Dandelions *Barry Keoghan*

Prologue:

Ailidh had never been the biggest fan of modeling or the spotlight really but when she was discovered by some model scout she saw it as an opportunity to move away from her family home and give herself the opportunity to study. It wasn't that she didn't like her family, she really did, or well she liked her mum a lot, her dad tried but he wasn't the most loving of men. It was mainly that she felt stuck, stuck in their house in the south of the Netherlands surrounded by pretentious, nosy people. Stuck in a life that wasn't her own, or well didn't feel like her own. Modeling gave her the opportunity to earn enough money to move to London and study at University there. Once she was there she fell in love with acting, something she had always liked but never really pursued until London. When she got the role of Gina Grey in Peaky Blinders her life changed, she gained followers on all of her social media profiles as well as a massive increase in modeling gigs, and brand deals. Despite this she was still just trying to get by living in London, renting a small room in a shitty apartment. Rent together with tuition added up and even though she was earning enough money so she did not have to loan any it was barely enough to cover everything. The fact she was stuck in a foreign country and city and barely had any time or money really to go and visit her family did not help her mental state. Her mother and siblings were supportive of her career and super happy for her but her dad had never really approved of acting and even now when she was on a tv show that even he liked to watch he was unsatisfied. All he wanted was for her to finish university and get a stable job but he didn't seem to understand that acting and modeling were here stable jobs and would probably be for most of her life. It wasn't really as if her degree in English literature and linguistics was going to get her an instant job except for if she went into teaching and that was the last thing she wanted to do. Her dads disapproval hurt sometimes but her mum's love made everything okay. While her brother and sister didn't really understand why she would like to pose in front of a camera for many hours in weird poses and have people obsess over her constantly they supported her wholeheartedly and were always excited to visit in London whenever they could. They were both also student though so money was tight for all of them and most of their conversations were over the phone with an occasional FaceTime session to catch up on what was going on, and so that Ailidh could see her dog who she missed more than she could imagine. When her co-star Cillian introduced her to one of his former cast members and fellow Irish man her world changed. They showed her that she really didn't need to live in London to get work and as Dublin was a lot cheaper, and felt like a piece of home due to her Irish roots, the choice of transferring universities and moving was easily made. Tuition was cheaper, Dublin was cheaper and the university she choose was actually a lot nicer and better academically than the one in London. Moving to Dublin may even open up more doors than she had anticipated and well the arrival of a certain Irish actor into her life improved things as well.