FALLING 9 • BOT SECOND GEN AJ Lynch x Niamh Young

Caden Holland. Honest to God - if trouble had a face, it'd be his. Always arguing. Always correcting. Like he's convinced he's the smartest lad in the room, even when he's talking pure shite. He's got those eyes - dark, quiet, watching everything but never giving anything back. You'd swear he's judging you for breathing wrong. And people talk, don't they? Junkie. Dealer. Bad news. All whispered, but loud enough so you know exactly who they're on about. So I've promised myself one thing: stay away. No smiles. No chats. No pity. Because lads like him drag storms behind them - and you don't even realise you're drowning until you're already under. He's dangerous. Not the loud, show-off kind. The quiet kind. The kind that makes you feel seen and threatened all at once. And I swear on my life - I'm not getting pulled into whatever darkness follows Caden Holland around. *** Mallory Lynch. The name alone sits wrong in my mouth, like something sour. Daughter of the man who put my da behind bars - that's what I was raised on. Fact, not feeling. She doesn't look like danger. That's the trick. She laughs too easily, tilts her head when she listens, pretends she doesn't see the way rooms shift when she walks in. There's a crack in her somewhere. You can hear it if you listen past the cool-girl act. A quiet panic. Secrets rattling around behind her ribs. My plan? Simple. Keep my head. Stay patient. People like her eventually show you who they really are. And when she does - when the truth cracks wide open - I'll be there to watch the Lynch name drop lower than ours ever did. Not out of anger. Out of balance. Because Mallory Lynch smiles like she has nothing to hide - and I know for a fact she's hiding everything.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫. Forever 14. No she isn't dead. Well, not physically anyway. But something inside of her certainly died at this age. With a rough childhood she thought it couldn't really get much worse but every time she thought she'd hit rock bottom it would get ten times worse. Until he came into her life. Number fourteen. With not a lot to go on there's only one person who's able to make her forget all the bad stuff. Even if it's only for a moment. Can he make the number fourteen mean something more than the age she died inside? Let's find out. 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝. Number 14 on the pitch. Disappointment to his parents, never been worth enough to love properly, and comes with a bucket load of childhood trauma. He's a cold, mean guy on the surface but there's a lot more to this kid than meets the eye. When he crosses paths with a girl who he's never taken notice of in his life he finds a glimmer of hope. A nightlight in the dark. Maybe they'll be enought to save one another. But only time will tell.

𝙱𝚘𝚢𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚃𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗 𝙽𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝙶𝚎𝚗 ⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱ 𝒜𝓃𝒶𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓈𝒾𝒶 𝒴ℴ𝓊𝓃ℊ 𝙰𝚣𝚣𝚢 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚐 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜. 𝚂𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝙰 𝚙𝚘𝚙𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛. 𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚊 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚕𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛, 𝚖𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚍, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚒𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚊𝚛, 𝙰𝚣𝚣𝚢 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚐𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚞𝚙 𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚜. 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝. 𝚄𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚗. ⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱ ℛℴ𝓇𝓎 𝒦𝒶𝓋𝒶𝓃𝒶ℊ𝒽 𝚁𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜. 𝙿𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚗𝚎𝚙𝚘-𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢, 𝚑𝚎 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔 𝚊 𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚗 𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚌𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚍𝚘𝚠. 𝙷𝚒𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝. 𝙴𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘 𝚒𝚝.

Brian O'Neill. The coldest fella Tommen's has ever seen-or so they say. And I get it. He walks down the halls like he owns the place, never says much unless he has to, face like it's carved out of marble, always unreadable. He's like a winter prince-untouchable, a bit terrifying, and way too beautiful to be real. But he's mine. He's my boyfriend. He makes my heart beat like a bloody war drum every time he so much as looks at me with that stormy gaze of his. Protective to a fault. He'd burn the whole world down if it meant keeping his siblings safe. They're everything to him-his whole bleeding heart, even if he acts like he hasn't got one. And he fights. Not schoolyard scuffles. Not rugby scraps. I'm talking about underground, illegal fights. The kind you don't talk about. The kind you pray he walks away from. *** Daisy Biggs. If sunshine had a body and a runway walk, it'd be her. She's Ireland's it girl-covers of magazines, Vogue campaigns, CHANEL deals before she was even out of third year. Everyone knows her name. Every girl wants to be her, and every lad stares a bit too long when she walks past. But she's mine. She's my girlfriend. Yeah-me. The cold bastard with blood on his knuckles and bruises under his hoodie. I don't know how I pulled her, honest to God. Maybe 'cause she sees something in me no one else bothers to look for. But we keep it quiet. No one at Tommen's knows. Can't risk the papers finding out, or the other students. She's soft with me. Gentle in a way that makes me forget I've got cuts across my ribs or a busted lip. When I show up to her place, bleeding or shaking or just not right in the head after a fight, she never freaks. She just pulls me in, cleans me up, and wraps her arms around me like I'm something worth saving. I know she hates the fights. Hates what they do to me. Hates what I have to do to win. But what am I supposed to do? When you've got a da who treats you like a weapon, you learn real quick that choices are a luxury.

Tadhg x Fiadh Fiadh Kelly was misunderstood. She wasn't living she was surviving. Getting stuck in the wrong bunch of people. Starting drugs as an escape. No one knew how bad she was getting no one noticed. But he did. Having to move to live with her dad in Cork. She wouldn't forget what happened back in Dublin. Never. Tadhg Lynch was lost. Everyone else had forgotten. Moved on. He hadn't. He still remembered every single detail. He couldn't just forget like everyone. Edel had tried everything to help by putting in therapy sessions and trying to understand and talk to him when he first starting living there. He said he was better and that he wouldn't breakdown in the bathroom and have nightmares most nights. He just did it silently now. Drugs helped take the pain away.