Bette
woke up feeling something she hadn’t felt since moving to Scotland, the
warmth of morning sun on her face. She slowly began opening her eyes,
remembering that last night was her School Leavers’ Ball, the prom, the
Scots were strange she pondered, they didn’t call it prom. Then she
realised she was holding Tina in her arms, her great friend, oh how
great a friend Tina had been to her these past 11 months. Bette had
been over the moon when she’d heard that there was an American girl
going to be at her school on an exchange program, a connection to home.

Tina
Kennard had walked into Bette’s life at a very strange time, she had
just lost her mother only four short months before. Bette’s father,
Melvin, hadn’t taken the loss of Bette’s mother well at all. She was
his rock, his strength, the love of his life. He did the only thing he
could think to do to feel closer to Maxine, he upped and left America,
moving to her native Scotland, where he felt her spirit would always
live on, she loved the states, but her spirit was always in Scotland no
matter what.

Once
there Bette had realised it did bring a peace to the both of them. It
was also nice to be near to her maternal grandparents, they brought her
such a calming influence, their laid-back ways, so very un-American.
Such a contrast though to Tina, she was very much all-American, from
the south, how Bette loved that voice, and she wasn’t the only one in
school.

Bette
had known she was definitely bi, if not a *****, long before leaving
the U.S., before she lost her mother, and she decided that since it was
always her plan to go to Yale that this year if the opportunity to
confirm this to herself arose, she would grab it with both hands, she
would after all be leaving the country for the best part of four years
in just over a year. She wouldn’t have the time to get attached to
whoever she met, she could just find out, know for sure, finally. As
she got closer and closer to Tina, eventually becoming the best friends
either of them had ever had, she felt she had to tell her, she was
hiding a huge part of herself from this person who she knew so well,
and that felt wrong. Although she was scared of what the outcome would
be she had told Tina and to her surprise and relief, it didn’t even
shock Tina, she was totally comfortable with it.

Bette
became aware of the heat on her face again, realising she must have
been half asleep while reminiscing of how her and Tina had come to be
such close friends. Then it hit her, the alcohol fuzz seemed to
momentarily lift, and she tensed up remembering why she was holding
Tina, and it wasn’t entirely wholesome…….

As
Bette was having this thought Tina began to awaken also due to the
sun’s warmth, she realised where she was, in Bette’s arms, this was
nothing too strange, they had lay like this often when they stayed at
Bette’s since Bette had nightmares sometimes, so Tina thought nothing
of it, simply oh I must have began to comfort her without even waking
up, then she felt Bette tense up, and it dawned on her, thinking “Oh
GOD! It wasn’t a weird dream!”….