Title: Oh, To Be A Benefits Kid
by Maddi from Wales | in writing, fiction
(Enter Sky ' A fourteen year old girl with shortish brown hair, glasses and slightly protruding teeth. She's a bit on the big side, but not massive. She looks upset).
Sky ' What is the world's problem? If you're on benefits, you're immediately a different person. Listen to this ' you'll love this! The school's canteen say that me and my best friend can't go downtown for lunch like everyone else, because we should take advantage of how we have school dinners for free. I mean, newsflash! We're no different to anyone else, we don't need to eat differently! They never tell my other friends off for not buying food from the school ' it's always us! My Dad is disabled and can't walk, and my Mum can't work because she cares for him! It doesn't mean I have to eat any differently from anyone else, does it? My friend is on single parent benefits, and her Mum does unpaid charity work. She isn't meant to be allowed downtown either!
(Enter Jade ' looks pretty much the same as Sky, but without glasses and with a brace on her teeth).
Jade ' I know! Does the headmistress think that the council will give her kudos for making us eat in school? We've been cornered by the lunch ladies, and when we dared to complain we were given an earful from Her Maj herself ' the headmistress. She can't control what we eat, as much as I can guarantee she will try. It's not really any of her business, but she's taken it upon herself. It's hard being a 'Benefits Kid', let me tell you. You're constantly told that you're scrounging off the state, you apparently shouldn't have Christmas and birthdays like everyone else, and holidays are a massive no-no ' give them to the rich kids instead, they must get tired out from complaining about Benefits Kids, let's give them the holidays that the Benefits Kids don't deserve, eh?
Sky ' Tell me about it. If you don't eat at the school, you're immediately anorexic, and if you do eat more than a mouthful of a sandwich you're immediately one of those 'greedy Benefits Kids, thinking they can have everything they want for free'. It drives me nuts! If you're going to restrict what we eat, restrict what everyone else can eat too! God knows we eat a lot healthier at the school than most of them do in the chip shop and buying fried-goodness-knows-what day after day!
Jade ' They're probably just angry that we get some of their taxpayers' money.
Sky ' Jealous fools.
(Both laugh and walk away).
Something that happened to me and my friend today. It just shows how bad discrimination about kids on benefits is in schools - even the school lunch ladies and to some extent the headmistress are in on it!
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