Chapter 3

All the money I earned was taken by my mum.

Now, I had less than £10 to my name.

To stretch it out, I decided to only eat one piece of bread every three days.

But I’d overestimated how long I could last with stomach cancer. By the first morning, I fainted while running during PE.

Ms. Thompson carried me to the nurse’s office, and after a quick check, the nurse said I’d collapsed from low blood sugar.

A classmate, who had come along with the teacher, explained my situation to her.

Ms. Thompson was shocked when she heard about how my mum treated me.

It wasn’t unusual for students to faint from exhaustion and stress in school, but given my situation, she felt she had to call my mum.

When my mum heard what had happened, she was reluctant to come, but Ms. Thompson insisted.

When she arrived, she found the teacher encouraging me to eat the food she’d bought for me.

My mum, furious, slapped me in front of everyone.

“You liar! You said you’d fainted! Here you are, looking perfectly fine. Why didn’t you just die?”

Ms. Thompson, stunned by the sudden slap, froze in shock.

After a moment, she spoke up, standing between us. “Why would you say something like that? Can’t you talk without being so cruel?”

But my mum continued to rant, accusing me of being deceitful, saying I’d manipulated everyone for money.

Then she glanced at Ms. Thompson and sneered, “First she couldn’t trick me, and now she’s got you fooled, hasn’t she? Or are you just trying to seduce her?”

The teacher slammed the table in anger.

“Madam, I’m Chloe’s form tutor,” she said firmly.

By now, the whole canteen had turned to look at us.

Embarrassed, my mum’s expression softened, and she mumbled, “Sorry, I didn’t know you were her teacher.”

“She’s just such a troublemaker. I’ve only been trying to teach her to save money, and now she’s lying to me, stealing from me, and pretending to faint because she hasn’t eaten…”

Ms. Thompson, her face pale with shock, interrupted her mid-sentence.

“She’s not lying. Chloe fainted from low blood sugar, and I called you.”

She went on, “I’ve heard from her classmates that all Chloe eats at school is bread and pickles. Sometimes, she only has one meal a day because you won’t give her any more money.”

My mum, caught off-guard, stammered, “But I do give her money. I give her £100 a month! When I was her age, I got £60, and she gets £40 more than I ever did.”