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"𝙈𝙔 𝘿𝘼𝘿'𝙎 𝙎𝘾𝙍𝙀𝙒𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀
𝙃𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙈𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙎."

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆-𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐃. Mollie smiled as she chatted away with prospective students and their families about English, having volunteered to help with the presentation. As she finished up a conversation with a family, she noticed Miss Keane walk in with an irritated expression, followed by an equally disgruntled Chloe.

"Chloe's going to swap with you and help me with English today. Can you go do the art exhibition in the canteen instead, please, Mollie?"

"Why? I was really enjoying this, Miss, and I promise I'm saying all good things. I ain't scaring any families away." Mollie said defensively, not wanting to leave.

"I'm sure you're doing a great job, but I just need you to go please." Miss Keane gave a pleading look that Mollie didn't exactly want to push any further. Sighing, the Wilson girl simply held her hands up in defeat and slipped out of the room.

She reluctantly made her way to the canteen, but made sure to smile at any families that she passed in order to give them as good a first impression of the school as possible. In truth, she genuinely loved Ackley Bridge College and wanted to help make the open day a success in any way she could.

When she got there, she saw Jordan hanging up canvases on the display board on his own, and began to piece together why Miss Keane was so desperate for her to swap places with Chloe.

She grabbed a painting and stood beside Jordan to hang it up, causing him to shoot her a confused look. "What you doing here? You don't even do art."

"You're telling me, Jord." She quipped with a shrug. "Miss Keane made me swap with Chloe, so I can only assume she didn't want you two together."

"I dunno why she hates me so much. I ain't done anything wrong." He furrowed his eyebrows. "Well, nothing worse than usual anyway."

Mollie let out an endeared chuckle at this. "Guess you guys are kinda like Romeo and Juliet then, huh? Forbidden lovers, kept apart at all costs."

"Shut up." Jordan rolled his eyes, turning away to hide the blush forming on his cheeks. "It's not like that."

"I don't believe that for a second, Jord." The older Wilson snickered, shooting Jordan a knowing look. When he didn't look at her, she softened her tone. "It's okay to move on, you know. After...Candace."

Jordan looked up at this, a thoughtful look on his face. But before he could speak, as if on cue, a voice called out behind him.

"Jordan!"

Both siblings turned around to see Candace herself walking towards them, pushing Jamie in a pram.

"What you doing here?" Jordan asked cautiously.

"Jamie will be older next year, thought I'd see about coming back. Would you like that?" She bit her lip.

"What do you mean?"

"Us, together in school like we used to be." She replied. "I know he's not yours, but you could even come look after Jamie if you'd like. We could be like a proper family."

"Why would I wanna look after someone else's kid? And more than that, why would I wanna be with a liar?" He let out a cold laugh and stepped towards Candace.

"Jord, don't." Mollie warned him and grabbed his arm, but he simply shook his head shrugged her off.

"That's all you are, Candace. You're a liar." His voice was raised now, garnering the attention of families in the canteen and, more importantly, of Kaneez Paracha who came over quickly.

"Hey! Don't talk to her like that, I'll give you bloody thumper." She spoke angrily and began guiding Candace away. But Jordan wasn't done there.

"You're a joke, Candace! A stupid girl who got knocked up." He called after her, causing Mollie to gasp in shock and grab him once again, only this time she didn't let him shrug her off.

"You need to shut your mouth, Jord. You've gone too far." She hissed.

"Shame on you!" Kaneez scolded, a frown on her face.

"Here, Jordan." Mr Bell walked over suddenly, glancing at both Mollie and Mrs Paracha. "Don't worry, I'll sort him."

Mollie reluctantly let go of Jordan's arm, only allowing him to step closer to the PE teacher with a dry smile. "Oh, you'll sort me? It's alright, Mr Bell's here. Come to Ackley Bridge, get taught by hero, Mr Steven Bell."

"Um, have I not done enough for you, kid?" Mr Bell narrowed his eyes at Jordan. "Come on, don't show me up."

"Oh yeah, you've done loads for me. Buying me a paternity test for a baby that ain't even mine. Putting me on the rugby team. Absolute star he is." Jordan exclaimed sarcastically.

"I've put my neck on the line for you, kid. I promised Miss Carter you'd behave, and look at you." He said frustratedly, just as the canteen doors opened to reveal the head teacher herself and an entourage of parents.

Jordan smirked as he noticed the discomfort on Mr Bell's face, only fueling the fire even further. "Am I making you look stupid in front of your missus, Sir? Why do you care anyway? You've split up with her, everyone knows it."

"Jordan, seriously, this isn't funny." Mollie fired at her younger brother, desperate not to make anymore of a scene. Meanwhile, Miss Carter smiled awkwardly as she led the group back towards the doors.

Mr Bell, on the other hand, was at his breaking point. "Get out of my sight, now!"

Shoving past the teacher, Jordan headed towards the opposite exit. Mollie followed behind him quickly, waiting until they were out of the canteen fo speak.

"Are you mad, Jord? Squaring up to a teacher like that?" She rolled her eyes. "You know what dad would do."

"I don't care what dad would do. Or Mr Bell. Or you, or Cory, or anyone for that matter." He let out a dry laugh, before narrowing his eyes at his sister. "You know why?"

She didn't reply, instead swallowing nervously at the look of pure anger on his face.

"I'm done with all of ya." He said coldly before beginning to walk away down the hallway, striding resolutely. Mollie let out a groan, leaning her head back in resignation. She always tried to see the best in Jordan, give him the benefit of the doubt that he was rarely ever granted. But today, not even she could excuse what he'd done.

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𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓-𝐎𝐅-𝐓𝐔𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐅𝐄𝐋𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑. After Jordan's storm out, Mollie decided to ditch the art exhibition and instead find Riz and Cory in the hall. But the more that the brass band played on the stage, the more she began to regret her decision.

Finally, the performance came to an end and the crowd clapped half heartedly, watching as they left the stage and Alya was called up. But instead of her usual confident self, Mollie couldn't help but notice an unusually nervous look in Alya's eyes as she walked up and prepared herself for her speech.

"My name is Alya Nawaz. At my last school, only 10% of pupils were white, so when I heard about this new school I was excited." She spoke, her voice slightly shaky. "I was excited because it was an opportunity to study and make friends with a new and diverse group of people."

Mollie couldn't help but snicker quietly at this, causing Riz to look at her with a confused expression. Biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing, she whispered to the boy. "I'm just trying to imagine Alya actually wanting to make any new friends."

Trying to suppress a smile, Riz shook his head at the girl but couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips. He loved his sister, but even he could agree that she was definitely not the most friendly.

The two looked back to the stage, returning their attention to Alya, who now looked even more distracted than before.

"We were meant to...we were meant to integrate. We were meant to make friends, and we were meant to be a success story." She said, glancing tentatively towards the side of the stage where her father was sat beside Miss Carter. "But we're not. The only thing that's been successful has been my dad. My dad's screwing the headmistress. Thats the only bit of integration going on here."

"Oh...my...god." Mollie muttered as Alya ran off the stage quickly and the audience broke out into a series of gasps. Turning to Riz, she noticed his jaw had clenched and his face had become somewhat pale. "Are you alright, Riz?"

"I'm gonna kill her." He said simply before getting to his feet and heading towards the door.

Mollie bit her lip as she watched him go, uncertain if she should follow him or give him some space. But as he disappeared through the door, she felt a pang of guilt in her stomach. She turned to Cory and gestured towards the door. "Come on, let's go find him."

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so sorry for the infrequent updates, ive had so many assignments to do :(((
almost done though so hopefully will be more updates soon!!!
<3