Chapter 13

Saturday morning, as he was not running or swimming, Andrew slept in but was still at Hall for breakfast as soon as it opened. Everyone who was there had athletic gear on so it was clear that the day was full of tryouts for a variety of sports. Over breakfast he chatted with a guy named Daniel who was preparing to try out for the rowing team, the most famous of the University sports there. Heriot’s had a rowing team but Andrew had never been involved with it but here it was the pinnacle of student sports. They wished each other luck in their tryouts and headed their separate ways. The hockey tryouts were on the College sports ground behind the residences at Burrell’s Field. What that meant was a nice 10 minute walk out the back of the College and across the Cam. Andrew had not seen Navya at breakfast but she was there at the field and he wandered over.

“Morning, how are you?”

Her response of ‘I’m fine’ was accompanied by a questioning look but Andrew shook his head and Navya knew that she was going to have to talk to her sister for any info.

Navya was finished way before Andrew was. They had enough players to make a woman’s team, which had not been a certainty so they were pleased, and all the women left after an hour leaving the 30 or so blokes still working away. It was a fun but humbling morning, Andrew was undone by his stick handling, lack of practice in real situations, total lack of game time and just muscle memory which all meant that he was woeful at that part of the game. Where he was good was on short corners, defensive breakouts and general strategy so it was not all bad. If he was called a raw talent once he must have been called it 10 times. It was obvious he knew what he was trying to do, and in some situations doing it well, but his execution particularly in the flow of the game was brutal. Now he had a great time, enjoyed the experience and took the ribbing for losing the ball every time he tried to dribble. At the end of the session seven other players turned up and once the tryout was over they were introduced as the returning first team players from the prior year. Andrew did the maths on their numbers, seven or eight would go up to the first team leaving 22 of them. Too many for a second team and not enough to field a third team. He could see a bunch of guys doing the same calculation and grim faces started to show. The coaches tried to talk it up but they were putting lipstick on a pig at this point. Seven of them were not going to make the team. They were told that the announcement of who had made the team would be posted on the board outside the Junior Common Room by Tuesday. Andrew packed up his gear and headed back to College with some of the guys, trying not to be too down.

“You can’t beat the maths, can you? What six, seven of us are not go to make it?”

This was Nate who like Andrew was at the lower end of the skills. Andrew nodded.

“I am not disappointed about not making the seconds, I knew that I was not very good, I just hoped they had enough numbers for a third team. It would have been good to get out and have some fun without it being grim and serious.”

Ryan piped up.

“What are you worried about Andrew? You will make the team.”

“Did you see me out there Ryan? I was awful. Every time I tried to dribble all I did was start an attack the other way.”

“Oh sure, you are the worst dribbler I have ever seen.”

There was murmurs of agreement around him. He guessed that made it unanimous!

“But you were just about the best out there with thinking about the plays.”

Andrew looked over at him quizzically.

“Short corner strategy, all you. Defensive free hit and break out, all you. Movement of the midfield and wingers, all you. It was like having a coach on the field. Some guys were resistant at the beginning but you know your stuff. How do you know all that and yet be so crap at some of the basics?”

Andrew’s instinct was to downplay this stuff and not confess the truth but what would that prove? If Ryan was right then he had a chance of making the team and it would come out at some point. So he told them about his coaching experience and the two courses he had completed and that he was a fully qualified club coach. Of course all they focused on was?

“You were the coach of the women’s hockey team at your school?”

Four of them all at once.

“One of the coaches and before you ask I was never alone with any member of the team in two years. I either had a coach or a parent around the whole time.”

Visible deflation but then.

“Did you not get the mickey taken out of you for coaching the women’s team?”

“This is one that I have never understood. I coached when I was 16 and 17 and I coached young women who were 16, 17 and 18. So I spent my time on a Thursday and a Saturday with 15 fit, mostly cute women in tight tops and short skirts. And I got shit from who? The rugby guys who were the real men, who couldn’t wait to grab each other and jump on top of each other. I will take that situation 100 times out of 100.”

There was silence as they crossed Queen’s Road and headed over to the College. This was the bit that Andrew had totally missed at school, being afraid of standing out. Sure until he had cancer he was that person but when he came back nothing seemed to be such a big deal anymore. He had fights with pupils and words with teachers and parents. He went to support the hockey team when no one else did. He also got many dates and a lot of sex by not worrying what others thought. Nate brought it back on track.

“I still think that you will be on the second 11. They will work with you on some of the stuff you suck at, but I think you will be too much of an asset in other areas to cut you.”

“Thanks guys, I hope so but like I said I want to have fun and not worry about whether Newnham are beating us 4-0.”

Newnham was an all-women College and it took them a sec.

“Shut up you arse or you’ll end up in the river.”

They all went for showers and then sat and chatted over lunch. This was Andrew’s first time spending any significant time with older students and so he tried to listen and just absorb information. It was all the little things that make life at College easy, or at least easier. Who not to piss off, how to keep your Tutor happy, all those sorts of things. Andrew sat at the edge of the conversation and just listened. Navya and Helena came by and asked about the tryout. He told them he had to wait and see and did a quick introduction of the other seven guys. They didn’t stay but said they would come by later.

“What is it about you McLeod? That Indian girl reminded me, I saw you last night at Cindies dancing with another Indian girl, and by dancing, I mean fondling her on the dance floor while shuffling your feet.”

Hoots of laughter followed and Andrew shook his head. Saying anything was going to make it worse. But this was exactly the kind of situations he had to get better at.

“Oh, that was her sister.”

With a wink Andrew stood and headed for the exit. The jeers echoed as he left the hall and walked back round to his room. It had been a fun morning. The corridor was noisy with a lot of the doors open. He said hi to a few people and made it to his room. Andrew left the door open and within a minute Pedro was there grinning like a fool. He didn’t need to say anything and Andrew finally convinced him that blabbing about Lisa would lessen the chances of a repeat performance. They had hit it off, both had the same goal in mind and she had spent the night repeatedly working with him to meet that goal. He was a happy man.

“You send Lisa over to me just like that? I saw you with Navya and another Indian girl before I left but I didn’t see you again. What happened?”

“That’s Navya’s sister, we danced for a while and then I walked her home to Jesus.”

Pedro crossed himself instinctively.

“That’s it.”

“Pedro, a girl could be lying naked on my bed right now and I still would claim that nothing happened and that we are just friends. I never talk, ever, about any woman. I got taught that at 13 and I have benefited from it many, many times.”

Andrew didn’t know whether the advice sunk in or not because Pedro bounced off down the corridor. He returned to sorting out his room. One of the problems of packing light was that he had to do laundry, the least student-like thing to do. Andrew had done his own laundry about half the time in the last couple of years so was not totally clueless but he had a bag of clothes that needed cleaning, mostly sports gear and a bunch of tee-shirts, underwear and socks. So Andrew dragged the bag down to the laundry room in the basement of the building and loaded two of the machines. Once they were started he went back to his room and grabbed one of his textbooks and sat in the comparative quiet of the basement re-reading the material from the first two days of classes. He transferred the clothes over to the dryers and carried on his studying. Two hours after he started he had a bunch of clean clothes and a much clearer understanding of the notes from the first two days. He was folding clothes and putting them away when there was a soft knock on the doorframe and Emma stood there.

“Can we talk for a minute Andrew, please?”

He nodded and she came in, closing the door behind her.

“I am sorry about last night. I don’t know why I got so mad at you.”

She looked down at her hands before looking back up at him.

“The thing is I had a nice night with you before I went and blew it with my tantrum and I didn’t want this to hang over us.”

“It is forgotten, I had a good time as well.”

Andrew leaned over and gave her a hug and Emma held him tight for several seconds before letting go.

“Thank you, Andrew.”

He was surprised that Emma had come by, given that he had been replaced within hours. Maybe she didn’t realise how much sound carried between the rooms. Still she had made the effort not to let something linger between the two of them and he was grateful for that. Emma looked down at his half folded clothes and giggled.

“Are you seriously telling me that you have done laundry?”

He smiled back at her.

“I came with just two bags and my computer Emma. One of the disadvantages of packing light is that I have to do laundry. I sat in the laundry room with my textbook for a couple of hours and now have clean clothes and a better understanding of the last two days.”

“Two bags?”

Andrew laughed at her scandalised tone.

“Yes. I spent last Saturday helping Nigel and Helena bring in all their myriad boxes and cases and then helped Nigel take some of them back to his car. How many cases did you bring?”

She giggled again and raised her chin in the air.

“A lady does not reveal her secrets.”

It was good to see her shake off her pensive mood. She sat on the chair looking at his tapes as he finished putting his clothes away.

“You have a lot of rock music Andrew.”

It was half statement, half question.

“I do. It was the one thing that I spent any money on while I was at school. Albums and going to gigs. After dinner last night Pedro and I went into town to check out the music scene and discovered there isn’t one.”

Emma looked askance but he nodded.

“All local bands in back rooms of the pub. From talking to some people at lunch the best bands are at special events at the different Colleges but otherwise the live music scene in town is pretty non-existent. To see anyone good we will have to take the train to London which raises all sorts of transport issues.”

“What do you mean?”

“The key problem is the time of the last train back. Say you are at the Hammersmith Odeon, that’s what at least 30 minutes on the Tube to King’s Cross. Time of the last train, Tube time, gig to tube plus a bit of a buffer and there is no way that you will be able to see the whole gig. Hell, some bands won’t even be on yet and we’d have to leave. All that sort of stuff. Nothing earth shattering but just one more complication. For the last couple of years a friend and I would go out on a Friday night to one of the small venues where up and coming bands would play. It held just under 500 people, something like that. We would pay the cover and see if the band were any good. No plans just stand and chat at the bar and see what happened. Maybe one in ten went on to be well known and another two were good but didn’t break through. Most of the rest were never heard from again.”

Andrew smiled at the memory.

“You got all nostalgic there for a second.”

He nodded.

“It was something that I did with my friend Pete. You heard me talk about it last night. I was not close with many guys, really just Pete and Julian. This was something that the two of us did two or three times a month.”

“What about Julian, what was the connection there.”

Andrew pointed at the computer.

“I got interested in computing while I was recovering from my treatment. I was able to get an Apple II at the end of the summer just before 3^rd year. I put a note up in the library asking if anyone was interested in micro-computing and Julian, who is a couple of years older than me, responded. We played around with programming, trying to design some games, stuff like that. We met nearly every Saturday for four years, even after he went to university. We chat much more now but at the start the two of us were so nerdy that we could spend hours together in the same room and barely say anything to each other.”

Again he smiled at the memory. Emma switched topics.

“Does Abigail know you have your computer with you?”

“No idea, probably not. I have barely spoken to Abigail since I was introduced to her last weekend. I have not really seen her around.”

“Yes, she does seem to keep herself to herself.”

Emma shrugged in a manner universal to teenagers the world over.

“What are your plans for the rest of the day?”

Andrew looked at his watch, it was 4.00.

“No clue. Other than dinner in Hall I am going to take it easy. You?”

“Same. I called home and did the obligatory family update this morning and the first couple of days were gentle as far as the course was concerned.”

She noticed his swim trunks on the top of the dresser.

“Do you want to see if there is a pool? I would love to go swimming.”

Andrew smiled and nodded.

“That’s a good idea. I know where the pool is so five minutes?”

He knew it would be at least 10. Emma sprang up and was off to her room. Andrew repacked his backpack with his usual morning stuff and waited for Emma to return. When she did she was not alone. Justin and Helena were with her as well.

“Are you ready?”

The four of them headed to the Great Gate and then out onto Trinity Street. Emma turned to him for directions.

“Next left over to St. Andrew’s and then all the way down past Emmanuel for just under a mile.”

The four of them paired up on the narrow Cambridge streets and Andrew walked alongside Helena.

“How did the hockey tryout go this morning?”

“Could go either way. Did some things well and sucked at others. I will find out on Tuesday. How has your week gone?”

“The Arts courses are very different than the Science ones. Lots of reading on your own time, limited lectures, no labs obviously. There is more self-discipline needed rather than just following a full timetable. I need to get into a routine in the morning so that I am up and studying rather than just lazing in bed. What about you?”

“As you said, the exact opposite. First lecture or lab is at 9.00 four days out of five. I am at breakfast as the doors open and on my way to the department by 8.35, 8.40. I don’t get back until between 4.00 and 6.00 depending on the day. Your comment about self-discipline is the key. Engineering is more like school, they deduct marks for being late to labs and will not let you participate if you are more than 10 minutes late.”

“Wow, that’s brutal.”

“But no one is late!”

Helena thought about that and nodded.

“I suppose. I have an alarm but would you mind knocking on my door when you go for breakfast and wait until I answer? Once I am out of bed then I am fine but if I am in bed I hit snooze and turn over.”

“Sure, that is not a problem. But won’t you be embarrassed to let me see you in your frilly little nightgowns in the morning?”

He dodged the expected whack and smiled down at her.

“The only reason you are coming swimming is so that you can tell Navya all about my muscles again.”

Helena’s blush was deep and she looked utterly guilty.

“Bloody hell, I was joking but it is true? You dirty, dirty young lady.”

Andrew let her whack him and they both laughed deeply at her silent admission.

“Just shut up you impossible man.”

The rest of the walk took only a few more minutes until they were at the pool. The fact Andrew had an annual membership already confused the other three as they paid.

“Andrew, how do you have an annual membership already?” Helena sounded exasperated.

“I swim here every morning. I bought one last weekend.”

There was no point denying all this stuff. They split as they headed into the changing rooms delaying further questions. Justin didn’t seem to care and the two of them changed in one minute and were out and in the pool straightaway. There was no sign of Emma or Helena for at least five minutes. Andrew had been lazing along doing back stroke so that he could spot them when they finally showed up. The two of them were quite similar, both slim with modest but noticeable curves, Helena looked healthy whereas Emma looked like she needed a couple of meals. In a swimsuit, her angular body looked bony. Justin had been doing front crawl lengths but stopping after every other one to see when they turned up. The pool was busy, well busier than first thing in the morning so there was a bit of dodging the other swimmers but for the next 30 minutes Andrew sank into his happy place and swam thinking about life, the first week in Cambridge and about his friends back in Edinburgh. He had planned to call them the following day but as he swam he thought about writing some letters later over the weekend as well. Almost like a journal, just filling them in on life there. He only needed to do two letters like that, to Suzanne and Leslie. Leslie would share hers with Julian. Nikki and Fran would get a more condensed one, similar in length, though not in tone, to the letter to his Grandma. She would relay any news to the rest of the family, news was currency to the old lady. Andrew was planning this all out in his head and thinking about what he would write when he was smacked on the arm as he was about to turn.