Learning

Chapter 9: Additions

Lux had been sat on the wall outside the gate to Temple Academy listening to music when Ahsoka tapped on his headphones. He jumped at the sudden noise but smiled at the sight of her. "Hey, seems as though you survived the night. How are you?" Lux asked as he removed his headphones and smiled at Barriss who came up behind her friend.

Ahsoka smiled but he could see that there was a sadness hidden away in her eyes. "I'm fine thank you, I came to return your jacket to you." She took off her bag and reached into it before pulling out the carefully folded jacket that she had taken good care of.

Lux's eyes widened. "Oh, thanks Ahsoka. I did forget to ask for this back, didn't I? Mother and I hadn't even noticed that I hadn't returned with it. Still, thanks for giving it back, I really like this jacket. How are you... Barriss?" He asked her as he put the jacket into his bag.

Barriss pulled Ahsoka back from him slightly and gave him a tight smile. "I am well, it's always nice when Ahsoka comes over for a sleepover, even if it is unannounced." She nudged Ahsoka's shoulder who winced slightly. "Oh sorry, are you okay?" Barriss asked her, concerned.

Ahsoka shrugged it off. "It's fine I just cut myself this morning. Loose nail, that's all." She pushed her bike along the ground while Barriss and Lux followed closely behind her. A bell rang out across the grounds. "We really are cutting close this year." Ahsoka laughed as she hurried to put her bike away. Barriss laughed as well as Lux moved on slightly. "I'll see you later." She told her as Barriss nodded and ran off towards her Tutor room on the other side of the school.

Lux and Ahsoka were both in the same block so they quickly made their way over to it. "Ahsoka?" Lux asked her, pulling her to a halt outside the building. "How did you really hurt your shoulder? It's unique to cut it with a loose nail." He folded his arms and gave her a gentle smile.

Ahsoka frowned and felt defensiveness rise in her. Lux may have been kind to her last night and he may just being trying to look out for her but the implication that he didn't trust her filled Ahsoka with cruelty. "Well then I guess I  unique Lux. It's none of your business to decide what I say is true or not. A good friend simply trusts others, you and I barely know each other." She knew that that last statement may have taken things too far but she wasn't here to have the posh boy's pity. Ahsoka turned on her heel and walked into the building and hurried away to her room, leaving Lux behind.

People had already started to fill in the room and were looking excitedly at the board. Looking over her shoulder, Ahsoka saw it was a picture of a town: It wasn't their town and it had no colour or features. A sense of dread filled her as to what Mr Skywalker had planned for them today. He grinned at their excited faces before turning in Ahsoka's direction, pulling a funny face at her. She tried not to smile but Ahsoka could feel it tugging at her lips. "Sirrrr! What are we doing today? What's with the board?" Cal Kestis shouted over the noise.

Anakin chuckled and turned to the rest of the class as he stood up in front of them. "Well you see, our schedule says that today is ordered to be PHSCE sessions which is fine however that sounded boring. We were meant to be learning about county lines however that's a bit heavy for your second day back and we can always learn about that later. What I have in plan is to design our perfect town." Excited whispers rippled around the classroom as the students cheered about not doing something that they found extremely boring. "Yes, yes, I know, settle down. Anyway this is something we will do whenever I don't feel like doing what we were allocated for a particular day. Now, today all I want you to do is create a list of features that you think a town should include, can be absolutely anything you want. But first, register." He sat down at his desk and started to rattle off names.

Once that was finished, he looked around and chose Kanan to hand out the A4 papers. Kanan nodded gleefully and dutifully fulfilled the task. "Thanks Kanan." Ahsoka nodded at him as she took out a pen and started brainstorming. "Let's see, what do I want?" Ahsoka muttered to herself and looked around for inspiration. Half the class seemed to be scribbling away at their paper to fill it with ideas while the test of the group were looking slightly lost as well.

Anakin must've seen that they looked a bit overwhelmed so he started to write a few ideas on the board: School, town hall, playground, emergency service buildings, housing and shops- What kinds? They were good ideas and Ahsoka noticed that many people now had their heads down and were brainstorming thanks to Mr Skywalker's help. Ahsoka however was still stumped. She didn't know what was wrong with her, she often had enough inspiration to be able to get right ideas down at least on this topic.

Mr Skywalker saw that she hadn't started yet and kneeled down beside her. "You've really got no ideas? Seriously? Not even a gym, sports centre, library, hospital. Nothing?" Ahsoka shook her head, feeling ashamed that she was letting him down. "That's okay, just write down what I've wrote on the board and the other things that I've said. Perhaps you can try and see how these particular buildings could be more... Ahsoka-fied?" He grinned at her and Ahsoka found herself smiling as well.

"I could do a clothes store, or a homeless shelter, maybe an adoption centre." Ahsoka suggested and Anakin nodded.

"Yeah that's great, keep thinking!" He gave her a thumbs up before looking towards the back of the classroom. "Cal! Why are you climbing out the window? This isn't a prison although you could include that in your list. What have you got already?" Mr Skywalker walked over to where Cal had been using the chairs and tables to climb out the window so that his torso was actually outside.

Ahsoka shook her head at their antics and looked back down at her list. It didn't look so sad now with a good few things on it. She pulled out a highlighter and coloured in the ideas she had originally come up with. It seemed pretty good. A commotion outside drew her eyes to the window that allowed them to see into the hallway where Lux's Tutor group were loudly passing. They must be going to a computer room or something. People passed by and waved to them as well as pull silly faces through the window but Ahsoka was only looking for Lux. She felt terrible for how she'd shouted at him earlier.

Sure enough, she caught a mess of brown hair pass just above the window but Lux didn't look in. Ahsoka sighed but she knew better than to fixate on that one tiny detail. Looking down at her paper, Ahsoka added three new facilities: Abandoned warehouse, a skate park and a sport pitch. This was turning out to be surprising fun.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I thought that the Tutor activity was a lot of fun. I'll update again tomorrow so adiós.