Ahsoka slammed the door in her room at the orphanage shut, and dove onto her bed. She crawled under the blankets, trembling like a leaf. She was still shaken from that whole incident at the tram station.

What had she been thinking? She could have been killed! And just because she had managed to clear that jump that morning, it didn't mean she would be so lucky as so make it again! Even though she usually zoned out in Physics class, she still knew that there were tons of factors she hadn't considered as she had made the split-second decision to jump.

Ahsoka had decided to skip work for the day. She would call Dex later and tell him she wasn't feeling well; make up some sort of excuse about an upset stomach. She didn't feel like she could take going to work after that whole incident with the tall brown-haired man.

Finally managing to find the courage to poke an arm out of her blanket cocoon, she dug her school-issued agenda out of her bag. Her head followed shortly after to read what was on it.

She sighed. "Great. Studying for tests in practically everything, Enriched Mathematics homework, a translation for Galactican Language Arts due in a week, a project for Enriched Galactican Basic... Wait, a project for Basic?" she whispered to the empty room, using the students' abbreviation for the course.

Then realization hit her. Basic had been during period three. That was when she had been called in for her annual medical exam by the nurse's office. It had been pretty boring, but at least there had been that nice Mirialan girl – she didn't know her name – who was apparently doing an apprenticeship to become a doctor.

The only reason she knew about it was that she had heard some of her classmates talking about it later that day, and she must have forgotten to take down to look into it. Since she had missed getting the information for Basic, there was only one thing left to do.

Ahsoka grabbed her datapad off her nightstand and pulled up the school forum on the HoloNet. All the teachers posted assignments and homework there in case anyone missed a class. Finding her Basic class, she took a look at the caption under the latest post from the teacher.

Complete a written work under the form of a letter to a friend or a loved one. These letters will not be delivered, but please put as much effort into them as you would as if you were writing to a someone you know. The amount of feeling will be taken into account for the final mark.

The topic is your choice, but the final copy must be at least six hundred words long. Any less will result in a loss of marks. The writing style, narrative voice and use of metaphors and/or similes will each be evaluated out of ten marks.

Tardiness of submission will result in a loss of ten percent of the final mark per day. This will be worth forty percent of your mark this term.

She smiled, cracking her knuckles. The rest of the homework could wait. Now, it was time to indulge in her in her favorite pastime, and practically the only thing she considered herself to be good at in all of Galactica: writing.

Ahsoka looked at the instructions again. "Six hundred words only? For how much this is worth on the report card?" she asked the words on the 'pad screen with a chuckle. "Hah! And I thought this course was supposed to be enriched!"

And so, plugging her keyboard into a jack on the side of the datapad, she began to write.

Padme sat in front of her the data-screen set in her desk, her eyes dancing over the flickering blue and white characters in the hologram. She was in the middle of doing some research into the diplomatic dealings of a remote city-state, in hopes that they could be swayed from the Neutral States in the war to the side of the Galactican Republic.

It was exhausting work. And even if there were times she would like nothing better than to curl up somewhere with a cup of warm cocoa, helping people from the political arena was even more fulfilling.

She sighed. She still had to correct some homework from the students in the classes she taught at Coruscant High School. The extra work was a bother, but was a good way to explain aspects of the Republic's government that were generally overlooked by the public to smart young minds who were eager to learn.

She scrolled down on the page, checking up on a last detail. Then she felt a small fuzzy body rub up against her leg, and heard a peculiar purr-like mew. She smiled. It was a Loth-cat that belonged to Mon Mothma; she had promised to take care of it until her colleague returned from a conference on Alderaan.

She wouldn't mind getting a Loth-cat for herself, if she were to be completely honest with herself. They were excellent companions.

A subtle beep from the data-screen informed her that she had a new message in her inbox. Closing the page and pulling up her messaging system, she took a look at the sender.

Her system didn't recognize the messaging address, but she paid it no mind. It was probably one of her students handing something in. She was pretty sure that a few of her Third Years had forgotten to submit a paper in class that day, and she assumed that this was one of them trying to submit it before the midnight deadline.

The caption above the file attached to the message was:

Sorry if this is late, Professor! I'll do better next time!

This served as further confirmation for her theory. Without thinking, she downloaded the file onto her data-screen and left it open behind a few other things. She would correct it with the rest of the documents later.

Suddenly her comm-phone rang. Glad for the distraction, she grabbed it and pushed the answer button.

"Padme, it's me," came a man's voice.

"Ani!" she greeted her husband excitedly. She put the comm settings on speaker before darting into the kitchen. Now that she thought about it, she was really in the mood for that hot cocoa. "What's happened with the whole Ahsoka situation? Anything yet?"

As she the comm down on the counter to get the ingredients, Anakin sighed. "Well, I tried. She is special... But she's really afraid. I could feel her fear and unease through the Force when I saw her."

"Well, how did you talk to her?"

"I did, but..."

She knew that tone. She huffed exasperatedly, putting her hands on her hips and adopting a stern expression even though the call was audio only. "Ani, what happened?"

She could practically see him running his fingers through the long hair on the back of his neck, which he had a habit of doing when he was nervous. "Well, I kind of stopped her from missing her tram, dragged her into an alleyway, scared the kriff out of her and she may or may not think I'm a total creep now..."

"What?" Padme cried. "I should have just done it myself. Mother Goddess, Anakin! Could your people skills be any more nonexistent?"

"I'm sorry, okay!" he said, but she could tell he knew he was in the wrong. "Hey, at least I managed to get the address into her bag. She'll find her way to the Je'daii Sanctum when she's ready. Trust me."

"Well you'll have to forgive me. The way you handled the situation really inspires confidence."

He sighed. For a moment, neither of them said anything, but, feeling a need to break the silence, Padme murmured, "I'm sorry, Ani."

"It's okay – it's my fault. I messed up, and I'll do my best to remedy it. So... I'll see you later tonight?"

"You're coming home?" Padme asked, perking up.

"Yeah. I'll be there in an hour or two, okay?"

"Okay. I love you, Ani."

She could practically hear his smile through the phone. "Love you too, Angel."

A few minutes later, Padme went back into her office with a steaming cup of cocoa and renewed energy to finish those corrections. But what she saw as she walked through the door made her jaw drop.

Almost all the papers and datapads on her desk had been knocked to the floor, and those that hadn't been were either in danger of falling or out of their orderly piles. The Loth-cat sat next to her keyboard, licking its paw as if nothing was out of order. It looked up at her with a quiet – and almost satisfied – purr-mew.

"Oh, you...!" she growled. She was beginning to doubt her earlier line of thought about how a Loth-cat would make a good pet.

She put her cup down on a table and marched up to the desk. She hefted the cat up into her arms and carried it into the next room, depositing it unceremoniously on the floor. She closed the door behind her as she left the room.

After putting her papers and 'pads back in order and sitting herself down at her desk again, she realized that the Loth-cat must have walked across the keyboard. What had once been the last line of the document she had just received was now an unintelligible set of numbers, letters and punctuation marks.

She deleted everything in the line except for the first five letters, hoping that it was right. But then, she realized something. The line above was only two words: "With love". This hadn't been meant for her. Obviously, her student had attached the wrong document to the message.

Suddenly Padme's eyes narrowed. On a hunch, she checked the amount of documents for the class she was about to grade. All of the students had handed their papers in. So what was this extra doing here?

Careful not to read anything on the document – as it was clearly a letter of a personal nature – she looked at the first line.

Lux. Who's Lux? Padme asked herself. Wait – oh! Mina Bonteri's son! How could I forget? She and her family are old friends of mine! She looked again at the document before her. Well, it's out of the question that this just stays here with me. I might as well deliver it for whoever sent it.

She logged into the teachers' database for Coruscant High, and quickly found Lux's locker number. Then, she printed up one copy of the letter and deleted it from her data-screen in an interest of the sender's privacy.

She made a mental note to put it into his locker the next day before anyone arrived, completely unaware that her actions that night would have implications on the lives of the students and staff of Coruscant High for a long, long time...

*WOW. THAT WAS A REALLY LONG CHAPTER. 

Once again, you have athunter99 to thank for that. It's like I have different people who remind me or ask me to do things for different fanfics... For this fanfic it's her, for TISS it's Superkate-Studios, and for Book Nine it's a bunch of people... Hmmm... I have to update that...

Sooooo... THERE ARE MANY THINGS I LIKED ABOUT THIS CHAPTER. I know the thing from Ahsoka's POV was a little short, but it's kind of my way of integrating a little bit of my personality into her character. Hence, mummifying herself in blankets when the going gets tough and her love of writing :D

The section in Padme's kind of stretched out A LOT longer than I expected it would. I could totally imagine that Anidala conversation happening though, and Padme's decisions about what to do with the letter she got from an unknown sender. You'll see who it was in coming chapters, even though it's pretty obvious... *cough* THE TITLE AND BOOKS SUMMARY ARE MAJOR FORESHADOWING FOR THIS *cough cough* 

And the whole Loth-cat-messing-everything-on-the-desk-up thing was pretty fun to write, especially for a cat lover like me!

I'll try to update soon. But before I go, I'd like to say that I hope this chapter has taught you something, a lesson I believe to be very important in life... 

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A LOTH-CAT. EVER.

Bye!