Ahsoka had to clench her teeth together to stop her jaw from dropping. She almost couldn't believe it. This boy was Lux Bonteri?

After a moment, her shock turned to embarrassment, and she looked up shyly as he made his way over, hoping her cheeks weren't burning. He came to sit down in the empty chair next to her, dumping his bag on the floor beside him.

Her gaze flitted over his face, examining him again, despite having gotten a pretty good look earlier. His skin was the same color as the ivory from an akul, a beast native to a region in the Shilian state, maybe a little darker due to the fact that it was slightly tanned. His hair was dark brown, nearly black, and he had a beautiful pair of eyes – she couldn't decide if they were grey, blue or green – that sparkled in the light.

Well kriff! That's Lux Bonteri? The sultry side of her conscience offered in commentary. He is hot stuff! Practically screams popular!

But he's also the boy I knocked to the ground earlier! She reminded the voice. He's probably mad at me for all the trouble I caused him. That's just like me. I'm like a walking talking accident waiting to happen!

"Hi," he said, interrupting her reflections. "What's your name?"

"Ahsoka," she said, managing to make her the volume of her voice merely soft instead of borderline whispering.

"Pretty name," he said with a smile, and Ahsoka tried to keep her breathing from speeding up. She knew he was just being nice and the compliment was probably only to break the ice, but she didn't care.

"I don't think I've seen you around before... Well, except for earlier," he continued, chuckling at the memory. He was taking the whole incident better than she had expected a popular kid – as they had a reputation for holding grudges –would. "Are you from out of the state, or did you just switch schools?"

"Out of state... I– I just got in from Shili two weeks ago."

"Oh, that would explain it," he said with a knowing smile. "I've been away from Coruscant since three weeks ago. I was visiting my mother in Iziz – that's the capital of Onderon."

Ahsoka nodded. Although she had never been in the general vicinity of Onderon, she knew a bit about it from her Galactica Geography and History classes. She looked over the papers Professor Amidala had put down on her desk. "So... We have Bail Organa. Do you know anything about him?"

"Not much, but I think our Professor Amidala does." When Ahsoka gave him a quizzical look, he added, "She's on the Coruscanti City Council with him."

"And how... Uh, how do you know that?" she stuttered. "The City Council usually keeps to itself, you rarely hear about individual members on the holo."

"My mom works on the Council," he replied, like it was no big deal.

Suddenly, the synapses linked up. "Wait... Bonteri? Oh kriff! You're Mina Bonteri's son?"

"Yeah, I am." He sighed. "But we're not really that close. I only see her a few weeks a year. The rest I stay with my dad, here in Coruscant."

Ahsoka smiled. "Now let me guess, your father is Enarion Jarrus Dume or something," she said, randomly selecting a name of one of the other Council members she knew of. Jarrus Dume was the Councilor for Stewjon, although it was rumored that he had been born elsewhere.

Lux said nothing, but looked away with a shy smile on his face. That was pretty much confirmation that her guess had been correct, and her eyes widened. "Oh frak. Really? Wow, that's incredible!"

"Yeah, he's my dad," he said, shrugging the praise off as if embarrassed by it. "He and Professor Amidala know him very well – I think that we should ask them if we can talk to him."

"Wait, t-talk to him?" Although Ahsoka's introverted demeanor had disappeared for a while, the thought of talking to someone as well known as Bail Organa made her want to slink away and hide somewhere. "I don't think I could do that... I'm really not that good with people, and–"

"Don't worry about it. He's a pretty nice person, and very patient with people our age." Lux smiled. "And besides, I'll be right there with you."

Ahsoka turned back to the papers on her desk, trying to hide the blush coloring her tan cheeks. Something about this boy made her feel stronger, made her shyness disappear... She didn't know why or how, but she felt more at ease around him than she ever had around anyone else before.

"Well, we'd best get to work," she said softly. She pointed to a table on the sheet that Professor Amidala had provided to plan out the time in class the students would have to do it. "We only have eight periods until the end of term to work with."

He nodded. "I'm sure we'll have plenty of time, though. How much do you know about politics?"

"Not really that much," she said, suddenly of his green-grey-blue gaze on her. "I have, uh– I mean, I'm taking this course as part of an application a scholarship for university. I'm not what you would call an expert."

"That's all right," he retorted. "After all, the whole point of this project is learning more about the subject. I know a thing or two, and so do my parents. So I guess you'll learn as you go along."

He leaned over to the side to rifle through his bag – probably in search of his school-issued holopad to start their research. But he popped back up a moment later. "Oh, and about that whole thing in the hallway... Don't worry about it. Things like that happen."

Ahsoka nodded shyly, but on the inside she was jumping for joy. And he's forgiving, too! She thought with a smile. This is going to be so much fun, I'm paired up with one of the class smart kids, who just happens to be really hot. Go figure.

Although she was extremely happy with this idea, she suddenly had the strangest feeling that someone was staring at her. Carefully, she turned around in her chair, looking towards the back of the room.

Her eyes immediately met a pair of mint-colored ones. Steela's. And despite the fact that countless emotions swirled around in her bright blue orbs, there was one that was particularly prominent, one that Ahsoka couldn't have missed.

Jealousy.

*Hello all!! Sorry for the lack of updates... And I KNOW I KNOW I left off with a little bit of a cliffhanger on the last chapter, but... School has been evil, and I was really sick earlier today. I couldn't really find the energy to write and I had the usual fever/flu symptoms, but I think it's over. Because after all, I'm here now, aren't I? XD

I'll try to update again soon, but I'll take the time to remind you all now that, according to my schedule, a maximum of a week can go by before I update again. I'll probably update more frequently than that (every four to five days is my goal with pretty much everything), but that's my fallback in case I'm really swamped with schoolwork.

And the whole thing about Anakin and Padme's plan will be revealed in the next chapter or two. Promise. (Unless my creative muse gets in the way with something more pressing to write about, which it has a bad habit of doing.)

Hope you liked the chapter, which was nice and long by my standards. So yeah, I'll do my best to post something for this again in the near future. Until then...

Bye!