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Finn yelps, hands flying up. "Sorry, sorry!"

The girl wipes at her eyes, dropping the necklace she's been clutching. She's cute, Asian, dressed in cargo pants and a sweatshirt. Her eyes widen when she sees Finn. "You're one of the exchange students!"

"Um—" Finn's stomach clenches in a knot. "Yes. I am. Who are you?"

"Rose Tico," she says.

You! Finn gulps.

Blotches cover her face, but she grins. "I was hoping to meet you. I help down at the office sometimes, help Threepio out, and I processed all your applications. I saw how amazing your project was at your old school. I want to be and engineer too, you know, and your project was so incredible. I told myself I just had to meet you, and here you are!"

Whoa. Finn's head spins. He can't imagine why anyone would want to meet him. He's nothing special. He's a foster kid trying to make it in a world that would prefer to crush him.

"Are you working on your project? Do you know what you're doing yet?" Rose's brow creases. "Wait, do you even have an advisor yet?"

Finn shakes his head, gaze skittering past Rose towards the gym entrance. He just needs to move beyond that. "No," he says. "I don't."

"Well," says Rose. "I'm working with Leia Organa. She just told me today. I'm sure she'd be willing to help you out, you know, since you're staying with her, or recommend someone."

"She said she's give some suggestions," Finn says.

"Are you partnering with anyone?" Rose asks. "I saw you hanging out with Poe Dameron and that other exchange student, Rey, today at lunch. I like to watch people. Rey's really smart too, isn't she?"

Rose is like the embodiment of soda, Finn decides. Bubbly and sweet and prone to stressing him out. He slips past her. "She is. I'll see you later, okay, Rose?"

Rose frowns. "Where are you going?"

Uh. Finn shrugs. "Bathroom."

"Didn't you just come from Ackbar's study hall? I printed your schedules too," Rose says, giggling.

"Creepy," Finn retorts.

Rose's eyes narrow. "Bathroom's that way, Finn." She jerks her hand in the opposite direction.

Oops. "New here," Finn explains, inching in the direction she pointed to. "What class are you supposed to be in?"

Rose's gaze bores into his. "I'm not. I'm the hall monitor."

Finn swallows.

"You're going to meet Poe Dameron behind the gym, aren't you?" Rose states.

The sunlight pouring through the window behind Rose blinds Finn. He shields his eyes. "No."

"You're a terrible liar," Rose informs him. "Go back to study hall and I won't report you."

"What?" Finn yelps. "Report?" What the hell?

"It's an automatic detention and the rules are there to protect us."

"I'm sorry, what? From missing forty-five minutes of—"

"No," Rose snaps. "You don't get it, do you?"

"That you're a tattletale? Didn't that go out of fashion in third grade?"

"There's a difference between tattling just to get someone in trouble and trying to protect someone," Rose retorts. She folds her arms over her chest. "What're you gonna do, Finn?"

"Calm down."

"No, you—"

"Is there a problem here?" purrs a voice. Finn turns slowly to stare at the towering figure of Mr. Snoke, who looks down at him and Rose in disgust. "Loitering in the hallways is not allowed."

"Hall monitor," Rose says quickly, holding up a badge. "Just telling Finn where the bathroom is; first day, you know. People get lost."

Mr. Snoke nods. "Indeed." He moves on.

"I heard that some students were behind the gym though!" Rose calls.

Finn clutches his skull. "Rose!"

"Shut up," she hisses. "Finn."

"Oh, are they?" asks Mr. Snoke, spinning around. There's something creepy in the way he eyes Finn and Rose both up and down. "I shall report it immediately. Except, Miss Tico, how would you know?"

"I heard them talking about it," Rose says quickly.

"Who?"

"I—"

"And you didn't inform anyone?" Mr. Snoke strokes his chin with long, deathly white fingers. This guy could be a walking animated skeleton. "I can only conclude, Miss Tico, that you knew about it from him." He points at Finn.

"No," Rose says.

"Lying is also worth a detention, Miss Tico." Mr. Snoke shakes his head. "Your parents will be so disappointed. I'm sure they can't handle another disappointment."

Rose's face reddens. Finn scowls.

"Both of you go to the office and report that you have a detention today after school," Mr. Snoke orders.

Now Finn's jaw drops. 'That's so unfair! She's the hall monitor, and I—"

"You're not a good liar," says Mr. Snoke. "Carry on." He strides back, towards the gym.

Rose curses. She glances at Finn.

He glowers at her.

Rey freezes when his deep voice calls out behind her. Jaw tightening, she turns around to face him. He strides towards her, Doc Martens clopping against the tiles.

"Excuse me?"

Kylo looks at her, locks perfect as if he emptied an entire can of hairspray onto his hair. "The school's pretty strict about students skipping classes. There was an incident in the fall where some kids skipped and went out driving, and there was an accident. Paige Tico's been in a coma ever since."

"That's awful," Rey says.

"Mm." Kylo stops, towering over her. "I suppose Dameron put you up to this?"

"I make my own decisions," Rey snaps, putting her hands on her hips. "Bye." She turns and stalks off.

"Wait!" he calls.

"Do you want to come too?" she asks.

Kylo's lips curl in disgust. "No. I want nothing to do with that Dameron character."

"Why do you have such a chip on your shoulder?" Rey demands. "You've been nothing but rude. To me, to Finn, to Poe, and your friends are even worse."

Kylo rubs his chin. "They're not my friends. They're just… people I eat lunch with."

Rey stares at him. "Aren't those friends?"

Kylo snorts. "Not in my books."

Rey arches her eyebrows. "So there's a secret checklist?"

He scowls. "No. Are you making fun of me?"

Now Rey's confused. "No?"

"Oh." He glances away. "Well, I wasn't kidding. You should go back to class before you get caught."

Rey frowns. "I'm pretty good at not getting caught at things, thanks."

Kylo's eyes pop. "I don't think that's something you should advertise."

"I don't think you should be trying to tell me what to do," Rey says. "However well-intentioned you might be." She turns to leave. "And by the way, Finn told me you told your 'not friends' about us being foster kids. I don't personally give a rat's ass, but Finn does. Could you think about someone besides yourself for once?"

"It wasn't like that!" He catches up with her. "I wasn't trying to—it was just a fact. I can't help how Hux took it."

Rey glares up at him, thinking of the look on Finn's face, his furrowed brow and pinched lips, when he told her. He seemed really worried that she would be upset, but she wasn't. Not really. At least she had a kind home now. "Maybe get some new friends of convenience."

"I'm sorry," he mutters.

Rey rolls her eyes. "It's not me you should apologize to."

He almost smiles. "I guess not."

"You want to come with us?" Rey invites. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind." Although given what Poe said yesterday, he actually might. Whatever. She doesn't want to worry about that. "It'd be fun. We can hang out. You can maybe make more convenience buddies."

Kylo shakes his head. "Those kids are a path to ruin, Rey."

"That's a little dramatic, don't you think?"

"No. They're responsible for what happened to Paige Tico," says Kylo. "If you want to win the scholarship, you should focus on your work. You know, if you want a mentor, I can try with Mr. Snoke—they allow team-ups, we could—"

"Mr. Snoke?" Rey asks, crossing her arms. "The guy who told me he never expected to find someone from Jakku in this school? I know what kind of person he is. Hux Senior basically. No thanks."

Kylo throws his hands in the air. "I'm just trying to help."

"You're rude," she says. "If you hang out with the likes of them and if Snoke's your idea of a good mentor, then it's no wonder you're so—"

"I'm rude? I'm not the one lecturing someone I just met—"

"I'm not the one—"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Poe's voice cuts through the hallway. "It wasn't—"

Mr. Snoke rounds the bed. Speak of the devil. Rey gulps.

Mr. Snoke's beady eyes narrow as he catches sight of Rey and Kylo. "Shall I assume you were on your way to meet this band of delinquents?"

"A little harsh, don't you think?" Poe quips. Jess Pava and Snap stand behind him, both scowling.

"No, I don't," retorts Mr. Snoke. "And neither does anyone else, Mr. Dameron. We all know about you. Now all of you. Come to the office with me. And you can face your mother, Kylo."

"He wasn't—" Rey starts, but Kylo kicks her leg. Ow! She glares at him.

"You were saying?" Mr. Snoke faces her.

Rey holds up her hands. Detention. On my first day.

This school is insane.

"Seriously?" Mom crosses her arms and glares at the seven of them.

Kylo can't believe Rose Tico, of all people, is here. And Finn. His mother must be so proud. Her desk is covered with not a single photograph of their family, just a monitor and files.

And a pair of dice. Kylo swallows.

"I want to play with them."

"Not now, Ben," Dad called over his shoulder as he reached forward from the backseat. Chewie chuckled from the passenger seat. Mom kept her hold on him.

And Chewie wordlessly took them down for him, handing them to Ben. He cheered, tossing them up in the air and catching them.

"Don't throw them on your father," Mom told him, arm around him. "We'll be at Uncle Luke's soon."

"I'm going to play dice professionally," Ben proclaimed, looking out the car window at the pine trees rushing by. "Or be like Uncle Luke."

He tried to be like Uncle Luke, and it turned out poorly. Kylo clenches his fists. He doesn't want to meet his mother's eyes. He focuses on Rey instead, who looks pissed as hell. He likes that. She's got fire. She's not some Jakku junk rat, and next time Hux says that Kylo's decking him in the nose.

Finn looks terrified, biting his lip incessantly. Rose glances up at him, a frown on her face. Poe leans back against the wall.

"I'm calling all of your parents," Mom says.

"Even his?" quips Poe, gesturing to Kylo.

If looks could kill, Poe would be a puddle of sludge on the ground. That look streaming from his mother's eyes is pure acid. Poe blanches.

"Starting with yours, Dameron," Mom says. "You'll all clean the school after classes are over today. Meet Threepio in the office."

"Sorry," Poe squeaks.

"You're dismissed," Mom says. "Dameron, Tico, Pava, Wexley. Finn, Rey, Ben, stay."

Finn and Rey exchange an anxious glance. Kylo lowers his head.

"I'm sorry," Finn blurts out the moment Rose closes the door behind her. "It won't happen again, Ms. Organa."

"When we're not around other students, Finn, you can call me Leia," Mom says. "And I'm not angry at you or Rey."

Of course she isn't. She's not even angry with him. She's given up on him. But she'll still have hope for these two. Kylo wants to scream and throw her papers and manila folders off her desk, stomp his feet and tear out his hair. Why am I not enough? What did I do wrong?

Nothing, he supposes. He was sent off to Luke for the summers because they thought he had potential. But that wasn't true. He was born, that's what he did wrong. By being born, he got in the way of both his parents' careers.

"Sometimes I feel like don't know the first thing about being a parent, Leia," Dad complained to Mom one night, when Ben was about seven and got in a fight with Armitage Hux at school.

"I just want to express that these are the rules at Crait," says Leia. "Yes, I'm aware that they're strict rules, but they exist for a reason. We've had a tough year here."

Rey looks at Kylo. He meets her eyes.

"Please respect them," she concludes. "The two of you, leave."

Finn and Rey mumble apologies, slipping out. And now she turns to him. "Really, Ben?"

"Kylo," he cuts in.

"Fine, Kylo." Mom gets to her feet, rounding her desk and leaning back against it. "This is the fourth detention you've had this year, B-Kylo. Twice for sassing teachers, once for being late, and now for skipping class? What's going on with you?'

Don't pretend you care. "Sorry I'm not perfect," Kylo lashes out. "I'm totally worse than Poe Dameron, you know, despite what he did to that Tico girl—"

"Stop deflecting, Kylo! Listen to me," Mom says. "We're discussing you. Not anyone else."

"We're always discussing someone else," he snaps.

"Do you want me to give you another week of detentions? Because the school could use the cleaning."

He shuts his mouth, glowing at her. He towers above her, and he hates that. He wants to be small again, fold himself up in her arms, but he can't. And even when he could, it was all a lie.

"You need to move on from your disappointments," Snoke's told him.

But it's hard. It's so hard. Especially when you are a walking, breathing disappointment.

"All three of you?" sneers Hux. Good grief, Finn's only known him six hours and he's already done with the guy. "Your mom must be so proud. She's in over her head. Ren."

Rey's eyes flash. She steps forward. Finn grabs her arm. Don't get in a fight, for the love.

Kylo's face reddens. "You don't know her at all, if you think that."

Huh. Maybe he isn't so bad. Finn nods.

They all report to the office afterwards, where Threepio stands, flapping his hands in anxiety. "I'm splitting you up to clean. The mops and brooms and buckets are all in the closet just outside. Snap, you and Poe will take the science wing. Jess, you, Rey, and Rose will take the arts wing."

"Not sexist at all," mumbles Rose.

Hm? Finn's impressed. He thought she was hardly the type to sass, given her hardcore rule-following shtick from earlier.

"Finn, you and Ben—"

"Kylo," he interrupts, clenching his fists.

"I'm sorry, Ben, but that's the name your parents gave you, and seeing as I've known her since she was a little girl, I can hardly—"

Poe chortles. Kylo looks as if he'd like to pummel him. "Fine, whatever."

"Well," says Threepio. "The two of you will take the front office and gym areas. I want you to wash the floors."

"Doesn't this place have janitors?" Finn jokes to Kylo as they meander out.

Kylo shrugs. "I guess they get a break today."

Finn liked the janitors at his old school. Mostly because his after-school job was helping them. They didn't act as if they were better than him, which almost every other person did. He hauls the yellow mop bucket out of the closet. Kylo fills it with water, and then they're off.

"Didn't know this place was so strict," Finn comments, trying to make conversation. But Kylo doesn't look as if he's biting.

"It's not that bad."

Finn nods. "I like it, though. You know. I like it."

Kylo says nothing this time, sliding the mop up and down the floor.

"You know," Finn says. "I think we got off a little on the wrong foot. We're living under the same roof. I'd like to be friends. Or if not friends to at least get along better."

Kylo looks at him. "That'd be ideal."

Finn nods, relieved.

"Too bad the world isn't ideal," Kylo adds.

Finn's jaw drops. "What is your problem? Are you just straight-up racist? Or—"

"No, I just—" Kylo grits his teeth. "It's hard for me to make friends, okay?"

"Because you're a pompous ass." Finn snatches the mop. "That's not how you mop. You're just smearing dirt around, O Chosen One."

Kylo grits his teeth. "That isn't what I meant. You just—you're—my parents—their idea of making things better is to take on more, okay? You're more. Rey is more. This school had a tragedy last semester, so they want to make it better, take everyone's mind off it, by taking in more people to make this the best competition this place has ever had, this year."

Kylo's words hit Finn in his gut. "So Rey and I are just tools, for your parents and your school district, and that gives you the right to spit on us. I see how it is."

"That's not what I said—"

"Yes," Finn cuts in, turning to face him and leaning on the mop handle. "It is."

Kylo's eyes flash. "You didn't have to listen to my parents talking you up—talking you both up—for weeks. Oh, Finn's really brilliant, look at how bold his inventions are, he's got guts!"

"You're jealous of a foster kid?" Finn demands. "You have two parents. Maybe you should try being bloody grateful for once." I didn't ask to be born this way. It's not my fault they accepted me.

I just want to find a place to belong, to not feel unwanted for once in my life, to not feel like a goddamn burden. I want the chance to make my own choices, do something good for once.

Kylo's fist flies out. Finn ducks. He snatches the mop, swinging it at Kylo's perfect hair. See how you like suds, asshole.

"The fuck?" screams a voice. Finn barely has a chance to register the voice before Rey's fist flies out, clocking Kylo in the nose. He stumbles back. Rey wrenches the mop out of Finn's hands. "Stop it!"

"Rey," says Kylo, gaping at her. He's not injured.

"I heard what you said," Rey says, voice trembling. "Maybe consider what it's actually like to grow up in our shoes for once. You're a selfish asshole, just like Finn said." Her voice cracks.

Rose and Jess peer down the hallway, glaring at Kylo. Rey helps Finn up, and for the first time in his life, he feels like someone sees him.