fh_trips | Endor [Monday, December 29]

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field trip 2008: endor

Endor [Monday, December 29]

Luke, a tall golden droid, and the Ewok chief Chirpa, were waiting for the volunteers when the portal finally deposited everyone on Endor. "Welcome," Luke said, giving them all a smile, "and thank you in advance for your help."

He gestured to the Ewok. "This is Chief Chirpa, the leader of Bright Tree Village, where we'll be staying for the next few days." Chirpa bowed to them, then spoke a few words. The droid shuffled forward to translate. "Chief Chirpa welcomes you to Endor," he said, words coming out pinched and precise, "and requests that you make yourself at home. If there is anything he or his warriors can do while you are assisting their neighbors, please let him know."

There was a brief conversation between Threepio and the Chief. "Or tell me and I will convey it," Threepio said. "I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations, and will be serving as translator for you during your stay here. Do watch out for the bugs, and the large drops, and the variety of creatures found in the forest..."

Luke shook his head at him and Threepio stopped speaking. "He worries a little too much," he explained with an easy smile. "If you'll follow me, you can drop off your stuff in the visitors' quarters and we can get started building some huts."

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Ino preferred the term 'opinionated' but blunt suited her just fine too.

She sighed, and put her hands on her hips. "You know," Ino said, "I think you could be pretty awesome. But no one is awesome at all if they don't try. I hate people like that, the ones that don't try, and I don't want to hate you."

Penelope tilted her head, looked at Ino. "I am trying, but I don't feel like I should have to explain that. People who know me, see it. There is much about me you do not know, Ino. Please don't presume that I could be awesome and am not already." No, Penelope didn't think she was awesome, but she had awesome friends so she figured she had to be a tiny bit awesome for people to like her.

"Maybe some people think you are," she said, with a confident little shrug. "But I don't think anyone with such half-hearted answers is. And that, Penelope, is my opinion."

"After all," she said, "you don't know me either."

"My half-hearted answers are just that, because I am so unsure of myself. I am not a strong person, but I am learning." She paused. "You're right, I don't know you," she said gently, "but I would never press my opinion upon you unless you asked." She would simply believe everything Ino said, or anyone for that matter. Penelope was a very naive and trusting person.

"Hey," she said, glancing over her shoulder at the area around them. "You say you're kept inside 'cause of your looks all the time? Want to hear a story?"

Her eyes flashed. "You might be interested in it."

Edited 2008-12-30 03:05 (UTC)

She wondered at that look in her eyes but found herself nodding. "Yes."

"Once upon a time," Ino said, "there were two little girls. One was bright, popular, and top of her class in looks, style, and grades. The other was painfully shy, lacking the power to believe she was worth anything, and had an overly large forehead. This little girl tried to hide it with her bangs, but people teased her mercilessly, and she spent all her time crying, so much so that she looked like a ghost--and that only got her more teasing. And more tears."

She tucked a bit of hair behind one ear, and glanced over. "One day, the little girl with the huge forehead was crying in the park, all by herself, and the popular girl came over and asked 'why are you crying?'. The popular girl listened to the other girl's story and, in the end said, 'come here tomorrow, and I'll give you something to fix it all'."

"You following so far?"

She was listening intently, so nodded at Ino. Yes, she was following. And there was that tug on her heart for that little girl with the big forehead. How could there not be?

"The next day, both girls were at the park again. The popular one, after making sure the shy girl's eyes were shut, tied up that hair and bangs the shy girl had grown to hide her forehead with a red ribbon--leaving the forehead bare to the world. The shy girl protested 'everyone will make fun of me even more!' and the popular girl just leaned over, poked her in the forehead, and said 'they only make fun because they know it bothers you. You've got a pretty face, so show it off to the world--confidently, confidently!'"

"Now, of course, the popular girl knew that the ribbon wasn't the cure-all she'd said it was, but it was the starting point, and as long as the other girl believed in it, then it was alright. The popular girl introduced the shy girl to all her friends saying 'this is my new friend, so you've got to get along with her'. In class, when the shy girl faltered, the popular girl was there to say something that would help. And in this manner, a year or so passed. The shy girl was still shy, but every day she wore the ribbon. And every day the popular girl did her best to encourage the shy girl to be more confident in herself."

"Then, one day, there was a break through. The shy girl had found the courage to confess to the popular girl, and a few of their other friends, who the boy she liked was." Ino shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Only... the boy the shy girl liked was the same one that the popular girl had liked for months. At that time the popular girl chose not to mention that she liked the same boy."

Penelope was very much held attentive by Ino's story. Picturing in her mind's eye both girls, and the lovely red ribbon. Friends. Something Penelope grew up without.

"Keep going," she encouraged. She wanted to know what happened to the girl. And the boy, and the popular girl.

"That night," Ino said, after a moment to gather her thoughts, "the popular girl went home straight away and curled up in her father's lap, and just thought for hours without moving. She knew that, if she said anything, the shy girl would let her win the boy."

"And that night, the popular girl made her decision--she valued her friend's progress more than the boy. So as the days went by, she started gently shoving the shy girl in the boy's direction, all the while keeping silent about her own feelings for the boy."

"All secrets, though, come out eventually. And the shy girl, when she found out that the popular girl liked the same boy... in a way the popular girl had been more successful in building the shy girl's confidence than she'd thought, the shy girl, rather than conceding the boy to the popular girl..." Ino tugged at her hair. "The shy girl ended their friendship, and gave back the ribbon, saying that they were rivals now. Right there, in front of her friend, the popular girl reacted and said 'sure, we're rivals, and I'll win' but that night, the popular girl was the one that cried herself to sleep. She didn't understand how a boy was more important to the shy girl than their friendship."

"The popular girl spent the weekend thinking, not bothering to go and hang out with her other friends, and claiming that her parents needed her help out in the store as her excuse for brushing them off. By the time Monday had come around the popular girl had decided what she was going to do. If the boy was so important to the shy girl, so important that she could break with the one who'd helped her, and encouraged her for years... then fine. The popular girl decided that, if her friend, her best friend needed an enemy to fight against, rather than a friend who'd hold her hand, that she, the popular one, would be that enemy. The next morning, instead of just greeting the boy with a smile and her usual wave, the popular girl hugged him. It was her declaration of war--and the greatest lie of her life."

"The shy girl didn't know that the popular girl still considered her to be her best friend, and the fight over the boy began in earnest. Two years of school it went on for, the boy not interested in either of them, and the popular girl liking the boy less and less as she realized he wasn't the type to ever care about either of them. But the shy girl, every time, rose to the challenge of 'who would win the boy' and for that the popular girl wouldn't quit the game."

"Graduation came," she said, "and the shy girl was put on a team with the guy she liked, while the popular girl was put on a team with two guys she'd known since they'd been crawling. The popular girl shouted, and stormed, but in reality didn't mind her team at all. The shy girl crowed triumphantly and then, as they saw each other less often without school to bring them together, the popular girl had to make sure that every encounter meant more. That every shove was harder and rougher. All in the name of making her friend stronger."

Ino took a deep breath, and shook her head.

By this point, Penelope couldn't look at Ino, and hid her face with a curtain of long dark hair. Such a sad story. Heartbreaking. How could friends ever be like that to one another?

"And their friendship was lost forever?" she asked quietly.

She couldn't ever become like that. So prideful... Is that how she came across to Ino?

Oh. How terrible.

"It might have been if things had continued like that," she said, watching Penelope. "But as it happened there was an exam, and the third section of it was one on one fights--this was a very military sort of place, you understand, and both of the girls had been in training since they were five. They were thirteen when this exam came around, and their names came up."

"Right there, under the eyes of their teammates, their teachers, they had to fight each other until one of them won over the other." That got a huffed laugh. "In the Academy, the popular girl had always won against the shy girl, no matter how much they tried. But all the tears the popular girl had shed in her room, while she was nothing but venom and scathing words in public, had borne fruit--neither of the girls won. They achieved the first double-knockout in fifteen years. They were evenly matched, finally. The popular girl told the other girl, no longer the just the shy girl, that she'd made it, that she was strong. Their bickering while the rest of the exam went on was a lot closer to how it had been before the boy had come."

"And that night, when the popular girl went home and told her father what had happened, her father knelt down and looked her straight in the eye and asked 'was it worth it? All those tears you spent on her?'"

"'Yes,' the popular girl said, bursting into tears and hugging her dad, 'it was. But now she doesn't need me at all and I don't like that!' Because, even if it had been as her enemy, the popular girl had taken comfort in the idea that, without her, the shy girl wouldn't have been able to grow.

"When her father said 'it's okay, you did it, you made her grow' the popular girl could only shake her head and tell him 'she did it herself, I just gave her a target to aim for'. And she was proud of the progress the shy girl had made, so proud, but also sad because she thought it was all over. Her father just held her for a long time, before sending her off to bed."

Ino smiled slightly. "The next day, the popular girl was helping her mother in the shop, and the not-so-shy girl now came by, asking if the popular girl wanted to go train. The popular girl only had one answer for that, because the girl asking had always been her best friend, and that answer was 'yes'."

Head still ducked, Penelope brushed at her wet cheeks, embarrassed that the story brought tears to her eyes. But it was so moving and thought provoking, and she knew that Ino told her for a reason.

She peeked over at her, her lashes wet, and smiled sadly. "There was a happy ending after all."

[*wibbles!*]

"In a way," she agreed. "Though both girls had had to work for it a great deal."

She knew that better than almost anyone, after all.

[It's canon omg! Heee.]

"And for such a long time. It doesn't seem fair, but the popular girl must truly have loved her best friend to go through what she did," she replied quietly.

"It makes me wish for a best friend, and yet it doesn't." She looked at Ino fully. "How did you learn of this story?"

"She still does," Ino said, hitching one shoulder up in a shrug that was designed to look nonchalant. "Love her, I mean. As for how I know..."

She pressed one finger to her lips, then clasped her arms behind her back and spun around. "Who better to tell that story," Ino said, over her shoulder, "than one of the girls from it?"

She gasped when she caught on to that, looking at Ino in a whole new way. And she gasped again when she realized now, why she had told her that story and why she had spoken to her like she did beforehand.

And, of course, it made Penelope tear up. Again. She stepped towards her, her own hands clasped together in front of her. "Thank you. It means a lot to me that you would share that with me."

Ino flushed. "Just... think about it, okay?"

"Yes, I won't forget it," she replied. She didn't have a best friend to push her, but she didn't necessarily need one.

"And," she bit her lip, "if you want to talk about it with other people, that's fine, just leave my name out of it, okay? I don't want that story attached to my name."

"I believe I would like to keep this story to myself, Ino. It means something and I wouldn't mention you if I did retell it. You may trust me."

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Endor [Monday, December 29]

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