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, 1960
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John, Paul and George all went to the front of the classroom and readied themselves to play. Ruby looked at Stu, he wasn't even watching them.
She cleared her throat politely and he looked up at her. He was quite good looking, but wasn't her type. She could see how Astrid Kircherr could fall in love with him, though. She wondered if they had met, yet.
"Don't you need to be up there with them, too?" She asked him.
John and Paul had been tuning their guitars, Ruby assumed that George had done his before she and John had arrived.
"Stu doesn't practise during the day." John called from the front, "Rube, come a bit closer!"
She did as she had been told, leaving Stu to carry on with his drawings.
She sat behind the desk at the very front of the room and watched as history was made in front of her; John, Paul and George, in what was the beginning of The Beatles.
As they played, Ruby cheered loudly, clapping her hands and beaming. When they had finished, John looked at her, and he looked very confused. "What're you making all that noise for?"
Ruby chuckled, "you're good. I was showing my appreciation."
"Yeah, but are we that good?" George asked. Ruby nodded.
"One day, I think you'll be the biggest group in the world."
John snorted, "no one's better than Elvis."
"You will be." Ruby smiled, "I believe in you -"
"You've only just met us, Ruby." Paul put his guitar down and went over to the practical stranger, sitting on the bench across from her. "What makes you so sure?"
Ruby shrugged, "I, um, just have a hunch. You all have so much energy, and I think that's what makes a good act."
Stu said from the back of the room, "I think she's right... but I don't think it'll be with me -"
"Ah, can it, Stu." Paul called over his shoulder.
"You're staying in, Sutcliffe!" John agreed. Ruby had always thought that her grandfather hadn't liked Stu and had been hostile to him, but it didn't seem that way. In fact, Stu and Paul McCartney seemed almost friendly with each other.
Maybe the tension comes later, Ruby thought to herself.
She still didn't know what year she was in, and she didn't know how to ask without drawing attention to herself. Maybe she could get hold of a newspaper.
A school bell echoed throughout the building of the Liverpool Institute, and the five of them exchanged glances.
"Shall we get going, then?" John asked as he threw his guitar over his shoulder and came over to Paul and Ruby.
"Get going?" Ruby asked, "isn't it a bit risky to go now? Like, what if somebody sees us?"
"We're going out that way." John pointed to the window, "no one will see us... you're coming to the Cracke, right?"
Two things confused Ruby in that sentence; John pointing to the window, and 'the Crack'.
"It's a pub." Paul supplied helpfully, catching onto Ruby's confused look on her face.
"Oh!" Ruby exclaimed in surprise, "sure, I'll come."
"Good." John grinned, "Stu! Open the window -"
"The window?" Ruby asked. "What do you mean?"
"Well we have to get out someway, and, as you so helpfully pointed out, the halls are swarming, now. We have to go that way -"
"But -"
"It's safe." George assured Ruby, going over to help Stu get the window open all the way.
"There's a gutter you go down, you'll be fine."
"How high up are we?" Ruby asked, unsure if she wanted to know the answer. She couldn't believe that John, George and Stu were serious.
"Best not to look down, luv." Paul advised her.
"Look down?" Ruby's stomach was teaming with butterflies, and her hands had turned very sweaty. She didn't think that it would be a good idea for her to scale the outside of the Inny, but she was sure that there was no other way out.
"Stu'll go first to catch you if you fall, and I'll go next to cushion your fall -"
"Or to look up her skirt." George said in a quieter voice to Stu, who sniggered. Ruby caught what they were saying, however, and smirked.
"You won't look up, John?" She knew he would, of course, but she wanted to know what he would say in reply to her question.
He crossed his finger over his heart, "hope to die, Rube. Y'know me, I'm a proper gentleman."
She had no doubt that he was the exact opposite, and told him so. He, Paul, George and Stu laughed.
They could hear voices in the hall outside of the classroom.
"Right come on, then." Paul said as he stood up and went over to the window, "off you go, or you'll get us all in trouble."
Stu climbed out of the window and lowered himself down. John went next and then it was Ruby's turn. She swallowed and turned to Paul. "You won't laugh if I fall?"
"I promise not to laugh before I've asked if you're okay." He gave her a cheeky smile and then said, "your turn. Off you go."
She took a deep breath and then climbed onto the sill, putting her hands where she had seen John and Stu putting theirs, and clutched onto the gutter. Ruby took her grandfather's advice and didn't look down.
"We'll be by after school." George said to Ruby as she lowered herself down.
"Eh!" John exclaimed from below her. Ruby fought the edge to glance down at him, "she's got pink ones on!"
He was teasing, she knew, but it didn't stop her from blushing. Above her, George and Paul had shut the window, but were still watching from behind the glass.
When Ruby reached the bottom, she took a few deep breaths and realised that she had never felt happier to have her feet on the ground. They left the school grounds and turned left.
"You're going the wrong way, John." Stu said from beside Ruby.
John was walking on her other side. She turned to look at him, he was grinning. "We have to get Miss Arty-Farty some proper clothes first, don't we?" He paused, "Cyn left some stuff at ours a while ago, I reckon they'll fit her."
"But isn't Cynthia quite possessive over her stuff?" Stu asked.
