When Rags Meet Riches

1 | Money Problems

Beep beep beep

Uh, that sound. That horrible sound. I stood up and turned off my alarm, sighing at the same time. I pulled on my Starbucks apron, brushed my hair and teeth, and left the house. Starbucks was just at the end of my road, but it felt like 10 miles away when you'd just woken up. I worked at Starbucks every morning before school and all day on a Saturday to help my parents pay for the bills.

We'd had money problems since I was young. My Mom couldn't find work and my Dad was a chef at a restaurant that only had about five customers a day. My Dad was a great chef, but no one else would hire him. That was until someone turned up at our door when I was ten years old. He expressed interest for my Dad to work at the restaurant he was opening in South Africa. The pay was so much better than his current job, so he took it. Two weeks later we were on a plane, jetting off to South Africa.

We lived in a huge villa right next to the beach, with a huge garden and a huge swimming pool. My Dad's restaurant was five minutes away, and it was amazing. It was the fanciest restaurant I'd ever been to, and my Dad was a chef there! My Mom even got a job as a waitress there, and my five year old twin sisters and I went to the local primary school. It felt like everything was going right for once. And it was, until last year.

***

Five years had passed since we first moved to South Africa. In that time, I had moved to secondary school, made many friends, and my Dad was now the head chef at the restaurant. Everything was still going just right, until the summer holidays began. To earn extra money, I helped out in the restaurant. I waitressed, cleaned, and sometimes I even helped cook. Something felt strange about the restaurant though.

It was quiet, and the atmosphere just felt, I don't know... strange. My Dad seemed really stressed as well, but I didn't want to bother him with my stupid, overanalysed questions.

However, one evening, when I came home from a friends house, I found my mother and father sat at the kitchen table. They fell silent as soon as I walked in, but my mothers face was tear stained and my fathers eyes were extremely sad.

"What's wrong?" I asked. My voice was low. Partly because my sisters were in bed, and partly because I didn't want the answer.

"Erm, your father and I have something we want to discuss with you, but I think it's best if we do it tomorrow, when your sisters are awake and when we are all thinking clearly." My mothers voice was shaky.

"Mom, you're scaring me. What's wrong?" I started to raise my voice.

"Well," my father spoke up now, "we're having money troubles at the restaurant, so we're closing it."

"For a few days?" I asked, but it was hopeless. I knew what answer was coming.

"Forever." My father said quietly. This was the first time I'd ever seen my Dad cry.

"How will we afford to live here?"

"We won't. We going to move back to England," my mom replied. I started crying now.

"But I have friends here. I have a life here! We can't leave now, things were just starting to go right for us."

"I know, sweetie, but we have no choice. We're going to live with Grandma until we get back on our feet." My father said, sympathy in his voice.

So that was that. We moved back to England, and my life went back to the same sad, dull life it used to be.

~~~~~~~~~~

A/N

Hi guys! So this is the first part to my new story. I'm hoping to keep up with this one, so please vote and comment so I know if you like it and I know if I need to improve. Thanks!

_lostinbooks