Laura, 1 year earlier, age 16

Laura was rushing through dinner with more fervor than usual. She tapped her foot incessantly under the table, keeping time to an imaginary rhythm she could feel pulsating inside her. Maybe her constant energy was the result of counting out endless cheer routines, or maybe she just had a tick, but she was antsy and her constant motion was giving her away. Tonight was the night.

She had just gotten her new car today - a brand new red VW Beetle - and she wasn't the kind of girl who was just handed the car keys at 16, either. She had earned that car by executing a throw with a broken ankle in last year's National High School Cheerleading Championship, and she had been perfect. Her face hadn't shown even a flicker of pain as she was tossed high toward the ceiling, flying, spinning in a perfect tight hold and then dropped neatly into the arms of Kirsch, SJ and Betty. The crowd had gone wild, her team had won the championship for the 2nd year running, and she'd been carted off the floor into the waiting bay of an ambulance. She'd spent the rest of that year recovering, but her mother kept her promise, and tonight she was taking that car out to feel the freedom of the open road on the 101.

Her mother eyed her and glanced down at her plate. "You really loaded up on the carbs today," she said. Laura looked down, trying to mask the emotion she felt, the anxiety and disgust she felt when she was forced to think about food.

"My eyes were bigger than my stomach," she said. "Don't worry. Not gonna overdo it."

Evelyn Hollis stared at her daughter for a moment longer and then dropped the subject. She had been a dancer in her day, lithe, tall, and without an ounce of fat brought on by overdoing it on potatoes. Evelyn never had a problem controlling herself. That was the thing about Laura's mother… she was always in control.

Laura gave up on eating their late dinner. She wasn't in the mood anyway, and her mother was clearly on edge about it today. Laura took her plate to the sink, scraped off the excess food, and she could see her mother's shoulders relax at the table. She dropped the plate in the dishwasher, grabbed her keys and with a quick goodbye, she headed out into the warm Los Angeles night.

Laura was sure this was the happiest she'd ever felt. The windows were rolled down, the night was cloudy and the wind was whipping her hair wildly and she sped up on the 101. The air was thick and heavy with a rare forecast of impending rain, but she didn't let that bother her. She raced along, the smell of the sea and the coming storm clearing her head. She saw lightning somewhere in the distance over the pacific. That flash, along with the wind in her hair and the smell of the ocean combined with rain, was the last clear memory Laura had of that night. After that moment, everything was burning, acrid smoke and the spark of wet metal against pavement.

Her next clear memory was waking up in a hospital bed at Cedars-Sinai with a pain in her chest worse than she'd ever felt - and Laura knew injuries. She knew pain. She'd been on a cheer squad practically since she was old enough to stand, and her ankles and wrists had paid the price. But this, this was bad. She looked down, frightened. Her hand was clutched around the cuff of smooth black leather. A leather jacket? She didn't own a leather jacket. Was she dreaming this whole thing? She looked around.

Her mother was reading a book in a corner of the room and Laura remembered feeling shocked at how relieved she seemed at seeing her awake. Laura attempted to lean forward and screamed in pain. A nurse came in just at that moment, and everything after was blurred by the haze of morphine.

Laura, present day, age 17

She turned to look down the dark, empty highway. She hugged her black leather jacket tighter around her. In the distance, there was something she couldn't make out. Why were there no other cars on this road? Where was she? But still, she saw the glow in the distance further down this highway. What was that? Curiosity was getting the better of her. She started to walk.

beep beep beep beep beep.

What was that incessant beeping? And why was there beeping at all, here in this heavy silent place, this long dark road she always dreamed of? Wait… dream. This was a dream. Something in her mind clicked then, and the beeping got louder.

Shit.

Laura's eyes popped open and the dark road was gone instantly. Instead, she stared up at her ceiling, the California sunshine drenching her room and making her squint and rub her eyes. She was tangled in her pale pink bed sheets, her honey blonde hair wild and a complete mess. It was a beautiful morning, and she could hear kids outside yelling and laughing, already enjoying the early days of their summer break.

Shit. She was late.

She kicked her legs and freed herself from her sheets. Laura was a frenzy of movement then. Her plan to get up early to finish packing was obviously a complete failure - now she had 10 minutes at the most to gather the last of the belongings she would need for 4 weeks at UCLA's annual summer cheer camp. She moved around her room randomly throwing things into her duffle - hair ties, bows, ace bandages, her water bottle - shit, where were her shoes? Everything was thrown haphazardly into the bag.

She slowed for a moment. She'd purposefully waited until the last minute to pack her camera. It was her most prized possession, and she liked seeing it sitting on her desk across the room when she fell asleep.

Ever since the night of the accident, Laura's memory had never fully crystalized about what happened to her. She'd never experienced that before, the feeling of being completely betrayed by her own mind. She was a solid student, she got mostly Bs but she didn't have trouble with schoolwork. It came easily to her. She could quickly memorize a new cheer routine and never had trouble remembering where she left her phone or her keys. She wasn't a forgetful person. But that night was like a blank spot in her head. It haunted her. Ever since then, as she was recovering in the hospital, she started reading about photography. It didn't make sense logically, but Laura vowed to herself during her recovery that she would never forget another life-changing moment. She would document her world in photographs, just in case her traitorous mind failed her again.

She knew someone had pulled her from that car. There was no other explanation for her survival, no other scenario that fit. Besides, there was the jacket. The worn, beautifully soft black leather jacket she'd woken up with in the hospital, and it wasn't hers. She was told later it had been covering her when she'd been loaded into the ambulance, and she believed it. But she had no independent memory of it, and that bothered her. It stuck in the back of her mind and annoyed her like a pebble stuck in her shoe. Someone had saved her, and she had accepted by now that she would probably never know her rescuer.

But she had that leather jacket as a reminder, and she had her camera to make sure she'd never forget again.

Laura shook her head to clear her mind. She carefully picked up her camera and lens and put it inside its special padded case. She dumped the case into her duffle and grabbed her instant camera as well just for fun. She dropped the bag on the floor near the small rolling suitcase that was (thankfully) already packed the night before, leather jacket tucked safely inside. She pulled her hair into a high, tight ponytail. She added a giant ribbon bow and looked at herself in the mirror, rocking a little on the balls of her feet, stretching her toned calves. Yup… she looked like she was ready for cheer camp.

With that she grabbed her keys and her phone and dragged her stuff and herself out the front door.