Rosie Pritchard
Rosie Pritchard (2013)
Teri Haddy
Episodes: 5668-5786
Parent: George Pritchard
Sibling: Hannah (step-sibling)
Occupation: Student, waitress
Rosie, a nervous and talkative girl, was one of Sasha’s new classmates when she decided to repeat Year 11. She and Sasha were partnered in a science trip, where Sasha helped her out when she fell in the water. Rosie explained she was pushed off a pier during her first kiss. Sasha invited her to a toga party at the house to celebrate Dex starting college. Rosie had a crush on Casey and was mortified when her toga fell off while they were talking. While they later spoke again, Rosie told Sasha she wouldn’t go out with him for the sake of their friendship.
Rosie behaved somewhat erratically in her attempt to be Sasha’s friend. She told Nelson Gregory, the abusive ex of Casey’s new girlfriend Tamara, where to find her and joined Sasha in giving April, who had arranged for Tamara to stay in town, a hard time when she came to talk at school. She dodged Sasha’s attempts to visit her home and was secretly having counselling sessions with Natalie Davison. She claimed to be supervising her sister Hannah at a school disco and, when Sasha turned up, introduced her to a girl that she claimed was Hannah but was actually Tilda Hogan, a girl she’d paid to pretend to be her sister. Liam arranged with her and Sasha to dance with Jett to attract other girls’ attention. Suspicious when she learned the truth about Tilda, Sasha followed Rosie home, where Rosie admitted she was living alone: her mother had walked out when she was young, only sending cards, and her father spent most of his time in the city with his new family, leaving her with regular payments to support herself with.
Rosie became increasingly attached to Sasha, including naming a new goldfish after her, and was upset when she spent time with Jett and then with Spencer and Maddy. She told Maddy that Sasha didn’t want to spend time with her, then summoned Sasha to the beach where she ran into the sea despite not being able to swim. Sasha ran after her to help her but it resulted in them both getting into trouble and having to be rescued by Casey. The incident caused a rift between her and Sasha, who returned the friendship pendant that Rosie had given her. Rosie began living with a foster family and admitted to Natalie that she tended to push people away to see if they left. Sasha tried to involve her in her plan to change the school uniform but Rosie accused her of only doing it out of pity.
She began spending time with school bad boy Alexander Mullens, letting him and his friends kiss her, and was touched when Sasha stood up for her. She was convinced to spend time with Sasha and Maddy but ended up impulsively kissing Maddy’s boyfriend Spencer. Sasha realised she did it because she was lonely and sorted out a friendship contract with her. Rosie was then raped by Mullens, who ignored her telling him to stop. She confided in Sasha and Roo but Mullens denied it when she confronted him with Sasha and Dex, saying they’d had fun. She made a statement to Constable Taylor but the police didn’t have enough evidence to press charges. Mullens suggested they go out again but shortly after announced he was moving school (a result of Kyle threatening him).
Rosie remained on edge after the incident however. She went to the beach with Sasha and April but panicked when she woke up and thought she was alone, and then when Chris brushed sand off her back. She joined the pair for a girls’ night in where she admitted she was worried it was her fault for not listening to warnings about Mullens and they reassured her. Rosie began attending a self-defence class run by Zac with Sasha, Maddy and April and learned another girl there, Bella, had also been raped by Mullens but even her statement wasn’t enough to press charges. She was nervous when one of Mullens’ friends, Lachlan Stone, started hanging around and began staying off school to avoid him, but he explained he knew what Mullens had done was wrong and had texts from him bragging about the rape. Lachlan showed them to the police and Mullens was charged, with Rosie finally beginning to regain her confidence.
Rosie did a shift at the Diner while Irene was away but fainted at the end of it. Sid and Sasha took her back to their place where a test showed she was pregnant as a result of the rape. Spencer and Zac also learned what was going on but she refused to talk about it with Natalie and instead spoke to Sid and Sasha about her options. After going for a check-up, she decided to keep the baby. She leaned on Sasha and Spencer for support, and assured Spencer she only saw him as a friend. However, she busied herself buying baby clothes instead of focusing on practicalities or telling her foster parents. She was given a hard time by classmate Holly Chapman for taking Zac’s attention and announced she was dropping out of school. Bianca convinced her she could stay in school if they both committed to making it work and also joined her in telling her foster mother Kelly Doyle, who was thrown by the news but agreed to give Rosie and the baby living with them a try.
Rosie joined Maddy, Sasha and Spencer in organising a protest against Bianca being fired for supporting Zac when Holly made false accusations against him. She later announced that her father had found out about the pregnancy and suggested she join him in the city so they could have a go at being a family again. Rosie asked Sasha to arrange a “surprise” farewell party for her and also to invite Maddy, even though things were tense between her friends because of Sasha dating Spencer. Rosie failed to smooth things over between the trio but they did manage to co-operate enough to wish her goodbye together.