𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 - 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

fourty-eight

Suddenly, however, she felt a vibration in her pocket and pulled out her phone to see a seemingly urgent message.

nas💜
GET HERE NOW
BY CAROSEL
IM THIRD WHEELING BIG TIME

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𝐀 𝐒𝐔𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃, 𝐔𝐍𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐏𝐒 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑, and it took her more than a moment to realise it was the sound of someone running up the stairs and not the banging of her hungover head. She squirmed to sit up, only to realise she was in Nas' bed with three faces staring back at her: Nas, Missy and...Pete?

Wide-eyed, she threw the duvet off herself to double check that she was, in fact, still in all of her clothes and, to her relief, that the others were too. In truth, she couldn't remember much of the night before aside from sharing a few too many bottles of cider with Nas. But it seemed they'd made it back home in one piece, albeit with Pete in tow.

Before she could ask any questions, Razia came bounding into the room with a crisp white envelope in her grasp.

"Nasreen! Nasreen!" She called excitedly as Hayley, Saleem, Nana Paracha and Kaneez all followed her up. "The letter from Oxford, it's come!"

"Who is that?" Kaneez frowned as she spotted the man in the bed beside Missy, who now wore a sheepish smile on her face.

"This is Pete."

"We're all fully clothed." Mollie added quickly, pointing to her top as if they needed further evidence of the fact.

Figuring now was not the time to delve any further, as well as ultimately recognising that she probably didn't want to know anyway, Kaneez looked back to Nas with wide eyes. "Open it! Open it!"

"I can't, not now." Nas shook her head, only to be met with cries of protest from almost everyone in the room. "Okay, alright."

She peeled back the seal from the envelope and pulled out the single piece of paper that held her fate. Biting down on her lip, she unfolded it before scanning the words printed upon it.

"They've given me a bloody interview." She beamed, causing an eruption of cheers and squeals from the whole room. Mollie wrapped her arms around the girl, squeezing her tightly in excitement.

"It's just an interview. It's not an offer." Nas quickly tried to calm them down, but even she couldn't help the smile that poked through.

"It's for Oxford, Nas. Oxford!" Missy squealed, shaking the girl to remind her of her acheivement. Nas couldn't help but scream this time, which inevitably set everyone else off all over again.

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆, with groups of students piling off of buses and through the school gates. Old and new friends merged to swap chatter and laughs, while year sevens swarmed around urgently with their classicly oversized bags strapped to their backs.

Mollie strolled through the gates, in classic fashion, with Missy and Nas. The three girls had rushed to get ready after the news of Nas' interview, but the Wilson girl was relieved to find that the mix of snapping into action so quickly with the crisp morning air was actually helping somewhat with the hangover. Key word being somewhat.

As they approached the main building, the three girls exchanged knowing smirks as they saw an unfamiliar teacher piling out of his shiny blue family car.