Nowhere Girl ~ John Lennon/The Beatles

Chapter One: New Life

Once the suitcase was empty she placed it on top of the wardrobe before moving onto the already opened box where her other records were. She set them all out in a pile by the window-cill according to colour, wishing she'd not let her mother throw out her father's record box, the one he'd used to store all of his, like they were his prized possessions. It was no use dwelling on though, so instead she threw the cardboard box into the corner, planning on making use of it as a makeshift canvas.

She moved onto the next box, the one containing the few decorations, photographs and posters she had. In the flat she used to have her snow globe set out on the bedside table next to a photograph of her and both of her parents, but this new room didn't have a bedside table, so she instead emptied the contents of the box onto the bed before tipping the box upside down, using the bottom of it as a makeshift table, setting out her globe and picture frame. She then stuck up her paintings around the room using the tape she'd already nicked from Albert's kitchen, hanging up her water colour of her old flat building above her bed, sticking up her portraits of Debbie Reynolds and Ella Fitzgerald either side of it. The portraits hadn't been her best work, and neither was the painting of Park Hill, but they were the ones her father had loved the most, so it seemed only right that those went pride of place.

The final box was full of her makeup and art supplies, so she made quick work of emptying out her makeup bag onto the dressing table, arranging everything until it was perfect, before spreading the art supplies out across the floor, propping the large sketchbook up against the wall, open at an unfinished drawing of Chuck Berry. She liked everything else to be organised, her clothes and her makeup, but not her art. Art to her was meant to be chaotic, and she liked her process of just picking out whatever materials she stumbled upon first when making a piece.

She liked chaos in art, but she liked being able to set it aside and go back to order. That seemed to be no longer possible though, not now she had been made to leave home and what she knew as her order far behind.

She considered lighting up another cigarette, hoping the smell of nicotine would make the room feel a little more like her, but just as she went to her satchel to fish out her packet and lighter, a knock came at the door. Whoever it was didn't wait for her to answer, and so her Uncle Albert came into the room, holding a pile of sheets and a large brown envelope. Robin didn't look at him, the uncle she barely knew outside of her father's stories, instead taking a seat on her new bed, looking across the room to avoid eye contact with him out of sheer stubbornness.

"Settling in, Roberta?" he asked cheerily, hoping the smile he put on his face would help hide the nerves he was so obviously feeling.

"My name's Robin," she corrected him, rolling her eyes as she spared a glance to him.

"Oh, yeah, your Mum did say you preferred Robin," he seemed to think out loud. "You've made it look rather nice in here. I've got you some bedsheets, didn't think you'd want to sleep on just a bare mattress, and a letter came for you from the art college,"

That made her look at him, swivelling in her position to face him properly, raising her eyebrow as he held the envelope out to her. One of the many things Robin had left behind in the move to Liverpool was a year at a local art college, and on the drive to this new city her mother had mentioned briefly about her enrolling in the Liverpool College of Art to complete her qualification. She thought her mother meant for her to apply, but clearly not trusting Robin to complete such a big task for their new life, Rita had gone straight ahead and applied for her.

Robin, with an inaudible sigh, took the envelope off her Uncle, her eyes gazing over the front, marked with the college's logo and underneath addressed to her as 'Miss R. E. M. Knight, 249 Menlove Avenue'. It was still strange to her to see her name labelled next to the new address, but not dwelling on that further, she tore open the envelope carefully, shaking out the contents onto the bed, picking up the letter and reading over it carefully.