever since.

Rey was still catching her breath from the sprint to make it in on time, "Oh you know...this and that." She answered none commit-tally. She could hardly say she sat in her room all weekend writing an essay she didn't want to write, fantasying about her new imaginary magazine boyfriend and seeing how many mini marshmallows she could fit in her cheeks without throwing up, could she?

"What was that?" Baz Netal looked over at Rey with a sickly smile. Rey felt her stomach tie in a sailor proof knot. Baz was her worst nightmare. A gorgeous, poised popular glamourzon with an attitude as sharp as her cheekbones. Baz twirled a curl of shiny jet black hair around one of her perfectly manicured fingers.

"Well, do speak up Rey, what did you do all weekend? We're all waiting with bated breath."

Usually, Rey ignored Baz's patronizing comments. Ping ping! She imagined them bouncing right off her Baz deflector shield. But today, she felt her blood boil in her veins. Today, she was sick and tired of being the loser who didn't have a life, who everyone knew was sitting at home with a good book while they partied the night away, the one who could tell you the name of every Harry Potter character but had no idea what alcohol tasted like, the one who always did as she was told and never broke the rules...

"That interesting, huh?" Baz smirked and went back to admiring her two toned nail polish.

"I went on a date with my boyfriend!" She blurted out. Loudly.

The room went silent. Baz looked Rey up and down.

"You have a boyfriend?" She said lifting an eyebrow.

Rey bristled. Who the hell did Baz think she was? Rey could have a boyfriend if she wanted one. You know, if she ever found her allure. It had to be hiding somewhere.

"Yes. Ben. His name is Ben." What the fuck? Why did she say that?

"Ben, huh? And what does Ben do?" Baz drawled, emphasizing the word 'Ben' in a 'I don't fucking believe a word you're saying' kind of a way.

"He's a Research Associate at UCL." Oh, is he Rey? Really?!

"Oh, so he's older?" Baz asked, her eyes wide.

"Yeah, he is. But, we make it work you know?" Rey said with a shrug.

Baz looked suitably impressed, "Well, I would love to meet him sometime."

Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Of course! I'm sure he will be around you know when he isn't so busy….researching."

Smooth Rey. Smooth.

Just then, their English teacher entered the room and Rey almost kissed him for providing a suitable distraction. She sent out a silent prayer, pleading that no one would ever mention her 'boyfriend' again.

Rey had never been cool. In fact, Rey had never even been adjacent to cool, but the moment the story of her older, researcher boyfriend hit the grapevine, Rey became instantly famous. Well, as famous as one can be within the walls of Jakku High School anyway.

By lunch time, she was enjoying the attention too much to worry about anyone catching her out and happily answered question after question about her completely made up relationship.

"How come you never told me about this boyfriend?" Rose asked, looking hurt.

"I'm sorry Rose. It's just, we've been so wrapped up in each other and Ben didn't want to go public about us straight away."

Rey, you're going to hell.

"Oh okay." Rose said sweetly. Lying to her best friend was a new low, but she was in too deep now.

"Hi Rey." Baz purred as she walked past with her lunch tray. "Can I sit with you two?"

Rey almost spat out her coke. Baz never sat with them. There was a table reserved for the harpies, sorry, the 'popular girls' and Rey wasn't even deemed worthy to look at that table, let alone sit there.

"Sure." Rose answered. Rey shot her a 'What the hell are you doing?' glance but Rose just shrugged.

"So," Baz said as she squeezed her impossibly long legs under the table and placed her tray down, "do tell me more about this boyfriend of yours."

Rey swallowed tightly. "What do you want to know?"

"Does He ever collect you from school?"

"No."

"Does He have a car?"

"Um..."

"You don't know if he has a car?" Baz said lifting an eyebrow at Rey.

"I'm not sure. He mentioned he might be getting rid of it. He wants to reduce his carbon footprint."

Where did that come from? That was fucking gold!

"Oh yes." Baz nodded knowingly. "Listen, would you two like to come to my party this weekend?"

Rey's mouth opened wide, "What?"

"I'm having a little get together on Saturday. Would you two like to come?"

"Um, yeah sure. I think I'm free, Rose?" Ahhh! People! Fun! Rey did a little internal happy dance.

Rose smiled, "Yes, sounds like fun! Rey, can I get my history notes from your bag?"

"Sure." Rey said, still distracted by the unexpected invitation.

"Great! Around seven at my house." Baz said with a smile.

"Great!" Rey beamed. This was going to be amazing, dancing and drinking and talking to real people not just her cat Vader, not that Vader wasn't a great listener but sometimes...

"Ah, Rey what's this attached to my notes?"

Rey turned to look at Rose and the scene before her unfolded in slow motion: Rose was peeling the magazine picture of Ben away from her notes. What the hell? Oh no! When she grabbed her books that morning she must have grabbed the picture of Ben as well! Rey made a desperate grab for it, but it was already too late. Rose was already eye-balling the page.

Rose's eyes lit up with recognition, "Rey! This is your boyfriend!" She called out happily.

Rey smiled and wished the floor would swallow her up. Baz took the page from Rose and smiled,

"You never said Ben was a model! Wow, he is very good looking."

"He isn't a model, that's just a piece of promotional material for the university he works at." Rey said quickly.

"Well, let's hope we get to meet him soon. Maybe you can bring him to my party?"

She handed Rey the page, and she folded it up and put it back into her bag.

This was bad. This was very bad. Okay, calm down. It will be okay, you can make up some excuse as to why he couldn't come to the party and seriously it doesn't matter if a few people see a picture of him because why on earth would Ben Solo ever come to Jakku high?

"Why the fuck would you recommend me?" Ben shouted.

"Because I thought it would be funny and it is. It really is."

Ben had been best friends with Poe Dameron for ten years now, but there were times when he really wanted to choke the smug bastard.

"This is like that fucking brochure all over again."

"Oh, come on, you look amazing in that picture!"

"A picture I didn't want you to take and a picture I did not give you permission to put in a fucking universally available publication! I've been getting fucking fan mail!'

Poe laughed until his stomach was so sore that he had to bend over to hold it.

"Your face when you first saw it was soooo good! Oh, I'm reliving it and it's still glorious."

'Screw you, Dameron. I'm done being your puppet. I'm not doing this."

"You have to! The Dean is so impressed that you volunteered. He said it was a sign that you were, and I quote, 'finally becoming a team player.'" Poe sniggered.

"Fuck You."

"Look, why don't you just do it? It's only a few little school visits, you give a little speech, tell everyone this is the uni for them, maybe even flirt with a few cute girls, what's the harm?"

"I don't want to."

"You know the Dean is looking for any excuse to get rid of your surly ass. This will put you back in his good graces for a while."

"Why the hell do you want me to do this? What's in it for you?"

Poe shrugged, "I may have made a few bets with members of the history faculty. The odds were too good to ignore."

Ben rolled his eyes, "How much do you win if I say yes?"

Poe smiled, knowing that he was going to get what he wanted, "close to two grand."

"I want half," Ben growled.

Ben Solo has been a researcher at UCL for seven years while he studied part time for his PHD in history specializing in modern warfare. He kept to himself and tried not to interact with the other faculty members. He would have succeeded in his goal if it wasn't for his overly zealous friend Poe Dameron, who seemed to enjoy making Ben's life more complicated.

Ben and Poe had met at the university while they were both studying for their first degrees. Poe's degree was in Urban Studies, but he took a short photography course over the summer break, and fell in-love with the medium. He barely graduated, but managed to build up a successful photography business known as Dameron Portraits. The university often hired him for marketing work which meant he got to torment Ben on a semi-regular basis.

Ben loved Poe, but they were so different in temperament that it often caused friction between them. Ben was an introvert, he preferred to be alone with his thoughts, whereas Poe thrived on attention, positive or negative. He was always trying to find ways to bring Ben out into the light, and Ben resisted him at every turn. It had kinda become a running joke between the two of them, a friendly ongoing battle that each one tried and failed to win.

"So, hows the love life Poe?" Ben asked sipping his coffee. Urgh. Disgusting. Poe did not make good coffee, "Whose the lucky boy, girl, animal, vegetable?"

"Ben Solo! You know I don't kiss and tell."

"Since when? Usually I can't get you to shut up about your love life, no matter how much I swear at you."

"Well, I'm trying this new thing where I don't tell everyone every detail of my life as it happens."

'Okay.' That sounded intriguing but Ben let it drop.

'So when do I have to go on this bloody school tour?' 'Bloody' was becoming one of Ben's favourite British swear words. 'Fuck' would always be his number one but 'bloody' now had a special place in his heart.

Poe clapped his hands with glee,

'We start next week, You visit five schools in five days, give a lecture in the morning and an extended seminar in the afternoon. Here is your schedule.' Ben snatched it out of Poe's hand, 'I will accompany you to document the occasion.' He said with a flourish of his hand.

Ben looked up sharply, 'We? You're coming?'

'Yup.'

'I want final approval of your photos at the end of each day.'

'Ben, I'm at artiste! I couldn't possibly allow you to sensor my work!'

'If you don't let me look I will 'sensor' your fucking camera into a wall.'

'Fine. Spoil sport.' Poe said folding his arms over his chest and jutting out his bottom lip.

Ben scanned the itinerary.

Monday: Tatooine Comp
Tuesday: Alderaan Academy
Wednesday: Hoth Secondary
Thursday: Coruscant College
Friday: Jakku High

He sighed. Kids. Fucking kids. Older kids, 18 -19, but still...kids.

'This isn't worth the thousand.'

'It will be fine, just don't swear and try arranging your face into a smile once in a while.'

'I can't swear?'

Poe blinked at Ben for a moment, 'How long has it been since you taught Ben?'

'A year or so. Thank fuck I managed to get out of doing it once the course feedback came in.'

'Oh yes I remember now. That infamous line in the 'any other comments' section, Ben Solo makes my heart weep.' Poe swept his hands through the air while he quoted.

'I'm prodigiously proud of that review. I had it framed.'

'I know, you hung it up in your office but you still won't hang up any of my work!'

'Why would I want a picture of my own grumpy ass face on my wall?' Ben said not looking up from the document.

Poe put his hands on his hips indignantly, 'I have other pieces you know!'

'Mmm... doesn't seem like it, seems like you're always stalking my ass. Case and point.' Ben waved the itinerary in front of Poe's face.

'Annoying you isn't work Ben, it's a beloved hobby.' Poe said putting his hand over his heart and tilting his head to the side.

Ben rolled his eyes, 'don't you have something else to be doing?'

'Yup, I'm just passing through. I have a wedding at one. See ya!'

Ben watched Poe saunter out of the room. He looked at the list of schools again and ran a hand through his hair. This was a very bad idea. Ben wasn't very personable on the best of days, but put into situations he resented he could be downright hostile. Well it was too late to back out now. He would just have to grin and bear it. He swallowed tightly. He better stock pile some Whisky, he was gonna need it.