For Ahsoka, Political Sciences couldn't have come fast enough.

She darted into the class, a fraction of a second before the bell, as usual. Taking a calming breath to try to slow her racing heart from the run to get there on time, she walked to her seat.

Her eyes immediately met a pair of beautiful grey-green ones. Lux had already arrived, and was sitting at the desk next to hers. As she had thought, his papers weren't on the desk, and cleverly arranged notebook and pencil case most likely served to hide that fact from Professor Amidala.

"So, you still going with the Nexu cub excuse?" she asked, dumping her bag and sitting down. For a moment, she was surprised with herself. She hadn't thought about what she was going to say, she simply said it: the snippy comment had simply fallen off her tongue.

Lux had some sort of strange effect on her. He was making her braver; pulling down the blocks that she'd subconsciously set up over the course of her life to keep her from really speaking her mind.

"Oh, come on!" he said with a laugh, and Ahsoka had to resist the urge to swoon. "I'm sure even high and mighty beings such as yourself have forgotten papers before!"

"More times than I can count," she replied, but her tone was softening. Slowly but surely, she was crawling back into her shell.

Lux smiled, and she smiled back. It could have just been her imagination, but she could have sworn he shifted his desk a little closer to her.

"So... Do you have the papers?" he asked, snapping her out of her reverie.

"Uh... I think so, just let me take a look..."

And with that, she began digging through her bag. After a few moments of sorting through the hastily organized papers, notepads and books that were essential to her every-day at school, she found it. But upon placing it down on the desk, Lux froze.

"Kriff..."

"What is it?" she asked softly, looking into his eyes.

He whipped around in his seat, looking back at his other friends in the popular crowd. "Amidala incoming," he hissed, speaking to them more than her. "I think she's checking to see if we have our papers..."

He rifled through his own bag for a moment, putting a paper he'd chosen at random facedown on his desk. The professor didn't spare him a second glance, instead walking on down the rows of desks to check on her other students.

Lux breathed a sigh of relief, chuckling a little to himself. Unable to help herself, Ahsoka smiled too – he looked even better when he laughed.

"Wait," he said, pulling her out of her thoughts as he turned the paper over. "I don't think this is mine. I must have picked it up by accident with some of my other papers in class yesterday."

"Looks like a letter," she remarked, choosing to ignore his statement completely. "And it's addressed to you, anyways." She pointed to the conspicuous 'Dear Lux' written at the top.

But then, as her gaze drifted down from the greeting, her breath caught in her throat. She scanned the first paragraph, her heart pounding an insane rhythm.

That was her writing.

The boy she had a crush on had in his hands the highly personal letter she had 'written' to him for Enriched Galactic Basic.

Lux looked over the letter in his hands curiously. Who would want to send me a letter? Why not just comm, or something? And who sent it...?

He checked the back and front for a return address, but there was nothing. The letter appeared to have been deposited somewhere he would have found it.

He barely noticed it when Ahsoka said she wasn't feeling well, and got up to ask for a hall pass to the 'fresher. He was too absorbed with the curious slip of paper he had suddenly found within his possession.

In the end, he decided to read it, regardless of the fact that it was quite obvious that he wasn't working on his project.

"Dear Lux," it began,

"I often wondered what it would be like to send you a letter like this. I've thought a lot about what I wanted to say to you, but, now that I've begun writing, nothing seems to fit.

"Have you ever looked in the mirror and stared directly into your own eyes? What must you see? Light green one moment and grey the next. Your eyes are always changing, just like your thoughts. Shifting from one to the other; constantly, incessantly...

"They say eyes are the windows to the soul. I have no idea if that's true or not for the countless other men and women who have crossed my path, but when I look into your eyes, I feel like I know what's been etched into your existence, deep down inside you: kindness, humility and honesty.

"Such strange terms they are. They become two-faced as the context in which they are used changes. That's why I've always had a strange sort of love for words. People are deceptive – they will find some way to let you down, without fail or pause for consideration. Words are either their weapon or cure.

"But I've always found that it's in the nature of all sentient life forms to seek the worst in their fellow beings. But their eyes give me hope. I have never seen the eyes of a child more full of malice and misunderstanding than wonder and innocence. As they grow older, the weight of their lives hardens that into adulthood.

"Experiences shape the person, I suppose, but I'd like to know what kind of experiences have worn away at your mind to form all those little grooves and cracks and twists and turns that make you... well, you.

"You are probably beginning to tire of reading this," –here Lux shook his head adamantly– "but tarry a moment. My reflections tend to drag on, and I have a way of circling around the point. I guess I just have a lot to say, and no one who really wants to listen.

"Listening in itself is an art as well. Many know how to talk, and how to share their opinions. But others, such as myself, are content to fade into the background, listening and learning in that way instead of bringing forth their ideals and innate methods of reflection.

"I wonder what stories you would have to tell if people really listened. There are always so many tall tales going around school about who's in a relationship with who and every little facet of the lives of the students who get noticed in all the right ways. But they are trivial bits of information. Nothing of consequence or truly satisfying to know ever comes to light.

"The other sort – the stories hidden in dark corners of our minds or even in plain sight – is the kind we listeners strive to unearth and absorb. And so, when the time is right, we can share them."

The bell dismissing the students for their lunch break rang, and his classmates packed up their things and left. But Lux hardly noticed any of it. He was too caught up with the beautiful, perplexing words that almost seemed to jump out of the page at him.

"What must it be like to see through the eyes of another? I can't really say, but I hope that you've found the answer at least partway while reading my writing. I wish I could find out what you're thinking, because, if I may address you frankly, there is more to you than an onlooker would see at first."

Suddenly, Lux felt two familiar mocha-skinned arms wind around his shoulders. "Hey, love," he said, kissing one of them absentmindedly and looking up at Steela's pretty face.

"What're you doing?" she asked, pressing her lips to his quickly.

"Finishing some reading," he answered vaguely. He was suddenly very aware that he was teetering on the edge of a Steela-storm-101, which was what he and his friends like to call her occasional short (but devastating) bursts of rage.

But he forced himself to stay calm. She was a true force to be reckoned with when she was angry, but he cared about her plenty enough to be able to see past that... Mostly.

"You really are devoted to learning all you can about politics, aren't you?" she said with a chuckle. "You know you won't be able to get into the City Council until you're twenty-five at least. Too many rules and regulations."

"My mother became an assistant Councilor when she was twenty, and then was elected when she was twenty-two. My dad made it when he was just a bit older than that," he reminded her. Then he smirked. "And you can bet I'm gonna try to top that off."

She rolled her eyes. "What are you reading, anyways?"

"Uh..."

Apparently, he was taking too long to answer for her liking. She grabbed the paper out of his hands before he could say anything. "Let me see."

Lux braced himself as she went completely still. Her carefully manicured nails dug into the paper, and she crumpled the two sides together a moment later.

"What is this?"

He winced at how low and dangerous her voice had become. There were few things that really shook him in life, but this, sadly, was near the top of the list of things that could. "I– I don't..." he stuttered.

"TELL ME WHAT THIS IS!" she screeched, and Lux was suddenly extremely thankful that everyone, including the teacher, had left the room to go to lunch.

"I swear I don't know!"

"Have you been cheating on me?" Her eyes were staring daggers at him.

"What? No! Why would you–"

"I saw how you were looking at that Togruta girl! You are so cheating on me!"

His eyes widened, and he jumped out of his seat. "I am not! Gods above and gods below, why the hell do you always assume everything's what it's not? I'm–"

"Is 'Snips' some kind of codename or something? Who the hell is she?" she demanded as if he hadn't even spoken.

And Lux had had enough.

"Stop jumping to conclusions and listen to me!" he roared, his hands balling up into fists.

Steela crossed her arms, her expression contemptuous. "Well?" she prompted him contemptuously. She was going to hear his explanation, but that didn't mean she was going to believe it. She was judge, jury and executioner all in one, and something in her voice told him her fury wasn't even close to spent yet.

"I just found it in my bag a little while ago," he said, forcing his voice back down to something that could pass off as normal. "I don't know where it even came from, dammit!"

She put up a hand, silencing him. "Doesn't matter. I'm going to put a stop this right now."

And with that, she stalked out of the room, her high heels making sharp clicking sounds with every step she took. Lux sank back down into his seat, growling to himself as he worked his fingers through his hair.

"She never listens to me. She never listens!" Then he sighed dejectedly. "How in Galactica am I going to fix this?"

For once, Lux's charming, political side whose principal function was to negotiate and make the best of any situation had no answer to give him.

Ahsoka had never been more thankful that it was lunch period.

The way their classes were structured, fourth period was split in half by lunch, so she didn't have to worry about having left her bag and all her things there. But even so, the other facets of this particular class had completely burnt out whatever limited powers of tolerance for the social side of things she had.

Why would someone even do this to her? Lux most certainly knew she was the sender of the letter – she remembered signing it with her first name. It would be all over the school by tomorrow, and what careful beginnings of an identity she'd made for herself would be torn down with four simple words:

"Ahsoka likes Lux Bonteri."

And so she sat on the balls of her feet over the toilet seat in her stall, her arms wrapped around herself, not too far from sick with fear.

Finally, after sitting there for quite some time in anxious rumination, she realized that if she didn't go out to buy herself a lunch soon, she was going to have to go without food until supper. And although she was fairly certain she wouldn't be able to eat much, she had an exceptionally difficult test for Galactican History coming up in sixth period. She would need her strength.

Bracing herself, she opened the door and walked over to a sink... Only to jump out of her skin when she realized Steela was standing right in front of her.

"Holy kriff...!" she gasped. "You scared me!"

"You think that was scary?" Steela replied, crossing her arms and closing the few feet of tile between them in a second. "You haven't even seen scary."

Suddenly, she lashed out, pinning Ahsoka's upper arm to the wall with a grip like iron. Ahsoka's breathing sped up, and she looked fearfully into Steela's flaming blue eyes.

"You are going to stop what you're doing right now," she said, her voice deadly calm. The pressure on Ahsoka's arm increased. "You are going to stay away from my boyfriend, or I swear I will end you."

"But I– I have no idea what you're–"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Steela said, cutting her off. "I've seen how you look at him. I've seen the letter. I know what you're planning." When Ahsoka said nothing, she barked out a laugh. "Coward! Why don't you just admit it to my face, you little 'fraidy-cat?

"But I'm n-not trying to do a-anything! I... I... I don't know–"

Ahsoka was cut off again as Steela landed a sharp slap on her cheek. She gasped in pain, sinking to the floor. She put her hand over her stinging skin, shocked and now, as Steela had indirectly promised, very much afraid.

"Stay away from him."

And with that, she exited the 'fresher, leaving Ahsoka to bring herself shakily to her feet and try to stop the tears of disbelief at what had just happened that were dripping down her face.

As she pulled her oversized knit sweater back down around her, her fingers found something that felt like paper, half-inside the front pocket on her jeans. She recognized it as the one she had put there while talking to Lux in the hallway before the start of homeroom. She unfolded it and read what was written upon it:

332 Sanctum Avenue. Come whenever you're ready. I'll be waiting. –A.S

The words had been scrawled in blue ink on the back of an advertisement for some sort of martial arts school. That couldn't be a coincidence.

But however it had been given to her, she was going to take the mysterious A.S's invitation. What she had just endured at the hands of Lux's girlfriend pretty much proven what she had always known deep down.

She was just a scared little girl trying to make her way in a world too big for her. And she needed to learn how to be brave.

*HOLY CRAP. 2518 WORDS. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO BE IMPRESSED WITH MYSELF OR FEARFUL ABOUT THE NATURE OF MY EXISTENCE.

Anyways, I am SO SORRY for the EXTREMELY long wait, you really didn't deserve it, but although I knew where I wanted to go with this story, I had no idea how to get there. My creativity just kind of... ran out with the lack of direction or channel to send it in. But then my friend and I started doing these skits about sworn enemies with lots of drama to help our stage performance abilities, and I am now fully armed with comebacks and inspiration for mean things for each side in the war for Lux Bonteri.

Because believe me, THERE IS GOING TO BE A WAR.

But don't worry, Steela will soon be temporarily out of the picture to allow Luxsoka to flourish and some surprising new things to develop. 

I'm actually REALLY HAPPY with the way this chapter turned out. The argument felt real to me, the threatening-Ahsoka were well-written, the reactions were believable, tie-ins to previous and upcoming events were good... 

And the letter was WEIRD. This is what I get for trying to combine Charlotte Bronte, J. K. Rowling, Markus Zusak and J. R. R. Tolkien in an attempt to get some sort of poetic jumble of words that's at the same time flowery nonsense and deep and thoughtful. Yeeeeaaaaahhh, I'm just going with stick to my own writing style from now on.

Also, what do you think of the new cover? I spent something like an hour trying to get all the details right... But at this rate I might just change it again, because I'm like that XD

Anyways, I have to finish the updates for HWOF and UAAT, which are well underway *says last few words like the Kaminoan prime minister from AOTC just because* and will be up sometime today or tomorrow.

Bye!

PS: The song is Ahsoka's theme song in this story :)