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“Did you hear that Amee Lucas was dumped by Skywalker?”
“Why’d he dump her, I hear she puts out on the first date?”
“Maybe that’s why. He got his cock wet and didn’t need her anymore.”
“Doubt it, I heard he kissed Padmé Naberrie.”
Anakin tried his best to ignore the gossip coming from the next table over. He focused on his math problem again, “if John leans a ladder against his house and the ladder is 6 - feet tall,” the gossip cut through his inner monologue again.
“Padmé Naberrie? She’s such a prude. What does he see in her?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s into stone cold bitches.” Anakin recognized the owner of the second voice. Rush Clovis, the grade level rich boy that bought his way onto the basketball team. Anakin’s fist tightened around his pencil. “I tried to get her to go out with me but she told me to go to hell.”
“What a bitch,” Rush’s friend said, “what did you say to that?”
“Nothing. I kissed her instead.” Anakin felt his blood boil. He’d have to ask Padmé about that. He couldn’t tell if he was mad about the gossip or if he was mad that somebody kissed his girlfriend when she didn’t want it. “Also, Skywalker dumping Amee for Padmé happened last year. Why’d you bring it up now?”
“Because I saw them at the park this weekend. With a baby.”
“Damn, I didn’t know he knocked her up! All while he was dating Amee?”
“Yeah…if I did the math correctly.” The bell for lunch rang and Anakin waited until Clovis and his friend were out of the room before leaving. Padmé stood outside the door, a smile on her face as he approached.
“Hi,” she greeted grasping his hand, “how was math?”
“Alright,” Anakin mumbled. Padmé’s eyebrows crinkled as she gazed up at him.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he huffed, his mind still on the conversation he overheard from Clovis. “Let’s go off campus for lunch today.”
“Babe, you get free lunch. You want to give that up? I know how much you like free food.”
He had to smile at that. He did like free food, but what teenager wouldn’t. They picked their usual table at lunch Anakin got in line. As freshmen, they had picked a table outside to eat at and continued to sit at it when they returned from summer break. He punched in his code at the register after he got the food, and walked past Rush Clovis and his group of cronies.
“Did you see Padmé Naberrie hanging outside of math?” He heard one of them ask, “bet she was waiting for Skywalker. I’m still in shock that they’re an item.”
“Ignore it,” he screamed at himself in his head.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect to see her date a meathead like him,” Rush lamented, “I thought she’d get with someone like me. Not a poor farm boy. I heard he’s Lars’s step brother. Bet his mom likes to sleep around like he does.”
That broke something in him. Thankfully, Owen’s table was next to the one Clovis sat at. Anakin locked eyes with his step brother and set his lunch tray down. “Here,” he said, “Clovis just insulted mom so I’m not going to need this.”
“No,” Owen said, “don’t do it! We have a baseball game today and you’re our starting pitcher.”
“Don’t tell Coach,” Anakin shrugged, turning around and putting his hand on Clovis’s shoulder. “Do you have something you want to say to me?”
Rush stood up and Anakin had half a mind to let it go, but that thought lasted half a second because Rush opened his mouth again. “I think you heard me.”
“Why don’t you tell me again, I want to make sure I heard it right.”
“I said that I bet your mom is as big of a slut as you are.” Anakin’s anger bubbled in his gut. He grinned to himself and watched Rush’s expression go from stony to smug for a brief second before Anakin punched him in the nose. A satisfying crunch sounded as he made contact. Rush swung back and got Anakin in the stomach and his cronies jumped up and tossed Anakin to the floor.
“You don’t know when to quit, do you, Skywalker,” one sneered as Anakin got back on his feet. He was surrounded quickly. All of the guys were taller and stronger than him. One hit him in the face and he felt his water. Another punched Anakin in his jaw, the class ring cut through his skin. A third grabbed at his arms, but Anakin moved before his arms were pinned.
“I can do this all day,” he said before another punched him in the nose.
“Hey! Break it up!” Ms. Mason’s voice called. Officer Gordon caught Anakin’s wrist as he swung back at the older boys. “My office! Now!” Anakin broke free of the officer’s hold and put his hands up.
“I’m good. I won’t hit anyone,” he felt blood trickle into his mouth, “May I get a nabkin?”
“We’ll get you one in the office,” Ms. Mason put her hand on the back of Anakin’s neck to lead him away.
“Show’s over! Go back to your lunch!” Mr. Luebert, Ben’s grade level principal called out before approaching Owen’s table. “Did you see what happened?”
“Yeah,” Owen sighed, “May I throw my trash away before I join you? That tray there is Anakin’s.” Mr Luebert nodded, picking up the tray. “We’ll be in Ms. Mason’s office.”
“In the house,” Cliegg ordered, “now.” Anakin groaned, getting out of the car, grabbing his backpack and slamming the door shut.
Cliegg did not enjoy getting a call from the office. “What the fuck were you thinking?! Three days out of school suspension?! Your brother never caused this much trouble as a sophomore!” Anakin glared back at his step dad before storming up the porch steps and slamming the screen door behind him.
“Cliegg I told you to stop slamming the door while the baby is sleeping!” Shmi hissed as she turned the corner to the foyer. “Oh, it’s you,” she said, “why are you home so early?”
“God indo a fight,” Anakin mumbled, “could dou reset my node?” Shmi nodded, and motioned him down to her level. She pushed his nose back into place, before leading him into the kitchen. “Thank you,” he whispered again, grabbing a handful of napkins and leaning his head forward.
“You got into a fight?” Anakin nodded and Shmi pinched the bridge of her nose. “Why? Why do you keep fighting? Anakin, this is getting out of hand! If people insult you, just let it go!” Anakin looked down at his feet and took a deep breath. “Who did you fight this time?”
“Well, I only punched Rush Clovis. It was the rest of his cronies that beat me up,” Anakin said, sitting up and putting the blood stained napkins down. “I heard him and one of his friends talking about Padmé in math. I just let them talk. I made some notes to talk about it with her instead and we went to lunch,” Shmi handed him an ice pack for the bruise blooming on his jaw, “thanks. Then we went to lunch and they were talking about Padmé again. Calling her names and just being crude. I was going to let it go, but then Clovis said,” he stopped talking abruptly.
“Tell me,” Shmi said, sitting down and looking him in the eye. “What happened next?”
“He said ‘I bet his mom sleeps around as much as he does.’ I put my lunch down on Owen’s table, told him that I wasn’t going to need it, then asked Clovis to repeat himself. He looked at me and said ‘I bet your mom is as big of a slut as you are.’ I had half a thought of letting it go, but then he smirked at me like he’d won…so I hit him. Then the rest of the table tossed me to the ground and broke my nose, cut my jaw, got me in the eye, and then Ms. Mason broke it up.”
Shmi leaned back in her chair, contemplating what to do next. His previous fights had been over silly things. “Ani,” she sighed, “I…hate this fighting. You’re going to get kicked off the baseball team and you have too much energy to sit around here.” The door opened and closed again and Cliegg rounded the corner.
“I thought I told you to go straight to your room,” he said, pointing a finger at Anakin.
“I’m handling this. Go get some water and another ice pack,” Shmi said, pushing her husband toward the fridge, “did you even bother to ask why he was fighting or were you just too angry to think?” Cliegg grunted and sat down across from Anakin.
“Listen, Anakin. You’re going to lose baseball, you’re going to lose football, and if you keep it up, you’re going to lose Padmé. Girls don’t like guys who are always fighting.”
“What about Dad? He was a soldier! He literally fought for a living!” Anakin argued, looking at the wooden table top.
“Your father wasn’t fist fighting. War is a completely different thing. Did Owen try to talk you out of it?”
Anakin nodded, “he did. But I was so angry that Clovis implied that you were a slut that I just…had to take care of it. I don’t like bullies.” Shmi smiled softly and patted his knee.
“Well,” she sighed, “if you keep it up, you’re going to be viewed as a bully.”
“Can you stop guilt tripping me and just punish me?”
“You’re grounded. One week, no phone, no video games, no TV and you’re on Peter duty. You can only watch the news in the morning so you dress appropriately for the weather, the computer is to be used for school only, and your phone is to be used for emergencies,” Shmi stated and Anakin nodded in agreement.
“You’re to go to school, go to baseball, come home,” Cliegg added, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“That’s fair,” Anakin said and it wasn’t long until his siblings walked in the door, Rex trailing behind them.
“And no Rex!” Shmi added on.
“What! No Rex?! Come on that’s not fair! He didn’t even do anything!”
“He gets you all wound up. Rex, I love you, but Anakin is grounded for a week,” Shmi said, patting Rex’s shoulder.
“What?! Why are you punishing me too? I didn’t even fight anyone!”
“Rex is going to give me a ride back to school for baseball, we’re just dropping things off,” Owen said, swapping his book bag for his bat bag and grabbing his water jug.
“Alright,” Cliegg said, “good luck. Bring us home a winner.”
“We won’t,” Rex said, “our best player can’t play for two games now. Coach told us today.”
“Fuck!” Anakin swore, dropping his head on the table.
“Watch your mouth,” both parents said, glancing at him.
“Maybe this will make you think twice about fighting,” Shmi said, standing up to get Peter up from his nap. Cliegg returned to his chores and Ahsoka slipped upstairs to do her homework.
“Before you go,” Anakin said, “how mad is Padmé?”
Owen and Rex looked at each other and sighed heavily. “She’s pissed,” they said in unison.
“I don’t think you can fix this one,” Owen said. “I hope you do, but you’ve screwed up big time.” They left the house, leaving Anakin alone in the kitchen with their dog, Rosie, who whined to be let out. Anakin let her outside, watching as she sniffed around. He thought over his step-brother’s words. He had to fix it. He couldn’t let Padmé get away.
“Mom?” Anakin called, “is it alright if I called Padmé? Owen and Rex said she’s pissed and…I can’t lose her.”
Shmi nodded, “yeah. But you have to let Peter see her now that he’s heard her name.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and video called her, waiting for her to answer patiently. Just when he was about to hang up, she answered.
“What?” She said and Anakin could almost feel the venom in her voice.
“I wanted to call and apologize,” he started, “it was wrong of me to get in another fight. I’m sorry. I’ll try and change, I promise.”
Padmé sighed deeply, “you said that after the last one.”
“I know,” he winced, “this time, I was ten seconds from walking away. I wanted to punch him during math. Rush was talking shit about you. Him and one of his little gang members were speculating that I dumped Amee because I cheated on her with you and you got knocked up.”
“What would make them think that? It doesn’t add up. You dumped Amee last fall,” she said, her eyebrows creasing, “is that why you wanted to go off campus for lunch?”
Anakin nodded, pushing Peter away from his bruised hand. “I was trying to not get in a fight. Anyway, I guess Lott Dod, or whatever his name is, saw us at the park last weekend with Pete and assumed the kid was ours. Clovis said that you were a stone cold bitch and some other crap,” Anakin fell quiet, thinking about what else he’d overheard. Then, in a weak voice he asked, “did…did Clovis really try to force himself on you?”
Padmé nodded. “He tried to kiss me in like eighth grade. I pushed him away, then he moved for a year.” Anakin stared at her before nodding.
“I’m sorry that happened,” he offered, “why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to fight him. But keep going, how did you end up in a fight if you were trying not to.”
Anakin took another deep breath and grasped one of Peter’s stuffed animals to ground himself. “I got lunch, I was walking away, and I heard him talking shit again. I forced myself to keep walking,” he paused and took another calming breath, “then he said something about Owen and I being step-brothers, then something like ‘I bet your mom is as big of a slut as you are,’ and I lost it. I told Owen that I wasn’t going to need my lunch, I called him out on it. He repeated and I had one more thought to walk away. He got smug and next thing I knew, I’d punched him. His cronies then threw me to the ground and kicked my ass.”
Padmé’s mouth hung open. The pain in his voice, the anger in his eyes, everything about the way he told the story made her believe him. “Did Owen try and talk you out of it?”
Anakin nodded again, “he did. His friends can confirm it if you want. He said ‘No. don’t do it. We have a baseball game today and you’re our starting pitcher.’ And I still chose to ignore him.” Anakin’s throat closed up. “I’m such a fucking idiot.”
“I’m coming over,” Padmé said and the call disconnected before he got to let Peter see her.
“She hung up. I’m sorry, Pete,” Anakin said, picking him up and hugging him. “I know you wanted to talk to her.” Anakin picked a book off of Peter’s shelf and opened it. Peter sat on Anakin’s lap, looking at the book quietly. Every now and then he’d point at something and babble at Anakin and Anakin would respond as if they were discussing the picture.
“Anakin! Come here!” Cliegg shouted from the kitchen and Peter looked up at him, his eyes wide before he covered them with his pudgy hands. “Now!”
“Uh-oh,” Peter chirped and Anakin had to smile.
“That’s right,” he said, standing up with Peter, “he’s mad. That’s a big uh-oh!” When they entered the kitchen, Cliegg was fuming. Anakin could almost see steam coming out of his ears.
“‘Grounded’ means you can’t have people over. Especially not your girlfriend!” Anakin broke eye contact with his step-father and saw Padmé sitting on their porch from the kitchen window.
“Mom said I could talk to her on the phone after Owen and Rex said she was mad at me. I never expected her to come over. Let me talk to her and I’ll send her home,” Anakin said, trying to give Peter to Cliegg.
“No!” Peter chanted, locking his arms around Anakin’s neck. “No! No!”
“Alright! You can come with me!” Anakin said, opening the door and sitting next to her on the swing. “Hi,” he greeted, as Peter scrambled over to Padmé.
“Hi,” Padmé whispered, “hi Peter!” Peter snuggled against her before wanting to be let down. Anakin got up and closed the gate to the steps so Peter would stay. He sat back down next to Padmé and she turned to face him. Anakin kept his eyes on the front yard, refusing to look at her.
“Are you okay?” She whispered, her fingers lightly tracing over the cut on his jawline.
“I’ll be fine. It’s not the first time I’ve gotten beat up.” She turned his head to look at her. Her brown eyes were softer than when he’d called her on the phone and it made hope flicker in his chest. “Are you mad at me?”
“A little,” she said, “but only because you broke a promise.” Anakin’s eyes darted away from her. “If you keep this fighting up, I don’t think I can continue dating you. It scares me.”
Anakin swallowed hard. “My mom said the same thing,” he admitted, “she wants me to stop fighting too.”
“Did Rush really call you and your mom a slut?”
“Yeah,” Anakin whispered. Padmé smoothed the back of his hair down and Anakin leaned into her touch.
“I heard a rumor that you were thrown across the commons. Is that true too?” Anakin nodded again. “If you didn’t hit him first, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“I don’t like bullies,” Anakin said to the ground. “I couldn’t stand by and let him insult you and my mom,” he swallowed hard, “Clovis can call me all the names he wants, I don’t care about that. But I won’t let him insult the people I love.”
Padmé smiled at him, “I know,” she said, still rubbing his head, “I just…” she stopped talking and thought about what to say next, “it’s very attractive that you’ll stand up for those you love, but there are consequences for your actions. I don’t want you to lose your spot on the football and baseball teams.” Padmé forced him to look her in the eye. “I don’t want to lose you. You’re a good kid, Anakin.” He blushed a bit and looked away again.
“I think they wouldn’t talk so much shit if I wasn’t built like Skinny Steve Rogers,” he muttered, “maybe if I was bigger, they’d leave me alone.” Padmé laughed.
“You’ll get there,” she said, and let him rest his head on her shoulder. “Now, this is the last time we have this conversation. If I hear you were fighting again, we’re done. Are we clear?” Anakin nodded.
“Crystal clear.” Padmé turned his head and kissed him on the lips. “You should go,” he whispered when they broke apart, “Cliegg said I could talk to you, but I wasn’t allowed to have friends over for a week. I’ll see you at school next week,” he whispered, kissing her again. They broke apart when Cliegg knocked on the window in warning.
“I love you,” she whispered before picking Peter up and kissing his temple. “Alright I have to go bye bye. Be a good boy, okay?”
“Bye-bye!” Peter said, kissing her sloppily on the cheek. Anakin took him from her and opened the baby gate so she didn’t fall down the stairs. “Bye!” Peter called again, and Padmé waived goodbye as she walked to her car.
“Can you tell her ‘love you?’” Anakin asked, holding Peter awkwardly against his side.
“Loves you!” Peter chirped, making Padmé laugh.
“Love you too!” She called back before she drove away. Anakin turned, went back in the house, and resolved to try and stop solving things with his fists.