Comeback

By Vicki Grant

Ria is rich, slim, pretty, popular. If you only knew her at school, you'd think she led a charmed life—and until recently you'd have been right. But her situation has taken a sudden, unfortunate change. Her parents' seemingly perfect marriage has broken up, and before she's had a chance to absorb the blow, her beloved father disappears in a plane crash. What's worse, rumors begin to surface that he may have perpetrated a multimillion-dollar investment scam and everybody—Ria's mother, her best friends, even her boyfriend—believes them. Ria sees no choice but to take her little brother and run. She vows to keep the memory of her father alive. Soon, though, she begins to wonder: is her memory playing tricks on her—or is he?

Also available in Spanish or French.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Mar 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781554694525

Vicki Grant

VICKI GRANT left her career in advertising and television to write her first novel, The Puppet Wrangler, in 2004. She has written many books for young readers, including Not Suitable for Family Viewing, winner of the Red Maple Award, Quid Pro Quo, winner of the Author Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime Fiction, Betsy Wickwire’s Dirty Secret, Pig Boy and B Negative. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Web: vickigrant.com Twitter: @VickiGrantYA Instagram: @vicki_grantya  

Book preview

Comeback

Vicki Grant

orca soundings

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

Copyright © 2010 Vicki Grant

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data:

Grant, Vicki

Comeback / Vicki Grant.

(Orca soundings)

ISBN 978-1-55469-311-5 (bound).--ISBN 978-1-55469-310-8 (pbk.)

I. Title II. Series: Orca soundings.

PS8613.R367C65 2010     jC813’.6     C2009-906838-9

First published in the United States, 2010

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009940841

Summary: When her father disappears, Ria is forced to decide if she really knew him.

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Cover design by Teresa Bubela

Cover photography by Getty Images

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

PO BOX 5626, STN. B

VICTORIA, BC Canada

V8R 6S4

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

PO BOX 468

CUSTER, WA USA

98240-0468

www.orcabook.com

Printed and bound in Canada

Printed on 100% PCW recycled paper.

13 12 11 10 • 4 3 2 1

This book is for Jane Buss, who has done so much for me and for so many other Nova Scotian writers.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter One

My boyfriend is trying to make me feel better. He’s leaning against his locker, one arm over my head, making a little cocoon for me. He tucks a wisp of hair behind my ear and says, It’s not the end of the world, Ria. Who knows? You might even end up liking it. So smile, would you? C’mon. Just a little… Please?

I appreciate the effort. I really do. Colin’s sweet—but it’s not helping. He doesn’t know how I feel.

How could he?

His life’s right off the Disney Channel. The mom. The dad. The three kids. The mischievous but lovable dog. Everyone sitting around the kitchen table, laughing at dumb jokes and flicking corn niblets at each other.

Colin couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like to live without all that—any more, I guess, than I could have three months ago.

The weird thing is I didn’t even know my life was perfect until suddenly it just wasn’t anymore. It was like waking up after a car crash and realizing your legs aren’t there. Who even thinks about how great walking is before something like that happens?

The word crippled pops into my head, and that’s enough to get me started again. I have to close my eyes.

Colin says, Oh, no. Ria… I feel the air go out of him.

This isn’t fair. I shouldn’t make him miserable just because I am. That’s the type of thing my mother would do.

What am I saying? That’s the type of thing my mother did do.

This whole thing is all about her. Her life, her happiness, her whatever.

It’s as if one morning she just decided she didn’t want to be married anymore, and that was that. No explanation. No apology. No nothing.

Next thing we knew, she’d kicked Dad out. She’d fired the housekeeper, cut up our credit cards, took a pathetic little job at an office somewhere and jammed the freezer full of these Styrofoam disks that she insists on calling pizza.

I don’t get it. If we’re suddenly so poor, why won’t she cash the checks Dad keeps leaving for her? He’s a big stockbroker. He’s got tons of money. He doesn’t mind giving it to us. He wants to.

Mom’s trying to embarrass him. That’s what she’s doing. She knows it’s going to look bad for him to be wining and dining his clients at the best restaurants in town when his own kids can’t even afford take-out pizza anymore.

I’m sure I sound mad and childish and spoiled—and I probably am—but I can’t help it. When this whole thing started, I tried to be supportive. I choked down the frozen pizza. I didn’t complain when Mom canceled our trip to Italy. I looked after my little brother Elliot. I even attempted to be sympathetic.

I mean, I’m not totally blind. I can see Dad isn’t the easiest guy to be married to. He’s away on business too much. He’s involved in too many organizations. He’s got too many friends, clients, acquaintances, whatever—and they all want to go golfing with him. I can understand how that would get to Mom.

I figured she just needed a break. After a couple of weeks—and maybe jewelry and a romantic dinner somewhere—she’d remember the good things about Dad, and then we could all just go back to being a family again. That’s what I thought.

At least until this morning, when I found

Reviews for Comeback

[maritimer_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Vicki Grant pulls off a neat trick in this novel. She tells quite a sophisticated and provocative story, keeps it believably ambiguous and messy, moves it along at a dramatic pace, and does all of this with language and structure that make it accessible to readers with a variety of reading levels.

[ekanderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Canadian author Vicki Grant‘s latest novel from the Orca Soundings imprint fast establishes a problem for protagonist Ria Patterson: her parents are divorcing and Ria’s life is going in the exact opposite of a direction she’d choose for herself. Her rich investmant-banker dad has been kicked out and her mom won’t take any of his money. Ria’s mom insists on living on cheap frozen pizzas and when the final bomb drops — Ria, her little brother Elliott, and her mom will all be moving to another town to start a new life — Ria can’t help but freak out. She is in no way ready to leave her ritzy neighborhood, her bffs, or her hot boyfriend Colin for, well, anything.Ria’s priorities change quickly, though, when her dad goes missing in a plane crash. She’s sure her dad is still alive, but family friends are already talking about him like he’s gone for good. Dead. And the media has started circling in. Soon Ria is confronted with rumors that her father wasn’t the person she thought he was, and it affected almost everyone in town, including Colin. Alone and scared, Ria knows she has to do something to take matters into her own hands. She just doesn’t know how.With twists and turns around ever corner, COMEBACK is a great pick for reluctant teen readers. Considering its short length, Vicki Grant does a fabulous job of capturing Ria’s voice straight away, developing real, relateable characters, and pacing an unexpected thrill-ride. I’m looking forward to seeing what Ms. Grant is working on next!

[mstevenson_69 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Part of the Orca Soundings series for reluctant readers, this novel folds drama and suspense into a story that carries echoes of our country's current marital and financial woes. Rich pretty popular high-school senior Ria has led a charmed life, but now her parent's seemingly perfect marriage has broken up and, before she has a chance to absorb the blow, her father disappears in a plane crash. Rumors begin to surface that her dad has scammed his clients, including Ria's boyfriend's parents , out of millions of dollars of savings. Disillusionment and split-second bad decision-making lead Ria to run away from home with her five-tear-old brother in tow, but the realities of being on her own soon sink in. The premise of the story will quickly grab readers who will emphasize with Ria and her crisis.

[liiviia4choo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To me, this book "come back" is better than the other one that i read, "house party." I say that because this one focus more on the characters emotion. The other book did too, but in my opinion, the other one didn't seem as touching. It's another one of those books that has scenarios of what can or is happening to certain teens now a days. Overall, this is a great book and i would recommand it to people who like to read a shorter book that has not as much pages.