Nowhere Girl ~ John Lennon/The Beatles

Chapter Twenty Nine: Standing There

Robin really liked having the weekend off work. It was nice to not deal with customers, it gave her more time to spend with John, and it also helped her avoid her Uncle. She'd only briefly seen Albert in passing, only talking to him long enough to establish that she was safe and was staying with John and Mimi for the weekend, and while he seemed upset at the situation he seemed understanding. Robin just knew that she would like to put off the inevitable conversation about what had happened for as long as possible.

It was great that John had suggested her coming along to Paul's that Saturday morning, since it was just a nice distraction from everything, because not only did she have her own family stuff to deal with she now had John's, as she was meeting his sisters that afternoon. Robin had very little experience with families, and considering she was an only child she had no experience with children or other girls younger than her. John hadn't been the most reassuring either, since to him it was just a normal occasion, and she'd decided not to tell him the extent of her concerns. It was bad enough he was walking on tenterhooks around her because of her mother, and she was still embarrassed that she'd practically moved into his house. She refused to add fuel to the sympathy fire.

Instead she sat in the corner of Paul's back room, watching as the two of them rehearsed. Whenever she usually accompanied them it was the whole group, all the Quarrymen together, but for the first time it was just the two of them. It was like invading, like she was glimpsing in to something highly personal and private, though it wasn't like either of them paid her much mind. Too focused on themselves, it was like John and Paul were enveloped in their own personal bubble, and nothing could disrupt them. Robin was certain she could take her shirt off and John would barely notice. Not that she cared, she was busy sketching, getting on with her coursework while her camera sat untouched on her lap, trying to ignore the quiet rumblings of stress in her mind as she realised deadlines were growing ever closer.

"Don't play it like that, play it like this," Paul commented after John hit a few notes of his guitar, demonstrating to him the way he wanted it. Robin didn't know too much about the technicalities of music, but she personally thought both sounded the exact same.

"I don't wanna play it like that though," John muttered, shoving his glasses back up his nose.

"But it sounds better like that, more rock n' roll!" Paul enthused, making John roll his eyes dramatically.

Robin looked back down at her sketchpad, grimacing. The assignment prompt had just been 'standing', a vague title that had made her want to scream. It also made her want to curse considering Stuart knew exactly what he wanted to do, while she severely lacked inspiration. She was pretty sure he'd already finished his first draft of the piece, deciding to just do a still life and call it 'life standing still'. The thought of Stuart so far ahead was irritating, so she'd been forcing herself to just draw what ever came to mind and just try and make an  association to the word 'standing'. So far that wasn't going to plan.

"Sing those words again, just repeat it back to me what the bloody hell we're meant to be singing about," John sighed, hitting his hand against the strings of his guitar.

"Well, she was just seventeen, never was a beauty queen," Paul sang, and Robin instantly thought that while it sounded amazingly catchy, it wasn't quite perfect. "Dunno if that's right?"

"I like the first part, that bit's good," John shrugged, still fiddling with his guitar strings. "Well, she was just seventeen... God, what's so great about being seventeen?"

"Wouldn't know," Paul joked, referencing the fact that he was still just sixteen for another two months. As soon as he'd spoken, he gasped, as if an idea hit him. "Well she was just seventeen, you know what I mean,"