Hello everybody! Welcome to this fic. This story is the translation of my fic "Fuerzas opuestas", which is also hosted here in Fanfiction. So, if you know Spanish but don´t want to be spoiled, I´d advise you not to read that story. I am its original writer and also the translator of this one. Yeah, I decided to try English. Let´s see how it goes.

What are you going to find? Adventures, collisions between characters, lots of teen nonsense, absurd coincidences, drama queens and, in general, a lighter and softer tone than the original saga. Of course, there will also be mysteries, danger and surprises.

More things: the fic has a "T" rating due to some coarse language and expressions. If you are looking for any "steamy" scenes, I am sorry to tell you that this is not your fic. I tend to be quite loyal to canon, so, things that haven´ t happened on the movies, won´t make an appearance here. Of course I´ve made several changes, but none of them involves any of these themes.

English is not my mother tongue, so please bear with any possible mistakes or typos you may find in the story. I am looking for beta readers and I´m open to suggestions and constructive criticism concerning vocabulary/spelling mistakes. Sometimes I may confuse US English with UK English, though I try to use US expressions, as the story setting is somewhere in the States.

I hope you like this first (and shorter) chapter. It´s only a presentation for what is yet to come. More characters and variety in next episode!

Disclaimer: I don´t own Star Wars. I just want to have fun with my favourite characters.

Hey, ho, let´s go!

1

Enemy, traitor, ally

The smell of chips and ketchup filled up the air in that area of the park. It mixed with sodas, sweets and candy that had been laid on the grass and plastic tables. Somebody had brought a pair of portable speakers from which, the last hits of the past summer could be heard. Soda and juice cans circulated throughout the large group sitting there.

There were people whose ages went from fourteen to seventeen, chatting aloud and making jokes, sharing chips bags and goofing off to the rhythm of the music. Some of them discussed over some papers, while preparing several dynamic games to pass the time. An adorable Welsh Corgi trotted among the teenagers and letting people pet it, while they gave it some sandwiches or cheese balls. A boy, his owner, took off its collar to remove the plate. Then, he put on the collar again, letting go the dog, and he proceeded to clean the metal plates.

Although the academic year was almost starting, that group of students from the Republican High School wasn´t sad. They knew that a new year full of homework and stress was incoming, but it was also funny to be together back again after the summer break. They´d created that special group to go on hiking trips, dancing, going to the cinema, playing videogames, playing sports… Their age or academic year didn´t matter, because in that group, distinctions were inexistent. Everybody was welcome, as long as they behaved properly and shared some hobbies or interests.

The afternoon was placid and sunny, in that exact moment when the sunlight stops being annoying and transforms into a soothing pink light that accompanied their peaceful time…

The strident noise of an insistent rock music at full volume almost broke their eardrums at the first roar.

"Whoooaaaa, but if it isn´t the suckers!" someone shouted with a speaker on their mouth.

From thin air, a car appeared, with its windows open, and stopped on the side of the park with a sudden jam on the anchors, just exactly at the point where the republicans were having their picnic. Five guys dressed in black leather jackets and hard boots came out of the car, while other boys and girls came in bikes from nearby. Several of them came running, with horns in their hands and shouting like crazy.

"Hi, losers!"

"What are you doing, sissies? Sharing mama´s cookies?"

"Give us some!"

As they shouted, they ran over the mantle the republicans had laid on the grass, knocking down the bottles and cans, messing up with the food plates and bags, almost crashing with some of the kids and causing such confusion, that many of them had to run away, especially some younger students, from ninth year.

Some older students confronted the invaders, telling them off. But it was pretty complicated and dangerous, as the newcomers wouldn´t hesitate on running over the place on their bikes whenever they wanted and those who were on feet knocked down bottles and chairs.

In a matter of seconds, a pitched battle arose, so the republican students had to split up: some assisted the young ones in sheltering and others came to blows with the rowdy mob. The little corgi barked furiously, biting everyone it encountered and running around, avoiding being caught…

Among the Republicans, an older one stood out, combining his kicks with war cries. He was the corgi´s owner, which had already knocked out three of the most annoying ones, fast as a bullet. He sported a varsity orange football jacket and jeans with worn-out sneakers. His dark hair was messy with the fight and his brown eyes shone defiantly. His attractive face was truncated with wrath and disdain.

"Where is your leader now, asshole?" – he grabbed one of them by the lapels of his bomber jacket and delivered such punch on the nose, that the boy ended up rolling "à la croquette" towards the nearest tree – "Has Mama Goose stayed at home, all safe and sound?"

"Go get Dameron!", roared a girl in green dreadlocks and half shaven head. "You won´ t escape today, brat!"

The aforementioned stuck out his head from behind the bushes and planted himself in front of them, without a single ounce of fear of the four gorillas hovering him.

"Guys, I´m calling the police in 0,2 seconds… Let´s not push things further… You´ve already messed up big time!"

"Coward!"

"Go get him!"

The four guys went in for him, but they were late due to Dameron´ s quick legs. It wasn´t without reason that he was deemed the best football player, leading his school to victory on several occasions against the crows of the Academy of the First Order…

Some of which now laid on the grass, merged into a salad of boots, legs and arms… Dameron ran off, taking his mobile phone to call the emergency services as fast as he could. Then, he realized something…

"BB! BB, where are you? BB!"

The dog was lost in the commotion and Dameron started to lose hope. He bolted off towards the park exit, calling for him.

Not far from there, observing him, there was an Academy student, who also sported the black bomber jacket and a white t-shirt with a white skull drawing on it. Sweat drops trickled down his dark skin and completed his panicked and confused expression. He´d been given that sort of "uniform outfit" several days before, as a way to welcome him to the new school and assuring him that he would have a great time "hanging out" with his new seniors.

He´d exited home feeling quite nervous that afternoon. He was new in the city and the First Order seemed a nice place, where he could obtain a basketball grant, in which he exceeded. He´d heard some stories when he brought the application forms, but he mistook them for exaggerations.

Now he was facing that vandalism, he felt terrified to see what they had made him do. So this was the fame of the First Order: disturbers, ill-mannered, violent…

He wasn´t like that.

He hid behind a tree, trying to process what he was seeing, while noticing that he was hyperventilating. Close to him, two girls of no more than fourteen came in running and crying, complaining about their mobile phones, that had been destroyed in the battle. One of them had her t-shirt stained with strawberry milkshake. As soon as they saw him, they escaped, even more scared than before. In that moment, he pulled out his jacket, throwing it between the bushes, and he got out of there. Suddenly, a voice called him out behind him:

"You let them escape, shithead!"

The boy turned around and he wanted the world to stop.

In front of him, there was the imposing figure of a girl in senior year, more than 6 feet tall, pale as marble. She had shaven half of the right side of her head, and, from top to left side, short layers of light blond hair fell down to her ear. Behind her black sunglasses, her ice blue eyes shoot sparks and you couldn´t say that she wasn´t attractive, but the problem lied in her look of hate and disgust. Her outfit consisted on a white crop top with another skull drawing on it, a black leather jacket and high-waisted grey pants, plus black military boots and mittens.

Anya Phasma. Chief of the hallway patrols from the Academy.

The day he went to pick the application forms, he found her at the secretary´s office door. What did a student had to do there, if the classes hadn´t started yet?

As he could half-hear by her conversation with the lady at the office, she´d come to pick the updated form of behaviour rules, the list of members in patrol for the new year and the list of newcomer students. Like him.

She really took her job seriously.

That afternoon, she´d lead the assault to the Republican picnic. With her imposing height and strength, she´d been one of the first in devastating everything. She was ruthless and all the other students had followed her silent but strong advance as an army of ants that knew exactly what to do.

"Hey, rookie, are you listening?"

Finn, our protagonist, came out of his daydreaming and faced her icy stare.

"And your jacket? Backing out, sucker?"

Finn thought at top speed (which, with his ongoing stress, was not his strong point at that moment)

At the background, the last remnants of the battle were still visible. Plates and food were scattered all over the place, students hidden behind the nearest trees or escaping outside the park… Luckily, the police sirens could already be heard and the last crows were running for it, making their car skidding violently.

"I twisted my ankle", Finn answered.

"Liar. I saw you running as a lizard."

"Hey! You two! Stop there! You in the trees!"

With a coarse word, Phasma started running past him and giving him such nudge that he fell to on side. Before running away, she yelled:

"You´ll pay for this, pup! We´re going to make your life a living hell!", she darted past the last members of the Academy that weren´t unconscious. The injured ones were picked up by those in the car and had escaped before the police came in.

Taking advantage of the relative calm, Finn assessed the situation while trying to calm down. Now, he wished not to be wearing that stupid shirt, so he pulled it off and put it again inside out, with the tag outside and on the front, in order to hide the skull on his back, being less obvious. Now, he felt a sudden revulsion towards that logo.

"What kind of madhouse have I entered?", he grumbled, wiping out the sweat on his forehead. "When I get home, I´ ll tell Mum and Dad."

He decided to go out from his hiding spot and, full of remorse, headed for the disaster area. There were still left some republican students tidying up, talking to the police officers and tending to the injured ones. There hadn´t been any relevant incidents, as the Order students had mainly gone there to break havoc and annoy everyone.

Next to him, still far from the disaster, he saw the boy that had been calling for his dog, the so-called Dameron. He was very focused on lifting a plastic table, seemingly oblivious of a bloody cut in the corner of his mouth. On his back, there was a crow lying on the floor, but Finn noticed that he was standing up and, stealthily, was approaching him…

Finn ran as fast as he could and grabbed the guy in the black sweater, doing a rudimentary judo hold to him. Quickly, the Dameron boy heard the noise of the brawl, turned back and joined Finn to get hold of the crow and kick him out, while signalling the police officers to follow him between the trees.

Feeling calmer now, the republican boy looked at him with a glowing smile.

"Man, thank you so much" - he offered his hand – "You saved me!"

"No problem", Finn muttered, squeezing his hand, "It´s a cowardly thing to attack from behind. Wait, I´ll lend you a hand…" he said, taking the table by the other side.

"Thanks… What a fuss, huh?"

When they finished, they went for the nearby chairs that were still turned over on the grass.

"Yeah, it´s been awful. Those guys in black are mental."

"Right. We always try not to play their game, because the worst thing with them is collateral damage. Today we had many freshmen with us and we don´t want any row, but sometimes we can´ t avoid a bit of a crossfire, you know", Dameron said, pointing to his own mouth.

"You should have that checked. It doesn´t look good."

"Meh, just a bit of disinfectant and tomorrow it´ll look like new", the attractive student said, while they finished reorganising the chairs. "I´ve had worse. I´ve been dealing with those assholes for four years. Thank you."

"You´re welcome", Finn answered in a low voice.

"Now I only have yet to find my dog BB", his companion said, putting his hands on his head and letting anxiety wear over him. "With all the ruckus, he went away and I don´ t know where he can be. He must be so scared…"

"Do you mean the orange and white dog?"

"Yeah, it´s my corgi, BB. Have you seen him?"

"Yes, it darted out of here."

"Are you saying that you saw him going out the park?"

"Yes, I think so…"

Dameron got closer to him, more anxious than before.

"Hey, man, this is important. I love BB more than my own life. Are you sure that you saw him out of the park?"

"Yes, sure, it headed north."

"Shit… I hope anything bad ´s happened to him."

"They´ re smart, I´ m sure he knows how to care for himself."

"Yeah, I do trust BB, but…" - the football player put his hands on his hips – "It´ s unsettling to think on the possibilities. What if a car runs over him? Or what if the crows have taken him? Shit, he doesn´t even have his plates on…" - the boy introduced his hand on his pocket and took out two metal plates with signs and numbers – "They were dirt with jam and chocolate and I was cleaning them. How unfortunate!"

"Well, calm down, man, relax. Don´t be so pessimistic yet."

"Yet, he says…"

"Come on, I´ll help you find him."

"Maybe he´ll come back soon… He sometimes does. He disappears, hides for a while and when the fuss is over, he comes back as if nothing had happened."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he knows how to go back home from practically anywhere in town. He is a phenomenon. I´ve always said that he was overgifted…"

"He seems smart. It has dodged lots of people and has avoided any fight while still being here."

"You are really observant."

"Yeah, I saw you with him before."

Dameron half-closed his eyes.

"Hey, wait a minute… Didn´t you just say that you had just arrived here? That happened a while ago."

Shit, the boy thought, wanting to bite his tongue. He didn´t rise his eyes, but he perfectly noticed how the other boy stared at him while backing off and looking at his back.

"You´re a crow", he blurted out, suddenly tense. "Shouldn´t you be running with your pals?"

"I don´t know what you´re talking about, I only passed by and saw everything… I wanted to help…"

"Yeah, sure. That´s why you´re wearing your t-shirt inside out" – Dameron replied while pointing at his back – "I can see it from miles."

"Wait! I haven´t done anything!" Finn raised his arms, desperate, stepping back while Dameron advanced towards him with contained fury. "I swear I didn´t do anything! I´m a rookie! I´ve just enrolled! I´m not even from here! I didn´t know this would happen! `Hey, we´ll go party´, they said. I didn´t know they were talking about this!"

The other stopped to a halt.

"And then you go and hide behind a tree, instead of helping. Who is the coward now?"

There was a silence, which seemed heavier than a rock for the `newcomer´, and the footballer boy felt moved to say the following words.

"Forgive me, I know I am a coward."

The dog owner studied him intently and he read something similar to what he felt long time ago. When he was not so famous, so appreciated and was full of dreams.

The boy in front of him hadn´t walked that path yet. And he kept talking.

"Now they have it in for me. I plan on quitting before the courses start."

"Why? Fear?"

"No. It´s because I´m not like them."

Dameron gave a piercing stare, assessing him.

"Sorry, I know I´ve been a coward", Finn added. "But I was nervous."

The other guy finally changed his demeanor to a more doubtful one.

"Well, I suppose that you can´t be that coward, if you have thrown yourself into that moron from before. I owe you one."

"Not at all. It´s the least I could do. As soon as I can, I´m quitting the Academy."

"But classes start next Monday…"

"I´ll have to do something. I´ll talk to my parents. I won´t share any classes with that people.

Suddenly, Dameron´s face was glowing with ideas.

"And what if you come to our school?"

"Yours?"

"Yes, the Republican. Nothing will happen to you there."

"But people have already seen me here… Wearing their clothes…"

"Meh, I´ll deal with it in the blink of an eye. I have connections with the bigshot of the school."

Finn felt the burden leaving his chest and a smile lit his face.

"Cool… Let´s see if it works… I don´t want to stay in the Academy anymore."

"In that case…" - his companion offered his hand again – "I´m Poe Dameron, senior year, head of the Student Council" – he raised his thumbs and did the letter "L" blinking an eye – "Connections, you see, hehe…"

"Finn Newby, 11th grade" and the other boy squeezed his hand enthusiastically.

"Newby? Are you joking?"

"Yeah, what´s wrong?"

"Nothing… The surname... Best pun ever", Poe argued with a smile. Seeing that Finn started to frown, he stopped laughing and he took off his jacket, putting it over Finn´s shoulders. "There, take it and hide that skull."

"Thanks. I´ll give it back next day."

"Don´t you dare. Consider it as a welcome gift."

Finn opened his eyes wide, astonished.

"How can I keep it? It´s yours and what´s more… Dude, it´s a football jacket!", he exclaimed, admiring it.

"Meh, in June we were given new equipment and I wear this out of pure nostalgia. Keep it", Poe replied, smiling.

"OK, thank you", Finn answered, putting his arms inside the sleeves.

"It suits you, man" Poe patted his back. "Welcome to the Republican."

An hour later, after having stopped by the hospital to get Poe´s face checked, both boys went back with Poe at the phone.

"My uncle has checked home and BB´s not there. It´s very strange."

"Well, it´s still too soon. He must be hiding elsewhere, waiting."

"He must be very scared. Good thing I told the police", Poe said, putting away his phone in his pocket. "I´m really anxious… If I lost him, I swear I´ll kill those morons…"

"You do care for him, do you?"

"Of course. I adopted him when he was a puppy. Workers at the animal shelter said he was ill, far beyond any possibility of recovery. They said he wouldn´t last more than a few days, but I took care of him and, miraculously, he recovered. He´s been with me for six years and I love him like a little brother. Have you ever had a pet?"

"No, I´m not good at taking care of animals."

"Hahaha, not even fish? Come on, taking care of fish it´s not rocket science."

"Not even that. I´d probably forget to feed them those crumbs or whatever they give them."

"Come on, don´t be exaggerated."

They arrived to the park. There weren´t any remnants of the battle anymore and the scene that had taken place an hour before seemed unreal now. It was getting dark and the last orange-ish rays of light touched the grass, making it send little sparkles. Poe wrote quickly on his mobile phone and, as far as Finn could see, he was leading several conversations at once.

"I´m asking my friends, those who were with me this afternoon. They´re all fine", he explained as he closed Whatsapp. "They could hide and tidied up at full speed when the policemen arrived. I´ve instructed them on not to publish anything about this on social media, at least until we talk to the headmaster. I don´t want any more problems."

"I guess so."

"We were going to spend a really peaceful afternoon", Poe declared, contemplating the grass and trees with a sad countenance. "Playing, listening to music, chatting… And those pricks are always appearing to annoy us" – the boy sighed – "I was going to teach the freshmen how to play football. You know, young blood, see?"

"Huh, so you play?", Finn asked, quite interested. "Which position?"

"Quarterback."

"Whoa. You must be good. I´ve seen you running. Pretty fast."

"You´ll see. And you? Any sports?"

"Basketball."

"Nice, we also have a basket team here. Are you good? Pivot, wing…?"

"Small forward. I´m a good shot."

"Right, so then, first thing you´re going to do the moment you arrive is turning up for the tryouts. They´re usually on spring. But they open an extra opportunity for transfer students in your case. Let´s see if you´re lucky enough."

They took a look over the place, while Poe yelled to BB. There was no luck and Poe stayed downcast. The sun was already setting and Fin understood the distress in Poe´s face.

"Hey, if you need anything, I can give you my phone number, so-"

A loud horn interrupted them and they saw two lights speeding up to them at full speed.

"Not again!", they exclaimed at once, grinding to a halt.

With no time to react, they split in opposing directions, while the car stopped in a slam of the anchors. Phasma and other three boys came out of there and started to chase after them.

As Poe ran away, he yelled to Finn:

"Call the school and ask for headmaster Organa! Tell her you go on behalf of me!"

"What about BB?"

"Hey losers, didn´t you have enough?"

"They want more! Masochists!"

"Get to them! Let´s give them some nightmares!"

Poe and Finn ran breathlessly, while the others split to chase after them: Phasma and another one after Finn and the other two after Poe.

Saying all the prayers he knew, Finn speeded up and headed for the next corner that separated him definitely from the park, hoping for Poe not to get caught.

Running, running, running… And fear didn´t let him think. Cars and people passed by fast as lightning, until the smells stopped being familiar to him and he grinded to a halt behind a trash can.

The street sounded familiar, but not much, and there wasn´t anything relevant in the surroundings.

He emitted a soft bark that transformed into a whine. Suddenly he felt some pain in the right ear…

He had to go back. Poe would be very worried, that was for sure…

"Hello, little one."

He turned quickly but he froze, unable to move.

In next episode: we will continue with BB´s little adventure. They will make him sleep in a very peculiar place, but this dog has his own ideas about comfort…

Finn will go round and round back again in order to do some errands, but it´s obvious that you have to leave home with your phone battery fully charged, otherwise, you won´t be able to do anything!