Inside Theed Palace the royal family the atmosphere is a hectic as it will be the start of a new school year for Anakin and the first real school day for Ahsoka. Because of that reason, everyone has to get used again to waking up early and ensuring to leave in time. Also, the work for Tahl and Qui-gon will be increasing once more. The work in the holidays is always less than during the school year as a lot of activities only happen during the school year.
The reason for their hectic atmosphere is that Ahsoka is really excited, more so than she was for the orientation she went to and isn't helping one bit in ensuring that they can leave in time. Because of that Tahl has to pack Ahsoka's backpack which she had to get from Ahsoka's room not five minutes ago while also keeping Ahsoka from running off already. Another annoying point was that Ahsoka had stored the backpack in such a place that she had to spend valuable minutes searching for it.
Then there is the matter that they have to leave in five minutes to get Ahsoka and Anakin to their school in time and making sure that she and Qui-gon will also be in time for their first appointments of the day. This all leaves little time over to do other things nor time for any further delays for which she fears. This fear comes from Ahsoka's current behavior as Tahl seriously doubts that they will be able to leave in time because of that and it will not be good for both children to be late for school on the first day. It will also not be good for them to be late as it will make put delays on all their other activities of the day. Luckily, Anakin had his backpack already packed the previous evening before going to bed. He only had to put the money for his meal inside his wallet and he would be ready to leave. Because of that, he is currently standing in the hallway with his backpack in his hand and he is wearing his coat already loosely.
He has been standing there for the last few minutes as he knows that he can't help Tahl with what still needs to be done. Quickly putting everything in Ahsoka's backpack once everything is ready, Tahl rushes to the hallway and asks one of the servants to bring their coats so that she has time to put her shoes on and assist Ahsoka with it should she have to. She knows that Anakin will help his sister if he is done earlier than she is.
"Ahsoka! Stop jumping around. If you want to go to school you need to put your shoes and coat on right now and you should thus not be jumping around in the hallway." Tahl says with irritation showing clearly in her voice. She quickly takes Ahsoka's shoes and holds them out to Ahsoka while saying.
"Ahsoka put your shoes on right now. We are already late and you don't want to be late for your first day at school, do you?"
"No, mommy." Ahsoka says a bit sad at the thought of arriving late at school and does as she is asked to do. She knows from Anakin how bad it is to arrive late at school. You get in a lot of trouble most of the time or so Anakin had told her once. As she looks to see where Anakin is she sees that he is standing in the hallway with his shoes on as well as his coat and holding his backpack in his hand. She wonders how he could already be ready to leave when she isn't this feels incredibly unfair to her.
"How can you already be ready to leave, Anakin?" Ahsoka asks once she has her shoes on and is in the process of putting her coat on. She wants to know how he could be ready so quick.
"Because I wasn't jumping around, Snips." Anakin says teasingly and at his sister's annoyed look he adds
"I have been readying myself for school for years so I have already some practice in how to get ready in the shortest of time."
"Oh, so you say that I will be quicker in getting ready at the end of the year." Ahsoka asks hopefully. She doesn't like it when her mother is so annoyed with her as she is today. It makes her feel incredibly sad. She wants her mommy to be happy.
"Yes, I should hope you will be quicker then. You will develop a routine in time, I'm sure of it." Anakin says with a smile and beckons Ahsoka over once she is finished and has her backpack in hand. Tahl had put in on the ground before she began readying herself and is now talking with a servant about something.
"Shall we go to the waiting car?" Anakin asks his sister and at her enthusiastic nod he calls out to Tahl that they will be waiting for her in the car. Once they are in the car they don't have to wait long for Tahl to join them and they can finally leave for school where Ahsoka arrives just as the bell rings to signal that everyone has to go to their classroom. That she was so late was caused by the fact that they had to drop Anakin of earlier. His school is the furthest and Ahsoka's is located on the way to the Tahl's first appointment of the day.
In the late afternoon, Anakin comes back home from school. He is so late because he went to one of the clubs he is part of and their meeting took longer than was normal. It is not something strange as the meetings always last longer the first few weeks of school. As he walks into the private wing he is immediately ambushed by his sister who has been waiting for him to come home.
"Anakin, how was your day? Mine was really nice as we had a lot of time to play between doing schoolwork. Do you have homework? I do but I don't know how to make it. Can you help me?" Ahsoka asks enthusiastically. She hopes that he is able to as she wants to spend time with him.
"Well, my day was similar to the other first days of the year I have had. We spend a lot of time going over what we will be doing during the coming ten weeks. So it was from time to time a bit boring. As for having homework, I do have quite a bit of homework to make and would like to start on it as quickly as I can. That will ensure that we can spend some time together before you have to go to bed. As for helping you with your homework, no I'm sorry I can't help you. Making homework is something which you have to do on your own so that you will actually learn it." Anakin explains and hopes that he has answered all her questions as he wants to get started on his homework and doesn't like the delay one bit. Unfortunately, luck is not on his side.
"But how do I make it?" Ahsoka asks.
"Well, it is quite similar to how you make schoolwork at school. I'm sure you know how that works, right?" Anakin asks with a sly look and gets the response from Ahsoka he expected to get. Alright, he was aiming for this response.
"Of course, I know how to do schoolwork at school. I'm not stupid!" Ahsoka answers and is annoyed that he would think that she wouldn't know how to do schoolwork at school. Looking at her brother she sees the smile on his face and together they laugh. Now she knew why he said the last part. He wanted to cheer her up as they won't be able to spend much time together today. She knows from experience that the first week is the busiest for Anakin as he has to build a routine that will work for him. After that, she knows that they will have more opportunities to spend together.
"Good, then I will go make my homework while you do yours and I promise to spend time with you after supper." Anakin promises and is relieved when Ahsoka agrees to it. Soon he is in his room and can finally start on his homework. He knows that he will be busy till late but is willing to go through with it today. He vows to himself to never do so in the future as he knows that it will break him at the end of the week.
Looking at his agenda for what homework he got today, Anakin decides to start with the most pressing homework and before long he is called for supper by his father. Then he only has some reading and most of the exercises to make left. Based on his experience, Anakin knows that it will take him at least three hours to get the remainder of his homework done but he is happy that he managed to get more done than he had initially expected.
While he is walking to the dining room he has to think about his new classmates. His class now exists out of two classes from his time in middle school and a few from another class. They had five classes during middle school and now only two. A lot of the students couldn't keep up with the work that was required of them and were forced to leave. Because of the merging of classes, Anakin feels that he made some really good friends during today. Only time will tell if the friendships are true and will hold under the strain all his friendships are all under.
Soon he arrives at the dining room and he sits down at his place at the table. Supper is a lively affair as everyone talks about what they did today. Anakin is always happy to hear what his family has done during the day and they are equally happy to hear what he has done.
At the end of the week, Anakin is relieved as he finally will have an entire evening to himself. Many of the required classes are not really to his liking but he knows that he can't skip them or he won't get his diploma so he promised himself to do his best for them. The classes he likes the most are physical ed and drawing. Drawing was the art elective he chose. Everyone had to choose one art class at the end of last school year and he liked drawing better than the other options that were available. So he was really happy when he learned that he was allowed to take this class. Alright, there were not many who chose this class so they still have a few places over for other children to join if they want to. Not that Anakin suspects that they will do so as it is really rare for a person to change class after the first week has passed. If they do then they will have to have really good reasons for it and they will need permission of school before it will be allowed.
This all makes him think about his art teacher, Miss Dark. She is a really eccentric person who excites the entire class for drawing. She had told them that they would start with the easy drawing exercises so that everyone would be at the same level once they would start with what the curriculum expects them to be able to do. From the reactions around the classroom, Anakin could tell that most were really happy with it. He suspected that there were many in this class who don't draw really often so they won't be as skilled as those that do. He remembers it all so clearly because they only have instructions for this class during the afternoon of day 5. Day 1 and 3 are reserved for working individually on assignments in the classroom so that they can finish the assignments they got in time. As everyone knows how much work they often have to do it is really not surprising that the school has this system in place. If they had to do the assignments at home Anakin knows that he and his fellow classmates would have trouble to find time for it nor would they have the supplies they would need at hand. This would make finishing the assignments really troublesome.
He quickly pulls his thought back to homework so that he will have more time in the evening to either spend with his family or to spend alone in his room.