There was a enclosed room with two beds, each opposite of each other. A bed came with two grey blankets and two pillows. A silver table with a matching chair was on the end of each bed. Holograms on the desks showed the time in dotty, blue numbers. Behind the beds, a small bathroom was lit with soft white light that would be shut off once all the other lights were turned off.  A thin closet was filled with various coloured jumpsuits, ranging from beige to blue. It was a quaint room, sufficient for pilots' needs.

"You're thinking about him again," said Paige. Victoria looked over from her seat on her bed and at at her roommate and best friend.

"What?" she asked. Paige turned over also, black hair falling over her own shoulders. The girls were in their dorm for the night.

"You're thinking about Dameron again. I can tell by the sighs, and the way you're moving around in your bed more than usual," Paige pointed out. Vicky gave a frown.

"I don't...sigh," she said. Paige raised an eyebrow. "And why would I be thinking about him?" Vicky leaned on the wall and looked back at the blue holograms coming from the tablet in her hands. She was planning out another attack outline to add to the pile. Without Poe though, it was a bit difficult. None of her other pilots had the nerve to actually get as close as he did to a First Order Star Destroyer.

"Because," Paige said. "You like him." Vicky scoffed.

"I don't have time for that."

"For love?" the other girl teased.

"Stop encouraging him," Vicky muttered. "And it's not love."

"Vic, c'mon. You always say you're 'too busy' for everything. And I mean everything."

"Sorry that I have things to do!" Vicky said in defense. Paige waved her hand.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." There was a pause, and Vicky played the simulation of her fleet, a combination of the Red and Blue Squadrons, on the tablet, thinking over fighting strategies. "I'm going to sleep," Paige said. She turned and pulled the thin blanket over her. "Get some sleep too, Vic. You need it. Night."

Paige Tico was Vicky's best and closest friend in the Resistance. She was the first person who had said anything to Vicky on her first day, and they soon became inseparable. Even though Paige was on the Cobalt bomb squad (she was an exceptional gunner for a MG-100 StarFortress SF-17), Vicky still thought she was one of the kindest people ever and used every opportunity to be with her. Not to mention her little sister was adorable. The two girls were often seen together, from the mess hall to the Resistance hangers.

"I will. Good night," Vicky murmured. She rested her head on the wall and sighed a bit, thinking about her co-commander.

"Sighing," Paige said.

"Go to sleep! Geez!" laughed Vicky.

"Whatever, Vicky," came the reply.

Vicky turned off the tablet and placed it on the desk nearby. She laid down, waved her hand to turn off the light, and then pulled the blanket up to her chin. She dreamed of glowing stars and loud fighter jets zooming through dark space.

•••

"Morning," Paige said. Vicky rubbed her eyes as she walked over.

"Hey." The line for food moved slowly as people picked out their breakfasts. Paige plopped some "space mush" (a nickname popular in the Resistance) in a bowl and sprinkled a couple preserved fruits on it. Vicky did the same and grabbed a small cup with a dark drink.

"You always wake up so late for a commander," a brunette named Aziah said. He was behind them and put some food on his tray.

"Shut up, Azi," Vicky said with a yawn. He put his hands up in surrender but laughed. Aziah Ramires was a pilot in the Red Squadron and flew a speedy RZ- 2 A-Wing. The man was quirky, and Vicky soon learned to admire him for his flying skills. Not as daring as Poe, he still was very fast against the First Order ships. 

"Where's the co-commander?" Aziah asked.  The three sat down at a table. The mess hall in the Resistance was a simple white and often-cleaned cafeteria. It usually was full of people though. It wasn't mandatory to eat there, but if you stayed in your room, there wasn't a complete guarantee for food. Vicky usually arrived for meals late, either because of sleep or training.

"Poe? He left yesterday for a mission," Vicky said. She started eating as Paige winked at her. Vicky rolled her eyes. "Stop that."

"Well, he'll be missed," Aziah said with a sigh.

"Sure will," Paige chirped. Vicky hit her arm, and the other girl yelped. "I was stating a fact! Calm down!"

"You two are weird," Aziah laughed. Vicky laughed with him and put a strand of hair behind her ear.

"But anyways, Dameron is coming back soon, so we'll be fine." Aziah nodded.

"There's no Violet Leader without her Black Leader." Paige burst out laughing, and Vicky grumbled something along the lines of 'I don't need him...' "Anyways," Aziah grinned, "How's your sis?" The man turned to Paige. She smiled.

"Great! Rose loves it here, so ya know."

"What does Rose do again?" said Aziah. More pilots and Resistance workers began to crowd around them at different tables.

"I take her on missions sometimes," Paige said. "She also is a worker for pipes and stuff, but I'd rather her be on my ship."

"She's very protective," Vicky patted Paige.

"She really is," a new voice came in. They all looked up to see a small, Asian girl with a big smile and a Resistance uniform.

"Hey Rose!" Paige beamed. "Here, there's a spot right next to me." She patted the bench, and Rose went to sit next to her older sister.

"Hi Rose," Aziah greeted. Rose smiled more.

"Hi! What are you all talking about? I just heard the last sentence."

"You actually," Vicky said. She continued to eat. Rose blushed.

"Really?"

"Really really," Paige said. She always lit up around her sister.

"Well I gotta go for some boring meeting," Aziah said, finishing off his food. He stood up and carried his tray away. "See you guys!" Vicky, Paige, and Rose waved as the man walked away.

"So Pai-Pai," Rose started. "Today I was thinking we could..."

Vicky zoned out of the sisters' conversation and continued to eat while looking around the mess hall at the various Resistance workers. Poe usually sat across from or next to her, talking her ear off. She always missed his pointless banter whenever he went on missions without her. She smiled to herself at the thought of the pilot. She remembered the first time she saw him in the mess hall...

"Who's the new guy?" Paige nodded towards a guy sitting near where they had planned to sit. He looked like a pilot. Vicky yawned and shrugged.

"I think he's in my fleet," she said. Paige made an impressed face, and the two walked over.

"Hi!" Paige smiled brightly. The man looked up and waved.

"Hey."

"I'm Paige Tico, nice to meet you." She stuck out a hand and sat down. He shook it. Vicky just sighed. Paige always wanted to meet new people. Vicky sat down next to her friend.

"I'm Poe Dameron." He smiled.

"Like the son of the Rebellion pilots?" Paige said with interest. Poe nodded.

"Yep. Those are my folks."

"That's so cool!" exclaimed the girl. Poe laughed a little and looked at Vicky.

"Woah." That was everyone's first reaction to Vicky's bright green eyes and purple streaked hair. Not to mention the purple line down her face. She started eating a preserved fruit.

"My name isn't 'woah', Mr. Dameron," she said. "It's Victoria Yue." He widened his eyes at her.

"Oh sorry, no I just uh," he stammered. Paige held in her laugh. "You just look really cool. Sorry. And call me Poe."

"No problem, I get it a lot," Vicky said. Paige turned back to Poe.

"So you're a pilot I'm guessing?" He nodded again.

"Yeah. I joined because I heard the Starfighter Corps was running low or people. I'm on the Blue Squadron. You know it?"

"Know it? She's the highest ranking newbie," Paige said with a grin while pointing at her friend. Vicky shrugged and kept eating. Poe raised an eyebrow.

"So you're the daredevil the captain was talking about?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm taking your place soon, sorry," he said. Both girls looked up sharply. It was Vicky's turn to raise her eyebrow.

"Oh, is that so?" she asked. Poe smirked.

"Yep. Be ready, Ms. Yue," he said.

"You should be preparing for me, not the other way around. And call me Victoria," she shot back. He scoffed and stood up.

"Don't be surprised when my black X-Wing passes you. See you ladies," he waved. Vicky gave a short laugh.

"He's a cocky one," she muttered. "And did he say 'black X-Wing'?"

"I think he likes you or something," Paige said. Vicky gave her a look.

"Uh why?"

"He's kinda staring at you right now." She pointed, and Vicky looked up to see Poe staring at her from near the food line. She waved a bit, and he jumped, waved awkwardly, and then ran off. Both girls laughed.

"He'll be interesting to be with," Paige nudged her purple-haired friend.

"Whatever. He's won't beat me in anything, though," Vicky said. "He can't be that good, right?"

"Vicky?" Paige waved a hand in front of her face. Vicky rubbed her eyes. "Are you awake?"

"Sorry, was thinking about something," she replied. She looked around a little. The cafeteria seemed more empty. "Where did Rose go?"

"She had to leave. Some Resistance duties," Paige said.

"Time to train?" Vicky asked. Paige nodded, and the two stood up.

"I hate training."

•••

Training honestly was not that bad. Paige just hated how she had to train without her sister. Usually the pilots and gunners of bigger ships, like bombers, went into rooms with holosimulators, devices that stimulated what it was like inside a ship without even boarding one. Paige hated being stuck in a room filled with holograms and equipment without her sister and her best friend.

Vicky, on the other hand, didn't use holosimulators as much. Because her fleet was made of smaller fighters, they could practice defensive formations out in space most of the time. If they were practicing more offensive and dangerous techniques, they used the holosimulator rooms to not waste ammunition.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Vicky said into her com. She finished warming up the engines of her X-Wing and felt the wings expand. "I'm going out."

"Roger that," said Aziah into her ear. He led most of the A-Wings from both squadrons out.

"Roger that and following you, Violet Leader," Jessika Pava, an X-Wing pilot in the Blue squadron, said. More pilots started to sign in and followed Vicky out into the dark outside.

"Where's the Black Leader?" Captain Tallissan Lintra, Tallie for short, called. She was the Blue Leader and skillfully flew a RZ-2 A-Wing. Aziah snickered.

"Did he leave you?" Jess teased to Vicky. Vicky rolled her eyes and flipped another switch. Her astromech droid, EV-12, twittered.

"Yeah I know, Ev," she said. "You don't think this'll work without Poe. Well too bad." The droid whistled again. "Ok ok geez! You don't have to insult my flying skills!" 

"So what happened to him?" Jess asked again. She did some warm up maneuvers in her X-Wing.

"Blue Three, showing off yet again," Aziah muttered. Vicky laughed.

"Poe went on another mission." The whole squadron groaned. "Yeah, yeah I know."

"He's ALWAYS gone," Yolo Ziff, another X-Wing fighter or Blue Two, complained. "He needs to train with us!"

"Well," Vicky said, "the General wants him to go on solo missions, so what can we do?" More groans. "Stop whining, Blue Squadron." There were some snickers from the Red Squad. "You too, Reds."

"There's no Violet Leader without her Black Leade-" Aziah started to say.

"Ok ok I get it, Red Five, shut it," Vicky muttered. He laughed.

"Ready to train, commander?" Tallie asked.

"All ready, Blue Leader," Vicky grinned. "I sent you all my plans. Let's see if this works."

Several practice sessions later, Vicky landed her unique violet, black, and white X-Wing back into the Resistance hanger. She had roughly painted it when she first arrived at the Resistance, but she had actually gotten professional decals done later on. She saw Paige below, waving. She waved back with a grin as the plane's wheels hit the ground. The Blue and Red Squadron fighters landed around her.

Vicky's cockpit hissed open, and some workers strapped down the landing gear. Vicky climbed down the ladder and pulled off the helmet from her red suit, releasing her purple hair.

"How was training? You guys were out there for awhile," Paige commented. Vicky nodded.

"Yep," she said. "I had to give Poe's usual stuff to Jess to practice." She handed the helmet to someone and unhooked one of a packs from her back. EV-12 rolled out and bumped into Vicky's leg. The small droid matched her X-Wing, purple and black with a hint of white. It had become very important to Vicky over the years, although she wasn't as close to it as Poe was to BB-8. "Hey, Ev. I'll see you later, ok? Good work out there." EV-12 whistled cheerfully and then rolled off into the hanger.

"So you miss him?" Paige smirked. The two girls started walking back to the mess hall for another meal, pilots chattering around them. Vicky groaned.

"Will you ever let this go? I don't like him! I swear!"

"Ha! I object to that! And I'm never letting this go."

"I'm getting a new best friend."

"Is it Poe?"

"Holy..."

~

argh i love paige tico sooo much (if you're one of those rose haters - i'm sorry, but if you're gonna read this book, you're gif to have to deal with the ticos being kinda pretty important)

also if you couldn't tell from this chapter, i did a HECK ton of research like seriously omg dalvs

all of those pilots are canon star wars pilots, and all of those callsigns and star fighters and squadrons and other random stuff are all in the star wars universe

ONE EXCEPTION: aziah ahaha he's my character

oh also i'm sorry that i kinda messed up other canon study though

for example, poe actually joined the new republic pilot thingy first and THEN leia recruited him as a commander for the rapier squad

buuuut i changed it because i was a lazy person so SORRYYYY AHHHHHH

hope you enjoyed!

PS: with this book, one of my main goals is to try and write like steinbeck a bit ehe