"Have you heard back from that application yet Joanne?" Her dad asked, for once he wasn't on night shift or backshift so he was eating dinner with them, all three sat around the small kitchen table.

"I won't hear until after Christmas, the others at school haven't even submitted their applications yet." She explained.

"So why did you do it so early?" He asked.

"Well, they're all really well off, I'm applying for a scholarship, I guess they need more time to get everything checked out." Jo guessed.

"It's all just checking how good your grades are and stuff though, surely it's no harder?"

"Well, I guess there are less places so they need to be more discerning?" She shrugged.

"So, there must be loads of people applying. Any idea how many places there are? How likely are you to get in?" Her mum asked.

"Well, Jenny's mum reckons I'm a shoe in, as long as I keep my grades up. She says her recommendation counts a lot. Also, people can only apply if they can't afford the tuition fees so that limits the competition." Susan explained.

"How could they possibly know that?" Her dad asked, frowning.

Jo didn't notice the subtle shake of her mum's head and bulldozed straight in, "well, that's why they need your tax returns."

Her dad's face turned red, "Well there bloody well not getting them! You can tell those nosy buggers to keep their eyes to themselves, they're not allowed to poke into my business!"

"Now George, this is her future we're talking about, it's not like they're doing anything but checking they give money to the right people."

"No, I said no and I mean it, you're not giving my financial details to some organisation. Next I know we'll be on some welfare list and they'll be sending social workers and busybodys to check up on us. I'm not having it and that's it." He threw his fork down and stormed out of the flat.

"What just happened?" Jo asked an a panic.

"Don't you worry, it's done and gone and we won't bring it up again. He's always been weird with money, that's why I may not have asked permission that day." Her mum patted her hand, "it's submitted now so there's nothing he can do."

"But mum… we need to prove each year that our circumstances haven't changed."