In which the illegitimate granddaughter of Beatle Paul McCartney finds herself in Liverpool in the early 1960s, falling hopelessly in love with John Lennon.
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27th September, 2021
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Ruby rolled over in bed and groaned, wishing that she had remembered to close the blinds the previous night when she had returned from her almost-midnight jaunt through Liverpool. The birds outside were tweeting loudly and she could hear the city bustling. She groaned again. What time was it?
As if on cue, her phone alarm went off and she grabbed it, turning it off and then looking at the time.
Yep, she was going to be late - and on the very first day.
Ruby hated being late, but not as much as she hated rushing.
She figured that if she was already going to be late then there was no point in rushing, so she got out of bed and went into the bathroom for a shower.
The water was cold, and she couldn't find the bar of soap that she'd brought from home. She freshened up as best she could and then climbed out, using the old mustard coloured towel that she'd brought from her mother's house to her father's and then to art college with her. She couldn't wait to finally start living her own life, and today was the first day of it.
She dried and then dressed, piling her hair up into a messy bun on the top of her head. She didn't bother with any makeup since she wasn't trying to impress anybody, and then she put her shoes on. Ruby quickly threw some things into her tote bag; phone, charger, her sketching pencils and a mini umbrella... she stopped, taking a step out of the room she could look at it from a better angle, but it didn't work. She couldn't see her sketchbook anywhere.
When had she last had it? Ruby remembered unpacking it yesterday when she'd arrived in Liverpool, and she remembered laying it on her bed before she'd gone out for her walk last night. She quickly grabbed the duvet and shook it, hoping that her book would fall out of it, but she was out of luck.
Her eyes widened as she realised when she had last had it.
Last night by the Mersey.
"Fuck!" She wasn't one for explicit language unless the situation called for it, but this situation most certainly did. It was unlikely that it was still there; most likely, it had been blown into the Mersey by the wind in the night, or somebody had picked it up.
A tear slipped down her cheek as she realised that she would most likely never see it again.
She loved that sketchbook. It had all of her best drawings in, in her opinion. It even had the one that she had done for her grandmother just before she had died, where Ruby had drawn herself in a purple Sergeant Pepper's uniform, sitting between Paul McCartney and John Lennon. By far, that wasn't her best sketch and she had definitely improved since August 2013, but that drawing meant a lot to her, and knowing that she had lost it made her feel like she had lost a part of herself, and another part of her grandmother.
But there was nothing that she could do about the sketchbook, now. Ruby took a deep breath and put her tote bag on her shoulder, leaving the apartment and going to her car. She had originally intended to take the bus to campus everyday and just use her car for when she needed to get shopping or to go somewhere further away, but she was too late to use public transport.
When she got to her art college, which was the same one as John and Cynthia Lennon had gone to, and the same which had been attached to the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, her grandfather's secondary school, she took a few minutes to just sit in her car and look at the building. Her heart was beating a mile a minute in her chest. Ruby took several deep breaths and steadied her nerves. She was running extremely late on her very first day, and was sure to leave a bad impression because of it.
She grabbed her tote and got out of the car, locking it and then hurrying to the large building which was now owned by Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, or LIPA, which had been founded by her grandfather in 1996. In truth, it was him who now owned this building, and the thought of it sent a thrill through her body. She felt closer to him in this city than she ever had before. Ruby knew that her grandfather came to the graduation ceremony for LIPA each July, and that there was always a large crowd of people waiting to meet him outside... and she planned to be at the front of that crowd this year.
Ruby went inside and then took a second to sit down, gathering her courage and thoughts once again. She got her phone out of her bag and checked what room she was supposed to be in, and then she headed for the stairs to get there... but everything was so confusing. The running order of the rooms didn't seem to make sense, and, not wanting to draw attention to herself, Ruby quickly went back downstairs to ask for clues at the reception desk which she had seen on her way in.
"Up two flights of stairs, first door on your right. Go straight down the corridor and up another flight of stairs, then it's the second door on your left." That was a lot of stairs, but Ruby nodded and thanked the receptionist all the same.
She went slowly up the stairs because she didn't want to arrive all hot and sweaty and out of breath, so by the time she reached her classroom, there was only about twenty minutes left of her first class of the day. She took her watch off and dropped it in her bag before taking a final deep breath. Ruby cleared her mind and then opened the door... she tripped over her shoelaces.
