the ninjago academy of jedi | star wars/ninjago au

𝙩𝙬𝙤 | pod racing

ASTRA RIPPED OFF the end of the tape and hurled the offending roll across the living room. It bounced off the curved stone walls and rolled to a stop back next to Astra. Getting to her feet, Astra pushed the large box towards the front door, heaving it up the tiny step that had inconvenienced her the entire time packing that day.

"Great job, Astra! Can you come help me over in the kitchen?" her mother requested. Astra nodded, giving the box one last shove out the front door into a large crate where half the boxes already were stacked. Once in the kitchen, she worked side by side with her mother and packed away most of the crockery they didn't use.

"You're not planning to make abishka this week, right?"

Astra shook her head. "Takes too long since it needs to prove, and I'll, y'know, be packing."

"Astra honey, I want to talk about how you're feeling about the move. I know Lloyd is cool with it, but you seemed so excited and now you just..."

Sighing, Astra wrapped a glass bowl carefully and set it into another box. "I was but...I just don't know." Oh, she knew very well why she wasn't excited.

The initial burst of excitement when Pa had said 'We're moving' felt like someone had injected her with ten shots of illegal Vareena coffee-faze. Coffee-faze was originally sold commonplace on Vareena, but after thousands of workers had been submitted to hospital from the long term effects, it had been banned from being sold.

At least, above ground. Sneaks like Brad and Gene's Pa's and Ma's worked around the clock to keep illegal substances like coffee-faze in trade. Astra didn't want to deal with illegal smuggling. It didn't mean she was a goody two shoes, but messing with that stuff was about a hundred times worse than playing pranks on Helly.

Lloyd could berate her all he wanted for podracing, but Brad and Gene were not kids you wanted to joke around with. The only reason they didn't bully Astra and Lloyd was because the twins - eleven at the time - had fought both of them in the playground. The twins came away with broken fingers, but Brad and Gene left the fight with a broken nose, bruises, and nearly half an arm twisted off.

Didn't mean she liked the two, but Lloyd had started to hang around them a lot recently, so she was worried.

"If you do understand why at any point, let me know, okay? I can't understand it from your view point, but moving planets at fifteen surely can't be any fun."

"Yeah I will, Ma. D'you want these in the cyber-crate as well?" Astra packed on a bit of extra tape, and with Misako's confirmation, she hauled that box out as well.

It was now mid-way through the week, and Astra wasn't feeling any more enthused than she had been at the start. Time was ticking for her departure from Vareena, and as much as she'd constantly told her family and friends, she was a little sad leaving so abruptly. More so because she was missing her third backstreet podrace.

"Hey Ma, can I take a break? I'm gonna head into Mark 24 and say goodbye to some friends."

"Of course, but be back by First Moon, okay?"

"Yep, First Moon, got it." Astra pulled on her wrist and ankle bindings, outside tunics and then double checked the straps on her boots before striding out into the hot sun.

She was not planning on walking 18 Marks just to 'say goodbye to some friends'. Marks could be tiny or they could be huge, and either way, Astra didn't want to waste time. Descending down the steps in a small out-shed a hundred metres from their house that Pa used to use for gardening tools, Astra flicked on the light and then smiled proudly.

Bowing her head so she didn't bang it on the ceiling, Astra pulled the century-old jumpspeeder out into the open.

"Oh, come on," she groaned, thumping the ignition until it spluttered to life. "Better."