Everything stretched out before her was just beyond her reach, ever so slightly. As much as Rose tried to extend her fingers, nothing could be felt. She was floating in the middle of outer space in a glittering nebula where stars watched her circle an unknown teal colored planet. She was caught in its gravitational pull and yet somehow she felt safe, if not somewhat restless. Her voice could reach no one, her hands reached nothing. And yet, the blond woman felt at home, felt calm. Her eyes closed but then suddenly snapped open as the beep beep beep of her alarm snapped her out of orbit. A hand flailed outward from its warm cocoon. She swiped on her phone and the jarring alarm was soon silenced. Pushing herself up, Rose Tyler found herself back on planet Earth, no longer in the middle of some unknown but alluring abyss.
Pushing the covers off of her, she sat up and looked out the window to her right. Already she saw fellow students hurrying to class or to the gym. Everyone had somewhere to be it seemed. The warm spring day beckoned and Rose knew she had her own places calling her name. She slipped out of her pajamas and into a pair of light blue jeans and a Union Jack tee shirt Mickey had given her for Christmas. She brushed out her long hay colored hair and stepped out of her dorm room into the living room which she shared with two other girls. Had Rose not decided to go to university, she would still be living at home back in London with her mum, probably still working at a local clothing shop. But Rose had gotten tired of a dull existence and dragged her 'sort of' boyfriend Mickey back to school, him doing a bit of kicking and screaming along the way.
But Rose was glad to be back in school, even if she wouldn't admit it to anyone.
She was able to take gymnastics for a class and get credit doing she loved. She was also taking a Shakespeare class that focused on the romantic tragedies and a course on the American Civil War, along with a Physics class. The physics class was not of her choosing but one she had to take because the university required it for her to graduate. It was a load of rubbish but she hunkered down and did her best. Mickey decided to sign up and help Rose struggle but so far all he had done was flirt with all the girls in the lecture hall. Her cell phone rang before she could get too far down the steps leading down to one of the many courtyards in the Cardiff campus. "Yeah? Mum, morning morning. I just got up, about to grab some breakfast." She paused as her mother began to complain about the person who was renting the room which used to belong to Rose. "I-I dunno...what do you want me to do? I have class this afternoon."
"I'll pop over tonight or something. I'll try." She offered her mother, finding it far too early the morning to be dealing with this kind of nonsense. "I gotta go, gotta meet Mickey for breakfast. I love ya, bye." Rose hung up and shoved her phone back in the back pocket of her jeans and head off to the school's cafeteria where she and Mickey met most mornings to go over homework and study together, but mostly they just chatted and people watched, laughing at other people and hoping no one noticed. It was nine in the morning which meant most folks were in their morning classes which allowed Rose to easily spot her friend in the thin crowd of hungry young adults. He waved her over and she skipped over to him. "You look cheery." He commented as he pushed a cup of tea towards the blond girl. "I dunno, today just feels...good." She beamed at him and sat down.
Taking a sip of the tea, she made a face. "Eww, too much sugar." She scrunched up her face and grabbed for one of the small cherry filled pastries he ha gotten for breakfast. "We've known each other forever but you still don't know how to make my tea." She teased him as she went for another flaky treat but found her hand playfully slapped by Mickey. "Oy, if you're not nice to me, you don't get any!" He protested. Rose let out a fake huff and sat back, her arms tightly folding over her chest as they stared at each other. After only ten seconds of pretend-awkward silence, they burst into laughter. He gestured for Rose to help herself and she happily did so. "I've got gymnastics in a bit but save me a spot in Physics if I'm a little late, I want to try an' shower before class." She said as she grabbed her phone and checked the time.
Mickey gave Rose a hug before watching her leave.
Like Rose, he lived on campus but on the other side. The blond haired girl headed back to her dorm and grabbed her change of clothes and hurried back to the gym where her class took place. It was only a few weeks into the new semester but already she had made a few friends who were also passionate about gymnastics. In terms of her future, she didn't necessarily see herself doing gymnastics at the professional level. That would just be work in her mind, no fun there. She wasn't sure if she wanted to teach or get into something more technical with computers or programming. Mickey said coding and engineering were gonna be big in a few years but that didn't interest her much either. But it was a question that continued to pop up in the forefront of her mind every now and then:
What did she want to do with life?
It seemed as though everyone else around her knew that they were going to do. It almost felt like she was struggling to tread water and not drown. Still, all Rose could do was take it one day at a time. One dream at a time. One breath at a time. She changed into her tight fitting leotard which was bright pink and went to stretch a few of her mates. They chatted about how the weekend had gone, what movies they saw, or how many pubs they had crawled through. Rose was talkative as usual, chiming in with how she and Mickey caught the Chelsea match when they were supposed to be studying. In her defense, Mickey had practically dragged her to the pub. Once the two-hour gymnastics class wrapped up, Rose saw she had ten minutes before physics. She said bye to everyone and dashed back to her dorm and hurried up the steps.
One of her roommates was back, laying on the couching snogging her latest boy-toy with The Killers on in the background. Rose was quick to move past them as she ducked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She was quick to wash off and sneak into her single room and get changed back into her previous clothes, her Union Jack shirt and jeans. She didn't have time to dry her hair so she just braided it quickly as she walked to class, letting it rest against her upper back. Rose's phone buzzed as she neared the science department. She pulled it out, assuming it was Mickey to give her a heads up on what was happening in class which was starting in less than a minute.
As it turned out, Mickey said there was a notice on the chalkboard from the school which said their teacher had to leave for a family emergency and as such, they had found a replacement for the time being and that they may be a little tardy and to not leave class. Rose let out a sigh of relief, knowing she had a few minutes to catch her breath. She wandered over to one of the snack machines and put in a few coins and soon a pack of crisps fell down and she reached in to retrieve them. It was around lunchtime and it would have to do. She popped them open and pulled out a single salted crisp and took a bite. "Mmm that hits the spot." She dug a few more out, suddenly feeling rather hungry.
Once she finished the bag, she felt a sudden guilt pang within her heart. Perhaps she should have saved some for Mickey? Rose rubbed her neck and turned back to face the vending machine and and bought another bag, hoping to ease some of the guilt that had momentarily plagued her. She headed back towards the science building but out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a lost looking bloke with a leather jacket. She checked the time and paused. She was already late for class but according to Mickey, so was their mysterious substitute so if she helped the guy, she probably wouldn't be in too much trouble. How long could it take to point some lost looking guy towards the Student Services building?
"Oy!" She called out to the man and jogged over to him, her pink and teal sneakers scuffing against the soft pavement that had been kissed by a light rain last Friday afternoon. She came up to him and looked at him up and down. He looked quite young to be someone's father but still, she wouldn't rule anything out yet. Rose glanced around, not many were rambling around as they were probably at the cafeteria eating or eating off-campus to save some money or something. "You lost? Well, you look lost." She gave a slightly shrug and small smile. She glanced down to the pack of crisps in her hand and then to the tall man who seemed to be eyeing them. Maybe he was just broke and homeless?
No...he would have reeked if he had just come from behind a petrol station.
Rose held out the bag of salted crisps. "Here, you can have these. You look like you don't eat much." She offered to him. She shuffled through her small backpack where she kept her useless books and papers. She finally found what she had been looking for. A banana. "You can have this too, I was savin' it for class but I reckon you need it more than I do." She laughed softly as she zipped her backpack back up and slipped it back over her other shoulder. "So...you never told me your name. Oh well neither did I." She realized. "I'm Rose, Rose Tyler. What building were you looking for? It's not a massive campus but most buildings look the same so getting lost does happen, even more so after a few beers; my mate Mickey once tried stumbling into the girls dorm, that did not end well for him." She joked lightly.
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