In the New Year it was busy in the shop. Lately, it was always busy. They asked, but Dorrit said there wasn’t really a busy time of year and just sometimes it was busier than others. Peggy and Greta talked about it, though, when they were pricing things out the back. When the students were first around, it got busy. That’s what they’d noticed about the last few weeks. The students arrived in January to go to university. Some of them, most of them, had a big course-related-costs cheque in their bank. They had cash, most of them. And they came into the shop. Peggy and Greta watched them, sometimes. It seemed like they were changing their image for university. Lots came in wearing clothes from Glassons and Shanton and Farmers, and some even had moleskins and fob chains, but they weren’t buying those sorts of clothes. Peggy and Greta were having to be faster with the dresses they wanted. Some of the students had new Docs on. Peggy and Greta’s Docs were old and the tongue had shifted round to the side so they were pretty uncomfortable. They’d seen some Blundstones in a shop in town which were much cheaper than Docs, and they were thinking of getting a pair. One of them wore the Docs every day and Peggy asked Greta if she thought maybe they were ruining something in their feet. The Docs needed resoling but it was almost as expensive as buying a new pair. It was nowhere near as expensive as buying a new pair, but it was expensive. Sometimes the students would leave their Docs outside the dressing rooms while they tried on trousers. It made Peggy and Greta’s mouth water. They were so close. Often, the Docs were their size or at least they were slightly bigger and could have worked with an insole. The job in the shop paid nothing. They were still volunteering. They knew stealing was a sure-fire way to slip back into drinking, but often it was just the effort that put them off. The effort, and having to face one of the students. The students were horrible to Greta and Peggy most of the time, although some of the guys were friendly in a creepy way. The boys were all living clean lives and it made them creepier to Peggy and Greta. The guys had no machismo, so they were sort of unsure, and that made them storm through boundaries and do it all nervously, like it was Peggy and Greta’s fault. They were rude when they said no. Peggy and Greta suspected they weren’t said no to very often and probably not by shop girls.