It was something she'd not really thought about until that day and she doubted her mother had considered it, things were different for adults, it didn't seem to bother them. It was probably the fact that Bob had a Scottish accent that made him stand out while he was working on their old estate that got him her mother's attention in the first place.
She'd no idea how they'd met, it just seemed to Rose like it had happened and there had been nothing she could do about it. Her mother was hardly going to give up a good thing when she saw it because she'd not taken her feelings about it into account.
As she tried to sleep, she thought about that boy she'd seen again, whom she knew must keep hanging around the library to try to talk to her but even when he'd been there on his own, he'd not attempted to do so. He'd been with another boy, the same one she'd seen him with the first time and he'd looked like he was trying to encourage his friend but maybe some other girls had been sitting behind her at another table and they hadn't even meant her?
Before she'd gone to bed, her mother had questioned her.
"So, have you got everything for tomorrow Rose?" she'd been asked.
"Yes Mum, you've asked me a dozen times," Rose had replied.
"Don't be cheeky to your mother," Bob had warned her, yet again.
"It's okay Bob," her mother had defended her, for a change Rose thought. "I don't know how many times I used to have to remind you, you always told me on the Sunday before you were going back that you needed a new pencil case or some gym shoes. What was I meant to do?"
"Mum, that was years ago and this time I wasn't starting school on a Monday. How come it's different here?" Rose asked, thinking Bob would tell her off again.
She couldn't even have a conversation with her mother any more without Bob butting in, he was a real spoilsport.
"I expect it's just how it is, you're not back in London any more," her mother replied.
Did she have to keep reminding her, Rose wondered. She was hoping her mother had got fed up by now and taken them back home, not that there was anywhere to go, they would have to depend on relatives but it wasn't like her mother to just take off in such a hurry after a bloke. It had been bad enough when Howard from the market had stayed over on a Saturday night though at least they'd not had to move, hundreds of miles away.
"Yes, Rose, remember that," Bob agreed. "You'd best stay quiet for a few days, your accent will stand out."
"Great, just what I need, a new school and I can't talk to anyone," Rose thought to herself. To Bob she just said, "Why, what will they do?"
"Just be warned," he replied, looking at her mother.
"Just pretend you've lost your voice Rose," Jackie suggested. "I'll write you a note to say you've got a sore throat, there's some lozenges in the bathroom cabinet, put them in your school bag."
Rose didn't think she had much choice, her classmates would pick her out and make fun of her at least, goodness knows what else. Surely her mother would have pointed that out to the headmaster but wouldn't there be more pupils there that weren't native to Scotland? Maybe her new teacher would make her stand in front of the class, well she hoped not.
She had escaped to her room, wondering if the two boys she'd seen at the library went to the grammar school but she was only interested in the blonde haired one. He'd look kind of sad, she'd thought, like he didn't want to be there anyway and considering he'd snapped up the book she'd only just returned, it was a safe bet.
Alec was reading the book eagerly, at his aunt's house, which made her smile.
"Some last minute studying Alec?" his aunt had asked, John in the other room watching TV.
"I tried to get it before, it's only just come back in," Alec admitted, though not that he'd bet the blonde haired girl had it and he'd been watching for her to return it.
"Good thing you went then?" his aunt smiled, relieved he was actually reading a book and not writing one of his far-fetched stories she was still convinced he based on his older cousin.
John had come back into the large kitchen, grinning at his young cousin reading a book. Going up behind Alec, he ruffled his hair.
"Trying to catch up?" John asked him, going to the cupboard looking for a snack.
Alec was just glad his cousin had dropped the subject as to if he liked the girl he kept seeing in the library though he'd be bitterly disappointed if she wasn't actually going to be at his school. If she was though, he just hoped Jamie wouldn't tell the whole class that he'd been staring at her or looking for her every time he went in.
His aunt went off to do something and John sat opposite Alec.
"You never answered my question yesterday Alec," John reminded him.
Alec had got away without answering the awkward question his cousin had asked him when his dad had come looking for him.
"I don't know John but if she goes to my school, I'll see her then," Alec replied.
John grinned at him. "Seems there's more to it then just seeing her in the library, Cousin," he teased Alec.
Alec knew this would happen sooner or later, he'd seen John tease his younger brother Peter many a time over a girl at school or the youth club they used to hang round but he'd stopped going when Peter had, it was no fun without him causing mischief.
"There's nothing else to it John, she was just a girl in the library," Alec tried to deny anything else.
"Who was just a girl in the library?" his aunt asked as she came in from the laundry room with a basket.
Alec knew he'd never get out of it now.
"Nothing Auntie Mary, Jamie and I just kept seeing this new girl and we wondered if she was going to our school," he had to admit.
"Well, you'll find out tomorrow," she replied, glancing at John, whom she knew was making more out of it than there actually was, she'd seen him doing it with Peter. "Still, it'll be nice for you to make new friends, not like that Kristy and her followers."
Alec wondered how she had remembered the school showoff. You were either in Kristy's little gang or looked down on and anyone who had any sense stayed away from her and Moira.
"Those two still bothering everyone?" John laughed.
"I just stay away from them, they're not worth it," Alec replied, knowing he wouldn't get the book finished now.
"Good for you kid, who needs friend like them?" John replied, his mother despairing he wouldn't drop his adopted English accent even though it seemed like he'd come home for a while, unlike Peter had done. "You'll make some new ones, maybe that girl eh?" he grinned and nudged Alec.
"Stop teasing him John," his mother told him.
"It's okay Auntie Mary, Jamie does it as well," Alec had to admit.
His aunt went off again and John wanted to know more.
"Seems you may have a rival then?" John asked him. "If you don't do something, someone else will snatch her up."
"I'm not ready to go chasing after girls John," Alec replied.
"Oh come on, who are you kidding?" John wanted to know. "Everyone has to start somewhere, have their first crush. Go on admit it, she's yours."
Alec wasn't ready to admit anything.
"So does Jamie fancy her?" John continued.
"I don't think so, the way he goes on but he said if no-one made a move on her, his older brother would. Besides, she looks older than me."
"Aw, anyone looks older than you," John teased him, reaching to ruffle Alec's recently cut hair. "What happened to the spiky look?"
"Dad make me have it cut," Alec replied, not looking too happy about it.
"Well you look more grown up now, maybe that girl will take more notice of you?" John told him.
Alec just hoped he was right but was he ready to take notice of just one girl when he was surrounded by them at school? So he'd gone home, talked to his dad for a while and gone to his room to try to finish his book.
"All ready for tomorrow?" he asked Alec. "You look much better with flatter hair you know?"
"Mum liked it like that," Alec reminded him.
"I know Son but she's gone now and you're getting older. You don't want your friends making fun of you."
Alec thought maybe his dad did have a point? As he tried to get to sleep later, he laid awake thinking of the blonde girl why was he even bothering? What would someone like her want to do with him? As to Jamie though, he acted more grown up but that was maybe because he had an older bother, on the other hand, so did his cousin Peter but John acted more like a kid out of the two of them.
Both of them were up early the next morning, Alec's dad was just getting ready to go to work, Alec being trusted to lock the door and get himself to school, getting the early bus to avoid the rush. Rose on the other hand had got the times of the buses and figured the one that got her there fifteen minutes before school started was the best one since she had no-one to hang around with.
That was half the problem, her old mates would have gone back yesterday and she would have been hanging around, maybe calling by the garage to torment Mickey on her way with Shareen just to get him going and they would have been laughing about it all day. Now she had nothing to look forward to, getting made to pull the extra stitching out of the hem of her school skirt by one of the teachers to make it longer and the others giggling at her being caught and chewing gum and making a mess when told to spit it out in class.
She smiled to herself as she got her breakfast, her mother fussing as usual to make sure Bob had his packed lunch, leaving Rose's on the counter top then them sneaking into the hallway for some groping, Rose imagined it was groping anyway since they could hardly keep their hands off each other. She usually heard her mother calling out to him that she'd see him later then act all coy and get her own breakfast.
It was a far cry from Rose remembering her mother not getting up until the last minute and still not dressed when she had gone out. She wondered if things would ever have changed so drastically if her mother had never met Bob? Rose did not know the conversation that had been taking place in their bedroom though.
"Bob, I told ya, I don't expect Rose to do everything when she comes home," Jackie had protested as she'd sat at the dresser. "She'll make some friends and want to hang around with them, then she'll have homework to do."
"I know that Jackie but don't let her stay out too long, make sure she's home when you are," Bob had told her. "Remember what we agreed?"
Jackie remembered only too well what had been agreed when he'd found out she had a thirteen year old daughter. What had started out in their agreement had changed over the weeks they'd been together and she was so gone on him by now, she had no choice but to agree. She watched Rose get her lunchbox and handed her some bus fare.
"You'll have to ask about a bus pass Rose," she reminded her.
"I hope I qualify for one then? It's not very far though," Rose replied.
"Yeah but it's too far to walk though and you don't know your way. Go on, don't miss the bus and be late on your first day. Have ya got that note?"
"Yeah but I don't know Mum, I'll be deceiving everyone," Rose hesitated.
"Well what else can ya do other than let the whole school know?" her mother asked.
"Well the bus conductor will know," Rose protested.
"Well just mumble or whisper, then those getting on will already know you have a sore throat," Jackie suggested.
"Well I don't have much choice then, do I?" Rose asked. "Bye then, see ya tonight, I might not come straight back if I make some friends."
"Well Bob said for ya to be back the same time as me, I'm agreeing with him," her mother replied.
Rose half expected as much.
"Rose, can't you call it home?" her mother continued as she got ready for work.
"You know I can't Mum, this isn't my home," Rose replied sadly.
"Well we're here so make the best of it sweetheart. Go on or you really will be late."
Alec was setting off to the bus stop at the end of the road, which was the next one up from where Rose would be getting on but he was half an hour earlier. He met Jamie at the corner and they saw there were only two or three others from school already there in the bus shelter, thankfully Kristy and Moira lived elsewhere or it would be a nightmare.
"Are we having a bet then?" Jamie asked as he sat on a wall instead of in the bus shelter, Alec just leaning against it so the person whose wall it was wouldn't protest.
"About what?" Alec asked, not that he didn't already know.
Jamie nudged him. "You know what about. Today is the day you find out if that girl goes to our school or not so I bet you a pound she does."
"I have better things to do with my pocket money Jamie," Alec replied, pretending not to care.
His friend laughed. "I was telling my brother, he wants to go to the library with us next time," he teased Alec.
"Is that meant to bother me?" Alec asked, trying to act tough.
"Well I told you he would if you were too slow Alec," Jamie warned him. "What would your mum have said? She'd have told you not to mess around and do something."
"Stop it Jamie, my mum's not here, is she?"
"Sorry. The bus is late or have they changed the times?" Jamie wondered, knowing he'd hit a raw nerve. "I didn't mean anything but she would have done, she always encouraged you."
"Yeah she encouraged me to let my hair get spiky but dad said I had to grow up," Alec replied as he saw the bus come around the corner.
"Well all I'm saying is if she's new to the school, she should be warned about Kristy and Moira," Jamie said as they went to board the bus. "Let's sit upstairs and she if she lives around here?"
Alec doubted it, it wasn't a small town where everyone lived in the same area. She could live anywhere and may still not be going to their school but whoever she was and whichever school she was going to, some other boy would snap her up, maybe even someone like Jamie's brother.
"Come on Alec, cheer up before we get to school. If she's there, she's there but if not, we can go to the library when we get out," Jamie suggested. "I was only messing with you about my brother."
Alec wasn't so sure about that, Jamie's brother Alan was well known for talking to the girls, he was almost as bad as John. As they got off the bus, pupils were already gathering in groups, some whose parents sent them off early and some who got there to avoid the over-crowded buses, they saw Kristy and her gang were already trying to get new recruits for the new term.
Jamie steered Alec towards a few boys they were friends with but before they got there Jamie stopped.
"Still writing your stories Alec?" Jamie asked him. "Best not say anything, you're never going to get away with it."
"I know, I won't get my notebook out while they're around, okay?" Alec replied.
"Still basing them on that time traveller?" Jamie grinned.
"My aunt thinks they're about John. I suppose they could be," Alec admitted.
"Are they?" Jamie wanted to know. "He does actually travel Alec, even if it is only by train or plane. At least his travels are real. How long is he staying at home?"
"Who knows with John?" Alec wondered. "Until he gets another assignment I expect but he'll be writing his reports up for the agency who sent him. He said something about it the other day."
"Did you tell him, about that girl in the library?" Jamie wanted to know as the other boys were talking.
"I've not got an older brother to talk to about things like you have and Peter never came back, John is all I have," Alec replied.
They went to join their friends, some of them noticing Alec's haircut and wondering if they maybe should have done the same.
Rose had been waiting at the bus stop, not being able to get in the shelter and hoping the bus wouldn't be full when it got there. She cringed when the bus did arrive, some of the girls looking at her as if to ask who she was and that they'd never seen her before. She listened as the others gave the amount of their bus fare and whispered the same as the bus driver issued her ticket and she thought maybe she'd not say the following morning, he seemed used to it.
She had to go upstairs, seeing a few empty seats but teenagers kneeling backwards to talk to their friends so she took a chance and sat next to one of them. The other girl suddenly turned.
"I'm saving that seat," the girl huffed in a broad Scottish accent. "Hey Annie, this girl thinks she's going to take our friend's seat," she continued.
If Rose hadn't been warned about speaking with an English accent and risk getting strung up, she would have told the girl not so politely that it was a likely story. Instead she just shrugged her shoulders and remained where she was.
"Did you not hear?" the girl turned back to her. "Hey, I think she's deaf or something."
The two girls behind them were already giggling and Rose, having grown up on a rough London council estate knew when someone was winding her up, she was an expert at winding poor Mickey up. She had to put on an act though of pretending to ignore them so the girl next to her purposely took more room up than she needed but Rose just nudged back. Despite the girls referring to her, she managed the next few stops, no-one wanting to sit there and got up when she saw others doing the same.
She followed them across the road and through the gate and that was when it hit her. This was it, she wasn't in Kansas any more. There were no friends waiting for her to catch up with, she was alone and she dare not even talk to anyone. She had no idea where she was going, she'd been sent a timetable and what class she was in so she wandered inside the building to see if there was some indication where that was but came out again at the size of the place.
Everyone was gathering at the entrance, waiting for the bell to go as a teacher came out. Rose followed them all in, stopping another teacher and showing which class she was in and being pointed to the next floor. Alec and his friends had gone inside and upstairs and were about to go in for registration as Alec saw Rose coming up the stairs. He nudged Jamie.
"See, she is here after all," his friend told him, Alec remembering something about betting she wouldn't be on the way there.
Everyone was going into the classroom, Alec holding back as his friend shook his head. Alec saw his chance as Rose was looking around, the teacher having pointed to the floor but not the classroom number. Thinking about just giving in and asking someone, Rose recognized him the boy from the library.
"Hi, are you lost?" Alec enquired as others passed him, taking no notice.
Rose couldn't break her silence if she was going to carry this off for a few days until she got up the courage to admit she was not native to Scotland. Instead she just nodded.
"Well if you're in the third year there's more than one class," he replied as two teachers were talking outside the next classroom.
Rose showed him where she should be, holding out the piece of paper she'd scribbled it down on from the letter her mother had got.
"Right, it's this one," Alec replied, as a few stragglers passed them and the teachers were splitting up.
Rose just smiled at him, Alec wishing she'd done that in the library, not as they were about to go in the classroom.
"Why are you two still out here?" the female teacher asked.
"Sorry Miss, it was just she got lost and didn't know which was her classroom," Alec tried to explain, Rose just nodding in agreement.
"Well that's very commendable of you Alec but you need to take your desk," the teacher told him.
Rose nodded and followed Alec and the teacher inside, Alec cursing himself he still didn't know her name. As the teacher read out each name, Alec was waiting for the girl he kept seeing in the library to raise her hand and finally, the teacher, Miss Robinson got to the 'T's"
"Sandra Taylor," the teacher called out as a redhead raised her hand, Alec hoping it was Rose's turn. "Rose Tyler," the teacher continued as Rose raised her hand slowly, unaware Alec had been waiting as another twenty or thirty names were called out, all of the others he already knew.
There, he had her name, it had been bugging him since the first time he'd seen her in the library and she also now knew his name, Rose thought as Alec had raised his hand, since he was sat in front of her slightly but he'd turned around as two more names had been called out. His friend smiled to himself and nudged Alec's arm.
Alec knew he would get teased more than ever now he had her name but he just hoped Jamie wouldn't tell the whole class that he'd spent most of the summer holidays wondering who she was or he'd never hear the end of it. Rose was also glad she had a name for the boy who'd been waiting eagerly for her to return that book and whom she'd seen talking to the boy who was sat beside him.
Now all she had to do was hope she'd get away with being quiet until everyone got used to her and would accept who she was but her hopes were dashed as the teacher made an announcement.
"Class, we have two new arrivals with us this term, Sandra Taylor and Rose Tyler, who have transferred from other schools. Rose, please stand up and introduce yourself."
Rose's heart leapt as everyone turned to look at her including who she now knew was Alec Hardy.
