Ignite the Stars
New Girl
By: Brenli
Nema could barely contain herself, bouncing from boot to soft gray leather boot, the weight of her kyber crystal swinging along with her body. Already it had begun to take color – green, but soft as sea foam – and it cast the gentlest glow on her pale clothing.
The advisory Council skimmed through her academic records with raised brows and appreciative smiles. "She is quite advanced for a youngling, isn't she?"
"She is, Council." Her master instructor spoke plain and proud, resting the palm of his hand on her head. She kept swaying, and his hand merely followed along with her. "She came to us at age 2, already able to sense presences through walls."
"Nobody beats me at hide and seek." Nema grinned so wide it crinkled her eyes shut.
Soft chuckling rippled through the Council. "The Force is more than games and tricks, youngling." One Councilmember countered, though warmly.
"I know." Nema still swayed. "Doesn't mean that it isn't those things, though."
"Oh? And is there anything the Force is not?"
"The Force is all things, of course!" Again, she grinned.
Another chuckle rumbled softly through the Council, but this time her master instructor was addressed. "She is a true credit to the Outer Rim. The Gray Pilgrim has come far to bring her here."
"Nema is the pride of the Gray Pilgrim." He shared a smile with the youngling… a touch wistful. "It would be a disservice to her Jedi studies to keep her aboard. We're not too proud to admit that."
"You would have her continue her studies in Coruscant?"
Nema's master instructor ruffled her hair, long and pale as moonlight, and nodded to the advisory Council. "She deserves to be taught by the best instructors, in a fully up-to-date setting, and to one day be Padawan to a Jedi Master of the highest caliber. On behalf of the Gray Pilgrim mobile academy, we implore you to accept her as your student."
The advisory Council murmured amongst themselves, and the head of the Council set down the datapad. "How have you enjoyed your time on the Gray Pilgrim, Nema?"
"It's been fun!" She grinned and finally stilled, her pale hands reaching up to fiddle with her kyber crystal. "It's home."
"You would miss home, wouldn't you? If you had to leave it."
Nema nodded, her round face gently sobering. "Yeah, but… the ship is in my heart. And I'm in the Pilgrim's heart. Maybe far away, but… still together. In the heart." She clung to her kyber crystal, the clenched fist pounding on her chest. "We're one with the Force."
A startlingly mature answer for a 7-year-old youngling to make, and the advisory Council wasn't foolish. "Do you think the Jedi Temple could be home?"
In a flash, she was bouncing and grinning again. "It's already home!" And it was, it really was.
The Jedi Temple was where her best friend lived.
That wasn't to say she valued other friends less, but he was… different. Very, literally different because he lived so far from the moving ship she lived in. He came from a world where city lights were so abundant, the planet looked like it was made of stars. A planet that was a city, that looked like a galaxy unto itself. Coruscant – the heart of the Jedi way of life. She had wanted to be a part of her best friend's world as far back as she could remember…
And today was that day.
The excitement buzzed bright and warm within her, even as she hugged her head instructor farewell. It had been a long voyage, and she'd shared goodbyes many times over, with every friend and every instructor. Though she would miss them, each and every one of them, it was time for hellos.
Hello to her new instructors.
Hello to new friends.
Hello to an old friend, but finally in the flesh.
When the head Councilmember guided her into class, it was all she could do not to leap over to him and hug him tight. They were in the middle of a geographic lesson, a map reader beaming a wide swath of the Outer Rim throughout the room, and she traced the Salin Corridor, over and upward, to Felucia, which glowed like a blue freckle on her best friend's left cheek.
His eyes were wide and somewhere between blue and green; but they looked more like blue in the dim aqua glow that the map reader cast on a sea of young faces. She sensed that he'd just gotten back from Ilum one day before; the still-clear kyber crystal caught the blue light and seemed to cling to it. He wore the pride like it was fresh, the crystal like a badge of honor.
But of course it was a badge of honor, and of course, she had a very keen feeling his kyber crystal would ultimately go blue.
She grinned so wide that her eyes crinkled shut, waved wildly with both pale hands as the head Councilmember introduced her to both instructor and class. At last, she was meeting her best friend in person! At last, at last, at last…!
"Well then…! Nema, let's bid you welcome to the Jedi Temple by putting you in the thick of things, shall w-?"
Being in the thick of things was all she wanted! She sprinted forward, arms outstretched until she caught and pulled her best friend tight against her. Their kyber crystals clacked together, clear against the forming faint green glow of her own. "Hello!" She needed her first hello to be with him, she wouldn't have it any other way. She sensed the shock. The disbelief… it had her giggling and releasing him, just to grab hold of his hands. "Wow, you're really warm!" He was. Usually the hands of others ran colder.
Laughs spread among her new peers.
It wasn't kind.
"Girlfriends aren't allowed, Michael!" A girl with hair like a Tatooine sunset and a mole near one eye teased.
His response was instantaneous and burned her like she'd come too close to the sun. "She's not my girlfriend! I don't know her!" And then he pushed her.
She stumbled through hologram trade routes and planets, almost clear across to Dagobah when she was caught by the shoulders. Nema looked up at a statue-like face, however youthful. Eyes gray as the metal of the Gray Pilgrim and hair dark as deep space. Her best friend's brother, she knew from prior moments shared from a galaxy away.
But even he wasn't exactly kind. Not mean, but not kind, either. He wore amusement like it was a weapon, a close-lipped smile that mocked… not her, but him. "Jedi don't push girlfriends."
And she could sense the hurt. The embarrassment, mixing with disbelief in the crucible of his warm chest until it yielded anger. "Shut up, Lu! You don't know anything!"
Forget her new peers. They faded like very distant stars while she pleaded with the sun. "Why are you being like this? We're friends!"
"No, we're not!" Michael tried to drown out the 'ooh'ing of his peers with a yell that had their instructor and the Councilmember waving their arms and trying to reclaim authority.
But Nema was nothing if not stubborn. She hadn't come all the way across the galaxy for her best friend to lie. To deny that they'd shared moments since… since forever. It must have been forever, because she couldn't remember a time when they hadn't had moments. "Yes, we are!"
"No! Shut up!"
The energy was a hard nudge, right in the center of her chest. A thump, an echo that made her stumble. The Force rippled between them. The shock was hers. The pain was theirs. The guilt was his.
But his guilt didn't stop her. "Enough!" Nema stepped forward, her hand cutting across the air.
She sent him flying backward.
Yet even that hadn't resulted in a reaction she wanted. Their peers were laughing all the louder, now… even pointing at the boy, whose blue helmet had been knocked off in the fall.
No sooner than she'd attacked her best friend had the instructor stepped between them, and the Councilmember rested a commanding hand upon her shoulder. But she was done. She had no interest in continuing to fight Michael when all it was doing was making their peers laugh harder. She sensed that this wasn't uncommon…
She hadn't meant to feed the cruelty of younglings who had yet to reach the caliber of real Jedi.
"Both of you are reporting to the Council." The instructor's voice was the kind of placid that quelled the laughter of children. He succeeded in guiding Michael toward her and the Councilmember up until the sensing between them became too much to bear. They were mortified, angry, upset.
Disappointed. He wore his frown with a frustrated furrow to his red brow, and she wore hers with the starlight glimmer of tears in her crimson eyes.
The adults both nudged their shoulders and spoke in unison. "Now."