A/N: "The next few days," said I. Apologies but life is so hectic at the moment.

THE COMPETITION BEGINS

So maybe Wendy had been wrong. The shop wasn't nearly as busy as she expected it would be, though that was before all the kids got out of school and both Tony and herself were bombarded by them coming in to relieve them of all the Wonka bars they'd only just stocked the shelves with.

Tony had never known his shop to take more money in one day than in a week.

By five o'clock, the shelves were empty and Tony put the 'Closed' sign up and shutters down.

Right now, though, he really wished he didn't still have thirty more cases of the chocolate in the store room.

Wendy helped him restock the shelves and remained silent as he ranted on about some of the kids that had entered his shop two hours earlier.

One of them thought he could take fifteen bars without paying and when Wendy caught him, he stomped on her foot, Tony heard her yelp and then he grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, causing the boy to drop all the chocolate bars and promptly threw him out of the door.

"And don't let me catch you again!" he had yelled, as he returned to the counter. "Are you alright?" he asked, in a softer tone to his young colleague.

"I'm fine, Tony, but I don't think manhandling customers is a good idea," she said, reasonably.

"Well, I'm afraid that's the problem with kids these days. Parents let them run riot and get away with murder, except you. Your parents taught self-respect; you'd be surprised how many don't nowadays."

Tony was still muttering about the smug brats and the cheek of the parents allowing them to do it as he approached the store cupboard.

Wendy remained shelf-stacking, when there was a knock on the door. She stopped the task at hand to greet the person on the other side of the door.

"I'm sorry. We're closed," she said.

"May I speak to the manager, please?" the man said, reasonably.

"Okay. Won't you come in?" and she stood aside, holding the door open for him. "Tony," she called, "there's a man here who wants to see you." And, with that, she returned to her shelf-stacking; whatever the man had to say was none of her business.

A few moments later, he returned from the store-room. "Well, what can I do you for?" he asked.

"My son told me of an incident that occurred this afternoon. Said that a girl punched him and you then threw him out of the shop." The man remained calm as he said it.

"Only half of that is true," Tony said, in his usual no-nonsense manner. "My young employee, Wendy here," he said, indicating the teen, "caught your son trying to steal fifteen Wonka bars. She was about to just take them from his arms and let nothing more be said on the matter, but he purposely trod on her foot in protest. When I heard Wendy's exclamation, I went to the source of the problem, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and removed him from my shop."

"I'm very sorry," the man apologised. "My son often lies but his mother always believes him. I came to verify the incident. His mother spoils him rotten, so he can get away with anything where she's concerned. She's also promised him all five Wonka tickets and he doesn't deserve a single one, in my view. He needs to learn respect before he gets rewarded, but I can tell my wife anything; it just goes in one ear and out the other."

"Well, now that's sorted out, we are actually closed," Tony reminded him.

"Oh, I am sorry," the man laughed, before turning to Wendy who had remained on her knees loading the shelves. "I'm also sorry for my son's actions. Take this," he offered, rummaging in his wallet, and he handed her fifty dollars.

Wendy really didn't want to.

"I don't bite," he smiled.

"I can't take it, sir. I'm sure you'd have done the same if it was someone else's child. I don't deserve it," she protested.

"Please take it for compensation, at least. It'll pay for a course of antibiotics if your toe gets infected."

Reluctantly she took it. Anyway, it would pay for some decent food on the dinner table.

"Thank you, sir," she said, quietly, tentatively taking it from the man.

"You're very welcome, young lady. I wish my son considered other people. His mother's just the same," he scowled, at the thought of his overbearing, selfish wife.

Shaking his head, he turned towards the door. As he opened it halfway, he turned back to Wendy. "You're a very quiet girl, aren't you?"

Wendy said nothing.

"Also very generous," Tony interrupted. "She's given me four years of her life, worked like a mule, had I don't know how many injuries and she's never complained once. Neither has she ever denied anything to anybody. If she was on her last nickel, she'd give it to someone else," he said.

Wendy could do nothing but blush at the compliments, he gave her.

"Well, than I can think of nobody who better deserves a golden ticket than you," the man, said, looking straight at Wendy. "Goodbye," he said, cheerily, has he left the shop.

Wendy just looked to Tony for answers.

"I really don't know," he replied, just as confused at the man. Clearly, greed hadn't gone to his head and he couldn't understand how such a generous man could have such a rude, selfish child.

At the end of her shift, Wendy went to her boss.

"Tony?" she asked.

"Mm," was the reply.

"Would you mind if I take some things for my family? I will pay."

"Take what you like, Wendy," he chuckled at her nervous promise.

And so she did. Two loaves of bread, one tub of butter, a shrink-wrapped chicken, a bag of carrots, a box of gravy stock, a small bag of cornflower and a cheesecake. When she found she still had ten dollars left over, she bought seven individual Wonka bars, one for each member of her family.

Wonka bars were only a dollar each so the last three dollars went into the charity box.

"We'll have a proper feast. We'll stuff ourselves silly," she smiled, as she rang up the till and bagged her goods. "See you in the morning, Tony," she said and left with a smile on her face.

As he watched her go, he couldn't help but laugh and she skipped down the street with a smile on her face, unable to contain her excitement at putting some decent food on the table.

As she got through the front door, she immediately went to hug her grandparents, then her dad, then her mum.

"You'll never guess what I've got," Wendy smiled, teasingly.

Noah looked slightly worried, Helena inquisitive.

Wendy then plonked the bag on the worktop. "Have a look at that for a feast."

It certainly was a luxury. They'd never been able to have meat in the week before now.

"Where did you get it from?" Helena asked.

That was a tricky one. "Well, a man gave me fifty dollars. I'm not even sure why, but he did, so I thought I'd put it to good use. That's tomorrow's tea, that is."

"Well, you must have done something right," Grandpa George said.

"Apparently," she replied, as she moved to sit on the bed in between her grandparents.

"I doubt all the winners of those tickets will. All those who'll win them will be spoiled, selfish brats who have everything handed to them on a silver platter."

"That's a bit unfair," Wendy replied. "Suppose there is one genuinely nice person who has to work for it but is very grateful when they actually get it."

"They won't be. They'll be rich," Grandpa George scoffed. "They're all the same. Give them an inch, they'll take a mile. And, while we're on the subject, the kid that finds the first ticket will be fat, fat, fat," he concluded, without hesitation.

Even if she didn't want to believe it, Wendy knew Grandpa George was right.

AN: Okay, so there's that. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it's better than nowt.