The boy who wouldn't listen - part two

Part 2 - Chip's hard choice.
Chip and Cherry hurried back from the chip shop to the waste ground where they had met the lad. Although they were going without themselves, they felt good because they were giving a meal to someone in need. The boy gratefully tucked into the unexpected supper.
"What's your name?" asked Cherry.
"Grub," he replied.
Funny name, thought the pair before introducing themselves.
"Why are you out here?" asked Cherry.
There was no reply so Chip was more blunt: "Have you run away?"
"None of your business," Grub answered.
"Well, we'll have to be going," said Cherry, sensing that the boy didn't want to be questioned. "But we'll see you again tomorrow if you like."
Grub just carried on eating as the pair made their way home.
That night, tucked up in their warm beds, the brother and sister spared a thought for Grub out in the open.
The following morning they decided to go past the waste ground on the way to school, but Grub was nowhere to be seen.
In the school yard they met Paddy Payne and Pete Perkins, who had recently started going to the youth club at the Salvation Army.
"Chip, you're in the side for tomorrow's football match against Westwood School," they said. "We've seen the team sheet on the notice board."
"Great!" beamed Chip.
But Cherry wasn't so happy. "Chip, it's singing group practice tomorrow night."
"I - I'll just have to miss it," said her brother awkwardly "Ann will understand." (Ann Benson was the Keliston corps YPSM.)
Chip was sorry to be missing the practice, but he loved being in the school football team more than anything
All that morning the clash of events was playing on his mind. It was like God was testing him to see if he would do the right thing - like the night before when they had met Grub and given up their chip money.
At dinner break he asked Cherry what she would do.
"I should pray about it and explain everything to Ann," was her wise advice.
"Good idea," said Chip.
But when they arrived at Ann's house after school, the young people's leader was in a tizzy. She had had a break-in - and a neighbour had said she had seen a boy running away...
(To be continued)