On The Bus

Hi. Updating faster than I thought I would. So my pace: every three weeks, or less depending on how quickly I can write a chapter.

"You've never talked so much about your music piece as you did yesterday with Barriss," Obi-Wan remarked to Cody, leaning casually back in his seat and smiling in greeting towards Satine.

She glared at him. Understandable. He'd dumped her, after all- she was the only girl he'd ever dumped, actually. Siri had left him in the dust and Cerasi...

He preferred not to think about it.

"I was just really eager to figure out if she wanted to do it with us," his friend answered, scrawling some last-minute homework.

Obi-Wan meant his next sentence to convey a light tone, but somehow a little bit of anger from remembering what happened to Cerasi crept into it. "You should really do your homework the night before, not on the bus."

"I don't have time," Cody snapped, retaliating to his tone. "Training my brothers to learn what that drunk bastard we call a father wants us to takes most of the night, you know."

He sighed and took the notebook and pencil from his friend in apology. The moving bus made his normally neat handwriting just messy enough to pass for Cody's. Relieved of his homework, the eldest Fett closed his eyes for a cat nap.

OooOooO

Echo watched as the 'rich-as-fuck neighborhood' of the Pantora sector, as his father called it, came into view.

"You want to see her," said a voice in his ear.

He sighed. "She's pretty, Fives. Why wouldn't I?"

"A lot of girls are pretty. You should try to get one that's in your league, not a million miles above it."

"But all the books have lowly servants becoming lovers to kings and queens," Echo protested. "Can't it be that way in real life?"

"Those are books, vode, and that is so cliché. The girl you want won't have you. Find one who'll appreciate your weaponry skills."

Right then, students from the neighborhood began pouring into the bus. Echo began searching for her. She was easy to find, all blue-skinned grace and golden-eyed determination.

Riyo, he thought, rolling her name on his tongue. Riyo.

OooOooO

Yané took her usual seat next to the boy with the dark hair. He nodded quickly and turned away just as fast, leaving her disappointed. She'd been trying to gather up the courage to talk to him her whole freshman year. It hadn't happened, and she had a feeling it never would.

So instead of sitting mired in her own thoughts, listening to him chat with his friends, Yané pulled out her designs for what would soon become the most efficient and brilliant series of surveillance cameras in the world (at least, that was what she hoped).

She began sketching her newest idea, a sphere with lenses all over it. Soon, though, she became aware of someone looking over her shoulder.

Yané turned her head quickly, ready to smash that person's face into her notebook, when she bumped heads with him.

"Ohmygoodness, I'm so sorry!" she squeaked, drawing back from him and rubbing her forehead.

He smiled ruefully at her. "No, it's me who should be sorry. I was spying on you after all."

She raised an eyebrow. "Was that on purpose?"

"What, the irony?" he asked.

Yané nodded, moving to put away her designs.

"Hey, don't put those away!" the boy exclaimed. "They're great. Would- would-" here he seemed to get stuck.

"Say it, Ferus," snickered one of his friends, a silver-skinned Teevan.

"Would you let me see them?" the newly identified 'Ferus' asked.

Yané smiled. "Sure."

OooOooO

Rabé admired Sabé's profile in the early morning light- her graceful neck, serene brown eyes, straight nose, and cascading black hair. She almost felt like kissing her then- but that would be a shock to Sabé, who was far from being like she was.

I'll have her, she thought, determined. One day.

"Rabé! Sabé!" Padmé exclaimed from behind them, having just gotten on the bus. She was from the mountain neighborhood of the Naboo sector- they were from the main Theed neighborhood.

Rabé turned to face her friend and former Queen Regent. Padmé seemed to be the type of girl Sabé would go les for- brilliant, drop dead gorgeous, and kind. "Hey, Padmé."

"I was wondering if you two want to continue being in the É society," the girl said, smiling a beautiful white smile.

Another chance to see Sabé? She thought. Padmé, you don't even have to ask. "Sure," she answered, the same time as her companion did.

OooOooO

By the time the bus reached the Mirial sector, Cody had had a long enough cat nap to take his homework back from Obi-Wan, thank him, and smooth down his hair.

"Any reason for the grooming?" his best friend asked. "Wouldn't have anything to do with a certain Mirialan, would it?"

He glared helplessly at Obi-Wan. "Aren't I allowed to care about my appearance?"

"That's so vain, Cody," Rex said, twisting his body around from the seat in front of them. He was sitting so that his feet covered the seat next to him, completely hogging it. "But, would you like to switch with me so that you can offer this seat to a sweet and religious girl whose name might be Barriss Offee?"

"She's a freshman," he muttered. "I'm a senior."

"Your point being?" Fives asked, popping his head in between Obi-Wan and Cody's. "Ages don't make a difference. Shouldn't make a difference."

"The way status shouldn't make a difference," Echo noted thoughtfully, looking at the Pantoran Senatorial candidate.

"It will always make a difference, vode," Rex said softly. "I'm sorry."

Their youngest brother stared down at his feet, obviously disappointed. Rex was the one all their brothers looked to for answers that applied to real life, and the answer this time was a sad one. Obi-Wan sent him a sympathetic look, then gave Rex a look that said Thanks so much for crushing his hope of being with the girl he likes. A look Cody should have been giving.

"Is the seat next to you empty?" a soft voice asked from in front of him. Cody, startled, messed up his neat pile of papers.

He looked up to see Barriss, or the lump of moving cloth that was Barriss. She wasn't even talking to him, for heaven's sake- she was asking Rex that question. So he gathered his papers into a pile again, not as neatly as before, and tried to ignore the stare Obi-Wan and probably Fives was giving him.

"Is everything all right with you, Cody? Your brothers and Obi-Wan are staring at you," she remarked, blue eyes barely peeking out from underneath her cloak as she sat down next to Rex.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, gazing down at his math homework for no reason at all.

Barriss turned back to face the front with impeccable posture. In fact, if Cody had been sitting next to her, he guessed that he would have seen her fold her hands and cross her ankles.

"Stop staring like Echo is," Fives whispered in his ear, and Cody ended up accidentally sending his papers flying across the bus while he tried to avoid backhanding his own brother in the face.

OooOooO

Riyo watched amusedly as the oldest Fett scrambled to pick up all his papers, and even more amusedly as her new friend's cloak moved slowly, as if her eyes were watching his every movement. It was so obvious that the two had fallen in love at first sight, even if nobody had actually seen what Barriss looked like.

She looked up from observing him to see a younger Fett get suddenly pushed by his twin brother in front of her. "Hi," she said tentatively.

He ruffled the hair on the back of his neck awkwardly. "Hey. Um, Riyo, right?"

"That's me."

He grinned at her sheepishly, and she couldn't help but smile back. "I'm Echo."

"Interesting name," she commented, and slid over to make space for him. He sat down, still ruffling his hair.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm Echo because I 'echo'-" here he used air quotes- "the rules. Basically, I follow the rules more often than my brothers."

"That's good," Riyo said conversationally, and then thought a little more. "Wait, you said more often."

"Uh..."