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 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.