Chapter 11: Before the Battle part 2

Ezra was happy to wake up after the sun today. He was happy though slightly nervous. He would be going out on a, little grocery shopping trip, he guessed with Kanan that morning. Kind of like a real family would do. But nervous because the Battle of the Band was later. He got up and got changed, before heading out to the living room where he found Kanan.

"You ready for visiting the market?" Kanan asked.

"I guess." Ezra said, grabbing a fruit to eat on the way. It was not very far so they would be walking.

"We need some of those." Kanan said pointing towards a stand when they reached the market.

Ezra went over to it and nearly walked straight into the very last person he wanted to see. It was Mr. Hunter.

Ezra took a step back as Mr. Hunter turned around and gave him a powerful death glare.

"Ezra, what's wrong?" Kanan said coming over.

"Mr. Bridge what a displeasure seeing you here." Mr. Hunter said.

"Excuse me?" Kanan said.

"Do you know this brat?" Mr. Hunter asked Kanan.

"That brat," Kanan spat the word, "as you so call him is my son."

"Then you would do well to teach him respect." Mr. Hunter said.

"Ezra respects those who deserve it." Kanan said. "I suppose you are his Planetary Studies teacher."

"Indeed I am, and your son is nothing but trouble." Mr. Hunter said.

Ezra unconsciously took a half step back and a half step to the side, so he was partially hidden by Kanan. Kanan grew a glare at seeing this, "From what I hear, it is you the cause the trouble. What exactly does he do to cause trouble?"

"He was exceedingly late to my class twice in the same week." Mr. Hunter said.

"He was stuck inside his locker." Kanan said, somehow remaining calm, which made him seem slightly scarier.

"He was still late." Mr. Hunter said.

"So that gave you an excuse to give a two hour detention one day, then beat him with a ruler the next." Kanan said. He did not notice that Ezra was slipping away into an alley. "Then you give him a test in another language yesterday. What is your problem."

"Your son needs to learn how to tell the truth." Mr. Hunter said.

"Excuse me." the vendor lady said. "But my daughter has mentioned to me that a teacher had been mistreating her friend. Would you perhaps be talking about and Ezra Bridger"

"Yes." Kanan said.

"Sir I am going to have to ask you to leave my stand." The vendor said.

Neither of them moved. "You heard her." Mr. Hunter spat.

"I was talking to you Ido." The vendor said.

"Well!" Mr. Hunter exclaimed before stalking off.

"I'm sorry." The vendor said. "I'm Genna Montoya. My daughter is Jade."

"Ezra has told me about her." Kanan said. "I'm Kanan Jarrus, I'm Ezra's adoptive father." He looked behind him, and saw that Ezra was gone. "Hey where is Ezra?"

"Ido Hunter must have scared him off." Mrs. Montoya said.

"I've got to find him before he gets into trouble." Kanan said, thinking more of storm troopers find him more than Ezra causing trouble. He reached out into the Force and located him in the adjacent alley.

Kanan went that way and found Ezra curled into a ball hiding his face.

"Ezra?" Kanan asked sitting by him.

"Am I just trouble?" Ezra asked, his voice sounded broken. Kanan realized that when he was on the streets he probably got comments like that thrown at him all the time.

"No, Ezra, you're no trouble at all." Kanan reassured.

"But, Mr. Hunter said," Ezra started.

"You know what? Mr. Hunter is a stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy nerfherder." Kanan said.

Ezra gave a little laugh.

"Shall we continue our shopping? Mr. Hunter won't bother us at that stand again." Kanan said.

"Yeah," Ezra said, uncurling and wiping away the tears on his cheeks. He still looked a little upset.

"Come here." Kanan said, Ezra scouted closer and Kanan wrapped his arms around him, enveloping him in a warm, loving hug. Ezra smiled and snuggled closer. "Ezra,"

"Yeah?" Ezra asked.

"I love you, you know that?" Kanan asked.

Ezra was frozen in shock, before he smiled and snuggled even closer. "I love you to."

(Proceed with the 'awwwww'ing) P.S. thanks for the idea of meeting with Mr. Hunter Angel.)

They stayed like that for about a minute, Kanan noticed one or two people staring. "Well, let's get back to business. If we are late Hera will have both our hinds."

"Okay." Ezra said, they both got back up and went back to the stand that Mrs. Montoya ran.

"And this must be Ezra." Mrs. Montoya said.

"Yeah." Ezra said.

"Nice to meet you." Mrs. Montoya smiled. "I'm Jade's mother. She has told me a lot about you."

"Like?" Ezra asked, slightly nervous.

"That you are really good at drawing and an amazing singer." Mrs. Montoya said. "I can't wait to hear you tonight."

"Thank you." Ezra said.

"Well we need these things." Kanan said, showing her the list.

"Okay," Mrs. Montoya said, putting the items in a sack. She tried to hide the fact, but Ezra noticed, that she put some extra fruit in there. "That will be 35 credits."

"That seems a little cheap." Kanan said, not wanting to cheat her."

"Oh no it's fine. Consider it an apology for having to deal with the other obnoxious customer." Mrs. Montoya said, indicating Mr. Hunter, making Ezra smirk some.

"Well, thank you." Kanan said.

"No problem." Mrs. Montoya said. "I'll see you later."

Ezra and Kanan continued until they got everything on the list, luckily they did not have another run-in with Mr. Hunter. They made their way back to the Ghost.

"I thought you would be back sooner than this." Hera commented as Kanan and Ezra walked into the living room.

"Well, we had a little run-in with the one teacher that doesn't like Ezra much." Kanan said.

"What happened?" Hera asked. Kanan explained what had happened with Mr. Hunter.

"Oh, Ezra, sweetie, you okay?" Hera asked.

"Yeah." Ezra said, as Hera hugged him.

After Hera released him and started making lunch, Ezra looked at the time, it was currently noon. He had four and a half hours until the battle of the bands, and he was still incredibly nervous. There was going to be so many people watching him. He was okay on the roof because up there it was just him, Pau-Cas and Jade. But at the battle, there will be all the other bands and most likely their families.

"Ezra, come with me." Kanan said, walking towards the exit. Ezra did so. Soon they were standing outside the Ghost. "What's up?"

"I'm just nervous." Ezra said.

"I can tell." Kanan said.

"I'm nervous about the battle of the bands." Ezra said.

"You told me that earlier." Kanan said.

"I'm mean, everyone is going to be looking at me." Ezra said.

"Hey, how about this?" Kanan said. "If you get nervous, just focus on me. Pretend it's just me, Hera and Sabine."

"You think it will work?" Ezra asked.

"I know it will." Kanan said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. He took a look at Ezra's eyes. "That seems to be healing nicely. I guess you were right about the fact that it would heal soon."

"I know these kinds of things." Ezra said.

Kanan sighed, "You really shouldn't have to know these types of things. But thanks to the Empire, you do."

"It's fine." Ezra said. "Do you think if the Empire never took over that we would've still met?"

"Well, that is hard to say." Kanan said. "The Jedi Order probably never would've fallen, so the Jedi probably would have found you and brought you to the Temple for training when you were young. But the rise of the Empire put a end to the Clone Wars, so there is no telling if something could have happened to one of us in a battle." Kanan paused, "After all, I was lucky I survived Order 66. I was only a Padawan."

"Kanan, you don't have to tell me this if you don't want to." Ezra said.

Kanan smirked, a ruffled Ezra's hair. "Well, shall we see if Hera has lunch ready?"

Before Ezra knew it, it was 4:00. He figured he should probably get changed for the battle of the bands.

He stood in his room, trying to calm his nerves, there was soon a knock.

"Yeah?"

"Ezra you ready?" Kanan asked.

"I guess," Ezra said. He came out of his room and together he, Kanan, Hera and Sabine left the Ghost, and headed to the school for the battle of the bands. Ezra had butterflies in his stomach the entire time.

Alright it's time for the Battle of the Bands. Shout out to all my readers and reviewers giving me ideas. And what did I tell you It's updated before I went to bed.