Marching season had finally officially started. Practices had been going on for hours at a time throughout the 90 degree weather of the summer and the even higher temperatures of August, and now, all that practice would be put to the test. Today was competition number one, and every single Freshman marcher was either ecstatic, nervous, or a combination of the two. Young Ahsoka Tano was no exception to this rule.
"I hope we do okay," The young, coffee skinned girl said quietly to her fellow percussionist, Barriss Offee. The older girl was a pit percussionist and mainly played the marimba while Ahsoka was on the drumline, though, during concert season she considered herself fairly talented at the vibraphone. Barriss had already donned her uniform and was currently helping Ahsoka find her own.
"We'll do fine, Ahsoka. I promise you. The first competition is always the hardest; it is all downhill from here." The sophomore smiled at her shorter friend as she retrieved her gloves, gauntlets, and shako from the top shelf. She handed Ahsoka the full uniform before something caught her attention.
"Ooh, Ahsoka, do you think you can handle this on your own? They need help moving the snare..." Barriss looked nervously from where the upperclassman were trying and failing to get the large drum out the door to back at Ahsoka.
"Yeah, don't worry about me! I'll be just fine!" Ahsoka smiled nervously, trying to seem calm. Barriss shot her an encouraging smile and then darted off, stopping her section before the snare got caught on the edge of the door stop. Ahsoka smiled a little after watching her friend deal with the humorous sight, but then she realized that she had no idea what she was doing on her own. All the young girl knew was that the buses were leaving at nine am, and that currently it was eight twenty three. She supposed she should be getting into uniform, right? And so, with her dyed-blonde pig tails bobbing at her shoulders, Ahsoka made her way into the tiny school bathroom to change.
Once she stepped foot into the blue-tiled, strongly smelling bathroom, she realized she had made a mistake. All around her were half naked girls, pulling on their color guard uniforms and spraying each other with the most horrendous smelling hairspray and perfume Ahsoka had ever smelled. She nearly gagged the second she entered, but quickly composed herself. She was now the only freshman - scratch that, the only member of the actual band in that bathroom, and she was suddenly feeling extremely small and vulnerable.
"Uhm, excuse me..." She mumbled, her face flushing red as she tried to move past the tall girls and their clouds of hairspray. There was a single stall left and, being too shy to change in front of the others, she was very grateful. Ahsoka began to move towards the stall, her uniform clasped tightly in her hands, when suddenly the floor became very slippery. Looking down, and all too late, Ahsoka realized she was stepping on her uniform's pant leg. Before anyone knew what was happening, Ahsoka's face had slammed into the filthy floor, bringing with her a junior's entire make up bag from the adjacent sink. A lipstick tube shattered into tiny plastic shards as it hit the ground, and a large amount of powder puffed itself onto Ahsoka's uniform. And, of course, immediately, the color guard girls began to laugh.
Ahsoka was mortified. In a furious and embarrassed blur, the young girl hoisted herself off the ground, brushed herself off proudly, and held her chin high as she quickly disappeared into the stall, where she dropped the facade and tears immediately began to spill from her sparkling blue eyes.
You're such a screw up, she thought to herself, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to stay quiet as she listened to the girls outside chatter about her misfortune. When their excited buzz died down a little, Ahsoka took a deep breath and decided she would need to dress herself soon if she were going to get to the bus on time. She couldn't trip over her own feet and be the only one to miss the bus. Looking down at the uniform, she soon realized that there was a problem. She had no earthly clue how to put these things on. Did she strip and put the overalls - bibbers, she corrected herself - on over just her underwear and bra? Or did she leave her shorts and t-shirt on from practice and put it on over those? Maybe there were special pants she was supposed to wear under them, like those stretchy yoga pants that she had seen Barriss sporting earlier. And how was she even supposed to get the big, bulky jacket on and zipped in the back afterwards? She was fairly certain that when they were told to sport only half uniform for the trip that it meant to only put on the bibbers, but now that she was thinking on it she was beginning to doubt herself. She pulled herself out of her thoughts to listen outside, and, when she heard nothing, quickly decided she needed to put her fears aside and get dressed before the bus left her.
As fast as she could, she pulled the bibbers up over her shorts (Successfully only on the second try after first trying to pull them up over her already tied marching shoes) and slipped the straps over her shirt sleeves. The only problem was... The straps were hanging off of her shoulders. And the pant legs were literally dragging the ground below her. Why must I be so short?
Deciding shoes could wait for later, the tiny girl grabbed her uniform jacket and shako and darted out of the bathroom stall. If she hurried, maybe Barriss would still be in the percussion room and could help her fasten the legs to the right length, or help her figure out how to tighten the straps. That, and she wouldn't be late getting on the bus. She ran as fast as she could, the legs of her bibbers flapping loudly as she did so. As soon as she entered the bandroom, she lost her footing and slipped, landing flat on her rear end in the middle of the floor.
"That'll bruise..." She mumbled through moderate pain, wincing as she stood and rubbed her hurt tail bone. However, there was no time for stopping. She glanced around the band room and noticed that there was not a single student in sight. In fact, she couldn't even find Obi-Wan, their drum major (Who technically should be in college at this point, but when he transferred schools in the spring they made him redo his junior year) or Director Windu. Frantic, Ahsoka decided she should look through the instrument rooms. Maybe one or two people would be left...
Zero people showed up in the percussion room. She was expecting to find Barriss, or maybe even their senior, Anakin Skywalker. Not that she really knew the older boy anyways, but having someone in her own section may save her some embarrassment. But no. Of course not.
The woodwind room was, you guessed it, empty. Ahsoka did suppose she saw a few spiders, and the pushed back ceiling panel did seem to have some movement coming from within, but she decided she didn't want to stay to find out who or what was in there.
Finally, just as she was giving up hope, the young girl entered the brass room, and was immediately greeted with...
Well, definitely the sounds of a person. She couldn't quite place it, but it meant that someone was in this instrument room and that was good enough for her. Surely, whoever it was would be able to help her button the legs of her pants up to a good length before she dragged them over every single square inch of the filthy band room floor. She moved around carefully, not wanting to knock any of the instruments that were bigger than she was out of place, as she tried to find another student. This room had multiple cubbies in it, stretching from the floor to the ceiling and from wall to wall in many different rows, much like a small maze. Ahsoka rounded a corner, about to give up and take the walk of shame to the bus with her bibbers not being correctly fitted and ask an upperclassman to help, when she saw something unexpected.
"Ahsoka! What are you doing?!" The tall boy shouted from his place nearly on top of a smaller senior girl. The girl sat up immediately, her face flushed. Both were fully dressed of course (And their bibbers were properly fitted, Ahsoka noted) and yet, what Ahsoka had seen couldn't have been school appropriate. Anakin Skywalker, the proud, araggont section leader of Ahsoka's section, and Padme Amidala, the diplomatic, lovable flute section leader, in a corner, making out. Intensely.
"What am I doing?! What are you doing?!" Ahsoka yelped, her face also turning an unnatural shade of scarlet upon seeing such a scene. She didn't even question how this senior had remembered her name after only speaking to her once, and, personally she didn't even really care that she had burst in on their little moment. She still needed someone to help her.
"We were, uh, just..uh... Looking for Padme's earring, haha!" Anakin said nervously, sporting an unnatural laugh.
"That was not looking for an earring." Ahsoka snapped sassily, her arms folding across her chest. Padme looked incredibly flustered.
"Hey, don't be so snippy, kid." The boy said, looking extremely offended. His supposed girlfriend elbowed him harshly.
"You can't tell anyone about this." She said forcefully, pushing Anakin as far away from her as possible. Ahsoka looked at the two nearly complete strangers towering above her, and immediately thought of a plan.
"Uhm, I don't want to be a bother, but..." She looked up at the two. "You two are the only ones left not on the bus. Maybe, if I don't tell anyone about this.. You can fix my uniform?" The short girl gestured to the entirety of her bibbers, then smiled nervously at the students in front of her. Padme let out a relieved chuckle, and Anakin smiled, kneeling and reaching for the buttons on Ahsoka's pant legs.
"Sure thing, snips."