A/N: In this chapter, D'Aris will realize how different he is from the other children he is friends with and goes to school with. One day a few newer students to the school he goes to in Lessu, will make him realize how different he is and it will hurt. Sorry for the lack of updates and the mistakes I make in grammer or other stuff, been going through chemo treatments the past four months and feel lousy most of the time.
Chapter 3: Growing Pains
Twelve year old D'Aris Gronek was a model student at the school he attended in Lessu with other children his age. Most of the children didn't care that he was a Lasat amongst Twi'lek and alot of them became his best friends boys and girls alike. He grew taller and showed the maturing body of a Lasat male of early teen years. A couple of Twi'lek girls were showing interest in him and he blushed at their attempts at flirting. Everything seemed to be going okay for the Lasat youth until four new students were added to the school and they showed that they were going to be troublemakers.
D'Aris watched the students give some of the others a hard time at recess time and he felt angry but didn't want to engage in any trouble since he was bigger than most of the students, however, these four new boys were taller than he was by a few inches. When he watched them shoving two girls, he had reached his limit.
"Hey!" he called out and the four boys turned to see who had yelled at them. Their eyes widened at seeing the Lasat youth and then smirks crossed their faces. The tallest boy stepped forward and looked D'Aris from head to toe.
"Well...well...well, what have we here?" the boy asked, "You aren't a Twi'lek but you dress like one."
He moved closer and touched D'Aris' right arm. A shocked look appeared on his face.
"Why...you have fur, not skin, and you smell funny! Look at those ears! They're so big and your face! It is weird looking!"
D'Aris stood feeling his emotions rise to the surface. No one had ever talked to him that way and it hurt!
"My...parents say I am a Lasat," he said his voice getting shaky and he felt tears form in his eyes.
"A Lasat? I thought all the Lasat were gone when the Empire attacked their homeworld of Lasan. How can you be here? Hey...furboy, you aren't a Twi'lek and don't belong here on Ryloth. You're an alien!"
"No I'm not!"
D'Aris frowned and then two tears fell down his furry cheeks. That made the four boys begin to laugh. D'Aris turned and ran off...for home. When he got home he ran into the house and grabbed his Loth-cat toy that he still clung to at night. He ran to a big tree in the yard and climbed up the ladder to the tree house that he and Petra had built a few months ago. D'Aris cowered in a corner, hugged the toy to his chest and began to cry.
T'Pell who had been fixing dinner heard him run to his room and then back out. With her mother's intuition, she knew something was wrong. She ran out to find where he had gone to.
"D'Aris!" she called hoping he didn't go far. She walked by the tree and heard a loud sobbing come from the tree house high up in the branches.
"D'Aris?" she called and went to the bottom of the ladder preparing to climb up even though she wasn't fond of climbing up it. She did anyway, knowing her son was troubled. Reaching the top she looked in the opening and saw her Lasat son cowering in a corner and he was crying.
"Oh...sweetheart, what 's wrong?" she asked.
"Mama, I'm an alien!" the boy sobbed out and rubbed his eyes with his furry hands.
"Who said that?" T'Pell said and climbed up to sit beside her son who was nearly as tall as she was.
"Some boys at school. They said I'm an alien because I don't look like the other Twi'lek boys. Why am I different from the other children?"
"Yes, you are different from the other children because you are a Lasat."
"I don't wanna be different!"
"D'Aris please come down, you know I don't like being in your tree house."
Both climbed down and D'Aris hopped off the ladder and landed on the ground easier than a Tw'lek youth could. He walked over to where T'Pell sat on a rock, wiping his hand across his wet cheeks. T'Pell reached her arms out to her son and wanted him to sit on her lap.
"Mama, I'm too big to sit on your lap," he said his voice shy and soft.
"Nonsense, sweetheart, you're never too big to sit on your mama's lap. Now come over here and tell me what happened," she answered.
D'Aris walked over and sat on T'Pell's knees and layed his head on her shoulder. The Twi'lek woman didn't care that on her lap cuddled up to her was a teenaged Lasat who was as big as she was. He was her son, and he was hurting.
"Now...tell me what happened?"
Sniffling, he began to speak.
"These four new Twi'lek boys were picking on some of my friends when we were outside for recess. They are all a little taller than me but that didn't matter. They were hurting my friends and that made me mad! I went over to try and stop them and the biggest one came over and started talking to me. He called me weird looking and said my ears are too big and I have fur instead of skin."
"What else did he say?" T'Pell asked feeling a bit angry at the cruelty that children could inflict on each other.
"He...He said I'm an alien and shouldn't be here on Ryloth. He said I don't...belong here!"
"D'Aris," she said caressing his face feeling the tears on her fingers, "You belong here with Papa and I. We love you, you are our son and that's all that matters. Yes, you are different than the other children because you are a Lasat."
"I wish I weren't a Lasat!" he said as more tears fell from his eyes, "I wish I had lekku instead of pointed ears! I wish my hands and feet had five fingers and toes! I wish I had green or blue skin instead of purple striped fur! I wish I were Twi'lek!"
T'Pell felt tears fall from her eyes hearing her son's pain of discovering how different he was.
"Sweetheart," she said hugging him closer, "We should've told you about how you came to be our son..."
She began to tell her Lasat son how he was found on Lasan, an orphan amongst the destruction of his homeworld. D'Aris listened to her tell him how her and Petra rescued him and brought him back to Ryloth to live with them as their son.
"D'Aris, Papa and I don't care who or what you are. You are our son and we love you very much. That's all that matters."
"I'm...ugly," he said his voice catching in a sob.
"D'Aris Gronek, don't ever let me hear you say that again!"
"Yes, I am! My eyes are bigger than yours! My nose is flat and with slitted nostrils! My mouth is bigger and I have fanged teeth! I have fur instead of skin...and my ears are pointed and big!"
He put his hands over his face. T'Pell pulled him closer rocking him in her arms.
"You are my son and I don't care what you look like! You're my beautiful furry Lasat son and that's all that matters to Petra and I."
Petra walked up to the front of the house and saw D'Aris sitting on T'Pell's lap appearing to be very upset about something. He went over and sat down next to his wife and son.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Some new kids at school were teasing him about his Lasat heritage and it hurt him...bad. Kids can be so cruel!"
Petra frowned and moved closer and layed a hand on D'Aris' back. The Lasat youth lifted his head up from T'Pell's shoulder and saw his adopted father looking at him with concern in his green eyes. He pulled D'Aris over onto his lap and the young Lasat cuddled up close to his father being still smaller than he was. That made D'Aris cry anew.
"Oh...kiddo, don't cry," he said patting his back, "They didn't mean to be cruel. That's just how Twi'lek boys are. Some are just meaner than others."
"I wanna be a Twi'lek!" D'Aris sobbed rubbing his green eyes with his fists.
"That's not possible," Petra answered, "You are a Lasat and that can't be changed. You should be proud of your heritage. Your people were a noble and brave species."
"What happened to the other Lasat...like me?"
"Son...they were murdered by the Empire."
"Are there any more Lasat, or am I the only one left?"
"Sweetheart," T'Pell said as she reached over to caress his face, "Papa and I don't know if there are any more Lasat."
"When I grow up I hope to find other Lasat..."
More years passed and now sixteen year old D'Aris had grown taller and was nearly the full height of a Lasat male. He still needed to have his muscles fill out more and the facial hair that Lasat males wore proudly was still to come. He still wore the clothing of a Twi'lek that was in his teenaged years and also the head covering that left his big pointed ears free and his purple hair hanging over his forehead ridges. He excelled in his studies and wanted to follow in Petra's footsteps as an engineer of starship building. Both of his adopted parents couldn't be more proud of their Lasat son. D'Aris didn't let the other kids bother him if they made fun of his Lasat heritage. He was proud to be a representative of a near extinct species and when he was a little older he was going to search for more of his people. Unknown to his parents, he searched the holonet for any news about Lasat survivors and found nothing, but he didn't give up.
One day D'Aris would meet up with someone he hadn't seen since he was a baby. He was walking along the high school campus when he came upon the same four troublemakers bothering a Twi'lek girl who was trying to walk by them. They were grabbing at her books and knocked them onto the ground. One of them snatched away a staff that she held in one hand and another was pawing at her backside. The other one was eyeing the front of her dress with a sick interest.
"Please...stop!" the girl who D'Aris realized wasn't fully Twi'lek said. Besides lekku, she had a full head of black hair that hung to her shoulders. The girl began to become more frightened and her pale blue eyes filled with tears. That made D'Aris angry and he did something about it.
"Hey!" the Lasat boy yelled out his baritone voice startling them for a moment.
The tallest boy a Twi'lek youth who was one of the major troublemakers, walked forward. He was still a bit taller than D'Aris but not as muscular.
"What are you gonna do about it, furboy?"
"Maybe I'll just punch you in the face!"
"Try it, furboy!"
D'Aris raised up one of his furred hands, balling it into a fist. The Twi'lek boy never saw the punch until he fell on his butt. The other three boys helped him up and then the four of them ran off.
"Thank you," the girl said and D'Aris now realized that she was blind.
"You're welcome," the Lasat boy said picking up her books and then helped her up.
"My name is Isisa," she said, "Isisa Iytta."
"I'm D'Aris Gronek."
"Your accent is a little strange. Is it a dialect from a faraway Twi'lek province?"
"Uh...no...I've lived on Ryloth all my life, around the Lessu area."
"Oh that doesn't matter," Isisa replied, "I appreciate your help. Can you guide me over to the bench? As you can see, I'm blind."
D'Aris reached a hand out to Isisa and she grasped onto the larger furred one with her small one. A shocked look appeared on her face. He caught the look and knew there would be questions. As he helped her to the bench and a smile crossed her face.
"Your hand," Isisa said, "It feels like...fur, not skin and the fingers are thicker than a Twi'lek males should be."
"Yes...Isisa, I'm not a Twi'lek...I'm a Lasat."
"A Lasat?"
"Uh...yes," he answered putting a hand behind his head in a gesture of nervousness, "I was...adopted by Petra and T'Pell Gronek. They found me when I was a baby on my homeworld of Lasan."
Isisa's face took on an expression of sadness. She placed her hand on his making him feel a bit better.
"I remember hearing about what the Empire did to Lasan and it's people. It made me feel sad to think something so horrible could be done to living beings!"
"Yeah..." was all his said.
"What do Lasats look like?"
"Uh...we have fur," he began to say before she spoke again.
"D'Aris, I see with my hands and fingers. Will you permit me to touch your face?"
"Okay," he answered frowning, "I'm not very good looking."
"That's for me to decide..."
D'Aris sat still while he felt Isisa's fingers move from the top of his head with the Twi'lek head covering and then to his big pointed ears. A frown crossed her face for a moment then faded as her fingers felt his soft purple hair and then to his forehead ridges. He closed his eyes as her fingers traveled over his eyelids and then to his slitted-nostril nose. A smile formed on her face as her fingers moved down to his lips, cheeks and to his chin.
"D'Aris, you have a noble face...a very handsome noble face."
Tears filled the young Lasat's green eyes.
"What color are your eyes?" she asked.
"Green."
"And your fur?"
"It's a light purple with darker purple striping. My hair is a dark purple."
"Do all Lasat have purple fur?"
"I...don't know. I've never seen another Lasat. I don't know if there are any others like me...alive in the whole galaxy."
His voice shook and Isisa heard it. She placed a hand against his cheek and he closed his eyes feeling her soft skin. Her touch invoked feelings strange to him, a feeling of attraction. He opened his eyes and saw Isisa's face in a warm smile. His sensitive nose picked up on her feelings of attraction towards him.
"D'Aris, will you walk me home?" she asked her voice soft.
"Yeah," he answered and helped her up off the bench. She placed her arm around his, even though she was able to walk beside him with the use of her walking staff.
The two teens began to walk towards the Iytta home...