Chapter 43

Leslie and Andrew had a wonderful day on the Saturday. It was the penultimate weekend of March and although it was windy the rain held off. They bundled up well and headed down to the coast into East Lothian. They walked along the beach at Aberlady Bay and headed on towards Gullane. They both laughed as each described their lives as being quiet and routine.

“Come on Leslie, I know that you bottle more up than I do. You have completed two terms at Moray House and did your first school placement. Is being a teacher all that it is cracked up to be? Are you still enjoying it?”

Andrew pushed her to give him some details of her student life.

“What are you, psychic? I am having some doubts about being a teacher. The course work is not that exciting. There are lots of students there doing their one year teaching certificate course after they graduated in another subject. I am thinking of transferring to a different course after this year. I can always come back and do the one year post graduate course if I want to be a teacher. There are a few people that I like on the course but a lot of them are pretty snotty. My year is unpleasantly clique-y. My problem is that I don’t know what I want to study instead. I haven’t spoken to Mum and Dad about this yet. You are the first person that I have shared this with. What do you think?”

Andrew walked beside her for a few paces while he thought about what Leslie had said.

“First of all you have to be happy. If you are unhappy on this course then I agree that you should do something else. The big question is what? Other than the people on the course what else don’t you like about it? What part is disappointing you?”

“It is nothing in particular. It all started when I was on placement. Suddenly the idea of teaching kids as a career did not seem appealing. Teaching had always been a dream but the reality didn’t match up to the rose-tinted vision. From there, the small things started to seem larger. If I am being honest I know that I would not be a teacher for long. It would be a waste, even if I passed the course. I would be 26 and unhappy wondering what to do with my life. I won’t be 20 until the autumn. Even if I have to go back to 1^st year, if it is something that I want to do then I will be better off.”

“So what are your options? Do you have good enough grades to get into other faculties?”

“Probably not good enough for medicine or law, I remember those two had higher requirements than other faculties. I should be okay to get into most others.”

“So let’s talk about choices. I remember we did this for me about 15 months ago. We don’t have any material with us but is there anything that seems appealing?”

“Andrew, one of the things that does appeal and I wanted to talk to you about is business. I enjoy the occasional work for the company. I like sitting in listening and talking with you about the options for the business. I often forget that I have 10% of the company. I am interested but I never did any business courses at school and so I don’t know if I will one, be able to get onto a course or two, whether I will cope with the work. What do you think of that?”

“Doing something that you are interested in is definitely a positive. We can look up the courses and see if there is something that catches your interest. Maybe a general business management course. Creighton takes care of all the accounting so you can skip an in-depth study of that unless what he has done appeals to you. The more I think about it the more it seems like a great choice. Is there anything else that you think you would enjoy studying and then pursuing as a career?”

“I have gotten rather focused on the business idea and now nothing else seems to be appealing. I will dig out the full course list and check through it. But right now I am pretty sure that I want to try the business department.”

“Okay, they are up in and around George Square somewhere. I have seen the signs when I go over to the Music School for my bass lesson.”

“I forget that you go to the University every week for your double bass lesson. As an Open University student can you use the facilities of the University?”

“I’ve never tried. We don’t get issued with a matric card. I use the City Library if I need anything, it is only five minutes from school and is closer than Edinburgh University Library. It is not worth the hassle to try and join any Edinburgh University facilities even if I am allowed. Can you imagine the questions?”

Leslie laughed. He was right, nobody would believe him.

“How is everything else? Can I ask about you and Matt?”

Comments about Matt had been conspicuous by their absence recently. At the mention of his name Leslie pulled a face.

“Are you sure you want to hear about it Andrew? It makes me pretty mad the way he treated me.”

“Leslie, it is up to you if you want to tell me or not. I will gladly listen if you want to talk about it but I also do not want to pry. Your choice.”

She was silent for more than half a minute but eventually sighed and started to talk.

“I was ready to have fun again Andrew. It had been more than 18 months since I had gone on a date when I started at Moray House. Matt attracted my attention right from the beginning. He was just the kind of guy I am attracted to I guess. So all the way through autumn term we would run into each other and see each other at parties or whatever. We went to that housewarming party in Kirkcaldy just before Christmas.

“Things started to get more serious this term. Near the end of term we slept together. First time in more than two years for me. God, it was great Andrew. I had forgotten how great sex was. So, as with all new relationships, we went a little sex crazy at the start. I needed to get the bug out of my system and he was the perfect antidote. Or at least I thought so. I got dumped last weekend. Two weeks after he banged me I was gone, he found someone new. He told me at the student union on Friday night after class, had a good time but see yah. Now it wasn’t like he was the father of my future children but three or four months of gradually getting closer, then as soon as he had bagged me he was done. Bastard.”

Leslie was more angry than upset.

“So anyway, the sex was good?”

Andrew asked in a cheeky tone. As in all cases when he was cheeky like that he was immediately whacked for his trouble. He gave her a big hug.

“He is not worth getting upset over, this had to happen to you sooner or later. It is out of the way now and you will be more suspicious of the next guy. You are far too much of a catch for this to happen often. One day soon some guy is going to recognise how great you are and sweep you off your feet.”

“You always say the best things about me Andrew, my biggest supporter.”

She squeezed his shoulders and they broke the hug.

“Come on then, you have heard all about my life. Let’s recap yours as well. Where do you want to start?”

So they went through the life plan as usual focusing on the different goals.

The inactive goal was always the easiest. There had been no change in his plan to go to university to study either Engineering or Physics. What his career would look like with those qualifications he could not yet determine. It was a possibility that he would have two degrees if he finished the Computer Science Degree and graduated from the Open University.

School had been very straightforward that term. With no one to tutor he had been able to concentrate on the computer course in the evenings rather than homework. The subject split was still the same with Maths, Physics and History his favourites. This was reflected in his test scores which were always highest in these three subjects. Chemistry and Geography were good and his grades were almost as high as in the first three. He did not have a passion for them the same way he had with the others. He also did well in Biology and English but it was work rather than a pleasure. He always had to force himself to write any English or Latin homework immediately otherwise he would always push them to the bottom of the pile. As for Latin he was going to see if he could drop that as soon as possible. Maybe after 4^th year. He hated it. Overall, Andrew had no problems with his school work. Equally pleasing to him was that after the crap with Ford and Lyle in term one there had been no problems in term two. Head down, study hard, diligent in class, be the perfect nerd. He couldn’t be happier.

The computer course was also going well. It was hard work especially the programming. The last assignment had been in a new language so he was definitely getting pushed by the course. It was getting progressively harder and he wondered how he would cope in the coming months. He had received the maths study pack and was not stressed about it. In fact he needed to restrain himself from just jumping into the assignments. He wanted to keep them to cover the periods between when he submitted an assignment and when it was returned after being graded. There was no point in starting the next computer assignment until he knew that he had completed the previous one correctly. How he did in the upcoming term would determine if he could get the first block of four courses finished over the summer.

The practical side of computing was about to reset. He and Julian had worked very hard all term and they had made somewhere between £2,500 and £3,000. Well Julian had, Andrew thought bitterly, as he was closer to £2,000 due to the stupidity with his Grandma and the Grand National. Still he had sold the templates for a fortune and he and Leslie were going to sit down with Creighton and Mhairi in nine or ten days and decide what to do with the money. Investments, tax bills, salaries. It would be a long day of learning about complicated business issues and then making some decisions. But he was making money though, that was the key point. If Andrew wanted to make a difference he needed to make a fortune. He didn’t have a fortune yet but he had made a start.

His fitness regime was on autopilot. It was now 180 sit ups and 90 push ups, a run for roughly five miles every morning and then a swim of 2,000 metres at the pool. As Andrew talked it through he knew that he was close to the daily goals he had set himself more than a year ago. Between the exercise, the growing through puberty and the large amounts of food he ate he was now around 5’10” and 165lbs. There was no indication that his height gains were slowing down. It looked like he was going to end up well over six feet tall.