At the ages of 12 and 13 in my first two years of high school, there was a trend among the people that skipped school. We were allowed out of school during lunch times and most people would either visit the massive park directly in front of the school, or walk the five minutes it took to get to the high street. The trend was that people would go into the supermarket and steal stuff for lunch, and then do the same during the skipped periods and get treats - almost always food. There was even a guy who would tell you the aisles that didn't have cameras in exchange for £2 per aisle. Seriously. And sometimes, people would go in before and smash the cameras and get in trouble just so that their girlfriends could go in afterwards and go to those aisles and steal. How romantic.
I was part of this group. Well.. Not really. I wasn't friends with any of them, but I did skip school due to immense bullying and so I'd usually lag behind and steal in their shadow. Then instead of eating my stuff along with them as they smoked cigarettes and weed and everything else altogether in the park, I'd sit on a bench far away from them and work with my textbooks on the subject I was missing.
I'd actually often end up weeks ahead of everyone else so you could say it did me good.
It went hand in hand with what was happening at the time - My Mum was going through a rough patch which involved drug abuse and all her money began going to that. We didn't have very much food.
So you could say I did it for good reason. I would go with the crowd and we would go into the supermarket, get the stuff we wanted (usually just a shitload of sweets) and talk Very Loudly as we walked around the aisles gathering our food about how much money they cost and about how much money we had so we looked convincing.... What geniuses. Anyway, then we'd get to one of the aisles without a camera or with a busted one, and we'd stuff them into our school bags and walk out. I however, instead of just stealing a bunch of expensive sweets, would also fit in a bunch of stuff we could use for dinner that night. I fed my little brother and sister that way for about 4 months. I'd just tell my Mum that it was food my friend was bringing to school and saying she didn't want any more. A really silly story, but my Mum was too out of it to care most of the time. Any time I did steal sweets, I'd go for the expensive stuff I'd never hope to afford like Lindt and Ferrero Rocher. It was a big treat when I brought it home for my brother and sister. Probably the best 4 months of my brother's culinary life.
I ended up stopping just because I didn't need to any more and I just came to my proper senses, really, and realised how wrong it was. The group moved onto way worse stuff and they became unbearable to be with. I also began going back to school - Never did go back to PE though, bullying was not only the worst there but it was also by far the worst subject and I didn't have my intelligence on the subject to hide behind like I did in places like English and Science. I'd spend that time studying for the other subjects in school corridors and underneath stairs rather than going out with everyone else.
I'm not proud of it at all, and no one should be. It says a lot about the place I live that the majority of people still do this - and at way younger ages now. I think it was one of the only times I felt like I fit in, even though I didn't interact with the group at all. I was doing something the majority of kids were doing, which was an experience I did not have often.
LOL.
