Blast from the past (1950's Star Wars AU)

[un_handed]

Summer 1952, it was just starting and shaping up to be a beauty. Most kids were getting that antsy feeling of the nearness of vacation and the want of freedom. But there were still three more week of school before that bell rang and let the kids free for the next three months.

Idyllic towns like Havencrest were almost too perfect this time of year. With their well-manicured lawns and pretty picket-fenced houses. The same could not be said of Bleakburn, just one set of train tracks over but a whole different world. The houses were not so quaint and the colors not so cheery.

Mara lived in Bleakburn, her family had for three generations now. She went to Bleakburn High School, or BBHigh as they called it, home of the Imperials. They had a reputation, as many towns that were not as well off as their neighbors, of being rough. That suited Mara just fine, she wasn't the sort of girl who felt like she needed any particular favor with the people of Havencrest and certainly never did anything to seek it out.

There were scuffles often enough between the rival schools but nothing, as yet, had been too bad. Street races, pranks, the occasional party was crashed but things remained a fairly constant level of general dislike between the towns. Both of whom claimed the one place that was any sort of fun, Moe Isleys. A diner that used the wide white back wall of the joint as a screen after dark and doubled as a local drive-in and hang-out. Sometimes they'd clear the parking lot and hold mixers there but more often than not it was used to watch the newest (that Moe could get his hands on) schlock film making rounds.

Mara had been there enough times to be recognizable, not just for her flame-red hair but also because she rode a motorcycle. Something she always grinned about when the 'Cresters looked at her with gaping mouths and dropped jaws. Keep staring, squares. In three more weeks she'd graduate and then she'd hit the road and leave both these towns behind her. She wasn't sure where exactly she'd go but the hell out of dodge sounded good to her.

That's why she was out here tonight, making some early goodbyes to friends she wouldn't be seeing again before she left because of this or that. So, like most bored kids in both towns, she headed to Moe's. Jeans rolled up over engineer boots, a black leather jacket and a black t-shirt beneath she could have been mistaken for a boy riding up. But when she parked and took off her helmet it was very clear she was anything but. She straddled her bike and hooked her helmet to the back and waved to a few people she recognized.

Comments

[un_handed]

"It was never just about that. I wouldn't have kissed you if you weren't cute." She took her coke again and sipped, lips curling up into a smile of pure mischief.

"Of course pissing off the idiots was a pretty good bonus."

[from_twin_suns]

He chuckled a bit. "You should, uh, give me your number for next time. I could keep you updated on the chaos and havoc you wreak on the social scene."

He paused a bit, reaching for his own drink.

"You know," he said, casually, "dance is coming up. Now, I was expected to ask someone who is now very huffy with me. So you've already helped me out there. I was thinking, since we're kinda doing things out of order...maybe it'd be nice to find out what it's like to dance together, have a proper date, after the kissing."

His eyes sparkled, with a hint of mischief of his own.

"The offer to take you up in the duster is separate from that, of course. Just to be clear."

[un_handed]

"Got a pencil?" She had no shame, at least not when it came to something she was interested in and this farm boy counted in that in spades.

but then he followed it up just as she was sipping coke and she had to bury her face in the crook of her elbow to keep from coughing, laughing, and choking all at once. A moment later and cheeks still red, eyes possibly waters from the bite of carbonated citric acid up her nose, she looked at him incredulously.

"You think my stunt got tongues wagging, if one of you took one of me to a dance those uptight hens might just explode."

[from_twin_suns]

Well, if you're being successful, keep it going.

"Well that's one way to scramble the eggs, at least. But I'd like to ask you anyways."

And that look on her face was rather absurdly cute, wasn't it?

[un_handed]

"I'm tempted to say yes just to see if you'll follow through with it." And to enjoy the thought of heads blowing up like overinflated beachballs.

"Wait, is it one of those fancy dances? How much will I need to dress up for it?" She did have dresses, and she did clean up well, but she had to make a point that she would be putting effort into it.

[from_twin_suns]

"Hopefully," he replied, "quite a bit." He shrugged. "I'll be wearing my best," he added.

Which ought to answer very well whether or not he planned to follow through.

"Look, life is short. Who knows how long I'll be here? Or where we'll be in a year or two? You're...something else. I want to see what all things that means."

[un_handed]

"I think I can manage something, but no laughing or I'll punch you out." After all he'd only seen her in something more street appropriate.

"I'll add an address to that phone number when you get me paper and a pencil." she was agreeing to go with him and even to let him drive, that said a lot.

Maybe there was a whole lot more to him than just where he was from, and she sure liked the way he'd stepped up in kissing and asking her out. She might have taken the first steps with him but he was not lollygagging behind.

[from_twin_suns]

"Pretty sure I'll settle on 'staring like a country rube,'" he replied, with a grin. But he was very, very happy with that outcome, there.

"And I'll definitely do that," he added, with a nod.

"Plus with that out of the way, if you'd like to see some sky today..."

[un_handed]

"Never lose the farm boy charm, it makes you different." She didn't want to keep smiling like this but he made it all but impossible to stop.

"Yeah, show me how to fly." She nodded with a hint of a challenge in her tone.

[from_twin_suns]

He indicated towards the barn with his head, reaching out a hand for her.

"C'mon, then," he called. "Adventure awaits, and all that."

[un_handed]

Mara took his hand and fell into step with him. It was easy enough to keep pace with him as her legs were nearly as long as his.

"You're with me, the adventure already started."

[from_twin_suns]

He grinned at her, shaking her head.

"You're good at that," he replied, pulling her a bit closer. "I think you're good at a lot of things, really."

When he reached the barn, he pushed open the door in a long, slow arc - revealing the yellow-painted Stearman Kaydet inside. And old cropduster though she might be, he'd kept her in perfect condition. She gleamed, aside from the duster pods slung underneath.

[un_handed]

"You play your cards right and you just might find out how right you are." Mara let him draw her closer until she could lay her free hand on his upper arm as they walked hand in hand.

The barn didn't look like much, most barns were just the same to her but when he opened it there was not just horses or cows or pigs or whatever farms had. It was a real plane alright, bright yellow and shiny as lacquer.

"So you really fly this banana?" Her words might not have sounded impressed but the way it captured her attention spoke differently. She stepped toward it and ran her fingers over the top of the lower wing.

[from_twin_suns]

"I did, supposedly so did my dad," he said, with a shrug. "Family stories, but I like to think it's true."

There was an insignia on the side, just next to the pilot's cockpit, of a lancing knight, in black. The rest of the plane looked like she still wore her 1940 colours, and that was because he'd very carefully painted her that way.

"She's always brought me home," he said, fondly, patting the fuselage.

[un_handed]

"Supposedly?" He'd said he didn't have family or something to that effect hadn't he? She couldn't recall the specifics but now she was more invested in learning about him.

"She?" Mara mused. "Not the jealous type I hope."

[from_twin_suns]

He shrugged a bit.

"He died before I was born, I think? My Aunt and Uncle never talk about it, and he left so little behind I'm just going on stuff I found in the newspaper microfiche," he replied.

But he smiled at the latter.

"Well, she's an old lady - I don't think you've got anything to worry about." He moved to a nearby locker, opening it up and taking out two pairs of goggles - one of which he carefully cleaned with a handkerchief before offering it over.

"So, Maureen, ready to hit the skies?"

[un_handed]

She wasn't sure what to say to that, she wasn't good in the offering comfort and condolences gig. But she didn't interrupt and nodded along, at least she could listen respectfully.

He didn't seem too badly broken up about it anyway, so when he moved on she just followed in suit, taking the goggles she noted that he prepared for her.

"I think I'm ready for anything you can dish out, flyboy."

[from_twin_suns]

He nodded, decisively.

"Then let's get you strapped in," he said with a grin.

He indicated the forward cockpit.

"Just step up on the wings there, where you see the indentations."

[un_handed]

Mara had never set foot in or on a plane before but that didn't stop her from intuiting her way around, she hooked a hand on a strut and pulled herself up to where she could climb the steps and settle herself into the snug cockpit seat.

"A lot different than the bike." She noted.

[from_twin_suns]

"A lot," he agreed, nodding, before hopping up and pulling himself overarm into the pilot's cockpit. A bit showy, but who cared?

"Ready?" he called, before hitting the ignition. The sudden burst of fuel smoke and the sputtering of the engine drowning out anything other than a brief reply as the prop roared into life.

[un_handed]

Well, there was some upper body strength there to marvel at. Maybe his pretty good girls wouldn't be caught dead ogling him when he was showing off but mara had no such problem.

"I'm beginning to wonder that." She called back to him, lips curled into a rakish smile. Oh she was really starting to like him. Farmboy with so much more going on than would first appear.

[from_twin_suns]

Fencing helped. So did all the work he did around the farm - they were honestly earned, he could say that much. He strapped himself in with practised ease, and brought the throttle forward gently, easing the Kaydet out of the barn and into the light, the prop stirring up dust in whirling patterns. Slowly, he turned it to face the short dirt airstrip, the sun glinting off her paintwork.

He didn't ask her if she was ready - he knew, somehow. He did his last checks, ensuring everything was fine - and then pushed the throttle forward, the plane starting to trundle down the runway, picking up speed with every meter it crossed.

By the halfway mark of the run, the tail came up, giving Mara a straight-on view of the way ahead. At three quarters, the bumping and rattling would suddenly cease - as gently as a bird, they were airborne.

[un_handed]

How could she be ready for an experience she never had before? Mara gripped the sides of the seat when the lift and she gave a lilting nerve laugh that turned into a titter and then a whoop of pure elation when they lifted off.

She was looking everywhere at once, bright green eyes wide behind her goggles Mara had a smile that threatened to leave her cheeks aching before long.

[from_twin_suns]

[OOC: Mood music?]

He could almost feel her joy - could see the thrill by her movements. He knew it well. For him, it never quite faded. He climbed upwards in a slow, languid arc. It was entirely unnecessary, but he wanted her to see the world as he did. The view that had helped teach him how small so many of the people around him were being.

Five hundred feet. A thousand. He turned her on her wing, so Mara’s view would be the vast space below, most of the town already visible in the distance.

[un_handed]

Elation.

It was a word she'd never found a use for before but it applied now. She understood exactly what he had meant be feeling free now and she understood why he loved it like he did. There was nothing on earth, what a joke in that, like it.

Mara felt like she could leave everything behind. All the petty concerns, all of the judgements and weight of the world and their places in it. Up here it was the air and the clouds and Luke and that felt perfect.

All she could hear was a dull roar of the engine and the sound of wind but she'd never heard anything so sweet in her life.