Jalena slumped in her seat, trying to go unnoticed, seeing as she came in late for class. She hated scrubbing down that cafeteria, but she, Undia, Duasque, and Fechno would be raiding the security tapes that night and scanning them for evidence they might use against Clinee. Easy.
"Jalena!" Mr. Undari said, bringing unwanted attention to her. "You might be interested in what just happened in current events. You missed it because of your punishment."
Jalena's temper tempted to flare up, but she took a deep breath in and out and held her tongue. "What's so interesting, mister Undari?"
Mr. Undari gave a theatrical sigh: "The clone you wrote to, Fives, died in the slums of Coruscant today, gunned down by Commander Fox. We were talking about psychology before you came in, if you want to give out some insider information." Jalena didn't respond. She looked down at her desk in shock. She knew that she shouldn't be sad at the death of someone who she had only written to a few times, but she was. Fives had inspired her to look at a military career, which had made her resolve to be less impudent and get better marks in school. He'd been enthusiastic in his replies, rather than just muttering a response like many of the other clones did, even when he did have a busy schedule. He looked at the injustices in her life as legitimate, even though the ones he saw were probably many times as profound. Now she didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to him. Not a chance to say thank you. She knew he'd been onto something great. Something had mattered to him so much that he had to disobey orders again. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she forced herself to keep them down. She felt Undia looking at her from across the room, confused.
"I didn't know how he'd wind up in the slums." Jalena muttered.
"Weren't you close though?" Undari pressed.
"We only exchanged letters a few times. That's not enough to get to know why someone would wreak havoc on Kamino."
Jalena spent the entire rest of the day getting dogged by Mr. Undari and her classmates alike, but she didn't say much.
When the final bell rang, Jalena started out the door with a strange mix of giddy anticipation for that night, grief for Fives, and anger at the boorishness of her classmates. Undia stepped beside her, and they were about a block away from the school when an all-too-familiar voice wafted through the air:
"Are you sad that your boyfriend died, Jalena?"
"Not as sad as your face will be if you don't-"
Jalena got interrupted by Undia. "Come on, let's go. Apparently, Clinee hasn't lost his cooties yet." They started to walk faster.
"Did you have plans to run away with him after the war finished?"
Jalena whirled around and looked Clinee dead in the eyes.
"If you don't have any respect for me, at least have some respect for Fives. He just died. Give him a break." Jalena turned around and kept walking.
"I don't have respect for traitors to the Republic."
"Just keep going, Jalena. He's just trying to get a rise out of you." Undia whispered.
"Yeah, well, it's working." Jalena grumbled.
"Okay, if you're not going to be convinced by that, remember that we're going to get sweet revenge tonight and you can't do that if you're suspended again." Undia pointed out quietly. Jalena grinned at Undia and marched forward.
Clinee stood where he was stupidly before turning around and heading off to his own home.
Jalena kissed her parents goodbye and waved to them as they went out to the protest against separatists. However, she had her own plans for that night. As her conscience tossed and turned, she decided to absentmindedly check her holomail.
Jalena never would have suspected that she would have gotten holomails from the dead, but as clear as day was Fives' address, in glowing blue. She opened it and took a deep breath.
Jalena,
Get some flimsi out and write this down. Delete after you read.
Jalena stopped what she was doing and got out some flimsi and a pen. She looked at the send date. It was sent that day, before she'd heard of the death.
Despite what you've heard, I'm innocent. There's a big secret within the senate and I'm on the run from the law. The clone army is possibly a time bomb. The government is corrupt. Be careful who you trust. I might be dead when you read this, so good luck. You'll need it.
Fives.
When the tears came this time, Jalena only forced them back to write the holomail down and delete it. Then she cried and cried. She knew he was innocent, but who else did? As she finished, she realized that Fives would have done this exact same thing, raid the footage to defend his name. As she pulled the hood over her head, her nerves began to calm down. All she had to do was wait outside the bush by Undia's place and walk to the school together. Apparently, Duasque was supposed to already have broken in.
