Chapter 1. That Nickname

I never really thought about food until last spring. My mum always made nice things like spag bol or sausage and beans for our tea. On Friday nights we always had fish and chips, Saturdays were for pizza and on Sundays we had a big roast dinner. When I was hungry in the afternoons, I just went to the kitchen and got something from the fridge. Mum always bought my favourite snacks like vanilla yoghurt, strawberries and chocolate biscuits. But one day after school, in March, I opened the fridge and … it was empty.

‘Mum,' I shouted up the stairs. ‘There's no food in the fridge and I'm starving!' Of course, I wasn't really starving, we had school meals at lunchtime, but I did want some chocolate.

Anyway, mum came down the stairs and into the kitchen, followed by dad. Now that was weird. Why wasn't dad at work?

‘Meghan, me and dad need to talk to you about something,' mum said. Uh oh, this was serious.

Mum only ever called me Meghan when I was in trouble.

‘It's OK, Meggie. Don't look so worried,' Dad added.

Ok, so maybe no-one was dead and they weren't getting divorced. Phew!

Maybe it was about that maths test I did last week then. My teacher, Mrs Bright, said she was a bit disappointed with my result… No, wait a minute, maybe our neighbour Mr Cullen was angry because I went over his flowers on my bike … but that was just an accident.

‘Meggie? Are you listening to me? I said we're just having a bit of money trouble, that's all,' dad tried to reassure me.

‘What kind of money trouble?' I asked. ‘Mum's working full-time and you have some hours at the biscuit factory.'

‘I know, Meggie, but since I lost my job things have been hard,' dad explained.

‘And today the factory bosses told dad they don't have any work for him,' mum continued.

OMG! We're going to be poor!

‘Does this mean that we're going to lose our house and have no money for food or clothes?' I asked, suddenly feeling very scared.

‘Of course not,' mum and dad replied in unison but they didn't look very convinced.

‘It just means that we'll have to be more careful with our money,' mum said.

Hmmm … that didn't sound too bad but I was about to discover that it was in fact very bad.

I left mum and dad drinking a cup of tea around the kitchen table - tea is the solution to everything in our house - and went to the garden. Leah was sitting on the grass talking to her teddies. Leah is my little sister. She's totally cute and everyone loves her. Leah was organising a tea party with her bear friends - I told you tea is a big thing for us - and invited me to join them.

‘Meg, come and have some tea and cake,' she said.

‘Thank you very much, Miss Leah,' I replied as I tried to find a space between all the other guests.

Leah served the imaginary tea and cake but after about an hour of this game, we were both a bit peckish.

‘I'll go and get us a real snack now, Leah,'

I offered. Maybe mum would give me some money for ice cream. We had enough money for ice cream, right?

‘Mum! Can I have some money for an ice cream for me and Leah, please?' I shouted as I walked into the kitchen.

Mum and dad were still sitting at the table and their sad faces answered my question.

‘Sorry, love,' dad offered, ‘we'll go to the supermarket later and get something after 6p.m.'

After 6p.m? Totally weird! We normally had our tea at 6p.m.

‘Can we go now, dad?' I asked but dad just shook his head and told me to go out and play with Leah again. Oh no, Leah. She's waiting for her ice cream. I need an idea … Got it!

‘Hey, Leah,' I shouted. ‘I've got an amazing magic ice-cream sundae for you.'

‘Where is it?' she asked, really excited.

‘It's magic, remember. You can't see it but you can taste it,' I told her. ‘Mine is raspberry, strawberry and vanilla. Delicious! What does yours taste like?'

Leah stuck out her tongue and closed her eyes in concentration.

‘Hmm … mine tastes like chocolate bubbles, apple pie and blueberry muffins,' Leah squealed with delight.

‘Wow! That sounds SO good, Leah,' I replied as we both laughed and ate our pretend sundaes.

We were just about to have magic milkshakes when dad called me.

‘Come on Meggie, let's go and do the shopping. We can take the 17:40 bus and be there just in time.'

Just in time? Just in time for what, I wondered. I didn't have to wait long to find out.

Dad and I arrived at the supermarket at 18:02. He didn't stop at the newspaper stand on the way in or take a look at the cakes and doughnuts. Now, that was strange; this was a man who never walked past baked goods without an appreciative sniff. He just grabbed a shopping trolley and ran into the store. He went straight to the chiller cabinets in aisle 17. Actually, he went to one specific shelf. There were all different kinds of food on this shelf from chicken to hummus to quiche but they all had the same yellow sticker. There was a man putting the stickers on while dad looked.

‘Come over here, Meggie,' he shouted. ‘Let's choose something for tea tonight. They reduce the price of everything after 6p.m.'

Dad was happily putting food in our trolley when suddenly I heard someone laughing. I turned round and saw Kyla Jackson from my year at school. Oh no! What does SHE want? Kyla is the class bully and she can make your life a nightmare. She was with a couple of other girls and they were all laughing and pointing at me. Great! What are they doing now?! Kyla had her mobile phone and was taking pictures of me. No! Photos! Why did she want photos of me at the supermarket with my dad?! I was so embarrassed I just wanted to disappear.

‘Come on, dad. Let's go,' I whispered.

‘Ok, Meggie-Moo. Maybe we can get some ice cream too,' he said and walked off to the frozen food aisle, past Kyla and her gang.

I followed him, head down, and as I walked past, Kyla said in a sing-song voice ‘Bye, yellow sticker girl!' What? !