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“We can ask my mom to stop at Pinkberry on the way home if you want?” Kenna’s voice drifts over Leia’s open locker door, prompting a chorus of interested noises from other lockers nearby. All the girls halfway through squeezing into leotards, or adding the hundredth pin to already-stiff buns, already making plans for the end of the lesson.
“You coming with?” Caryn pokes her head around Leia’s door “I saw your mom drop you off, is she picking you up or are you carpooling?” Leia shrugs.
“We’ll see, she’ll text me if she has to stay late” Leia’s mom had the least predictable schedule of anyone she knew, except maybe her dad. None of her friends had ever met him, he’d always been away when they went to her house. Kenna thought he might not exist, but Jyn and Leida in their homeroom both said they’d seen him. Jyn’s dad was an engineer, she said he worked with Leia’s dad, and she saw him all the time. Jyn also said he looked a lot like Leia’s brother Luke, who she took shop with. Mara had a crush on Luke. Leia pretended not to notice. She’d threatened to make Winter in their history class her new best friend if she ever had to hear about it and then let the subject drop. Mara hasn’t said a word about it since.
When the class was over and they all slope back to the dressing room, a little sweatier, and a little more sure of that new routine, Leia checks her phone. The screen is lit up with a stream of messages.
Mama: Looking like I’m going to be late tonight sweetie, see if you can get a ride home!
Dad: I’m getting back early today I should be home when you get out of class :)
Bantha-Face: We expecting anyone now? Car just pulled in
Bantha-Face: It’s not Jyn’s mom
Bantha-Face: Jyn’s here btw calc hwk
JynErso: You didn’t tell me your dad BUILT that thing in your garage!
WinterOrgana: Do you know what we’re meant to read for history tomorrow?
JynErso: Seriously Leia, AN ENTIRE CAR
Bantha-Face: Dad’s home!!!!
JynErso: YOU WORKED ON THAT CAR???
JynErso: how do I convince my dad to help me build a car?
Dad: Your mom just called, want me to come get you?
Mama: Dad’s going to pick you up, see you all when I get home! <3
“I guess you’re not coming then?” Leia looked up at where she hadn’t heard Kenna approach.
“huh?”
“You’ve been grinning at your phone like an idiot, either you’ve got a boyfriend I don’t know about” – a realistic possibility, Kenna still hadn’t noticed that Sylvie and Wedge broke up – “or your mom’s coming.”
“My dad’s coming”
Kenna snorted. She waited for the punchline. “wait, really?” Leia nodded. “guys!” Kenna waved them over “We’re finally going to meet Leia’s dad!” she was bouncing. Weren’t her feet sore? Leia was starting to seriously questioned her dedication to pointe shoes. Or at least 2 hour classes.
“The one you thought didn’t exist?”
“Shut up Mara”
“I’m just saying”
They scatter again. Leia shoves clothes into her bag and slings it over her shoulder. They all shove on the same pair of fuzzy boots over identical pale pink tights, and tromp out to the line of cars that have gathered outside of the studio.
Leia spots her dad immediately. He’s leaning against the door of The Project, a car he’d built from scratch in the garage. Mama despaired of it, but it kept dad from taking apart every appliance in the house, and it limited the engine grease fingerprints to the outside of her home, especially after Leia and Luke had started ‘helping’, so she put up with it. The Project sticks out from the line of suburban SUV’s. All the moms are trying hard to stare without making it obvious. Her friends are staring too.
“Who is that?” Sylvie is definitely over Wedge.
Anakin Skywalker looked up from his phone. If anyone asked, he definitely hadn’t been double-checking he got the address of Leia’s dance studio right, she’d kill him if he went to the wrong one. Padmé would laugh at him. His daughter emerged from a gaggle other girls, all dressed in fuzzy jackets and boots over their dance gear. He waved.
Someone grabbed Leia’s arm from behind. “Oh my god, Leia that’s your dad?” Mara sounded breathless.
“Leia!” Kenna sounded scandalised “you didn’t say he was hot” Leia stopped walking.
“What?”
“Your dad’s definitely hot.” Caryn is a menace.
“No! he’s my dad”
“He so is” Sylvie is nodding along, she looks like a bobble head. Leia’s never speaking to her again.
“You can’t like my dad Sylvie. He’s… my dad!”
“Too late” Kenna crosses her arms “She’s already gone. This is worse than with Wedge.” Maybe Kenna isn’t as oblivious as Leia thought. This was not how she wanted to find out.
Leia looks at each of her friends. Sylvie is starstruck, Mara is wistful, Kenna is resigned. Caryn (the bitch) looks amused. Leia is never speaking to any of them again.
“Oh Fuck All of you. I’m sitting with Winter at lunch.”
“No!” Mara’s face morphs into shock, but Leia’s already turned to stomp over to her dad.
Anakin grins, and wraps his arms around her when she plows into him. She’s sure her face is as red as a tomato. This is so embarrassing. She can feel his amusement rumbling in his chest, where she has her face pressed against him. Hiding.
“Rough day?” she groans. He rubs her back, the joints of his prosthetic catch on her coat. “You can tell me all about it, come on, let’s go home.” He lets her go and opens the door. She throws her kit into the back and collapses into the passenger seat. He lets her stew until they pull away from the studio’s driveway.
“So what’s the problem?” Leia covers her face with her hands. She doesn’t think she can look at him.
“You’re hot”
“What?”
“My friends think you’re hot!”
He has the audacity to laugh at her. Easy for him, he’s not the one with a hot dad. She’s going to have to sit with Winter and Leida for the rest of the year. Or worse. If the others tell them about this she’s going to have to sit with Luke’s friends. She cannot tell Luke about this, he’ll never let her live it down.
“Aren’t you girls a little young for that kind of thing?”
“I’m fifteen!”
“Ah, but you’ll always be my baby.” Her dad is Not Helping. He’s still grinning at her. Why can’t he take this seriously? her life is over, her friends are insane. She groans.
“Cheer up honey, it’ll be okay, these kind of teenage crushes don’t tend last.”
She can’t believe what she’s hearing.
“Your teenage crush was mom!”
“Yeah?”
“You married mom!”