Ahsoka scurried into Coruscant High and down the hallway towards her locker. Thankfully, it was right there on the first floor out of five or six, and she didn't have far to go.

Suddenly, as she rounded a corner, someone ran up to her. It was one of the 'Informants', as she liked to call them. They were the underlings of the popular crowd, who made it their business to go around school and tell everyone what was happening in school, out and with the popular kids. They also liked to compete amongst themselves to see who could inform the most people when a juicy bit of gossip came to light.

This particular Informant was a Third Year, which was two years behind Ahsoka herself, who was a Fifth Year. It was a short, green-skinned Twi'lek girl who wore way too much makeup. As far as she knew, her name was Oola.

"Have you heard? Have you heard?" Oola asked excitedly, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

"Heard what?" Ahsoka asked in her quiet voice.

"Oh, so you haven't heard. Good. That makes me the first one to tell you," Oola said with a smile. Apparently, she was one of the more competitive Informants.

"To tell me what?"

"Lux Bonteri is back from vacation!" she sang, before darting off down the hallway, presumably in search of her next victim.

Ahsoka sighed. It was just another bit of worthless gossip. Honestly – what was the point of being popular or an Informant if your life practically revolved around it? Why not put your efforts towards something more fulfilling? It was a concept that she had a feeling she would never fully grasp.

She continued walking towards her locker. She stopped for a moment to readjust her bag on her shoulder, and when she looked up, she gasped.

As if by magic, the hallway full of students suddenly parted down the middle. A group of four or five people walked down the now free walkway in the corridor.

The first of them was a tall boy with dark skin and strikingly light blue eyes. She knew who he was, thanks to another Informant from last week. His name was Saw Gerrera, and he was a notorious ladies' man with a tough guy persona.

The second was his on-then-off-again girlfriend, Janira Elt. Ahsoka had always thought that Janira was one of the prettiest girls in the school, with her tall and curvy frame, ivory skin, blue eyes and long brown hair, but she was far outshone by another, who was next in the group:

Steela Gerrera.

Steela was Saw's sister, and the queen of the school: a title that she had maintained for nearly her entire enrolment at Coruscant High. Her dark skin was the exact color of the contents of a delicious, steaming cup of caf, which seriously contrasted her minty blue eyes. The latter were the same shade as her brother's.

Next came Dawn-Olivia Akkelon, a petite girl with perfectly curled golden-brown hair and brown eyes. Her name was always shortened to Dono, but despite the fact that it sounded quite silly, it was perfectly fitting for her and just the right mix of edgy and cool.

But then, she realized that there was someone else along with the group of popular kids, someone she hadn't seen before.

And he was absolutely gorgeous.

His hair was a very dark brown and was cut with bangs that he flicked carelessly out of his eyes, paired with sun-kissed ivory skin. His face was angular with a jaw that bordered on square, the kind of shape Ahsoka knew from a few trips to the Grand Museum in Shili was the kind sculptors looked for in their models.

And his eyes! Ahsoka couldn't tell what color they were: grey, green or blue. They seemed to be hovering somewhere in between the three, unable to decide what color they wanted to be.

Ahsoka had never thought that seeing someone would make her legs go weak, but right then and there, they did. She darted into the nearby bathroom, pressing her body to the wall and making herself as small as possible. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone inside to ask her why she was hiding.

She tried to calm her beating heart, but was entirely unable to do so until she heard conversation pick up in the hallway. Readjusting her sweater hem and taking a calming breath, she darted back out into the hallway.

And slammed right into someone.

Ahsoka was knocked to the ground with a quiet squeak of surprise. Her bag chose that moment to spill half its contents onto the floor next to her. Papers, notebooks and a textbook or two went flying.

Not even bothering to look up – as she knew all she would see were snickering faces and amused looks – she hurried to pick everything up again, not caring if some of the papers were crushed by accident.

But then, a hand brushed hers. In the school where social class was so important and few people went out of their way for anyone else, someone was helping her collect her fallen books. That wasn't far short of a miracle.

Ahsoka looked up very slowly, a blush on her cheeks. But then, when she saw the face staring down at her, she gasped.

It was the beautiful boy from earlier, who was clearly one of the popular crowd. He grabbed the last notebook, then stood up. He offered his free hand to her.

She wanted to take it, but she was suddenly conscious of the entire hallway watching the scene unfold. The bell rang for class to start, and no one moved.

Finally, Ahoska decided to accept the help he was graciously offering her, and he pulled her effortlessly to her feet. Although the shirt he was wearing was loose on him, and she couldn't see if his arms were muscular or not, she knew that he had to be pretty strong to lift her like that – even if she didn't weigh much more than a bag of feathers.

"Here," he said softly, handing her back her books. His voice was clear and gentle, and had some sort of an accent to it – Onderonian, maybe? – and just as wonderful as the rest of him.

"Thank you," she said. Although she was aiming for a confident tone of voice, her words came out as hardly above a whisper.

"You're welcome," he said with a gentle smile.

"Hey," came a voice. It was Steela. "Come on, we have to get to class."

"Don't worry, Stee, I'm coming." With another smile in Ahsoka's direction, he rejoined the four popular kids and continued down the hallway.

But Ahsoka couldn't have missed the angry look Steela shot in her direction as she linked her fingers with the boy's unless she had been blindfolded.

*I am SO sorry for the lack of updates! I've been so busy with school, and homework, and updating other things that I had hit better veins of creativity for than this fanfic...

But enough ranting. You all pretty much have athunter99 to thank for this update, because she very gently reminded me that I SHOULD UPDATE THIS. Also, thank my school for not giving me too much homework on this fine evening. (Which is a rarity. Usually I'm quite swamped.)

So anyways, hope you enjoyed this nice long chapter, and... I'm sure you can't figure out who the 'beautiful boy' Ahsoka just met was... XD

Bye!