Seret

Chapter 1

Chapter One

'Seret, wake up... Today's your big day!' said Emily in a calm but excited tone. Seret slowly opened her eyes but jolted up when she saw the strawberry glazed cupcake and birthday candle sitting in her mums'hands. 'Happy birthday sweety,' said Emily, 'go on, make a wish.' And with those words Seret closed her eyes, took in the deepest of breaths, made every single wish to her hearts content and blew out that blazing 16 candle. Emily carefully placed the cupcake on Seret's bedside and then pulled out a small box gift wrapped in bright yellow polka-dotted paper with a shiny silver bow on top. She meticulously handed it to Seret saying, 'I hope this will finally give you an answer.' Seret looked at her mother slightly confused but also extremely excited to see what her mum had gotten her. She carefully peeled back the paper and popped open the box. Inside lay a bright silver chain with one of the most beautiful stones Seret has ever seen. She took it out of the box, held it up and watched as its deep blue colour glistened in the morning sunlight. 'It's gorgeous mum, I love it! Thank you.' She turned to give her mum a hug but her expression quickly saddened when she saw her mum with eyes swollen of tears.

'Mum, what's wrong? Has something happened?' asked Seret cautiously. She had never seen her mum cry before, or even be sad. For as long as Seret can remember, her mum was always happy and joyful. She never got angry or upset, no matter how many times Seret messed up; even when she had thought it would be funny to add prunes to the meal mum made at her grand bookclub meeting. Seeing mum like this felt strange for Seret. She feared she may have finally done something great enough to upset her. 'I - I have something that I need to tell you.' said Emily, 'You-' she pursed her lips, '-you're,' she glanced at her wrist watch and her expression instantly flipped, 'You're going to be late for school.' Seret looked at her mother with deep concern and said, 'Mum? Are you okay; is something the matter?' Emily shot up and stood straight, wiping her droopy eyes with the sleeve of her orange cotton top, 'I'm fine now. You don't go on worring about me. Why don't you go and get ready for school while I finish making your breakfast okay?' Seret could see the great amount of hesitation and sadness hidden beneath her mother's fake smile but, she didn't feel like prying. Mum looked like she was trying very hard to keep herself happy. 'Sure mum.' said Seret just as her phone started ringing. 'It's probably Riley,' said Emily as she turned to leave, 'You better answer that.' She walked out of the room desperately trying to hold back her dam waiting to burst and finally closed the door behind her leaving the echo of a ring tone in the silent room.

'Hey' answered Seret.

'Happy birthday sleepy head!' said Riley enthusiastically.

'Hehe, thanks.' Seret sounded glum. She didn't mean to but, she was really worried about mum.

'You okay? You know, for someone who is celebrating their sweet sixteen, you really don't sound excited.'

'Yeah, I'm fine. Actually...' Seret hesitated for a moment, but then spoke; Riley and her had been best friends ever since 1st grade. She was practically Emily's second daughter.

'Strange, huh?' asked riley

'She looked sad. Not emotional 'cause of my birthday, just, sad.' Seret knew that Riley would understand why it was strange.

'Well... I mean maybe she's just a little bit emotional. She did cry once before, remember? On our first day of -'

'High school.' completed Seret. 'She said we were finally classified as "teenagers".' Seret started to feel a tiny sense of relief.

'Hehe. By the way, did you ask her yet?'

'Didn't I say that I would ask her at breakfast. I mean, I literally just woke up.'

'Yeah, yeah. Good luck with that. Catch you on the kerb birthday girl.' Riley hung up the phone.

Seret sat and thought to herself, 'Alright. Sixteenth birthday; how hard can it be? Let's do this!'