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]

Mara picked up her burger and took a generous bite while he talked, having to pause and laughed a bit at his spoil for choices. She chewed and swallowed under the could wash it down with a drink of coke.

"No, flying isn't exactly a weekend activity." Not on her side anyway, she was lucky to be good at fixing things and maybe she could do something with that. She had Pappy backing her up after all, even if he was a jerk sometimes.

"That bike out there is as close to flying as I'll get, but get me on the open road and she really moves like she's got wings."

[from_twin_suns]

He looked enthusiastic suddenly, turning back towards her again as his own food was placed in front of him.

"Oh, well, my uncle has an old cropduster he's used for ages - if you want, maybe one day I could take you up - not all that fast, but there's nothing like it!"

He clammed up, suddenly, looking a bit sheepish. Right, too much enthusiasm. Aunt Beru told him that all the time.

[un_handed]

She froze mid chew on a fry and looked, no, stared at him.

"You don't even know me." What the hell was he thinking. Mara had to take a take a minute to pull it together and clear her throat.

"I mean, why would you offer to do that?"

[from_twin_suns]

He shrugged at that, wondering a bit at her reaction.

"I mean, you said you hadn't and I can help you experience it," he replied, reaching up to rub the back of his neck.

"And I figured, with the bikes and all...we might be the same when it came to seeking out new adventures."

[un_handed]

"You might want to run that past your Uncle first. Your kind and my kind aren't exactly always welcomed around each other." Why did he have to be so cutely square?

He was so earnest it was almost as if he really didn't see what these towns were like to each other.

[from_twin_suns]

He laughed a bit, shaking his head.

"I think my Uncle would just be happy that the south field got dusted on time," he replied. "My Aunt on the other hand might have a few questions about me bringing a girl home at all." He shrugged, with a half-grin.

He knew the difference she meant. He knew the difference that was there. It was how it had always been done. And he had no interest in doing what had always been done. It was, frankly, boring for a start. And manifestly unfair. She looked smart, definitely fun - an interest in bikes and fast machines and, let's be honest, the sort of drop-dead gorgeous that either side of the tracks didn't see often. There was, clearly, fire there. Passion for life. Even if he couldn't find the words for any of it, she radiated these things.

To deny all that because she wasn't one of us was just plain stupid. Not that one of the nearby tables, consisting of much more vacuous girls from his school, weren't already looking over with incredulity and a bit of shock. Word was gonna spread fast.

"But hey, maybe I'm going too fast here - why not bring your bike by my garage? I'd love to get a look at her. Maybe I've even got some spares you need, never know."

It was instinct, it was grasping. But something compelling said to him that he needed to get to know her more.

[un_handed]

He was saying a lot, almost begging for the chance to get to know her and then he had to drop those words and her eyes narrowed. She looked over at the table of girls in their perfectly curled hair and their cardigans and skirts looking at her like she was some sort of creature.

"You don't know what fast is farm boy." She reached over and snagged the front of his shirt hauling him to her for a kiss that drew a chorus of startled gasps from the pristine teens at the table behind them.

"Get me the address for the garage, we'll see if you have anything I can work with." Her words whispered against his lips as she drew back and released him.

A sidelong glance to the gaggle of good girls and a smirk to their collective looks of mortification.

[from_twin_suns]

There's a moment where he doesn't say anything at all, really. Maybe she did it just to piss off the townies. Maybe she did it on impulse. It really doesn't matter in the moment. He blinks a few times, shaking his head. Because what do you say when you're sitting there with a dazed expression after the most impressive kiss you've ever had? Then, finally.

"Ok, somebody get a number for that bus," he managed with a chuckle, blinking a few times. He started to reach into his jacket, looking for a pen. And, dazed or not, didn't even look over at the other people in the diner - there were people there?

"That," he managed, clearing his throat, getting out a notepad and pen, "was completely unfair - I mean, amazing, but unfair. For a start, next time give me warning so I've got a chance of keeping up." He scribbled out an address and telephone number.

"Second, I have no idea if that was the French or the Irish side. I mean, you'd think the French because, well, it happened - but it was like being hit by a tornado in a good way, so..."

[un_handed]

Mara never does anything for only one reason, she normally has several concerns she covers with each action. In this case, she did manage to make some of those girls clutch their pearls, she also established herself as in command of things with her own side of town, and she shocked the farmboy.

The last was with some pleasure for her, and some surprise that she actually had enjoyed it. There was a strange sort of earnestness in him that came through in far more than just his words and his aw-shucks looks.

To his credit, he recovered from it with humor if not grace. And still managed to be focused on what she'd said. She half expected him to have forgotten her request for the address. But there he was all prepared with a notepad and pen. Such a boy scout.

"You think you could keep up if I gave you a warning?" Oh, that was actually cute. Mara reached out to take the paper from him and tucked it into a snug rear pocket.

"That wasn't French or Irish, that was just me. So you better be able to keep up Skywalker, because I don't slow down from here." Mara grabbed her plate and drink and headed over to her friend's table.

She'd see him again, as much as she told herself it had only been to get a rise out of the squares. There was something more to the farmboy than met the eye and she intended to find it out.