𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 - 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

twenty-one

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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."