Silver Tides (Silver Tides Series) by Susan Fodor Read Free Book Online Page A

looking confused. “I ask you to watch news with me.”
    “Watching news all day…” Mum rolled her eyes playfully. “That’s so enticing.”
    The great thing about Mum was that she rarely held a grudge; she would get her feelings off her chest and get on with life. It was one of the things I loved about her.
    “Mya?” she started, apprehensive. “I know that you’ve never really been big on dating...”
    “Spit it out, Mum.” I groaned with exaggerated exasperation.
    Mum was hilarious when she was uncomfortable. She tried so hard to walk the line between being a cool mum and a responsible one; there were times when I hated her for it, but knowing that John would live had put me in a happy frame of mind.
    “You get so attached to things and people.” She sighed. “I just want you to be careful; don’t give your heart away too quickly.”
    “I won’t, Mum,” I assured her with a quick hug. “He’s drop-dead gorgeous; he’s got to have a girlfriend somewhere who is going crazy wondering where he is. John just has to remember who he is, and then he’ll be gone.”
    “He might,” Mum agreed. “On the other hand, he might not. You’re an amazing girl, Mya.”
    “Not that amazing,” I said with mixed emotions as I went to get a drink from the kitchen.
    “You have no idea,” Mum yelled after me.
    I laughed, knowing that John wouldn’t date me in a million years.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    school
     
     
    I tried really hard to look my best on Monday; that required no less than an hour in the bathroom. We had the city’s smallest and ugliest bathroom. Everything in the room was 60s pink—the basin, the tiles, the toilet, the shower curtain, everything. Over the years Mum had tried to break up the pinkness by adding different colored towels and floor mats, but it was a losing battle. I wondered how Dad could spend so much time sitting on the toilet when so much pink surrounded him.
    Dad banged on the bathroom door before my bus arrived. “There is nothing you can do about your face,” he grumbled with his Russian accent. “If I win a lotto, then I’ll get you a new nose and you won’t have to spend so much time with the mirror.”
    “That’s so kind,” I said sarcastically, hurt by his comment. “Maybe you should get yours done first, since my nose is a hand-me-down.”
    “Ha, ha,” he said seriously, rushing past me into the bathroom to get ready for work.
    I wandered into the kitchen wearing my blue tartan skirt, white shirt and the blue school blazer. Despite the uniform being ugly and unflattering, it was better than having to go through the drama of a free day. Whenever there was uniform-free day Jaimie would descend upon my pink bathroom trying to make me presentable.
    I was lucky to have Jaimie, but I was happy for the reduced stress of the uniform. I pulled my white knee-high socks up and fiddled with my black designer shoes, hand-me-downs from Jaimie. That was our group’s thing—white knee-high socks and black designer shoes. The drama kids were big on hats, while the Goth kids had their pale faces and black eyeliner. Despite having a set uniform, it was obvious who belonged to each group.
    “Is my nose that bad?” I asked Mum, running my fingers across the bridge of my nose.
    “Your nose is perfect because it’s yours,” she replied with hippy flare.
    “I told John I’d meet him at the gate,” I said, fluffing my hair for the zillionth time, “but I think I’m going to be late.”
    “Let me take you,” Mum said helpfully. “I’ll check with the secretary agency if they’ve got any temp work on the way home.”
    Mum was a job connoisseur; she had held no less than thirty jobs in my short life. She maintained that she hadn’t found a vocation to dedicate her life to other than motherhood. Fortunately, Dad made enough money to keep us clothed and fed, even if we didn’t live in a mansion by the sea like most of my friends. I felt blessed to have a home and