Rey

iii

Jase and Rey worked as a team.  Rey, being much smaller, would climb into hard to reach places and collect parts.

Jase would haul said parts to the speeder, load them up, and trade them in for food.

One day, Jase asked her if she had a birthday.  "You've been here almost a year.  Do you know when your birthday is?"

Rey shook her head.

"Alright, well, then, in a week is one year you've been here.  We'll call that your birthday."

"Okay."

Then they went out to scavenge.

A huge Star Destroyer had wrecked on the top of a dune, and the winds had blown sand up onto it, half burying the ship.

They stopped under the massive engine, the top high above their head.

"Look for anything that looks valuable."

They went to the sides, covered in metal and wires.

Rey spotted a shiny piece, about six feet higher than she could reach

She lodged her feet in the metal, and hoisted herself up.  She climbed up the side, and reached for the metal.

It took a bit of wrenching around, but she got it off.  She climbed down a few feet, tossed the piece to the side, and let herself fall to the sand.

Jase looked over and she held up the piece.

He cracked a grin as she tossed it onto the sled.

The speeder hadn't been able to go up the dune, so they would have to ride the sled down.

Jase threw a much larger piece of machinery onto the sled.

Once the sled was filled, Rey sat on the front.

Jase secured a few loose things that could hurt her, pushed off, and they slid down the hill.

At the bottom, Rey stood back as he loaded everything into the net on the side.

They climbed up and fastened their helmets.

Jase had made her a small helmet of her own, out of bits of stormtrooper helmets he'd salvaged and a lot of cloth, to disguise the fact that it could be sold for many portions.

Fortunately, Unkar Plutt seemed to like little Rey, and often gave them more portions than he would usually give.

Even with the double portions he was feeding her though, she was still almost too small.

Jase attributed that to the strenuous exercise they underwent daily.

They turned in their scavenged parts and went to their tent, hiding the majority of their portions in Rey's bag to avoid the other inhabitants of the settlement seeing how much they had received and attempting to steal it.

Jase made four portions, two for him and two for Rey.

Rey watched him.  She never was hungry enough for both, but she ate as much as she could to make him happy.

Jase put a plate with two of the rations on it on the crate they used that served as a table.

"Cmon, Rey."

She ate her food standing, since it was at the perfect height, turned on end.

She finished almost all of the second portion, and gave the rest to Jase.

Once he finished, he pretended to sniff her to see if she was clean, though looking at her would have determined that she needed a bath.

"I'll get some water for you. Get the stove heating," Jase told a pouty Rey.

She walked over and flicked the lighter to ignite the gas, and blue flames licked at the iron bars that the pot went on. Then she wrestled with untangling her hair from its three small buns.

In her struggle, she fell backwards onto her bottom.

The blond boy laughed when he walked in, seeing Rey on the ground, both hands stuck in the twine in her hair.

She made a face, then let out a plaintive, "Help."

He untangled her and began to heat up the water.

Jase put up the curtain and put the empty basin behind the curtain.

Rey had long since outgrown the basin, and now slept on a small pallet near Jase's.  Now they used it for its intended purpose: bathing.

The soap was already back in the corner, sitting on a piece of control panel from the huge star destroyer about twenty miles from Niima Outpost.

Once the water was warm enough, but not too warm, Jase poured it into the basin and went to get water for his own bath.

Rey undressed, shivering in the quickly dropping coolness of the desert planet, and hopped into the bath.  She rubbed the soap into her hair, and dunked her head under until it was clean.

Then she rubbed her arms and legs and back and splashed water on herself.

Jase was still heating up his own water, so she decided to see how long she could hold her breath.

She took in a huge breath and dunked her head under again.

Rey came up, sputtering, a few seconds later, having accidentally inhaled some through her nose.

"Are you okay?" Jase called.

"Yeah!"

She dried off and put on the clean set of clothes.

Rey only had two sets of clothes.  She would wear one set for three days, then bathe and change clothes.  In between wearing, she would wash them.  Or rather, Jase would.

They couldn't bathe everyday because on Jakku, water is scarce.  Most of it is buried deep underground, though sometimes rain thundered around the outpost, and Rey and Jase would run around, trying to seal up their leaky tent.

It had only rained once that Rey could remember.

She gathered her dirty clothes and walked out into the main area.  Jase gave a slight smile and carried the heavy pot behind the curtain.  He came out a bit later to get his clothes.

He ruffled her damp hair as he passed.  Rey made a face.

Jase laughed as he walked back.  "Don't make faces like that.  They might get stuck on your face forever."

Rey gasped.   She didn't want that!

Then she shivered.  It was cold!

With the absence of the sun, the temperature dropped quickly.  That was one of the worst parts of the sand.  Too hot during the day, and lost that heat too quickly at night.

She walked over to where there was a piece of reflective metal set up against a stake.

There was a comb nearby, and she pulled it through her hair as best she could.

When Jase came out again, he helped her brush her hair, plaited it for the night, and sent her to bed.

He climbed into his own after combing his hair and blowing out the lantern.

That was a normal day for the two orphans.

A few days later, before they ate their dinner, Jase handed Rey something wrapped up in a cloth.

"Happy birthday, Rey."

She opened it, and inside was a little doll, made to look like a fighter pilot.

Rey's eyes widened at the special gift, and threw her arms around him.  "Thank you!"

Jase smiled.  "You're welcome."