Anakin hurries to get himself ready for the day as today he will have his first school day. He feels really excited about it as he has missed having school a lot during the time they traveled to Dantooine and the time it took to get everything ready. Also, he missed having friends to play with. Until today he only had the company of Shmi and Rendel, not that they are bad company. Their company is just different from the company of his age mates and that he missed a lot. Anakin hopes with his entire heart that he soon will be able to make some new friends. Luckily now he knows that the friends he makes won't do it to gain fame but because they want to be his friends. That is something which he always found annoying and the reason why he stayed away from those people. He has always been able to recognize them thanks to the lessons Siah taught him about it. She taught him how to recognize such people before he started with school. Thinking about his sister makes him sad for he misses her a lot. He wants to see her again but knows that he can't. It will just be too dangerous to go see her and would ruin everything a lot of people have done to ensure his safety. Also, he is sure that it would greatly anger his father. That is something he has always strived to avoid. To honor her, Anakin promises himself that he will keep up his skills in the lessons Siah taught him.
"Anakin, breakfast is ready. If you are not down soon you'll be late for your first school day." Shmi calls from downstairs.
Embarrassed that he got stuck in his thoughts for so long, Anakin quickly makes his way to the bathroom. There he hurries to brush his teeth and hair before running downstairs to the kitchen. As he comes down from the chair he sees Shmi coming his way.
"Ah, Anakin. I see that you are finished. Now hurry up and go to the kitchen to eat your breakfast. We will need to leave in about twenty minutes, so make sure you are fully ready by then." Shmi says and mentions for Anakin to move to the kitchen.
"Yes, Shmi." Anakin answers and hurries to do as he has been told to do.
Twenty minutes later Anakin sits in the speeder as Shmi takes off towards his new school. He can't wait to see the school for the first time but also has to think about the rules Shmi told him yesterday evening. He is to always have his com link active and in his pocket. It has a tracker inside it which will allow Shmi to see where he is and also has an emergency button for him to use in emergencies. This is all to ensure his safety as she can't stay with him all the time. It would actually be strange for a mother to be by her son's side at all times. That would surely raise suspicions towards them and as they need to avoid it, Shmi can't stay with him. This is the best solution she could come up with.
During the ride, Anakin spends his time remembering the backstory Shmi told him the day they landed on Dantooine. They are a family from Tatooine who has saved the money necessary for moving to Dantooine for years now. Once they had the money together they packed everything and moved here. If he is asked about his previous school experience he is to tell them that he has been homeschooled because there were no schools close by to the farm they owned on Tatooine. Another thing he has to remember is that he doesn't have any siblings. Anakin is aware that this will be difficult for him to remember as he doesn't know how life without a sibling would be. But then now he will learn how it is and he has to remember everything if he wants to stay safe.
It is then that he feels the speeder coming to a stop. When he looks out of the speeder he sees they have come upon his new school. He recognizes the building from the holo's Shmi showed him after she enrolled him. Another thing that tells him that this is a school is the children he can see and hear playing on the playground. Anakin steps out of the speeder at the same time as Shmi does.
"Remeber what I told you, Anakin." Shmi tells Anakin.
"Yes, mama. I will" Anakin answers. He finds it strange to call Shmi mama as she isn't his mother. But then they pretend to be a family so it would look strange for him to call her by her name. That would attract attention they don't want to attract.
It is then that they hug each other before Anakin steps unto the school grounds. He can't see many children which on the school ground but that doesn't surprise him at all. The farms are pretty far apart from each other so the schools are small and scattered. They only have students from the neighboring farm attending. Having larger schools here wouldn't be doable as the many students would have to travel for a long time before arriving at school. That is not practical, but small schools are.
Looking around the playground, Anakin tries to get an impression of the children. He can tell a lot from their behavior and the games they are playing. He takes his time looking at the children before he makes a decision about which group he will approach. Once he has made his decision he approaches the group he chooses as that is the group that speaks to him the most. That way his first day of school on Dantooine starts.
Meanwhile, Shmi is making her way back to the house and mentally goes over everything she has to do today. One of the things she has to do is redecorating the house to make it look like a family lives there. The family that she, Rendel and Anakin are supposed to be. The redecorating will further the impression that they are in fact a family. During their flight, she has been creating holos of them as a family. She made sure that all the holo's have the landscape of Tatooine in the background. This will confirm the story they will be telling the people here. She feels sure that no one will be checking their story. Also, she wants to place the accessories they brought with them in their place. The last thing she has to do is checking on the progress the construction droids are making.
Once she gets home, she sees Rendel awaiting her near the garage and she knows why. He will be taking the speeder to go buy the seeds they will be sowing soon. Also, he will be making inquiries about livestock that is for sale so that they can decide which livestock they will be buying. Shmi parks the speeder and calmly steps out of the speeder. Rendel is quick to get into the speeder and after a few short words between them, he is on his way to the market in the nearby village.
Shmi turns her attention back to the house. She decides to first check on the droids progress as it is hopefully the task with the shortest time needed to complete it. This will allow her to work on redecorating without having to watch the time. She walks to the basement and is pleasantly surprised by what she sees. The droids are on schedule. In fact, they are slightly ahead of it and will be done with the work in three days' time. Then she will have them start on the safe room. This room she knows she will need to have but hopefully never need to use.
Afterward, she turns back to the house and starts on redecorating the entire ground floor to give the impression that they are living as a family here.
Three days later
Shmi is busy placing the ship in the hangar while Anakin is at school and Rendel working on sowing the ground. Not long ago, she shut the droids down so that they can reload themselves. She needs the ship in the hangar as it will avoid rust and also it will be easier. Outside the ship takes up a lot of space which they need for other reason. Besides, if the ship is not visible then few people will know that they have a ship.
A few minutes later the ship is standing inside the hangar. Shmi busies herself with placing the building supplies in the appropriate area so that the droids can quickly find it as they need it. She knows that she can't work slowly as she has to pick up Anakin from school. A few minutes before she has to leave she finishes placing the supplies where they need to be. Then she checks the droids to see if have reloaded themselves. Once she is satisfied that they have done so she activates them. Shmi then waits to see if they start their work correctly. When she is satisfied that they are starting correctly she moves upstairs and making her way to the speeder. She knows that the droids will be done with the safe room in three days' time. Then they can start on the other rooms she needs them to build before they can be shut down for a long time. She can only use them for maintenance at places where they can't be seen by strangers as they are too advanced for this time. That would certainly raise suspicion and bring them into the center of attention of everyone. They would wonder why they are living as farmers here if they can afford to buy such expensive droids. Expensive in their opinion, that is.
Once she reaches the speeder she steps inside and rides as fast as she safely can to the school so that her charge doesn't have to wait long for her to pick him up. Normally she would be at his school a few minutes before the class is out but today she is a bit late because of the work she had to do.
Shmi arrives just as Anakin is walking out of the school building. They quietly greet each other after he said goodbye to his new friends. Anakin then quickly gets in the speeder and soon they are making their way back home. During the ride, he tells her all about what they have done today. They need to go to buy supplies but will be dropping Anakin's backpack off first. Then the will be going to the village to buy the supplies they need. They do this for they need all the space there is available in the speeder to be able to get everything home. A backpack could limit what they could take with them.
Thirty minutes later, Shmi and Anakin are walking in the village moving between shops. They have already bought some supplies which carry inside bags and are now moving to the food store. Along the way to the store, they come upon a salesman selling pets. Anakin's eye is immediately drawn to a Strill puppy even though he doesn't fully understand why. All he knows is that he is feeling a connection to the puppy. The puppy is also looking attentively at him. This doesn't give him a bad feeling. In fact, it gives him a really great feeling.
Shmi sees where Anakin's attention is and the look in the puppy's eye. This makes her smile affective at them. She knows that these domesticated creatures are extremely loyal and protective of the masters and their family. As such she knows that this puppy will be like that to Anakin once he is accepted as master. That is why she walks up to the salesman and asks some questions about the puppy. The answers she gets satisfy her. She knows that the salesman hasn't told her any lie. Had he done so she would have knows instantly. All this contributes to her decision to buy the puppy for Anakin. With the salesman, she makes the agreement to pick the puppy up once they are done shopping. It would be difficult to keep the puppy around while going into the shops.
After that, they go to the food store and buy the food they need for the coming two weeks. They do this for the trip to the village takes a long time so they want to avoid making it too often. This will save money and time which they will need to get the farm up and running. On the way back to the speeder they pick up the puppy. When everything is loaded into the speeder they head back home.
Author's note: I will be putting this story on hold for I need to redo my outline for the coming chapters. I don't know when or if I will be updating again.