A/N:

This is my first ever fanfic. ( I only discovered fanfiction this January)

There is some swearing and violence.

Guess you'd class this as Star Wars AU.

Features Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, Hux, Luke, Leia, Snoke, Holdo, Han, Chewie, KoR, etc

Please note I'm not a Star Wars buff so please excuse if I get characters/canon/technology a bit wrong etc

I do not own Star Wars. (Don't sue me).

From chapter 6 onward this is betaed by Autonomee from AO3.

I am a luddite, please let me know if I've tagged things wrongly or anything else.

Let me know what you think… X

From One Spark To The Horizon Wide

Chapter One: A New Day

Rey sat awkwardly on a deceptively uncomfortable sofa. She was waiting in the reception of her new school and was very aware that she did not belong there.

The last few weeks of her life had been bewildering to say the least, until then, as far back as she could remember at least, her life had been owned by Unkar Plutt. She had spent her time scavenging and stealing the things Plutt required for his junk yard business, his chop shop. She had slept amid scrap metal and broken car parts and eaten whatever she could get her hands on. Most of her days had been in the desert, slaving under the hot sun or working on stripping things down for parts in the yard. Plutt had got her when she was five or six, he had never been sure. Rey had never even found out who had named her, let alone why they had dumped her in Jakku of all places.

But a few weeks ago, a nameless benefactor had inexplicably left money in their will to pay for her place at a very prestigious boarding school and then university. There was an odd clause in the will that insisted she go to this particular school in Canto Bight.

No other details were given her, no explanations. Just a bag to pack and a new uniform to put on.

The uniform was horrible, restrictive and conservative- a stiff shirt and tie, blazer and a mandatory knee length skirt. She never wore skirts. Never.

All her previous school uniforms (when she went) had been whatever jeans she owned and polo shirts, comfy and easy, worn with trainers or boots.

Rey stared down disgustedly at her new shoes, they were stiff and had heels. Heels! Not high but still not what she was used to or what was comfortable.

She had an awful feeling she would be eaten alive here, and there seemed to be nothing she could do about it.

Someone cleared their throat above her and she snapped her head up. A student, a boy smiled nervously down at her, looking as uncomfortable as she felt.

"Hi there, err are you Rey? My names Finn- I'm here to show you around, we have classes together."

Rey stood up swiftly and Finn swallowed. He was a few inches taller but didn't seem to realise, he almost seemed intimidated by her, but that was ridiculous.

"Yes I'm Rey." She answered quietly, Finn nodded encouragingly and she couldn't help a small smile appearing on her face in return, perhaps the other pupils here would not be as stuck up as she had originally thought.

"Well ok then, grab your bag and we'll get going." They left the stark grey and black reception area, Rey matching her stride to Finn's slower pace.

"So this place is huge," He began, "I've actually only been here a few months and I still haven't got used to it. This is the main building, with three other smaller ones, the library, workshop and music and drama building, then you have the gym and pool building and the three dorm buildings. There are also two playing fields, tennis courts and basketball courts as well as some landscaped garden areas where you can hang out when the weather is good, and a wooded area."

Rey kept her mouth from hanging open with an effort. Finn looked at her and grinned.

"Yeah I know, it's insane how big it is. Did you get a scholarship? You don't look the usual sort." Rey raised her eyebrow slightly and he hurriedly continued, "What I mean is you don't look like a spoiled daddy's girl."

Rey gave a quick involuntary laugh at that and his face relaxed again. "No, I can definitely say I am not that… so most kids here, they are not... not like you?"

It was his turn to look at her askance, "I mean, that you seem nice and I wasn't expecting that."

He smiled at her again, "Sorry to say, at least in my humble opinion, most kids here are class A shits." He stated flatly.

Rey sighed in response, "Well, at least there is you, and you said we have classes together?"

"Yeah, most classes I think, they spilt girls and boys up for anything sporty, though sometimes not for fencing."

Rey stopped mid-stride this time unable to not gape at him, "Did you just say fencing?!"

"Yeah," He grinned, "Though judging from your expression you'll be put with girls for that, only advanced girls fight the boys."

Rey rolled her eyes at that and started walking again.

"So. What are the important things I need to know to survive here? I don't mean where classes are or how good the food is, who are the alphas? Who do I need to avoid? Which teachers are harsh, and are there any rules you can get away with breaking?"

Finn raised his eyebrows at her but nodded in understanding. "You want to avoid anyone who hangs out with Phasma Captain, I guess you'd call her the girls alpha and she is massive bitch. Then there's the two boys… I suppose we can call them factions. Hux is head of one, his first name is Armitage but don't ever say that where anyone else can hear you, and the other, (whom Hux's lot hate) is headed up by Kylo Ren, don't talk to either of them if you want to stay alive… then there's a sort of sport obsessed bunch but they are mostly alright, guy who is their sort of alpha is called Poe and he's okay there are a few others but those are the important ones…." He trailed off.

Rey huffed another sigh, "It sounds like I've just entered a warzone…. So which group are you in?"

Finn grimaced slightly, "Me? I'm not in any group. I don't really fit in with any of them, don't know if I ever will."

Rey smiled slightly, and against her better judgment she said, "Maybe I can be part of your non-group too?"

Finn flashed her his biggest smile yet. "Sounds good."

Rey was surprised by how much she liked him. She had given up on making friends long ago, you didn't have friends in Jakku, everyone always had some sort of alterior motive, perhaps though, as she knew she'd be here over two years (unless something went drastically wrong, though it wouldn't surprise her if it did) she could make a friend or two here.

"Do you know who you're sharing a dorm room with yet?" He asked carefully, pulling her back from her thoughts.

She grinned at him, catching him by surprise, "I've got a room on my own." She said smugly and laughed at his jealous expression. This had been one of the very few perks of her new situation. Her own room. Her own space. Privacy. For the first time in her life.

"How the hell did you wrangle that?" He asked her.

She shrugged. "They were all free, apparently all the girls like to share with friends," She still couldn't believe that someone would voluntarily give up personal space like that but she was not going to complain about it.

"Huh," he grunted. "Guess that's a major difference between girls and boys." Then he looked at her, "Present company excepted though."

A bell rang, making them both jump, it sounded more like an actual bell than in other schools. The noise made Rey's mouth go dry and her stomach flip uncomfortably.

Finn blanked his expression as pupils started to flow out of classrooms and eddy around them, "Guess I'll need to tell you more at lunch. Our first class is here, history."

Rey nodded and cleared her face of expression too as they walked in, "Do we sit wherever or do we have set desks?"

"Theoretically where ever but in reality where ever the in crowd don't want to. So generally you're safe in the middle away from the window, unless it is really sunny like today, then we sit by the window so they don't get the sun in their eyes."

Rey nodded, it made sense, the rebellious kids would want the back seats, the clever kids would want the front and the cool bored ones would want to look out the windows.

It was the same in every school that did not have a fixed seating arrangement. She took a seat in the middle by the wall, and Finn sat next to her getting out a laptop and turning it on.

She took her new one out of her bag and set it on the table in front of her awkwardly. "Err Finn, I'm not very used to computers and I've never had a laptop before," His eyebrows climbed into his hair,"Would you mind helping me out a bit till I get the hang of it?"

"Sure." he said, clearly surprised. "Though they are more tablets than laptops really. What did you say your scholarship was for again?"

She shifted uncomfortably. "I didn't… I'm not here on a scholarship, it's… complicated."

"Okay…" he answered slowly. "You'll have to fill me in later. Let's have a look at what you've got."

He whistled in appreciation as he took the tablet from her. "Nice, this has only been out a few months. My scholarship was for IT and swimming by the way." He added absently and he looked over the slim black case and then opened it.

Rey covertly studied the other students as they entered and sat down as Finn fiddled with the tablet. The girls seemed to all be made up and well groomed, not a hair out of place, sporting designer bags and haughty expressions. The boys all seemed to be artfully messy and exuded an air of arrogance as they swaggered in, joking with each other.

Rey felt herself shrink in her chair. She knew her hair style of three buns would be a little loose by now, stray tendrils would be wispy about her face and neck. She wore no makeup and her fingernails were chewed and probably a bit grubby.

Finn settled the tablet gently in front of her and quickly showed her an open window to write in, thankfully it was vaguely similar enough to the computers she had used previously for her to work out what to do.

The talk quieted as the teacher came out of the small office behind the whiteboard and desk.

Her gimlet gaze swept the room and fastened on Rey. Rey swallowed.

"We have a new pupil today everyone." She took in Rey's expression and her's softened minutely.

To Rey's enormous relief she did not make Rey stand up and introduce herself, Rey was pretty certain she must had held the same expression a rock rabbit does when hit by headlights.

The teacher merely gestured to her and went on, "This is Rey White, she comes to us from… Jakku," The room rippled with derisive whispers that she cut short," I expect everyone to make her very welcome. Now, open the text on the Empire and we shall begin."

Finn quickly opened another window on her screen which turned out to be a digital textbook. Rey smiled her thanks and tried to breathe silently while her heart beat slowed down and she listened to the lesson, acutely aware of the considering stares she was receiving from everyone other than Finn.

After the lesson, they waited till the others had left the classroom before exiting themselves. "That was Miss Holdo, she is strict but nice. She normally makes new students stand up, but your face went so blank I think she was worried you'd faint."

Rey smiled at him wryly. "I really, really hate being the centre of attention- and I am not good with new people… actually with just people in general."

"Got it. Okay, so it's lunch time, you weren't here for the first few lessons, shall we grab some food and go somewhere quiet where we can talk undisturbed?" His eyes narrowed suddenly and he yanked her down another corridor and into an empty classroom pulling her with him behind the door.

She was just starting to wrench away from him when she saw his expression and stilled herself.

There were footsteps outside and male laughter, it sounded like a fairly large group but hey carried on past, and Finn let out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, sometimes it's just better not be be in some peoples way- that was Hux and his followers".

Rey's tensed muscles relaxed a little and she nodded in understanding.

They made it to the refectory without incident, Rey was aware of being stared at, knew she was being talked about, but she did her best to ignore it.

The refectory was large, the tables and chairs provided were wooden and looked comfortable, the serving staff were smart and mostly silent, the room had one wall made mostly of glass and she could see some picnic benches outside. There was a large hot food counter, a salad bar, snack bar, ready made sandwich and wrap counter, drinks refrigerator and a hot drink machine.

It was like a restaurant. They grabbed sandwiches, apples and bottles of water before beating a hasty retreat out a glass door onto the patio that held the picnic benches, it was apparently early Autumn, (seasons didn't mean much to her) and while sunny the wind was still cool. To Rey, who had been used to the heat of Jakku far to the south, it was unpleasantly cold.

But it also meant they were on their own, which was infinitely preferable to being inside.

Her back prickled uncomfortably so she picked a table to the side with her back to a wall that jutted out of the end of the refectory, this way she could see from both sides and no one could come up from behind her.

Finn nodded in approval at her choice and seated himself next to her, clearly he didn't like leaving his back open either.

"Sorry its cold, but I figured you'd prefer this to inside with them."

Rey nodded, considering how odd that already the two of them were us and them, it felt natural- hanging out with Finn, and in turn it felt odd that it already felt natural.

Apparently Finn was hungry as he ripped into his sandwiches (she noticed he had swiped two rounds).

"So," he said through a mouthful, "What's your deal then?"

Rey's mouth quirked as she slowly unwrapped her sandwich, "Guess I am not going to get away without telling you then?" He answered by rolling his eyes at her and she sighed.

Simple would be easiest she decided. "I'm an orphan, I've lived in a junk yard in Jakku, then suddenly a few weeks ago I'm told some random guy who I've never met left money in his will for me to go to school here."She shrugged at his flabbergasted expression."That's all I know. No one would tell me his name or where he lived or anything."

Finn gave a large swallow. "Holy shit!" He said fervently. "Rey, I'm an orphan too!"

It was Rey's turn to look surprised. She had not expected that, not in a million years.

Finn grinned at her, "Though I've been in the same foster home for the last few years but they didn't really like me, I worked my arse off to get a scholarship to anywhere, so I could leave," He mouth twisted wryly, "I thought anywhere would be better, but I ended up here… don't get me wrong, I'm not ungrateful exactly, I just thought I'd at least make a few friends... " He smiled again, a sunny happy grin "Guess I have at least one now though."

Rey returned his smile, the expression feeling odd and unfamiliar on her face.

Finn cleared his throat suddenly, then started on his other sandwich, "Ok so I've got a map I made myself of the campus, I can put it on your tablet, it is similar to the one the school gives out but I added some more useful information like what places to avoid at certain times and where good short cuts are. You've got a fairly easy day today, tomorrow you'll have fencing though with Master Luke, who can be really weird, you'll understand when you meet him and forewarned is forearmed as they say."

Rey frowned, "They do?" She hadn't heard that one before but it made sense to her.

"So English after this and sciences, then you finish with swimming, I won't be there with you for that- sorry, its a girls only class…. What's wrong?"

Rey's face had drained of colour, "I can't swim." She mumbled awkwardly.

He looked incredulous, "Like not at all? Are you sure?"

"I've never been in anything deeper than a bath so I am pretty sure I can't- what am I going to do?" Desperation crept into her voice and he patted her hand absently.

"Err okay, right, well… did no one ask you this when you joined? How come you never mentioned it to anyone?"

"Everything happened so fast, it's been like a whirlwind picked me up and just dropped me here."

"Okay, well, eat up and we'll go find Master Luke, he is head of Physical Education and I know where we can find him."