Chapter 3

"Mitaka!" called Kylo Ren, striding into the school office at Starkiller Academy on Monday morning with the customary flair that he wore like a cape.

"Sir?"

"Pull up everything you've got on the Physics department."

If Mitaka was surprised by the request, he didn't show it. Kylo came round behind him to look at the computer screen over his shoulder.

A few taps on the database and Kylo had the personal details of the four members of the Starkiller Physics department in front of him. His eyes skimmed over the information quickly.

"All male? We have no female Physics teachers?"

"No, sir. But all bar one of the Biology department are women?"

Kylo didn't reply immediately but tapped his finger on the desk in thought. Mitaka exchanged quizzical glances with his colleague, Lusica, across the room.

"Did any apply?"

"Any what?"

"Women. To teach Physics," Kylo clarified, a touch of impatience in his voice. "Try to keep up. When the school became an academy two years ago, did any women apply?"

"I don't think the system stores that information after a year. Data protection and-"

"Never mind."

"Sorry."

Kylo swept back round the desk as if he was going to leave and then he stopped.

"Mitaka, can you access the files on the other First Order schools in Alderaan?"

"A limited amount, yes," Mitaka replied cautiously.

"Good. Get me as much as you can on the Physics departments at Naboo High and Mandalore."

"Yes, sir."

While Mitaka accessed the database, Kylo prowled round the small office and Lusica hastily began typing nonsense into an email in order to look busy.

"Only very general information is available about teachers at the other schools."

"Names?"

"Here." Mitaka turned the computer monitor round so he could see the results.

Kylo bent down and let his eyes skim over a row of names. "This is Mandalore?"

"Yes."

Four full time teachers and one part time. One woman. Sarah Poltwhistle.

"No further details such as date of birth or title?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"Unfortunate. And Naboo High?"

Mitaka brought up another list. Three teachers. Again, just one woman. Samantha Cooper-Ellis.

Kylo stared at the screen a few minutes more and then turned to go. "That's all, Mitaka."

"Anytime, sir."

He swept out of the office without another word just as the bell for morning break sounded. As soon as the glass door had crashed closed behind him, Lusica stuck her head round her monitor and hissed, "What was that all about then? Do you think he's planning to fire someone again?"

"Ours not to reason why, Lucy," replied Mitaka in a lofty tone to conceal the fact he was just as confused as she was.

Meanwhile, Kylo weaved his way through the stream of students pouring out of lessons for break, his imposing figure and rank making his progress easy. He slammed the door of his office behind him, ignoring his PA trying to tell him that Hux was looking for him. He picked up his stressball and flung it at the wall several times.

Was the girl from the cafe a Samantha? Was she a Sarah? It was possible. Could her surname actually be Poltwhistle or Cooper-Ellis though? That seemed unlikely somehow, though most people simply stuck with the name they were given at birth, no matter how little it suited them. Not everyone had had his luxury. He flung the little rubber ball with a bit more violence.

Of course, there was no reason to suppose the troglodyte girl, as he had taken to calling her in his head after that rather memorable insult, taught at either of the First Order's other schools. There were plenty of other schools in neighbouring villages and small towns whose teachers could perfectly reasonably come into Alderaan on a Saturday. There was even St Corellia's, the big private boarding school twenty miles out in the countryside. His old school. And of course there was always Alderaan Grammar, but he preferred not to imagine she taught there.

He sank back into his deep, leather-backed chair and tossed the stress ball up into the air and caught it again, his anger subsiding into a familiar level of frustration. Why did he want to find the girl from the cafe so much? She had barged up on him for no reason with an entirely undeserved perky smile, not once but twice. She was a girl of extremes - either stupidly happy or quick to anger. He wondered what she was like in the classroom; such emotion would not serve her well - if nothing else, she would be exhausted by the end of every lesson. Idealism and caring so much – such qualities were not sustainable. He did not rate her chances of staying long in the profession.

She was quite attractive though, he could not help reflecting, in the same way the sun was. Dazzling, full of burning energy and really rather weird when you got up close. What was up with the three buns? And was she actually a biker or did she just wear that creased brown leather jacket with all the patches on because she was some kind of millennial hipster wannabe? Not to mention the warm northern accent, unexpected so far down south.

Anyway, it hardly mattered. He'd put his foot in it by telling the truth, proving how ridiculously sensitive she was. She thought him a jerk now; well, she wasn't wrong. He threw the ball at the wall again just as Hux pushed open the door without knocking and ducked as the ball bounced barely a foot away from his head.

"Missed," snapped Kylo with a glare.

"You're like a bloody Year 8 with ADHD," retorted Hux. "You'll take an eye out one day."

"You could wear an eyepatch. It'd be an improvement." Kylo leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "What do you want?"

"I've been trying to get hold of you all morning. It's about the girls' tights."

Kylo opened one eye, squinted at Hux doubtfully and then closed it again.

"Some of the girls have been coming in either not in tights at all or in nude colour tights because of how warm it still is, but the school uniform regulations clearly state that when wearing the winter uniform girls should wear black tights of a minimum of 40 dernier. Now, the issue seems to be that-"

"Hux," interrupted Kylo without opening his eyes again, "are these girls in school?"

"Yes obviously, or they-"

"Are they attending lessons?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then I could not care less about their tights. Make a decision, Hux, I don't give a fuck. Or tell Phasma to deal with it if it becomes a pastoral issue."

"Hayley Whittaker in Year 11 is saying that wearing a uniform infringes on her human rights of self-expression and the tights are, and I quote, 'a tool of patriarchal oppression'. She's getting quite a following."

Hux's tone was disapproving and Kylo snorted slightly.

"Give her a lunchtime detention if you think it necessary – better still, send her to the library and make her read an actual book on human rights. Oh, and put her name forward for the charity committee. If she's so fond of social justice, she can start campaigning for things that actually matter - while obeying the rules of the school she is enrolled to attend."

"That is… quite a good idea," said Hux, reluctantly impressed. "Though I think we should consider suspension if her insubordination doesn't subside."

Hux always went straight for the worst punishments. It made dealing with genuinely serious offenses rather difficult. Kylo wondered if he could suspend him merely for constantly grating on his nerves...

"It will. She'll rant about it online somewhere and be over it by the end of the week."

He could not believe they were still talking about tights. Sometimes he really hated his job.

Fortunately the bell went for the end of break before Hux could come up with any other inane problems to bug him with.

"So, how do you feel about the first match?" Rey asked.

It was Thursday and she had just finished the first hockey practice with her team. She was walking back to the PE department with the two girls who had volunteered to help her clear up, Steph and Rhiannon.

Rhiannon shrugged. "Pretty good. I mean, it's hard to say how we'll do, right, since it's the first match of the season. But I think we've got a chance, Miss."

"I just wish it wasn't against Starkiller Academy," sighed Steph.

"Are they a particularly good team?" Rey wanted to know, always curious about the rival school.

"They were last year. They had this one girl playing attack, Daisy, and she basically obliterated all of us. Sanjaana was in goal but she only blocked two goals that match."

"She was so amazing."

"Well, you're amazing too!" said Rey. "Time for payback, right?"

Steph and Rhiannon glanced at each other and laughed. "What are you suggesting, Miss?"

Rey wrinkled her nose. "Nothing dodgy. Just go out and play your best and make sure you win! That's all!"

"Yeah right," scoffed Steph, "no big deal!"

"Hey, a bit of optimism please! We got this, Miss!"

After they put the bibs and balls away and Rey locked up the kit store, she asked them, "Anyway, what's Starkiller like? Do you know anything about it beyond the U14 hockey team?"

"My sister Flick goes there," said Steph. "She's in Year 11 and she remembers it before it was an academy. She likes it much better now. They're really tough on discipline but, like, that's good. She actually learns stuff. Before, all the teachers were really bad and no-one cared."

Rey raised her eyebrows. That didn't exactly fit with the kind of things Finn had said. Then again, he had only known the school after it had been taken over by the First Order.

"Yeah maybe…" Rhiannon didn't seem so sure. "I know a guy there from the bus and he says they're really mean. Phones confiscated, working in silence, you do the smallest thing or make some random mistake and you're in detention and it goes on your record. It's a bit unfair. Like, sorry, Miss, but everyone messes up sometimes. It doesn't mean you deserve it to go on your school record."

"I guess it depends on what you did," replied Rey neutrally. She was more interested in finding out what the girls thought of the school than engaging with them in a moral debate about suitable school sanctions.

"There's this one teacher," continued Rhiannon, "Mr. Hux, who's a real - uh, anyway, he's really harsh apparently."

"I've heard of him!" said Steph. "This one time he gave Flick's friend Olly a Saturday detention because he caught him chewing gum. A Saturday detention! That would never happen here."

"Oh my God, that's so stupid."

"Okay," put in Rey, who wanted to shut down the trash-talking of other teachers, even ones at another school, and feeling a bit guilty for encouraging it, "I get the picture. You better go and get changed. I'll finish up here. Thanks for your help, girls!"

"Thanks, Miss! See you next week!"

"Tell me about Starkiller's Mr. Hux," said Rey to Finn that evening. "Would he give a boy a Saturday detention for chewing gum? Because that's what someone on my team said."

Finn snorted. "Probably. I doubt he has a social life 'cause nobody likes him so spending Saturdays at school terrorising kids who've basically done nothing wrong would probably be his idea of a great weekend. I definitely heard of Saturday detentions being a thing when I was there."

Rey poked at her spaghetti. "I don't get it. Starkiller's results are shooting up, I've heard people say it's the most efficiently run school in the city and these should be good things. Yet you were desperate to get out of it and Poe basically makes the sign to ward off the devil whenever it comes up in conversation. What's up with it?"

"Well, you know who else were really efficient at what they did and got quick results?"

"Who?"

"The fricking Nazi party! Look, Rey," continued Finn when Rey started protesting at the comparison, "I hated working there because I was constantly being micromanaged. I teach PE for God's sake! It's not exactly rocket science. You actually teach rocket science so you get what I'm saying. You have to deal with all the marking and reports and predicted grades and getting them into Oxbridge and all that shit. End of the day, I just teach boys to kick balls around a field. There was no need for them to be breathing down my neck the way they were. So many rules! So many ways to get into trouble - and that's just the teachers. Also, and I really mean this, the senior leadership team are genuinely unpleasant people. There's Phasma who is like what would happen if you crossed Brienne of Tarth with the Terminator, Hux's nickname is - and this is true, I swear to God, 'Ginger Hitler' and it's accurate too, and Kylo Ren is the kind of creep who lives in his mum's basement and thinks Snape is misunderstood and then somehow becomes headmaster of a school, fuck knows how."

"And yet you decided to leave!" smiled Rey, shaking her head in amusement.

"I know. Weird, right?"

They ate in silence for a few minutes and then she continued, "Okay, so that explains why you wanted out and that's totally fair, but why does Poe hate them so much? He's never taught there."

"Ask him," replied Finn. "I think it's political and I try and keep out of that side of thing. Like I said, I'm just a PE teacher. Doesn't really affect me."

She wrinkled her nose. "End of the day, politics affects all of us. No-one can afford to be neutral."

He poked her. "Eat your pasta, Hillary. Like I said, you want to know the deets, talk to Poe directly."

This was exactly what Rey decided to do. She caught Poe in the canteen on Monday and tried to quiz him, but lunchtime was not a good time for a deep conversation. Instead, he told her to come to the George and Dragon on Friday and they could have a proper chat about it. The week seemed to pass very slowly after that as Rey waited until Friday.

A/N: Year 8 - 12-13 year olds. (7th grade)

Year 11 - 15-16 year olds. (Sophomore year/10th grade)
Oxbridge - shorthand for Oxford and Cambridge universities, Britain's most prestigious institutions, the equivalent of the Ivy League.

For those wondering, I sort of imagine Alderaan situated in a fictional county in the south of England, sort of between Surrey and Hampshire. I have various cathedral cities like Ely, Winchester or Canterbury in mind for Alderaan.

A bit of a filler chapter but some necessary character development. This is a slow burn - they're not going to meet every chapter... But next chapter Rey will actually venture onto Starkiller land for the hockey match!

Hope you're enjoying it! Thank you so much for the reviews and favourites. :)