hey so i have an idea for a bridgerton but i'm a cheerleader au where the bridgertons and the stirlings are both wealthy modern families and francesca and john have been dating since middle school and they get to their last year of high school and john's like hey fran i love you so much you are my favorite person on the planet but i don't think you like me in a romantic way. and she's like no of course i do there's nothing else that can make sense. and he takes her gently by the hand to tell her that he thinks she's a lesbian and that they should try just being a friends for a while.
and fran goes absolutely BALLISTIC. like no i cannot be a ~lesbian~ That Does Not Make Sense. i am A CHEERLEADER. i am PERFORMING THE HETEROSEXUALITY QUITE PERFECTLY! and he very kindly tells her that he will continue to be her dearest and truest friend... but that right now he can't date her. he wants her to take a moment to think about herself.
(this is in the wake of michaela being sent away to a conversion therapy program by her mother/john's aunt, who *means well* but does not understand that sometimes people just Are A Certain Way) he thinks that if he can dedicate all of his energy to finding michaela and breaking her out while also giving fran a moment to breathe and figure HERSELF out, then he can both use the "hey look it's fran we love fran she is a lesbian and she's worked through it" and the distance to pull off the Daring Rescue and build the case that they should really all just calm tf down.
fran, unfortunately for everyone involved, does not handle it well. she goes to talk to her mother about how absurd it is that john thinks she could be ~whispers~ a lesbian and that there must be something else wrong here. and her mom's like well sweetheart there are perhaps some signs- and she goes NO OH GOD I CANNOT BE! I DO NOT WANT TO BE! and violet, who is loving but not perfect and Does Not Want The Scandal. goes well. i suppose i know a place that can help.
so fran, very determined to make her Gay Thoughts and Feelings go away, gets dropped off by her mom at conversion therapy- the same one as michaela. where self discovery, catharsis, and falling in love happens.
of course the other bridgertons find out about what happened a bit more slowly. at this point only hyacinth and gregory would still be living at home. they both think that francesca's going to a super fancy prep school because that's the way that it's been framed, daphne is off married to simon quite far away, anthony, benedict and colin are all Running the Family Business and eloise is off at university- she realizes that something is UP when fran texts her that she's going to going away for a while and not have a cellphone. she confronts their mother about it and finds out The Truth. she tries to get the rest of the siblings on board with her Save Francesca plan, but anthony is pretty sure that it's a good thing for her to try to fix this thing that could Affect the Family Image, colin and penelope are too caught up in each other, daphne is incommunicado, and hyacinth and gregory are in middle school and therefore No Help. benedict is worried about how francesca might perceive it because despite the fact that HE has come to terms with his queerness, their sister clearly hasn't and he doesn't think that going off to drag her away from a place she checked herself into in the middle of the night would help her.
so eloise ends up teaming up with john, who has been giving francesca space after their breakup and has NO IDEA that she's decided to do this To Herself. by their powers combined they're able to find the center and break the two, now dating, out. there's a lot of explaining and discomfort that has to come through in the aftermath, but once benedict and violet both find out that francesca left On Purpose and has decided to embrace being a lesbian then they're both team Let Them Be, and francesca can freely move back home for the rest of senior year.
things are hard with the stirling sisters in law, but john, who is only In Trouble for having broken his cousin out of conversion therapy, is still able to finish high school on normal terms. michaela gets herself properly emancipated and moves in with eloise at her university apartment, quickly taking care of her GED (because she's Capable Like That) and working her story of resilience into Early Acceptance Into The University. when fran and john graduate, they are both able to get into the same university as eloise and michaela and things are great
the stirling family will work things out eventually too, but i think it's going to take longer since michaela's mom forced her to go to conversion therapy and john's mom stood by and did nothing about it
PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE GOING TO WRITE THIS
