Bad

NASEN House, 4/5 Amber Business Village, Amber Close, Amington, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B77 4RP

Rising Stars UK Ltd.
7 Hatchers Mews, Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3GS
www.risingstars-uk.com

Text and design © Rising Stars UK Ltd.
The right of Helen Chapman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.

Published 2011

Cover design: Burville-Riley Partnership

Illustrations: Bill Greenhead for Illustration Ltd. / iStock

Text design and typesetting: Geoff Rayner

Publisher: Gill Budgell

Publishing manager: Sasha Morton

Editorial consultants: Lorraine Petersen and Dee Reid

Editorial: Jane Wood

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of Rising Stars Ltd.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-84680-974-3

Printed in the UK by Bookmarque CPI

Zeke Porter was having a bad day at All Star High. There was going to be a school camping trip and everyone was excited about it. At first Zeke had been excited about it too, but then he saw how much money it cost to go on the trip. It was really expensive. Zeke didn't have the money, or even anyone he could ask for the money. Zeke put his backpack in his locker and slammed the door shut with a bang.

Becca Gray was also having a bad day, for just the same reason as Zeke. She couldn't afford to go on the school camping trip either. Becca got her books from her locker and started to walk to her first class.

When Zeke walked past Becca he saw that she looked as fed up as he was. Zeke and Becca knew each other because they were members of the same gang. The Gang-Stars always helped each other. They had first met at an under-12s Music Club. It was so great to meet up again at high school that they started a gang.

Zeke stopped and asked Becca, ‘Are you all right?'

‘I'm fine,' lied Becca. She really did want to tell someone how she felt. She sniffed and blinked back her tears. ‘It's just that …'

She stopped talking.

‘Just what?' asked Zeke.

‘I'm fed up,' Becca said. ‘I love being in the Gang-Stars but they don't know what it's like being me.'

Zeke didn't know what to say. He didn't know what it was like to be Becca either!

‘Being me means being different,' said Becca. ‘My family doesn't have much money. I get a special
grant
that pays my school fees but it doesn't cover extras like school trips. I really want to go on the camping trip but I can't afford it.'

Zeke was surprised. Maybe he
did
know what it was like to be Becca, after all. He got a grant from a
charity
too, but he had never told anyone about it. He thought Becca was brave to talk to him about it. If she could tell him, then he could tell her. He took a deep breath and said, ‘It's the same for me. I can't afford it either. So what shall we do about it?'

Becca couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wasn't the only one without money after all. She cheered up a little bit.

‘What
can
we do?' she asked. ‘Beg in the streets?'

‘Not beg,' said Zeke, ‘but we could
busk.
I can dance and you can do whatever it is that you do, and we'll earn the money we need.'

‘I study lighting and
set design,'
said Becca.

Zeke pulled a face. ‘That's no help,' he said. Then he saw how upset Becca looked. ‘But at least you'll know which streetlight to stand under, and where to put our collection hat!'

‘Ha, ha, very funny,' said Becca. ‘And I
can
help. I don't much like performing, but I can play the flute if I have to. When shall we do it?'

‘Sunday is good,' Zeke said. ‘Meet me at the school gates at 10.30 a.m. We'll get a bus into town and then catch a train into London.'