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"𝙄'𝙈 𝙔𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝘽𝙍𝙊𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙍."

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐃 and for the Year 11's, the beginning of their mock week. After giving Missy some final good luck wishes, Mollie and Nas made their way to lesson, which happened to be double biology with the brand new teacher. Nas sat down beside Naveed and offered him a tight smile, leaving Mollie to take the remaining seat next to her, which also happened to be next to Riz.

"Hey." She smiled at the boy. Despite seeing him a few times over the winter break, it was still nice to see him back in school.

Upon hearing her voice, his head shot up and he nodded back with a grin. "Alright, Mol."

"Thank God you're here. I thought I were gonna be stuck third wheeling them two all morning." She smirked, nodding her head subtly towards the brand new 'couple' who were awkwardly chattering beside her.

A playful expression of hurt took over Riz's face. "Are you saying you only wanna sit by me so that you're not a third wheel, and it has absolutely nothing to do with my amazing company?"

"Sounds like someone's got an ego. You better be careful or else your head won't for through the door." She joked, before nudging his foot under the desk with her own. "I'm only joking. I guess your company isn't so bad. There are worse people I could be stuck by."

Riz smiled softly as a rush of heat filled his cheeks and he tapped her foot in return. "Yeah, well I suppose you're not the worst biology partner, either."

Mollie, too, felt a gentle smile appear on her face at Riz's compliment, but just as she reached out to playfully tap his foot again, she was distracted by Nas' voice.

"Excuse me, Alya, what did you just say?"

"There's no denying it, is there? Everyone in the school knows you're a slapper." The room fell silent as Alya muttered, looking Nas up and down with disapproval.

"What is?" Nas asked as her eyes filled with confusion.

With a dry chuckle, Alya gestured between Nas and Naveed. "You two are sleeping together. Go on, is it true?"

"Oh, you little bitch." Mollie muttered under her breath.

"Tell you what, Alya, it is none of your business what I do!" Nas fumed.

"So much for respecting yourself, eh?" Alya quirked an eyebrow. "Seems those gori friends of yours are really rubbing off on you."

While Mollie let out a loud scoff, Nas spoke through grtitted teeth. "Well at least my dad keeps it in his pants."

"Cow!" Alya exclaimed as she reached forward to grab a fistful of Nas' hair, causing the class to erupt into a loud chorus of cheers and shouts.

"Right, that's it." Mollie muttered angrily, springing out of her seat to lean over towards Alya. Before she could, she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders pulling her back. She peeled her eyes away from the fighting girls to see Riz holding her back. "Let go of me, Riz. I need to teach this girl to keep her big mouth shut."

"Mol, come on. It's not worth it." He shot the Wilson girl a pleading look and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "She's only trying to get a reaction."

Mollie bit her lip. As much as Alya angered her, she couldn't help but feel that Riz was right and there was no use getting involved. Reluctantly, she let out a sigh and grumbled. "I hate that you're always right."

Riz looked smug for a moment, before remembering that the fight was still going on. He reached forward to try and hold his sister back, while Mollie assisted Naveed in pulling Nas away.

"Stop it!" The sudden booming sound of Mr Hyatt's voice stopped everyone in their tracks, and the room became silent once more. "It seems the prospect of dissecting a potato has got everyone a little over excited."

"She started it." Alya pointed towards Nas.

"And I'm finishing it." The biology teacher countered sternly. "Off to isolation, the pair of you. Go!"

Both girls grunted in frustration before storming out of the room. Mr Hyatt rolled his eyes and let out a mock groan, before turning back to the class. "Now, let's get on with dissecting these potatoes, shall we?"

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"𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐌, 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐘." Nas reasoned with the blonde girl who was thoughtfully swirling a straw around in her milkshake. After she had walked out of her English mock, the three girls decided to ditch school altogether and do the one thing that they knew would make them feel better: go to town to get food.

"You're both alright, you've got options." She sighed. "I may as well drop off my CV at the chicken shop and be done with it."

"Missy, you know I would give anything to be you right now?" Nas questioned with a serious tone.

"Says the girl who's got a future, university, her pick of jobs." Missy said incredulously.

"Yeah, but I can never have what I want, can I?" Nas shook her head before looking down at her hands. "Not in this town, anyway."

"So we'll move away." Missy said, a smile starting to form on her face. "Us three. Start a new life somewhere completely different."

While Mollie grinned enthusiastically, Nas seemed doubtful. "And live on what?"

"Duh, we've got the money that we-" Eyes widening in realisation, Missy stopped mid-sentence and cleared her throat. "Look, I don't know, but we'll figure it out, alright?"

"We always do." Mollie hummed in agreement, so focused on the idea of running away with her two best friends that she missed Missy's near slip of the tongue entirely.

"You two are unbelievable." Shaking her head incredulously at the two girls, Nas grew startled all of a sudden as her eyes landed on a hooded figure who seemed to be glancing in their directon.

"What?"

"Don't look." She muttered, which naturally prompted both of her friends to immediately turn their heads in that direction. "I said don't look."

"He works for that dealer, don't he?" Missy asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah, but why would he be looking at us?" Mollie said, beginning to grow worried. "Do you think he knows I'm Jordan's sister or something?"

"Yeah, that'll be it." Missy said quickly, exchanging an alarmed glance with Nas. "Come on, let's get out of here. Just style it out."

"Style it out?" Nas questioned, but began to follow Missy's lead by slipping out of the booth. The three girls walked towards the exit, trying to play it as cool as they possibly could. But, as is inevitable when trying to act natural, they stuck out like a sore thumb. Mollie glanced quickly towards the hooded man, only for him to turn around and meet her eyes.

"Shit. Run." She muttered. And they did exactly that.

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"𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍! 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊!" A male voice called out from behind the three girls as they pegged it as fast as they could down the winding alleyways.

"How does he know my name?" Nas shrieked. "Oh my God, he's gonna kill us, go!"

But as they reached Nas and Missy's road, the man was still hot on their heels and it was clear there was no escape. Coming to a halt, Nas looked at him finally.

"Oh my God! Who are you? What do you want?"

The man stepped back slightly as he tried to catch his breath. "Look, I'm um...you're Nasreen, right? Nasreen Paracha?"

"What do you want?"

"Iqbal Paracha he's your dad?" He asked.

"This isn't bloody Mastermind, mate." Mollie rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest impatiently. "Spit it out."

"You know what, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come." He said and turned on his heel to leave, only fuelling the girls' confusion even further.

"No, no, no, wait, can you come back?" Nas called out desperately, stumbling fowards until the man turned back around. "Has something happened to my dad?"

"No, no, it's not that. He's alright, he's fine." The man assured.

"Okay then what is it? Have you seen him? Is he back from Pakistan?" Nas questioned him, but he only shook his head firmly. "Who are you?"

"He's in Bradford." He said suddenly, causing Nas to tense up. "Your dad, he's not in Pakistan. 22 Shipton Avenue, Bradford, that's where he lives with my mum and my sister. Look, I'm, um...I'm your brother."

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not my babies playing footsie under the table🥺

also aaron is here oooooh!! if i didn't have so much work to do and so many book ideas already, i would 100% write an aaron fic bc he is fiiiiiiiiiine
anywayz lotsa love, have a nice day <3