Learning

Chapter 19: Next Steps

Ahsoka did not smile, did not eat, did not drink. Wouldn't look after herself. She refused point blank to change out of her pajamas and stayed in bed all day. The people that Officers Rex and Cody mentioned were a social worker, therapist and her mum's lawyer.

The social worker was in charge of finding Ahsoka a legal guardian to live with until she became an adult. Ahsoka was the meanest towards her but still refused to consider going to live with Hosin and his new wife and kids. This put her in a difficult position as Hosin could legally fight to get her to live with him or Ahsoka would be forced to go into care. With a social worker at her back, it was impossible for Ahsoka to be left without a homeless. The therapist arrived to look after Ahsoka's wellbeing and 'help her through the trauma of losing one's mother at such a young age' as they put it. They said silly things like that from time to time but Ahsoka didn't actually mind him. He reminded her a lot of a cross between Mr Skywalker and her dad. The lawyer was the only person whom Ahsoka was already familiar with. Miss Tekla, she'd been in charge of Ashla's finances when the divorce happened. It was thanks to her that her and Ahsoka were able to keep the home which Ahsoka had grown up in.

Miss Tekla came in at around two'o'clock with a bag of fast food and fruit for Ahsoka to eat. While she was no therapist she knew that Ahsoka's disregard for her health was bad. "Hola, Ahsoka, ¿Tienes hambre?" Miss Tekla sat down on her bed next to her, placing the bag of food between them.

Ahsoka shook her head but eyed the food hungrily. The truth was, her stomach had been growling all day but she refused to give in and survive on something in her stomach other than the microwaved pizza she had last night. In her eyes, eating, or moving forward in any way, would make it permanent. If Ahsoka moved on from before Ashla died, then she would be on her own. Despite this, her body remained unaware of the mental and emotional pain its growling caused her. "No, gracias, Senorita Tekla. ¿por qué estas aquí?" Ahsoka had lost any grip on reality, she really did not care next what happened to her.

Miss Tekla sighed at her lack of success in getting Ahsoka to start eating again. "I'm here to try and talk to you about two wills. The one for your Mum and the one for Mr Sharn. Ashla was returning home with the official paperwork that entitled you to his stock, correct?" Ahsoka nodded, mute. "Well now with your Mum's untimely passing, that falls to you. The paperwork is already here and if you just sign here, this matter will be resolved." She handed her a pen and watched as Ahsoka wrote out her signature before tucking it away in her bag with a flourish. "Excellent, now about Ashla's will. It appears as though she didn't change it after she divorced your Father. If I remember correctly, it was quite a tricky divorce so I imagine now Ashla wouldn't want 'all her worldly possessions to go to him'. That would also fall to you in a perfect world. However, we are bound by law to follow the will to the letter. So until your Dad signs this off and we can put your signature on it, everything that belonged to your Mum, and subsequently to you, now belongs to Hosin." Her words seemed to have made a slight dent in Ahsoka's shell but not by a lot.

She barely glanced at the will in Miss Tekla's hand. "Así que será mejor que lo encuentres entonces." Ahsoka then laid back down on her bed and closed her eyes, a signal that she wished to be left alone.

Miss Tekla looked mournfully at her before lightly petting her on the head. "Well then, I will see you tomorrow Ahsoka to discuss any goodbye services. I think Mrs Talzen will see you soon. Adiós." She left Ahsoka alone to try to deal with her grief.

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Mrs Talzen was Ahsoka's new social worker. She seemed insistent on getting Ahsoka into a proper family but she wasn't making it easy. Ahsoka's therapist informed her that was because the teenagers was still grieving and stuck in denial. While Mrs Talzen understood this, the longer Ahsoka was left without a legal guardian, the harder it would be to find her one and let her adjust to them. Knocking on her bedroom door, she brought Ahsoka a bottle of water and a spare change of clothes. "Hello dear, how do you feel?" She asked her, choosing to remain standing by the door.

Ahsoka barely rolled over and didn't say anything. She did think some things though. 'How do you think I am? My Mum is dead, you are trying to force me to live with people I don't know or like and the outside world is carrying on as though nothing has happened.' She didn't say any of this though, just listened slightly to what the older woman was saying. It made little sense to her but Ahsoka knew that other adults would want to know and understand what she said.

"You know, I have made contact with your Dad and-"

"¡¿QUÉ!? ¡NO, MÍ PAPÁ NO SE PREOCUPA POR MÍ! ¡NUNCA TE DI PERMISO PARA HABLAR CON ÉL! ¡SALIR! ¡AHORA!" Ahsoka shouted at her, enraged. This was enough to make her get our of bed for she pushed Mrs Talzen out of her bedroom. She then continued to shout at her until the woman left her house, still seething at the lack of sympathy this person showed her.

Ahsoka Tano simply wasn't ready to move on and accept the new reality that she was living in. It was too cruel. Exhausted from her emotions and the sudden movement, Ahsoka made her way back inside her bedroom where she snuggled into her bed, falling fast asleep.

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When she awoke again, it was seven'o'clock. Ahsoka had slept for five hours yet she felt more tired than ever. Tired of life, of people, of... Grief. It was like this huge, invisible storm cloud above her that sucked the life out of everything and the breath out of her lungs. Ahsoka felt like it chained her to the ground, refusing to let her move even an inch forward, pulling her back into its miserable embrace. Grief is what held her back and Ahsoka wasn't sure how to handle it. Grief was different to the anger and injustice she'd felt around her parents' divorce. It has no direction to it, the anger could be directed at a bunch of people but grief... Grief just hugged her, wrapping her in a blanket that refused to ever let her be happy again.

Her therapist, a Mr Bail Organa, was a kind man, maybe around Hosin's age. He never got frustrated with her despite her difficult nature in this time. He too had lost his mother so understood to a degree the suffering she was in. He was meant to come and see her at around dinner time to again, try and get her to eat however Ahsoka had slept through their meeting. She was very grateful to Mr Organa that he hadn't taken it upon himself to wake her up.

With it being nearly twenty hours since she last ate or went to the toilet, Ahsoka's body was in utter turmoil. With a heavy sigh, she pulled her dehydrated, starving and desperate body out of bed and went to the bathroom. She surprised herself when afterwards she vomitted up the remaints of her pizza. Ahsoka guessed that many things hadn't been good for her body today. Then she made her way downstairs and made herself a ham sandwich. That opened up the floodgates and Ahsoka collapsed to the floor in a pile of tears. She managed to eat the food though without any incident despite her tears. Things were different and difficult at the moment for Ahsoka and regardless of what anyone said, she wasn't sure that they would get better. However, she was willing to try, to make Ashla proud.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, apologises for any incorrect Spanish or how people grieve. I've never lost anyone. I'll update again tomorrow most likely, sorry for the mistake with the updating yesterday. Bye, bye.