Whirlwind of Chaos

Chapter 5 - Life at the Temple

Ahsoka is in the cafeteria when she senses someone's watching her. This is the Temple, she knows. She's safe here, but her underlying instincts of 'this is never a good sign' start coming to the surface.

She glances around, gaze falling on someone seated at the other end of the long table where she's sitting. A human boy she doesn't recognize is sitting there, staring at her.

"What are you looking at?" she snaps irritably.

"I don't remember seeing you before," he replies, "Aren't you too old to start your training?"

"Well, the Council doesn't think so," she snips, scowling. That's always the first thing people say when they see her. She's getting really tired of it. Why can't they ever just leave her alone and stop bothering her? She's nothing extremely special, except her high midi-whatever count seems to disagree. Ugh.

He's quiet for a moment. "You're hardly special enough to have an exception made for you. You don't belong here." Anger flares inside of her. She knows she's never been accepted here, but hearing it said makes it hurt worse. She jumps to her feet, glaring daggers into him.

"What do you know?" she bites out, "No one's even taken you as a padawan yet."

He stands up too, shooting her a snide look. "What I know is that you're too old to ever become a proper Jedi. The Order doesn't need people like you –" He doesn't manage to finish his sentence before an orange fist connects with his face.

The boy stumbles back a step before swinging back at her, expression outraged. She doesn't even need to think before utilizing the self-defense lessons which her mother taught her. In less than a minute, they're rolling on the floor, trading blows.

"What's going on over here?" a sudden, familiar voice demands sharply.

The words immediately snap her back to reality. Ahsoka hastily disentangles herself from the boy, scrambling to her feet and ignoring the bruise forming on her jaw from the boy's fist. To be fair, he has his own fair share of bruises from her. Her montrals flush a little from embarrassment as she looks up at Obi-Wan. She didn't even realize he was here. How long was he watching? What will he say? Is – is he going to punish her for misbehaving, even if the other boy started the fight?

"She attacked me for no reason!" the boy splutters, glaring at her from the floor.

"Liar!" screeches Ahsoka, forcibly holding back the tears which threaten.

"No name calling," scolds her master, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Neither of you should be fighting."

"He said that I don't belong here," Ahsoka tells him sullenly. She does not regret attacking him.

"That's not a reason to fight," Obi-Wan informs her calmly. "Now, both of you apologize."

"What?" cries the boy standing up. "I didn't do anything to her!"

"You were being unkind," Obi-Wan says sternly, "And you should apologize for it." His gaze turns towards her, and she knows that he's including her in his words. She shrinks back under the scrutiny, wrapping her arms around her body.

"Sorry," she mumbles, staring down at the floor, refusing to meet the initiate's eyes.

"Sorry," he echoes, tone expressing just how not sorry he really is. He whirls, storming off across the cafeteria.

Obi-Wan sighs. "Come, Padawan. Let's go back to our quarters." Ahsoka is silent, letting her master guide her through the halls, a horrible feeling gnawing in the pit of her stomach. What if Obi-Wan decides she's too much of a burden and doesn't want her anymore? What will happen to her then? Where would she go? She's too young to do anything useful, and she doesn't want to go back to Tatooine.