𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 - 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

fourty-three

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"𝙁𝙍𝙊𝘿𝙊 𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙉𝙀𝙍 𝘿𝙊𝙀𝙎𝙉'𝙏
𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝘼 𝙂𝙊𝙊𝘿 𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙊 𝙄𝙏!"

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐘, 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐒. For Mollie Wilson, that time seemed to bring along alot of positive things, with her dad's road to recovery going well in hospital, while her friendships and relationship remained a constant source of support for her through it all.

But there was one area of her life that wasn't quite as stable or certain, and it was something that she constantly found herself pushing to the back of her mind: her future.

As the school year progressed, the teachers at Ackley Bridge quickly became more focused on the future of their sixth formers. They organised several assemblies that the students were forced to sit (or sleep) through, as well as handing out an obscene amount of leaflets, and even encouraging them to attend educational events in their spare time.

While Mollie wasn't really interested in any of it, she'd somehow managed to find herself wandering around a university fayre on a Saturday with Nas and Missy, who had somehow convinced her to come along.

"Got your eye on any courses, Mol?" Nas asked out of interest as the three girls walked the grand building which was full of individual stalls that were decked out to try and sell their courses.

Mollie shook her head. "Not really. It's not like I'm going anywhere in life, am I?"

"Don't be daft." Nas shook her head with a click of her tongue. "You're smarter than you think, you know. You could do so much with your life. Surely there must be something you'd love to do?"

"Nothing much." Mollie gave a simple shrug. "Might just stay and work at Stew's. Maybe I could take over when he retires, change the name and call it after myself."

"Good luck finding something that has a ring to it like Stew's News, babe." Missy chuckled, before looking around the hall in confusion. "Nas, I thought you said there was gonna be free food here."

"I mean, yeah there will be somewhere but we need to look around the stalls first-" Nas was quickly cut off by an excited Missy.

"Over there!" She said with a grin, pointing to the refreshments table. "Be right back!"

She dusted off her jacket before walking in that direction, a spring in her step that brought about a chuckle from her two friends.

"I'm gonna go find the toilets. Won't be long." Mollie said to Nas with a small smile, taking her chance while Missy was getting refreshments.

As she began to wander through the grand hall to find the bathroom, her eyes skimmed the different stalls and all of the different courses on offer. Thinking about the future was so overwhelming for Mollie, and if she was completely honest with herself it scared her a bit. She had another year left of school, but it felt like she was already being pushed to decide which path she wanted to take for the rest of her life. It was a huge decision, and it didn't help that seemingly everyone around her had something that they wanted to do, except her.

Cory had English, Nas had biology, Riz and Lewis had sports science, Naveed had comedy- and then there was her, coasting along with no sense of direction.