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Rey wakes up to her alarm before dawn. The bathroom's on the second floor, and she hurries into it before anyone else, wooden floors cold under her bare feet. She tugs her hair into her three bun style. It's the style her mother used to give her, or so Unkar Plutt says, and that's what Rey remembers too. At least she thinks she remembers. She doesn't remember not wearing the hairstyle, at any rate.
Rey heads downstairs to find Han making coffee. A large man with a huge beard and long hair waits there.
"Hey kid," says Han. "Want coffee?"
"Sure."
"This is Chewie," says Han. "We work together."
Chewie raises his hand. Rey nods at him.
"We've gotta work on his car," says Han, jerking his thumb.
Rey blinks. "I love working on cars."
"Eh?" Han turns to her, eyeing her up and down. But his gaze isn't creepy like Unkar Plutt's. "You?"
Rey nods. "Unkar Plutt—my—guardian ran a garage. It wasn't a good one, but I used to work there, help out, since I can remember. He said it was the only reason he kept me."
Han's brow creases.
"If you ever need help," Rey says, her heart thumping. "I'd love to. I mean, cars are—I love it."
"I'll keep that in mind," Han says. He gestures. "Drink your coffee before it gets cold."
Rey raises it to her lips. She almost burns her mouth, but it's rich and warm and strong, just how she likes it. She misses sugar and cream, though.
"You know what you're doing for your engineering project yet?" Chewie asks gruffly.
Rey shakes her head. "I don't even have an advisor yet."
"You should ask Luke Skywalker," says Chewie. "You could talk to him, couldn't you, Han? He's your brother-in-law. He had a vested interest in cars and planes, all that kind of thing, and—"
Luke Skywalker. Rey's always heard the name, in articles, but last night she heard his voice, and he did not sound friendly. He was probably just joking, she assures herself. "I'd love that."
"Everyone would," Han says, rolling his eyes. He scratches the back of his head. Outside, orange dawn glows behind the window.
"Why did he leave the university?" Rey asks, leaning back against the counter. This was like something directly out of her dreams. Her, and two adults making her coffee, chatting with her. Brothers and a mother upstairs. Family. "Just to work at a high school? Was it to be closer to family?"
Han arches an eyebrow. Chewie studies his shoes, which are massive. Two of Rey's feet could fit in there. The man has to be at least seven feet tall.
"Long story," Han says at last. "There were—problems with one of his students. The student... told some lies and got him in trouble."
"Oh," says Rey. Clearly Han doesn't want to talk about it further.
"There're bagels in the fridge. Cream cheese, butter. There's a toaster there," Han adds. "See ya, kid." He and Chewie duck out, towards the door leading to the garage.
"Morning," calls Finn as he enters the kitchen. "How'd you sleep, Rey?"
"Not bad," Rey says. "The bed was almost too comfortable, though."
"I know exactly what you mean," Finn says.
Rey opens the fridge and gapes. It's overflowing. So much. She swallows, looking at Finn. "I don't think the fridge I had back in Jakku had this much food in half a year."
Finn shakes his head. "We always had enough food. Other things, not so much."
Footsteps clop. Kylo marches into the kitchen and straight towards the coffee machine. Of course, he chugs it black.
"Good morning," Finn says brightly.
"It's morning," Kylo replies, staring out the window at the sunrise, dull rose washing over the lawn. "And it's the Monday after a break. Nothing good about it."
"Note to self: do not address Kylo before coffee," mumbles Finn. Rey bites back a smile.
"What'd you just say?" He scowls.
"Nothing," Finn insists.
"I didn't know your dad was a mechanic," Rey chimes in, pulling out a bagel and popping it in the toaster. It's cinnamon raisin. She loves how it smells. "I used to work on cars."
Kylo glowers. "Yeah, my dad's Mr. Fix It. Or so he styles himself." Bitterness drips from his voice.
Rey gulps more coffee. Leia greets them all. As they prepare to leave for school, Leia encourages them to ride with Ben.
Rey steps into the garage, her stomach full. She crouches down besides the car. "You might want to use this instead." She holds out a different socket.
Han cranes his neck back, looking at her. "Nah, I—"
Chewie sits up slowly, shaking his head.
"Oh. Maybe." Han frowns, taking it. Rey smiles.
She looks over her shoulder and finds Kylo scowling. "You ever work with cars?" Rey asks.
"No."
Rey shrugs as she climbs into Kylo's car. Finn gets into the backseat, rolling his eyes at Rey. The moment Kylo starts the car screaming death metal blasts from the radio. Rey yelps. Finn covers his heads.
"Ew," Finn says. "This ain't music, Kylo Ben."
"Fine then." Kylo slams it off. He backs out of the driveway. "That's not my name."
"Why do you go by Kylo?" asks Rey. "If it's not your given name. Is it like a spin on Ben Solo? And Skywalker? And then an R instead of a B? Luke Skywalker's your uncle right?"
"Do you ever shut up?"
"Is the letter R like your favorite letter?" Finn asks drolly.
He glances at her as he slows for a light. "Yeah. He's my uncle. And I go by Kylo Ren because I like being myself instead of being Luke Skywalker's nephew and Ben Kenobi's namesake and Han Solo and Leia Organa's sole kid."
"Did you just make a pun?" Rey asks.
He almost smiles. "Maybe."
"It's a lot of expectation, I suppose," Rey says. She watches a couple hurry a parka-clad preschooler along the sidewalk.
His hands tighten on the steering wheel. His lips press together. "Where are you two going first? Maz?"
"Yeah," says Finn. "And then literature, for me."
"Same," Rey says, relieved.
Kylo snorts. "The school's pretty small. It's a tiny town, remember. Every junior has basically one of two schedules, except if you're not in honors classes, but I presume you two are."
"Oh." Rey looks back at Finn, who nods.
"Who are your friends?" Finn tries.
"I don't have them," Kylo replies.
Finn mutters something that sounds like why am I not surprised?
"I've never really had them either," Rey says. Unkar never let her. She was too busy working in his mechanics shop and studying until the wee hours of the morning just to pass her classes.
"Neither have I," Finn says as Kylo pulls into the parking lot. It's quiet in the car.
Maybe the three of us could be friends, Rey thinks.
"Oh, goodness gracious me!" chirps the secretary, Threepio, as Finn and Rey enter the main office that Kylo wordlessly pointed them to. "You must be Leia's exchange students. Welcome, we've got quiet a few of you this year—around ten—but you two should be meeting with Maz first—just let me double-check the schedule—"
"Well," Finn whispers to Rey. "He's a walking ball of anxiety."
Rey giggles. Threepio's desk is covered in files and papers, all neatly stacked and color coded.
"Oh dear, oh dear," Threepio murmurs. "I—"
"Never mind, Threepio, they are indeed on the schedule first!" calls a voice from behind a wooden door.
The door swings open. "Welcome, welcome!" Maz Kanata, a tiny, wrinkly woman with enough makeup to tint her skin orange and glasses as thick as goggles, grabs Finn by the hand, pulling him inside. "You too, Rey!"
Rey follows Finn into the office, walls green and carpet a jarring blue. Ditzy music plays in the background, and photographs hang on the walls, haphazard and without any order. Maz plops on her chair, lifting print-outs of their schedules. "Ah! Here you go." She slides them across.
Finn glances at Rey and realizes that, while their morning schedules match, their afternoon ones don't. "K-Ben said that juniors always shared one of two schedules."
"That's a bit over-simplified," Maz says. "For exchange students, especially, we try to be creative so that they can mingle with the other students, meet more of them, rather than isolate themselves." Her eyes bore into Finn as if she's trying to send a message.
Finn scowls back at her. You don't know me.
Maz dismisses them, and Finn and Rey head out into the sea of other students crowding the hallway. Finn's locker is 2187. He wonders who came up with the locker numbering system because he'd be shocked if there were 200 lockers in the enter school, never mind 2000.
Rey's is next to his. She grins.
"Yo, Finn!" calls a voice. "Buddy!"
He whirls. Poe grabs him in a hug, thumping him on the back. "Rey!" He hugs her too, and she looks as taken aback as Finn feels, blinking. "How's it going?" Poe chatters. "I thought about offering you a ride this am, but I figured Ms. Organa would want her son to do it. He didn't drive off the road with you, so I guess it all worked out."
Rey snorts. "He wouldn't do that."
"I mean, I dunno with that one," Poe says, rolling his eyes.
"Hey, loser," calls a tall girl with a blond pixie-cut as she saunters by. "Who're your new friends, Dameron?"
"Phasma," Poe states, gritting his teeth.
"Finn." Finn says.
"Rey."
"Usually exchange students don't look so raggedy," comments a ginger boy next to her, his voice nasally and upturned. Finn could deck him. Rey's eyes narrow.
"I'm sorry, Sux," says Poe. "Oh, I'm sorry again. Hux. Must be my poor addled mind, or maybe your added voice. Does make you hard to understand sometimes."
Sux—Hux?—bristles. His shirt is literally buttoned all the way up his neck. Finn starts to grin.
The bell rings. "Shit," says Poe. "I'll show you to your classroom. Lit, right?"
Finn nods.
"Those are Ben Solo's buddies," says Poe. "Shocking, right?'
"Them?" Rey's lips curl.
Finn rolls his eyes. Literature's an okay class, with Lor San Tekka as their teacher, an older man whose voice wavers as he greets them. Kylo sits in the back of the classroom, boots resting on an empty desk in front of him. Hux and Phasma sit next to him, all rolling their eyes as if they're too cool for school. Finn can't relate.
Before lunch, his schedule splits from Poe's, and Finn winds up in physics with Mr. Snoke. Kylo is the only kid he knows in this classroom, but the dude ignores him as if he's a flea.
"Hey," calls a pretty Asian girl. "You're Finn, right? I'm Jessika Pava. You can sit with me and Snap here, if you want. Poe told us about you."
Finn blinks. "He did?"
"Of course he did," comments Phasma, lingering over the desk Finn sets his books down on.
"Ignore her," Jess says, her hand entwined with Snap's.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Finn asks.
Phasma's eyes glow. She leans over Finn's desk. "It means, in case you didn't already know, of course Poe Dameron will try to take care of Leia Organa's foster kids. He'd do anything to get back into her good graces after his royal fuck-up last fall."
"Honestly, shut up," Snap, a portly boy, tells Phasma.
Finn's face burns. His chest heaves.
"Foster kid?" scoffs Hux. "So you are unwanted. I guess that shouldn't shock me. Ms. Organa did always have a heart for trash."
"Want me to dump acid down your pretty little throat?" snarls Jess. "Because I will, Sux."
"Ooh, how original."
Who the hell told you? Not all exchange students—most, in fact, were just normal kids. Finn's eyes find Kylo, who drums a pen against his notebook and looks outside at the gray landscape.
Everyone here thinks they know him.
"Shut up," Finn tells Phasma. "I know Poe is a far nicer—"
"Maybe you should ask Rose Tico what happened to her sister last semester. I'm sure she'd love to tell you about it—if she can manage it without crying."
"You're just a bitter bitch that no one wants to mentor for the project," Jess snaps. "Don't listen to her, Finn."
Finn glowers at Kylo. Look at me.
Of course, he doesn't. Coward.
He drops into his chair. "What was that about?"
"They're jealous," Jess says, popping gum in her mouth. She offers Finn a piece. "Poe's a good friend and like, one of those kids everyone likes except the worst of the worst. They're bullies."
Finn takes a stick. "Who's Rose Tico?"
"She'll be in some of your classes, I'm sure," Snap says. "She's nice."
"Quiet," orders Mr. Snoke, striding into the classroom. The man looks as if his face is rotting off, caved in and scarred, and yet he wears a golden v-neck shirt as if he's Hugh Hefner's reincarnation. Finn cringes.
At lunch, Finn contemplates asking Poe what happened, but he doesn't. He and Poe head to history with Ms. Holdo together. 'She's my advisor for the project," Poe adds. "Kinda strict though. She doesn't like me much."
"Jess says everyone likes you," Finn counters.
Poe grimaces. "She's the exception. Hey, do you have study hall next?"
Finn checks his schedule. He nods.
"Want to meet me behind the gym? No one takes attendance during those—not after you check in, that is. Just ask to use the bathroom and Mr. Ackbar will let you leave. We can get soda and snacks from the vending machines and chill. Jess, Snap, and I usually go," says Poe, running his hand through his hair. "Connix is joining us today, too."
Finn gulps. He doesn't like breaking the rules. Especially on his first day.
"Rey says she'll meet us there," Poe says, holding up his phone. "No need to worry about it. And we can discuss how to get you and Rey advisors for your projects."
"Okay," Finn agrees, against his better judgment.
He checks in to Mr. Ackbar's study hall and then gets permission to leave. Guilt creeps down Finn's spine. He tries to shake it off as he creeps down the hall. He really shouldn't be taking this so seriously.
Left, right?
He almost trips over a girl huddling around the bend.
Shit.
He didn't mean to give Hux ammunition to pummel Finn with. Or Rey. When Kylo dumped his bag at his locker in the morning, that smarmy redhead sidled up to his locker, barely concealing his own dislike of Kylo. "I see you've been appointed a baby-sitter. Tell me, Ren, Where did your mother drag those rejects in from? The streets?"
"Fuck off," Kylo retorted, slamming his locker. "They're just foster kids."
And of course, Hux now taunts Finn with that information. Kylo averts his eyes. If his mother finds out, she'll be crushed. Not that that would be anything new. She's always disappointed in him. Ever since Luke.
And that girl. Rey. She was out there helping his father, impressing him, just like Kylo's sure his father always wanted his child to do. Handing him the tools or whatever the hell they're called, the things Kylo doesn't care to learn about. He scowls, rubbing his thumbs against the edge of his desk.
Mr. Fix It will fix anything except what really scares him. And Kylo definitely scares him.
He twirls a pencil, waiting for Mr. Snoke to finish talking. Of course, Snoke wants to talk to Kylo after class.
"Interesting," Snoke comments. "I have your foster sister after lunch."
Kylo gulps. "They're exchange students."
Snoke nods. "I've seen their records. They're fine." His hand reaches out, rubbing Kylo's shoulder. "They'll do well, I'm sure, but you have to be better than them. The boy you can be. The girl—her records are exceptional."
"Huh?" Kylo gapes at Snoke.
"You're the most talented mentee I've ever had," Snoke says. "A pupil like you can't waste his potential by losing to a rat from Jakku."
Kylo blinks. "You haven't even met her yet."
"I'm aware, Kylo," snaps Snoke. "I'm simply warning you. Don't be slacking off. I noticed you not taking notes during class today. It seems to becoming more of a habit with you."
Kylo stiffens. He curls his fists, as if hiding his fingers will keep Snoke from seeing him, will hide himself in his sweatshirt. He's too big to hide.
"Think about more than just yourself," Snoke says. "Your future is on the line, and mine is too. You're worth investing so much time and energy in, because I see such raw potential in you."
Snoke's unspoken words hang in the air. No one else would take a chance on you. Not after what everyone knows about what you did to Luke Skywalker. Kylo's head hangs.
"Look me in the eyes," Snoke snips. "You can't stand like a defeated person every time you think about something you don't like about yourself, Kylo."
Kylo straightens. He lifts his chin. "I'll study hard. And work hard."
"I know you will. You just need reminders sometimes." Snoke pulls away. "You better run to lunch."
Kylo nods. He hesitates.
"Yes?" Snoke turns his back to Kylo, erasing the chalkboard. Dust floats through the air, tickling Kylo's nose. It burns, but he won't let himself sneeze. "Is it true you're also mentoring Hux for the engineering project?"
"It is," Snoke confirms.
That weasel! Kylo grits his teeth. Hux's dad owns the local casino and was a big-shot at some motor company for years, and Hux will stop at nothing to make Kylo's life miserable in every way he can. Except he can never beat Kylo on any exams. I'm still better than him.
He makes it to the cafeteria, which smells of bologna and depression like always. Hux, Phasma, and a few other idiots always eat together, and he has nowhere else to eat. He'd prefer to eat alone. If Hux continues to be insufferable, which Snoke's support will almost certainly guarantee, he'll do just that.
Kylo glances across the cafeteria. Finn and Rey join Poe Dameron's table, because of course they do. They're laughing. The sound grates.
"You know, for a someone from the gutters, she's not hard to look at," Hux says.
It takes Kylo a minute to realize what Hux is saying. Rey. He glares at him. Hux's lips curve into a smirk, and Kylo knows instantly that he's failed. Hux doesn't mean it. Of course he doesn't. He's just trying to gauge Kylo's reaction.
And Kylo just gave him one. Kylo stabs his fork down. He'd love to stab it through Hux's eye.
He and Rey wind up in the Luke Skywalker's biology class together. His uncle barely greets Rey, and of course, he doesn't greet Kylo at all. At the start of the year all the students whispered about it. Now they accept it. Rey gives him a curious glance though.
He tries to take notes, remembering Snoke's words. He can't. His mind's all over the place. If he loses this competition, Snoke will be furious. Dad would just probably say of course he lost, and Luke—and Mom—
I won't lose. His stomach clamps.
The next class is just a goddamn study hall supervised by the school doctor, of all people. Dr. Kalonia. Kylo pulls out his textbooks when he hears Rey asking to go to the restroom. He watches her slip out the door, glancing around. She heads right, looks down at her phone, frowns, and heads left.
Huh. Kylo could wager a guess that he knows exactly where she's going, and if she gets caught, it's detention for her. And a fast track to his mother's disappointment. Watch her sabotage herself.
He raises his hand.
"Yes?" asks Dr. Kalonia.
"Restroom," he says, and she nods. Kylo strides out into the hallway, hurrying after her.
"You know if you get caught, you get an automatic detention," he calls when he spots her heading down the deserted hallway.
Up next: finally, Rose, and finally, plot.