 Rachel, Haddie and Gary! (And now Mason too!)
Ailsa grinned slightly at Haddie, "No. You're not. Me mam is too. You're going to love it." It's not quite an exclamation, but there's definitely a hint of excitement in the ginger girl's voice. And then a giggle.
"Different from when I was seven? Yes, a little bit. I'm guessing you are too."
Ailsa's smile was tentative now as she suddenly recalled her seven-year-old self. Oh god, please don't bring up my pink dresses and dollies phase...
The inner panic is blessedly brought to an end as there's a happy squeal behind her, coupled with the approach of a girl with dirty blonde hair asking why Ailsa would be an ice queen.
"I'm no' an ice queen. That's Elsa. Ah'm Ailsa." There's a couple of blank looks that prompt her into an explanation. "Character in an old movie, me da' liked old movies... Sorry."
As Ailsa looked away, the boy in the group, Gary, she thought she'd heard, pipes up telling her not to take Haddie seriously. "You couldn't take her seriously when she was seven eith--er" The last word gets stumbled over badly as her mind finally registered the boy as something other than background to the surprise of discovering Haddie.
And then he smiled at her as he said the advice had served him well and Ailsa's face went very warm. "Yeahh..." There was an extremely uncharacteristic absent quality to the response as she awkwardly tucked a wayward strand of hair behind an ear.
"Sorry. I, uh, it's just -- Um. I'm going to sitoverherewithmybook."
With an apologetic 'I-didn't-mean-to-do-that' look to the brunette girl sitting next to Gary, Ailsa plopped herself down in the nearest empty seat and hid behind her new copy of The Will, the Word, and the Wand.
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