"What will it be girls?" asked Mr Fraser, proprieter of Ullapool's one and only teashop and local store.
The afternoon after receiving Kitty's letter, Rahne had met up with two of her friends to catch up on everything that had been going on in Ullapool for the past six months. In the two block walk to the teashop they'd already covered all the exciting goings-on – such riveting events as the local Haggis competition and Jamie MacLeod's new girlfriend from the exotic place of Aberdeen… Listening to the chatter of her two best friends, Rahne wondered if Ullapool had always been this small, or whether it was just that she had seen more of the world now.
"We'll just take three Irn-Brus thanks," answered Claire, her oldest friend and next-door neighbour, smiling politely at the old man.
Rahne grinned as she took her first sip of the soft-drink after the three girls had commandeered one of the teashop's tables. "I've missed this, you know."
"What, they dinna have nae soft-drinks in America?" Jess, the third member of the trio, asked in her typical not quite onto-it manner. It had always seemed slightly backward to Rahne that dark-haired Jess should be the vaguer, sillier one of her friends, often skirting if not actually crossing the line into inanity, while Claire, the blonde, had a mind like a knife and enough common sense for two people. Not in line with the stereotypes, but then, Rahne had to admit, she was hardly in a position to be surprised about appearances being deceptive.
"No, of course they do," she replied. "They practically invented them, I think. They just don't have Irn-Bru there…."
"Poor thing," commiserated Claire with a mock compassionate grin. "Nae wonder ye came back then…."
"Mmm," Rahne answered noncommittally.
"Nae before she picked up the accent though," said Jess.
"What? I don't have an accent!"
"Aye, ye do lass, and very pretty it is too." The interjection came from Mr Fraser. Rahne blushed. It was a surprise, and not a particularly welcome one. Her friends at the Institute used to swear that she'd kept more of her accent even than Kurt – but it seemed that people always notice the differences in the way you spoke, not the similarities. Like everything in life, really.
"Anyway, that isna the important thing at the moment," continued Claire. "We want ta hear all the dirt on what ye were doing over there…."
I was part of a secret association for superhuman mutants who were trying to save the world. It was probably not the right thing to say. "It was pretty much like one big boarding school," she told them instead.
"Were you all from overseas, then?"
"No, there were only four of us non-Americans there: me, Kurt, who's from Germany and Amara and Roberto from Brazil."
"You had Brazilians?" squealed Jess. "Were they hot?"
Rahne thought about Roberto. No, not at all cute at all, with his tanned skin, beautiful body and curly black hair. "They certainly thought they were," she said, pausing. "Oh, who am I kidding? They were Brazilian. Of course they were…"
"What about the other guys? What were they like?"
"Well there was Scott, Kurt and Evan – they were in the older group, I didn't have much to do with them; Bobby and Ray, who are my age, they were always off trying to show they could be just like the big guys, Jamie, who's 12, he just wanted to be like us, and Sam, he's a real Southern boy – polite and everything."
"Did ye have a thing for him, Rah?" asked Claire.
"What, Sam? Why does everyone assume that? No, I…," she stopped. She was not going to talk about this.
Unfortunately, her friends thought otherwise. "Ooh, there was a guy ye had a thing for! Come on, spill!" Claire said, and they both leaned in closer to hear.
"It…, there was…," they didn't look impressed. In fact she wasn't going to get away with not telling them. "It was Roberto."
"The Brazilian? Anything happen?"
"Well, um…," why did she have to go into this? "Not until just before I left."
"What? Rahne Sinclair got it on with a hot Brazilian?"
"Hey, it's not that unlikely is it?" she protested.
"No…," Jess paused, "umm…."
"Course it's not," Claire said firmly, glaring at Jess. "Our Rahne could get any man she wanted."
"Aw, shucks." Of course, Rahne was well aware it wasn't true, but it was nice to hear.
"So, if it was as good as all that, why'd ye leave?" asked Jess.
Oh no…. This was the hard question, the one that required answers that she couldn't really give. Rahne had known it would come eventually, but she still had to think for a while before replying.
"My parents wanted me to come home," she said. She didn't want to have to lie to her friends, and in any case, it was probably best to keep the story as simple as possible. "They didn't think America was safe anymore."
"Why?" asked Jess.
Claire looked thoughtful. "It was all that stuff with mutants, wasn't it?"
Rahne tensed slightly. Claire had always been sharp. Too sharp, in this case. "Um, yeah. They, uh, didn't want me caught in the crossfire," she told them. She'd never been a good actor. But again, it was partly true. "They're a bit paranoid really." She tried to laugh, but it came out sounding hopelessly fake. Still, she couldn't smell any distrust from the other two girls.
"Yeah," Claire smiled. "Hey, did you say that your school was in New York? That's where all that stuff with the mutants happened, nae?" Rahne nodded. Claire looked at her appraisingly. "Did ya happen ta meet any of them?"
Rahne almost started at that, but controlled herself. It was only curiosity, she told herself. "New York State's a big place," she said finally. "It's not like Ullapool, there's millions of people – I hardly would have met all of them.…"
"No? Ye sure? I'd love ta meet a mutant." said Jess.
"They're not that different from anyone else," Rahne told her.
"I thought ye said ye didn't meet any mutants?" asked Claire sharply.
"Well, I…." She was floundering. "The ones I saw on T.V seemed pretty normal, really."
"The one throwing lightning at a giant robot, or that strange blue one that kept on disappearin'?" Claire countered, an odd challenging look lighting up in her eyes.
"Ummm…." What could she possibly say to that? Rahne sat there, searching desperately for an answer under the stares of her best friends.
Luckily, there was a large crash from by the counter which made the other two girls turn around. Mr Fraser was on his hands and knees, helping a woman with bobbed orange hair pick up a mess of groceries that appeared to have dropped from the counter.
"Sorry about that," the woman was saying. "I'm just so clumsy sometimes, barely know what my arms are doing… I can get this."
"Oh no-no-no," spluttered Mr Fraser. "It's my pleasure really…." He was looking at her with smitten eyes. Rahne supposed that she was probably good enough looking for an older woman – she looked to be in her late forties or so, and was still slim, but it was still disturbing to see dear old Mr Fraser, who must have been at least seventy, trying to make himself seem masculine to impress a female.
"Oooh, he's got it bad for that one," Jess whispered to the other two girls. Rahne nodded.
The groceries were picked up eventually, although much slower than should have been the case, due mainly to Mr Fraser's attempts at helping, and the woman paid for everything and left. But before she closed the door behind herself she looked right at Rahne and gave her a broad wink, which no one else seemed to notice.
"Who was that lady?" asked Rahne after they'd watched her walk down the street.
"That would be Dr Moira MacTaggert," Claire told her.
"Crazy old bint," added Jess by way of explanation.
"She isna crazy, Jess, she's a scientist," said Claire. "She's pretty involved with her work, but she's nice enough."
"She lives all alone out on that island," Jess replied. "With her experiments. I'd say that's pretty crazy…."
"Maybe she just got sick of dumbasses like you bothering her all the time," countered Claire. "I'm sure I'd get away ta an island if I could." She grinned, to show she was teasing. Jess pouted.
"What Island?" asked Rahne.
"Muir Island. Ye know the one, it's just a wee bit north of here, a few miles of the coast?"
"Okay." Rahne knew the one – it was almost completely barren, except for a solitary lighthouse. She wondered what kind of research this Moira MacTaggert was doing out in this isolated part of north Scotland. But more to the point was the question of how this woman knew her, and why she'd decided to help her out when the subject of mutants came up….
"So where were we anyway?" asked Claire.
"Oh, um…," Rahne took the opportunity to change the subject. "You were telling me about Jamie's new girlfriend. What was her name? Alice...?"
NB: Comics readers will recognise Moira MacTaggert, prize-winning geneticist, inhabitant of Muir Island, and long time friend of Professor Xavier. Once again, she's not quite the same person here, that she was in the comics, but there's not too many differences.
What else? The other characters are my own inventions, Irn-Bru is a real drink, which tastes a little like bubblegum and which I don't own.