Silver Eyes

Giving Thanks

Author's Note: This is probably my least favorite chapter. I may take out some of it. I wanted to show Silver's family and how she interacts with her mother because I think it's important, but idk. Also, it needs a new title. lol I hate the one I chose.

"Wake up time!" my mom chimed from right outside my door. I had woken up three hours before and had sat on Facebook taking ridiculous quizzes. I took the one about how I would die. I laughed when it said that I would die in a gruesome car accident. I was already dressed and I opened the door to see my mom in her robe after just waking up.

"I'm up." I told her with a laugh at her surprised face. Her hair also looked surprised; it stood up all by itself.

"Wow, you're good." She told me, laughing as she shuffled back to her room to get ready. "Do you want to get breakfast on the road?" she asked from her room.

"Yeah, I sorta want a coffee." I yelled to her.

"OK, let's get goin'!" my mom said finally after an hour of getting ready. She had changed three times and I had melded into the couch waiting for her. She strode by and grabbed her keys, signaling that we were actually going to leave. I switched off the TV and extricated myself from the couch, feeling static-y and followed her to the car. "Are you excited to see your cousins?" she asked me after starting the car.

"Yeah!" I smiled. We got some coffee and some doughnuts and drove towards the highway. It was almost painful, how slow I felt like we were going and I was glad when we finally got on the highway.

"How's school going?" my mom asked.

"Fine." I shrugged.

"What about your friends? How are they?" she probed.

"They're doing fine." I told her, making her give me an unimpressed look.

"How's Jack?" she asked stiffly. I looked to see that her face was solemn as she looked straight ahead at the road.

"Good?" I answered lamely, not really understanding what she meant.

"Hmm." She made a noise like she was not okay with Jack still. I sighed. We talked for about an hour or two about random things like her work and some of my classes.

"Ugh...this ride is so long." I complained after a little while.

"Yeah, tell me about it." She said. "Do you want to stop for lunch?"

"Nah, I'm good for now. What about you?" I asked.

"I'm starving. You don't have to get anything. Let's have a bathroom break and I'll get a sandwich or something."

"Sure." We stopped for about half an hour and I had another coffee as my mom ate her sandwich. It was weird that I could hear everyone's conversations.

"You seem distracted. What are you thinking about?" my mom asked me.

"I was just thinking about what it'll be like to see Jacob and Jess again. I bet they've both changed a lot." I had gotten better at lying quickly to cover up increasingly strange behavior. Maybe that's why Jack is so unreadable too... Maybe he has to hide his hyperawareness of things.

"Yeah, I bet my siblings have changed too." My mom sighed. "I have to admit. I'm a little worried of what they'll think of us."

"It'll be fine." I assured her. The last hour and a half of the trip went by slowly and my mom had me text her sister to tell her we were almost there. I scrolled down to 'Marisol' in my mom's contacts and texted her saying we were about ten minutes away. We had found our way to a small city and then into the woodsy suburbs. The houses looked old and they were all different. They were close together and we passed a middle school before turning down a road lined with colorful Victorian houses. It was sunny out, making the neighborhood look picturesque. The trees shaded parts of the lawns and sunlit shapes laid like fall leaves on the short grass, reminding me of a fairytale.