Being dropped off the very next morning to the Liverpool College of Arts felt like a strange acomplishment to Robin. She'd not been part of formal education for months, not since her father died just before the start of a new term, and as she headed into the administration office of the college, portfolio in hand with her skethbook and her satchel containing every essential suply she could possibly need, she felt a weird sense of relief. She might not be exactly where she wanted to be, but at least she was on track for something.

She looked the part too. Dressed in her leather jacket, a white shirt with a green checked skirt and heeled boots, she felt confident, her hair in a high ponytail with what was once a fringe styled into a quiff and the slightest bit of eyeliner marking her eyes to add to that confidence. On her way into the office, she'd spotted a few of the other students, and none of the other girls seemed to be wearing leather. Robin hoped that would mean she would be avoided by everyone, left to her own company, but she couldn't help but think that wasn't going to be possible, because even she'd noticed the looks she got as soon as she got out of her Uncle's car. She hoped it was just people recognising her as an outsider, something that would soon pass as people decided to leave the new girl alone.

Not that the other students mattered, of course. Robin was there for herself, for an education, something she kept in mind as she headed straight to the front desk, waiting until the receptionist finished her conversation with the student in front of her before forcing a smile.

"Hello, I'm a new student here, I was told I needed to come here to be told where to go?" she spoke, trying to make her strong Yorkshire accent a little clearer.

"What's your name?" the receptionist asked, looking down a notebook rota. "Full name,"

"Full name? Roberta Elizabeth Marian Knight," she spoke with a sigh. "But I'd really like to just be called Robin, is there any way you could write that down in your system or-"

"Oh, yes, your name's written down here, Roberta!" the receptionist interupted, and Robin held back and exasperated laugh. "So since you're going to be going into classes that have already been established for a few weeks we've arranged for someone to show you around the college. We've found a student who's on most of your courses to show you around, he should be getting here soon if you wouldn't mind just waiting for him,"

The receptionist gestured over to a seat in the corner of the office, suggesting for Robin to sit and wait. The thought of being shown around college by another student and having to sit around waiting for them to show up made her inwardly cringe, but she decided not to fuss, and so she flopped down into the seat, folding her arms across her chest as she stared down at the floor. If there was one thing she thought was worse than people staring at her because she was new, it was having someone be specifically asked to show her around. It was embarrassing, and what little pride she had shuddered at the thought of being reliant on someone to show her around.

It turned out though that she wasn't waiting long, not as the door opened and in walked a teenage lad, tall with dark hair quiffed up wearing a pair of sunglasses. His gaze immidiately went to Robin as she got up, and he quickly took off his sunglasses, offering her a welcoming smile, one she tried to mimick.

"Are you Roberta?" he asked, causing her to let out a sigh of a laugh.

"Yeah, but everyone just calls me Robin," she said, trying not to sound irritated at the use of her full name.

"Well, I'm Stuart but everyone just calls me Stu, so it's nice to meet you, Robin," he grinned with a laugh, holding his hand out for her to shake, and as she did she noticed him looking at her portfolio. "They said you're in most of my classes so I should show you around, d'you wanna get going?"

"Yeah, sure, but you don't have to show me round if you don't want to, I'm not that hopeless," Robin attempted, more for his benefit than hers, because surely he didn't want to spend his day showing some stranger about.

"Nah, it's no bother, plus you're new," he shook his head, leading her out of the admin office and down the corridor off towards one of the classrooms. "I'll introduce you to my mates as well, it's no good you getting lost or lonely on your first day,"

Robin really wanted to object to that. She liked her own company, and she wasn't clueless enough to get lost that badly in one building. She didn't feel like she needed a guide, and she definitely didn't feel like she wanted said guide feeling sorry for her and bringing her into his friendship group. If she was back at home and someone tried liked Stuart was to be friends with her, she'd walk the other way, but she remembered just how lonely it had felt in the days after her father's death. Her mother barely speaking, no friends calling by the flat to offer condolences or company, Robin had never felt so alone, and she had been left regretting every opportunity she had passed by to make a friend. There was a perfect opportunity right in front of her, and so before she could allow herself to settle into her old ways, she offered Stuart what she thought was a friendly enough nod before telling him that it sounded great.

If she was going to make friends with anyone, at least it was with Stuart who was more than friendly enough. He didn't ask her any personal questions like why she had moved to Liverpool, he didn't mention her strong accent, hs own accent being surprisingly bearable too. The two spent the walk to first class talking about art and in the hours that followed as they went to their lessons she found out he was actually a really skilled artist, specialising in abstract and expressionism, some of his paintings seeming rather dark and moody, but Robin loved them, having seen nothing like it in her old college. His style was nothing like hers though, not as she favoured realism.

"Some of your sketches are like looking at photographs," Stuart mused as she flicked through her sketchbook.

"Yeah, I wanted go into photography but couldn't afford a camera," Robin explained with a shrug. "So I just taught myself to draw stuff lifelike,"

It was a simple explanation to her, but it was one that made Stuart laugh as if she was telling a joke. He thought she was funny, and Robin found herself surprisingly grateful for that. She liked his company, and to think the first friend she'd made in Liverpool liked her too was a relief. The relief continued up until the end of the first half of the day, and as they were dismissed from class for their lunch break, Stuart suggested they go and find his mates, which was when Robin felt her shields go up once again.

"Honestly, it's fine if you just wanna go and find them," she said as they headed in the direction of the cafeteria lunch hall, not wanting him to feel like he had to take her. "My next class after lunch is lettering anyway, and you don't do that so I don't mind finding my way on my own from here,"

"Rob, quit being daft and let me introduce you to everybody," Stuart laughed simply, gesturing over to a table in the corner where there were two lads and two girls already sat laughing about something. "Besides, me mate John does lettering, so at least this way you'll know someone in class,"

As it turned out, it was impossible for scousers to call someone their proper name, and so Stuart had taken to calling Robin Rob. Not that she cared, actually quite liking the nickname since it meant she actually had a friend for once. She just hoped that his other mates liked her too, because whilst the idea of being in a large friend group had never appealed to her, she had started coming round to the idea of Liverpool being a fresh start. So much had happened in Sheffield, and now she had the perfect opportunity to form distractions from the memories of her past.

"Alright," Stuart called to his mates as the two of them approached the table, Robin stood at his side, ignoring the way they all stared at her. "Rob, this is Bill, Rod, Helen and Jenny. This is Robin, she's new, just moved to Woolton,"

"Alright," she nodded, putting on a smile as she looked around the table.

"Can tell you're new, you don't have the accent," one of the lads, Bill, laughed.

"No, I'd class that as a good thing though," she shrugged, making the two girls laugh as she took a seat across from them.

"Well, welcome to Liverpool anyway," one of the girls, Jenny, greeted whilst her friend Helen smiled at her. "What brings you to this college?"

"Dunno really, painting's the one thing I'm good at and my Uncle applied for me," she explained simply, holding back another shrug as she folded her arms across her chest. "Didn't trust me to do something productive for myself,"

"You're funny," Helen commented whilst still smiling, surprising Robin as she wasn't trying to make a joke but merely explain her situation, but before she had the chance to reply, Helen had turned to the rest of the table. "John'll like her,"

"When has John ever not liked a pretty girl?" Rod spoke up, rolling his eyes before flashing Robin a wink. She wasn't quite sure how to respond to that.

"John likes blondes," Jenny said quickly, which was when Robin noticed the girl's only defining feature other than her crooked nose as if someone had broken it was her dyed blonde hair.

"Speak of the devil," Stuart said, glancing across the cafeteria as he spotted the final member of their group crossing the hall. "Alright, Lennon?"

Robin, feeling ever so slightly out of her depth as she was so unused to being the subject of people's conversation, looked up quickly, hoping that the new arrival of their friend would provide the perfect distraction from not only her own emotions but from the matter at hand. She hoped that with the arrival of this 'John', they'd soon forget about her and she could go back to blending in, the way she was always so used to, not liking being made the central topic of the group. Not only was she new, but being compared to the ideals of their friend she hadn't even met was ever so slightly overwhelming in a way that made her want to disappear. She'd been hoping for a distraction, but Robin quickly realised it would not come in the form of this John, because it just so happened to be the exact same John she'd met last night. The exact same John who'd called her mean and pretty, the John who she'd given a cigarette to, the John she'd thought was the most handsome boy she'd ever met.

Approaching the hall he looked much more at ease with himself, wearing the same leather jacket as the night before with the same style of shirt, his hair still quiffed and his guitar fastened in it's case resting on his back. His glasses were gone, and though he wasn't squinting she could tell his eye sight was terrible, but his vanity was clearly more important. Walking across the hall, he turned heads, and the kinglike aura she'd felt the night before lighting his cigarette seemed only to be heightened. He acted as if he was better than everyone around him and he knew it, and normally Robin hated arrogance, but there was something about the way he conducted himself that wasn't really that arrogant, and instead of making her dislike him instantly as she usually would with most lads, she was just drawn to him even more.

Robin's hunch about his poor eyesight had been right, because as he took a seat next to Stuart, across from her, he didn't seem to notice her at all. He set his guitar aside, ruffling Stuart's hair slightly in place of a proper greeting, and then looked over at her. He frowned, as if he was trying to figure out where he'd seen her before, the girl he was seeing in front of him in that moment looking much different to the one he'd seen in the tree the night before simply because of his lack of glasses, but he soon realised, raising his eyebrows in surprise and flashing her a grin.

"Oh, hello again, Robin from steel city," he greeted, making Robin laugh whilst everyone else sat confused.

"Alright, Buddy Holly, where's the glasses today?" she said, smirking slightly, and John cursed himself for leaving his glasses at home, wishing he could put them on to get a better look at her.

"Oh, y'know, I like things to be mysterious sometimes," he shrugged with a smirk of his own, his usual response when people questioned him over his glasses. "So you liked me so much last night you had to follow me here as well then?"

"Wait, hang on, do you two know each other?" Jenny asked, sounding oddly protective.

"She's me new neighbour, met her last night," John replied cooly, and Robin could tell that he wasn't overly close with either of the girls in the group, especially as he turned his focus immediately back to Robin with a sarcastic smirk, propping his elbows up on the table. "Didn't think you liked me that much to follow me here though,"

In response Robin merely rolled her eyes. She liked him, she thought he was funny, but liking him didn't matter if what he said seemed to contradict everything else within her. She didn't want to be made out as the typical girl who was easily smitten, obsessed over boys to the extent she'd go to college just to impress him. He was good looking, and she could tell he was used to girls showing interest in him romantically, but she definitely didn't want to be made out to be one of them.

If someone had made a comment like that back home about her, that she had merely gone to college to attract the attention of a boy, she would have walked away. She was her own person, and she wanted a good education to get somewhere in life, and she didn't want anyone thining differently. That was certainly one of the perks to keeping to oneself, that no one ever really said something she could disagree with, and she never had to put up with opinions that irritated or annoyed her. Except that wasn't the point of life. There would always be someone who thought differently to her, and no one would really ever know the true her except for herself. Starting college in Liverpool was meant to be a fresh start, a fresh start to broaden her horizons, and that included forcing herself to be in the company of others even if she didn't always like what they said, and so she stayed sat at the table, listening as the group continued to banter with each other, the conversation quickly moving on from her.

Except in John's mind, the conversation didn't really move on. He laughed along with his mates, but he wasn't really focusing. Instead, he was thinking about Robin, and how he'd clearly irritated her. He remembered how good it had felt the night before to see her smirk at one of his comments, and he wished he could see her smile again. He remembered last night after she'd gone in and he sat at the bottom of his garden, trying desperately to play his guitar but he couldn't tear his mind from her. He remembered wondering just why he was so attracted to her because she certainly wasn't his type. His type was blondes who'd show instant interest in him and Robin wasn't either of those. Now she was sat across from him an the lunch hall though, he realised his interest probably came from her obvious strength and independence.

He hardly knew her, yet he could already tell Robin liked her independence and her own space, like a lone ranger. She was a no-nonsense kind of girl, which completely clashed with him and his usual desire for fun, and he knew just by the way she struggled to hold back a scowl as he joked about her following him that she was the sort of girl who'd much rather be respected than lusted. The last part was a problem for John however, because he could already tell that there was something truly desirable about her that he knew if he spent long bouts of time with her would surely drive him mad.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the lunch break, everyone else on their table hurried off to their lessons, especially Stuart, who Robin realised was probably the most dedicated to his art out of them all. John, however, remained where he was, fiddling around with his guitar, only looking up when he saw Robin stood holding her books to her chest, watching and waiting for him impatiently.

"What?" he asked, frowning.

"You're in my lettering class," she said simply, gesturing for the door across the now empty lunch hall.

"Oh, shit yeah I forgot I'm meant to be in a class," he muttered, but he still didn't seem to have any urgency, packing his guitar back into it's case slowly, kicking back his seat as he got up, only to see Robin scowling at him. "What now?"

"I don't want to be late," she rolled her eyes as John began to saunter over to the double doors, Robin following behind him quickly. "And given I have no clue where I'm going I thought you'd show me,"

"Yeah, don't want you getting lost on your first day, do we?" he grinned at her teasingly, feeling victorious as he heard her let out a groan.

"Are you always this much of a prick? First you steal my cigarettes, now you're just being a pain," she spoke irritatedly, and a name that would have usually frustrated him seemed to excite him when called it by her.

"Nope, just for you, love," he smirked, looking out of the corner of his eye to see her fighting off her own smirk.

"I'm not your love," she told him, looking straight ahead as he took her towards their class room, the halls empty as everyone else had gone off to class in more of a hurry than John.

"Nope, you're my neighbour, and now you're my classmate," he said, still grinning as he knew he was irritating her. "Isn't that lucky for you,"

It would be luck, if Robin didn't find herself getting slowly but surely more frustrated with him. He seemed set on annoying her, and the almost star-struck vibe she'd felt upon realising how handsome he was was slowly fading and being replaced by indifference. She realised that he was the sort of person she could tolerate in small bursts, and so planned on ditching him as soon as they got to class, planning on sitting alone so she could focus on her work, but as soon as they reached the class room and John held the door open for her before doing a mocking bow to her, she felt her plot go down the drain as she saw every table taken except for a desk made for two right at the back.

"Lennon, you're late again," the teacher snapped, his voice tired and bored, making Robin realise John just did have the effect of exasperation on a lot of people. John was about to come out with a witty remark but the teacher's focused onto Robin. "Are you the new girl? Roberta?"

"Robin, yeah," she corrected him quickly, but it was too late as she could see John had clocked onto her full first name and was grinning with triumph, and she knew he would now tease her mercilessly for that as well. "Sorry I'm late,"

With that, she made her way to the only free desk, trying to ignore John as he sat next to her. The teacher continued talking at the class as Robin got her supplies out, her sketchbook, pencils, pens, ruler, anything she could possibly need, but that was when she noticed John merely had a sketchbook in front of him. She wondered where the rest of his stuff could be, but as she spotted him looking at one of the pencils wilfully she realised he didn't have anything else. That baffled her, because how could he be best mates with someone like Stuart, who clearly cared a lot about his art, and willingly enrol in art college if he wasn't bothered enough to bring his own pencil?

John was the exact sort of person that would have annoyed her into avoidance back in her old college, but there were no other tables to move to and they were neighbours. There was no getting away from him, and in the back of her mind, Robin realised she didn't really want to. There was something quite addictive about his teases and his lack of serious interest in college, and whatever that something was frustrated Robin beyond belief because she found herself too interested in this boy she hardly knew. She wished he just annoyed her, but instead his teases thrilled her ever so slightly. She'd known him for two days, but already found herself unusually drawn to him the way she never had been to someone else before.

That was why she silently slid a pencil, rubber and ruler over to his side of the desk, not even glancing as she did so, far too busy taking notes down from the chalkboard. She caught out of the corner of her eye John picking up the pencil, taking it to his sketchbook. She thought he'd be taking notes too, finally deciding to focus on the class, but instead she felt him dig his elbow into her side, getting her attention for her to look at his paper. When she looked over, all she saw was a note scrawled in wonky penmanship.

'Thanks for the stuff, Roberta.'

With a frustrated sigh, Robin quickly wrote her own note back at the top of her page where she could rub it out afterwards.

'Don't call me that, bring your own stuff next time.'

John seemed thrilled that she'd written her own note back, thinking she would be too much of a good student to turn her focus onto him rather than their lesson. He personally didn't care, not really having a passion for lettering considering he was only put in that class at the start of term because other teachers opposed to him going in their classes. Now he was doing lettering with Robin though, things were going to be more interesting, so he began to write back to her, finding excitement in not only talking to her but the fact she was tearing her focus from class to talk back to him.

'I'll not need to, got you next to me now. These seats are ours for the rest of the year. Nice to have a desk partner, Roberta.'

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Word count: 3988

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