𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐒 [ 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬 ] ✘

Tragic Circumstances [young!Padme]

It is a cloudy and rainy morning, there is nothing happy about this day. Tears soak a young girl's face as she rides in the back of a burgundy speeder. Her mother is up front, driving, while her sister sits in the back beside her, trying to console her. A long line of speeders drive behind them, a long white hearse ahead of them. As the speeders pull into a gloomy cemetery, the girl tries to hide her tears. She cannot let everyone know she is crying. She cannot let them see how much she hurts.

As her mother stops the speeder, her and her sister open their doors and step out onto the wet ground. They follow the preacher under a small, blue open tent. They all take seats up front in front of a long, brown casket. The casket is finely decorated with carved angels and flowers. Friends and relatives sit down behind them. The preacher begins the ceremony.

He tells of the deceased's life, family, friends, and of course, his death. But, above all, how he cared for each and every one of them. Finally, the time has come to bury him. To say goodbye to the man in the casket. As is tradition, the sisters placed the beautiful, yellow, Nubian flowers on the casket. As they lower him into the ground, her mother begins to weep.

Her and her sister place their arms around their mother and lay their heads on her shoulders. The girl looks down into the casket for the last time. She sees a strong man with graying brown hair. He was in the prime of his life. Now he was gone. Large men in gray suits thrust dirt onto the casket.

All she had now were her memories. After the preacher dismissed, he walked over to them. He placed his hand on her mother's shoulder.

"It's alright, Jobal. Shhh. There, there." he said, patting her on the back gently.

He then turned to the girls.

"Sola, Padme, Senator Revlin Naberrie was a great man. He will be duly missed. I see your father in the both of you. I also see that you will grow up being like him."

He then turned back to Jobal and helped her back to her speeder, Sola and Padme in tow. Padme and Sola climbed into the back seats of the speeder while their mother got in the front. As they pulled away from the cemetery, Padme held back her tears. Sola placed her arm around Padme. Padme laid her head on her shoulder and closed her eyes, wishing the pain away and remembering simpler times...

*Three Months Earlier*

"Padme! Breakfast!" Jobal called from the kitchen.

Padme groaned in response.

*Five Minutes Later*

"Padme! Get up!" Jobal called even louder this time.

*Five More Minutes Later*

"PADME NABERRIE! GET UP THIS INSTANT!" Jobal yelled.

Suddenly, Padme heard loud, rapidly moving feet stomping up the stairs.

"Padme! You get up now!"

Padme groaned and covered up her head with her pillow.

"Padme! You have to get to school in an hour!"

"No!" Padme said sleepily, muffled by her pillow.

"Padme. Palo is going to be there," Jobal said grinning, knowing that would get her up.

"Palo?" Padme asked, uncovering her head.

"Yes, Palo. You know, that boy with 'dark, curly hair and dreamy eyes'." her mother said, repeating the words she had said a couple of days earlier.

"Mom!" Padme said, turning her head to face her mother.

Jobal laughed and then proceeded to head down the stairs. Padme rolled her eyes and hopped out of bed. Ten minutes later, Padme came down the stairs, dressed in a dark, puffy-sleeved velvet blue shirt covered by a maroon jumper with navy blue tights underneath.

"You see mother? This is what you get when you let her dress herself," Sola commented, eating her cereal a spoonful at a time.

Suddenly, Sola missed her mouth and cereal and milk fell from the spoon onto her dark red dress.

"You see mother? This is what you get when you let Sola feed herself," Padme said, smirking.

"That's enough, you two! Now, Padme, go get dressed in something less...you," Jobal said, frowning at Padme's less than Senatorial outfit.

Padme frowned.

"And Sola, clean yourself up."

Both of the girls headed upstairs to their rooms. They came back down twenty minutes later. Sola was wearing a black sweater, a bright green t-shirt, dark denim jeans, and dark black tights underneath paired with dark blue boots.

"Very nice, girls," Jobal said, turning to Padme, "the both of you."

The girls ate their cereal quickly and then headed out the door.

"Goodbye, girls!" their mother called after them.

Sola and Padme let their-selves into the dark house. Jobal had already left a while ago for work.

Hm, time to have fun, Padme thought to herself with a smirk.