When my alarm clock went off on the morning of the first day of classes for the year, I wanted to throw it at the wall.

“Go away go away go away,” I moaned into my pillow. I really didn’t want to get up and face the world, even though it was just for orientation. Even knowing that I could come straight home afterward and crawl back under my quilt didn’t make me want to get out of bed. Orientation meant half an hour of sitting in a classroom with my classmates from the previous semester (and more than likely a few new faces), followed by what always seemed like hours stuck in line at campus administration waiting to renew my parking permit and student association membership. And being as the entire student population of Wollongong TAFE attended campus on the first day of classes, it was going to be one long, horrible morning.

But as with most things concerning me and my education, I really had no choice. Blowing off orientation would mean I would have no idea where I was meant to be at any given time once classes actually did start. And that would have been a disaster in more ways than just one. There was nothing else for it – I had to get up.

“I hate Mondays,” I mumbled as I eased myself upright.

I was dressed and ready to head out in what seemed like record time. It was ironic, really – most days it took me an hour or so to get myself up and dressed in the mornings, owing to how slowly I tended to move so that I didn’t jar my usually already-sore joints, but whenever I was going out I managed to get ready in a fraction of that time. Once I was dressed in my jeans, one of my favourite T-shirts and my sandals – if I was going to be stuck in line after orientation, then I was going to be comfortable while I did it – I collected everything I was going to need that day and slipped it all into my little backpack. I had absolutely no intent of being out any longer than I needed to – all I needed to do was go to TAFE, pick up my timetable for the year, renew my parking permit and student association membership, and I could come back home.

But as usual, nothing went to plan that day.

My late start that morning meant that I missed the worst of the traffic that was headed into town. Even so, it still took me ten minutes to drive the six kilometres to campus. The Lysaght Street carpark was technically closer to home, but I had my wheelchair with me that morning and zero no desire whatsoever to drive myself all the way across campus. Not when the Foleys Lane carpark was literally next door to where I needed to go for that morning’s orientation session. But much to my dismay, I discovered once I’d driven past the carpark’s guard post, it seemed that a full third of the students enrolled in classes that semester had had the same idea as me – there didn’t seem to be any free parking spaces. “Oh this is just bloody marvellous,” I groaned. “Fucking unbelievable…”

It took another minute, but I finally found a disabled parking space near the rear of campus, next to the campus function centre, and swung my car into it. I grinned when I saw the car next to mine – a dark blue Holden Commodore that had customised Sydney Roosters numberplates, along with a Hanson sticker on the rear bumper. I had seen those stickers around Wollongong a fair bit in the last few months, especially since the end of the September tour, but this was the first time I’d seen one on a car at TAFE. Whoever it was that owned that car, they had just scored major points with me.

Orientation had well and truly begun by the time I finally made it to the computer lab at the very end of A Block’s second floor corridor. “Sorry I’m late,” I apologised, feeling my face beginning to heat up as roughly twenty pairs of eyes stared straight at me. “Couldn’t find a parking space.”

“Oh, that’s quite all right,” the teacher at the front of the lab said. “What was your name?”

“Ruby McCormick,” I replied.

“Ruby McCormick, Ruby McCormick…ah, here we go,” she said, and I realised she was checking my name off on the class roll. “Could I get you to stay back a few minutes afterward, so I can go over your timetable with you?” she asked.

“Yeah, of course,” I replied.

“Thank you, Ruby. Now, as I was saying…”

Somewhat to my relief, orientation was more or less painless – it was mostly just a rehashing of everything I’d found out in orientation at the beginning of the previous year, and was therefore things I knew already. It was even more of a relief to get my first look at my timetable for the year and discover that even though I would have to be at TAFE three days a week, all of my classes were scheduled in the afternoon.

“I’ve informed all your teachers about your medical condition,” the teacher said once we’d gone over my timetable together. “They’ll likely want to have a chat with you after each of your classes this week about anything you’ll need to make the most of your time here.”

“Okay,” I said. “Is there anything in particular I’ll need to tell them about?”

“Nothing I can think of.”

“Okay, thanks.” I gave the teacher a smile and turned myself around to head out of the lab, and from there back down the corridor to the lift.

It wasn’t long after orientation ended that it happened. I was always careful when I was in my wheelchair – my reflexes weren’t the best, and if I didn’t pay attention to where I was going or what I was doing it could turn into a rolling weapon without much warning. And that was exactly what happened as I was going past the library, on my way to the end of the very long line that snaked its way up from campus administration – I ended up ramming my wheelchair into another student from behind, sending them sprawling forwards onto the paving.

“Oh Jesus Christ, I’m sorry!” I apologised as they got back to their feet. “I really should learn to watch where I’m going.”

“It’s all right,” they said as they dusted themselves off. They sounded very familiar, and I frowned as I tried to figure out where I’d heard their voice before. I shelved those thoughts momentarily when they turned around and held out their hands to me, their palms uninjured. “See? No harm done.”

“Still, I’m really sorry,” I said as I looked up at them. “Oh, shit,” I whispered when I realised just who I had knocked over.

Standing in front of me once again, just like in Crust Pizza back in December, was Taylor Hanson.

“Ruby, right?” he asked me, and I nodded. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“I could say the same for you!” I said, feeling a little shocked. “I-I didn’t know you were a student here too.”

“First day today,” he said. “Are you headed to admin?”

I didn’t answer straight away. Instead, I eyed the long line of students that stretched out before me. “I was, but I think I might wait until later on this week. It won’t be as busy then.”

“Yeah, I think you might be right,” Taylor agreed.

“Did it hurt?” I asked automatically. It took me a little while to realise just who I’d said that to, and I felt myself beginning to turn bright red. “Shit, sorry.”

Much to my relief, Taylor laughed. “I think I like you, Ruby. No, it didn’t hurt, but if it ever does I’ll let you know.” He raked his hair back off his face, tucking it behind his ears. “There’s no way I’m spending the next half an hour standing in line with all that lot” he nodded toward the long line before us “and anyway, I’m hungry.” He studied me briefly. “Want to come and have lunch with me?”

“Sure,” I said without even thinking about it. It was good timing, really, being close enough to lunch time anyway, and I knew that if I didn’t eat something soon I was going to end up with a raging headache before long. “I usually go over to the uni to eat if I haven’t brought my lunch with me, the canteen here is overpriced and it just kinda sucks. It’s really only good if you’re desperate for something to eat or you forgot to bring lunch from home.” I rubbed at my forehead with the heel of my right hand. “And I’m not normally that desperate.” Taylor let out a chuckle at this. “Uni’s overpriced too but the food’s a lot better.”

“The uni sounds good to me,” Taylor said. “I might let you lead the way, though. I have no idea how to get over there from here.”

“Suits me,” I said with a shrug. For a moment I considered making a quick detour to my car so I could swap my wheelchair for my crutches, but I dismissed it. “Come on then.”

It wasn’t long before the two of us had set off toward the bridge between TAFE and the university. I was immensely glad that I’d remembered to charge the battery of my wheelchair’s motor overnight – the way I was feeling, while I might have just barely managed the walk along the ramp that spiralled up to the bridge, I seriously doubted I could have pushed myself all of that way.

“So what are you studying?” Taylor asked as we reached the bottom of the ramp.

“Library Services,” I replied. “Right now I’m a library assistant – I got my Cert Three last year. Once I’ve got my Diploma at the end of next year I’ll be a library technician. I’m hopefully off to uni after that. What about you?”

“Design. Figured I should have something other than my HSC to my name – I did pretty well in it, but that was way back in 2001 and it’s not going to count for much these days. Hence the reason I’m here.” He shrugged. “Figured it was as good a time as any to pick things up where they left off. More or less, anyway.”

“You went to TAFE before?” I asked in surprise as the top of the ramp came into view, and I hit the brakes as I looked at Taylor in shock.

He shook his head. “Nah, uni. Wollongong Uni, actually.”

I let out a low whistle and started to lead the way across the bridge. “Nice.”

“Mmm. I made it something like a semester and a half into a Creative Arts degree before I had to drop out.”

“That’s pretty impressive.” I didn’t say anything for a moment. “I dropped out of uni too. Made it a year and a half into an English degree. Got sick so…” I shrugged. “Bit hard to go to lectures and tutes when you can barely get out of bed.”

“No kidding,” Taylor agreed quietly, his voice barely audible over the sound of traffic that rose up from the freeway below the bridge. For a moment I wanted to ask what he meant by that, but I held back. It was obviously something he didn’t want to talk about with someone he barely knew, and if I was being honest with myself I couldn’t really blame him. I didn’t like talking about my own illnesses with people I barely knew – I didn’t even like talking about them with people I did know – so I could hardly expect him to do the same.

It wasn’t long before we reached the university and one of the cafés in Building 17, Out For Lunch. There weren’t many people waiting, but the café was smaller than I remembered it from my last visit. My wheelchair probably could have fit inside easily, but I didn’t particularly want to find out the hard way that it didn’t.

“I might go and find us somewhere to sit,” I said. I was almost compulsively running the palms of my hands along my wheelchair’s pushrims as I spoke.

“Are you sure?” Taylor asked.

“Yeah. Totally sure.” I reached around to where my little backpack was hanging off the right handle of my wheelchair and pulled it into my lap, unzipped the back pocket and started digging around for my wallet. “If I give you ten dollars, can you get me a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich and some orange juice?”

“Yeah, no problem,” he replied.

“You are an absolute angel.” Having found my wallet, I unzipped it and pulled a ten-dollar note out. “See you in a bit.”

His response was a smile, one that I returned before I headed outside to find somewhere for us to sit.

I had been sitting at a table in the courtyard outside the Student Central building, left leg propped up on one of the bench seats perpendicular to the one I was sitting on and my wheelchair at my back, when he emerged from Building 17 carrying two paper bags under one arm, a bottle of orange juice in one hand and a paper cup of what I figured was coffee in the other. I waved at him so he could see where I was sitting.

“So, you and uni,” I said once Taylor had sat down at our table. “I didn’t know you went here.”

“I kind of wanted to keep it a secret,” he admitted. “With Zac doing his HSC and all, I figured I had the time for it.”

“What did you major in?”

“Performance,” he replied, at which I raised an eyebrow. “Always room for improvement, Ruby,” he said with a small shrug. “It was mostly theatre stuff anyway, at least while I was still there.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” I promised. “About you going to TAFE, I mean. People around here are usually pretty good about that sort of thing, anyway.”

He picked up his coffee cup and saluted me with it. “Appreciate it. I don’t expect that anyone will care that much that I’m here, though, unless there’s some seriously rabid fans either at TAFE or here at the uni. Well, aside from you of course.”

“I’m not like that anyway. I did see a car with a Hanson bumper sticker when I got to TAFE, though, so there’s at least one fan here other than me and my friend Lisbeth.”

“Is that who you went to the concert with in December?”

I nodded, and swallowed the bite of my sandwich I’d taken before I answered. “Yep. She had a spare ticket to the show and managed to talk me into going with her. It was a hell of a lot of fun, but I really regretted it the next day. How the hell do you do that just about every night? I’d probably drop dead from exhaustion after an hour.”

“You get used to it,” he replied without looking up from tearing a piece off his croissant. “First concert we ever did at the Newcastle Regional Show, I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it. Then again, I was nine so I don’t think anyone really blamed me. I don’t think much of it anymore – it does tire me out, but I’m usually more wired than anything else.”

Five or even ten years earlier, I could never have imagined that one day I’d be sitting in a courtyard at the University of Wollongong, having lunch with Taylor Hanson. And yet that was how I spent an hour and a half of my time that Monday afternoon. I was pretty sure I could hear my inner teenie squealing as she ticked off one of the items on my teenage bucket list. I was almost surprised at how easy it was to talk to him.

“So what days do you have classes?” Taylor asked as we were heading back to TAFE, having finished lunch.

“Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, all in the afternoon,” I replied. “What about you?”

“Tuesday and Thursday, all day.”

“Interesting,” I mused, an idea beginning to take shape in my head. “How would you feel about us having lunch together on Thursdays? Odds are I’ll rock up to TAFE about a quarter to twelve or so, so you know…if you’re free around then, maybe you could join me.”

“I thought you only went to the canteen if you were desperate,” Taylor teased.

“I like their pizza, okay?” I said defensively. “And the hot chips sometimes but that’s it.”

He let out a chuckle. “That sounds good to me.”

“So I guess I’ll see you again on Thursday, then?” I said hopefully. Oh Christ, I sound like a teenie, I moaned mentally.

“Sure thing,” he agreed.

And sure enough, we did see each other again on Thursday. I had just set myself up at one of the tables closest to the vending machines with my lunch, a carton of chocolate milk I’d bought from the canteen and my laptop when the familiar sound of plastic scraping against linoleum sounded right next to me. “Come here often?” a voice said in my ear, and I looked up from scrolling through Tumblr to see Taylor sitting down next to me.

“Every now and again,” I replied, before grinning. “Nice to see you again.”

He returned my smile before unzipping his backpack and taking out his own lunch. “So how’s classes been so far?”

I shrugged. “Kind of boring, really. I know I’m studying to be a library technician but do I really need to learn about the Statute of Anne? Who the fuck comes up with this shit?”

“The Statute of what?”

“Copyright bullshit,” I explained. “English copyright law from the eighteenth century – anything published before it was under copyright for twenty-one years, and fourteen years for anything published afterward. These days it’s for the life of the author plus seventy years, at least for Australia anyway, but whatever. It’s fucking boring.”

“Oh I don’t know, that sounds kind of interesting.”

“Fine, you can come and sit in on my classes then and see how you like it,” I grumbled. “I’d be bored stiff within about a minute if I couldn’t get on Facebook and Tumblr while I’m here.”

“Or you could, you know, pay attention in class,” Taylor teased.

“Fuck you,” I retorted, but I gave him a smile so he knew I was kidding. “I bet your classes aren’t all that interesting, either.”

He shrugged and took a bite out of his sandwich. “They’re not bad,” he said. “Just basic stuff for now – it’ll probably get more interesting later on. I think we get to go to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary Art at some point, so that’ll be fun.”

“Hey Ruby!” Lisbeth yelled out from behind me, and I waved her over without turning around. With her, I could see when I looked back over my shoulder, were Ella and Anthony.

“Missed you in class this morning,” Lisbeth said nonchalantly as she, Ella and Anthony took seats around the table.

“You know damn well that I only go to class in the afternoons,” I reminded her.

“I’m kidding,” Lisbeth said. “Who’s your friend?”

“Taylor Hanson,” I replied as if it were no big deal. And it really wasn’t. Though it didn’t stop Lisbeth acting like all her Christmases had come at once.

“What the actual-” she started to say, and I leaned across the table and slammed a hand over her mouth before she could finish her sentence.

“Don’t,” I warned. “Act your age for once, all right?”

“Sorry,” she said from behind my hand, her voice muffled. I raised an eyebrow at her, silently asking “Are you going to behave yourself?”, and she nodded.

“Didn’t know you two were mates,” Lisbeth said once she could talk properly again.

“Just met on Monday,” Taylor said. “Ruby bashed into me with her wheelchair and knocked me over. Still haven’t forgiven her for that.”

“Shut up,” I mumbled into my sandwich. “I said I was sorry.”

“I’m kidding, Ruby. Nice to see you again, Lisbeth.”

“You too,” Lisbeth said with a smile. “This is Ella” she nodded at Ella, who gave Taylor a smile and a wave “and this bloke here is Anthony.” Rather than nodding at Anthony, she poked him in the side.

“‘This bloke here’,” Anthony said, rolling his eyes. “Way to deflate a guy’s ego, Lis.”

“Just trying to keep you from getting too far up yourself,” Lisbeth said nonchalantly. “You a student here too, Taylor?”

“Yeah, just started here this week. I’m doing Design. You three are in Ruby’s course?”

Ella nodded. “Yep. We all did our Cert Threes last semester – Ruby started hers at the beginning of last year, though. We’re all going for our Diplomas this year.”

“Awesome.” Just then the sound of Yoda telling one of us that we had a new text message sounded off, and Taylor took his phone out of his pocket. “Back in a bit you guys,” he said once he’d read the message he’d just received. “If I can find somewhere with decent signal that is,” he muttered to himself as he walked off toward the doors at the rear of the canteen.

As soon as Taylor was out of earshot, Lisbeth about rounded on me. “You never told me that Taylor fucking Hanson was a student here!” she hissed at me.

“Would you keep your fucking voice down?” I snapped. “The way you’re acting right now is exactly why I didn’t tell you, Lisbeth. I promised him I would keep it to myself, and I intend to keep doing just that. And I’d appreciate it if the three of you would do the same. I like being friends with him, so can you please just keep your fucking mouth shut?”

“So you’re actually friends with him, then?” Ella asked. She sounded a little surprised.

“Well, sort of,” I hedged. “We had lunch together on Monday, and I suggested to him that we keep having lunch together on Thursdays. It’s the only day that we’re both here. And obviously he didn’t blow lunch off, so I can only assume he wants to keep hanging out with me.”

“Sounds like you’re friends with him to me,” Anthony said with a shrug.

“Let’s just hope it stays that way. You know this was one of the entries on my bucket list when I was fifteen, right?”

“Mission accomplished, I’d say,” Ella said.

I picked up one of my carrot sticks out of their container and pointed it at Ella. “Mission well and truly accomplished, you mean,” I said, and popped it into my mouth. “Only took me, what, thirteen years?” I eyed Lisbeth, crunching my carrot stick as I did so. “And if you behave yourself around him, he might let you be friends with him too.”

“What’s this about me?” Taylor asked as he sat back down next to me, and I started a little in surprise. I hadn’t even seen or heard him coming back to the table.

“Jesus Christ, will you wear a bell or something?” I asked. “I was just telling Lis here that she should behave herself around you, that’s all.” I leaned in close to Taylor and stage-whispered in his ear, jerking my thumb at Lisbeth as I spoke, “She’s one of the rabid ones you need to watch out for. Crazy that one is.” I twirled a finger near my own ear and let out a whistle that indicated I thought she was nuts.

“Fuck you Ruby!” Lisbeth laughed.

“No thanks, I’m not a lesbian,” I snarked, and we all burst out laughing. I glanced quickly at the clock in my laptop’s taskbar and closed its lid, and slipped it into my backpack. “Well this has been fun, but I want to go to the library before class so I’m outta here. Meet you three up there?”

“Meet you up there,” Ella said – Anthony and Lisbeth each raised a hand in acknowledgment without looking up from their respective lunches.

“I’ll come with you,” Taylor volunteered, and he started packing his things away in his backpack. “I want to get my library card sorted out anyway.”

“When do you have to be back in class?” I asked as the two of us headed out of the canteen and into the courtyard out front.

“Half-past twelve.” Taylor glanced briefly at his watch. “And it’s a quarter past twelve now so I’ve got another fifteen minutes yet.”

“The library’s going to be busy, just a heads up,” I warned him. “It always is during the first week of classes for the year. There’s easily a few hundred new students every year, so the librarians are going to be flat out the next few days. You might be better off waiting until after classes let out for the day, they won’t be as busy then.”

“I might do that then.” He cracked a smile at me. “How’d you turn into such an expert on this place?”

“Student here since last year,” I replied. “That’s how.” I studied him for a few moments. “Anyway, if you still want to come to the library with me…”

“No, I’ll come. I didn’t really get much of a look at it on Monday. I actually went in there to get my library card sorted but it was too busy. I’ll probably get it done on my way home this afternoon.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

We were both quiet as we headed down the path toward A Block and the library. Taylor broke our silence as we reached the fork in the path.

“Thanks, Ruby.”

“For what?” I asked, deciding it would a good idea to put my brakes on. The left fork of the path sloped down a little steeply toward the library, and I didn’t particularly want to go flying down it and out of my wheelchair.

“Just…” He raked a hand back through his hair. “You’re the first person in, well, years who didn’t completely freak out when you realised who I was. Both on Monday and back in December. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that.”

“We’re all people,” I said with a shrug. “Okay, yeah, you’re a celebrity, but I’m fairly certain that doesn’t matter here. You’re here to learn, and that’s all the teachers really care about. So long as you do your work and actually make an attempt at learning something while you’re here, I’m fairly certain they couldn’t care less about anything more than that.” I ran the palms of my hands along my wheelchair’s pushrims. “McCormick,” I said suddenly.

“Pardon?”

“That’s my last name,” I explained. “McCormick. I know Lis didn’t say it back in December, and I figured you didn’t have anything to go on until now. Other than my first name that is.”

“Oh, I see.” Taylor gave me a smile. “Well, it’s nice to finally meet you properly, Ruby McCormick.”

I returned his smile. “You too, Taylor Hanson.”

<<

| chapters |

>>