Chapter One: The Accident
Taylor was sitting in her coach's office, in trouble yet again. He hated when she started throwing high risk tricks into her routines that weren't part of the choreography, but she would get bored with the tricks they gave her. She loved to fly and throw caution to the wind. The routines her gymnastics coaches had her competing with were safe and boring to her. Who cared if she killed herself with what she was throwing out there? At least she was living in the moment.
After her coach chewed her out in front of her mother for half an hour and told her she would be suspended from the next three meets but still required to attend all practices and meets, he let them go. They were in the car and her mother was furious. She hated when Taylor acted "crazy" like that.
"Taylor, you can't just keep throwing whatever you want into the routines. They're choreographed for a reason," she lectured her.
"I'm bored. They don't listen when I ask them to put harder tricks into my routines," Taylor argued.
"Of course they don't. What you ask them to put in to your routines is insane."
"I can land the tricks."
"They're not safe."
It was the same argument they had frequently over the years, especially since Taylor broke her arm. Taylor was into all the things her mom hated. Her mother wanted her to be prim and proper. Taylor could never seem to satisfy her. If Taylor was interested in something, her mother said no. The only thing that didn't happen with was her art. She was allowed to paint, draw, and make sculptures, but her mother tried to dictate her subjects. Gymnastics was never Taylor's idea, but her mother insisted on it being a good way for Taylor to burn off some of her energy.
They were going over the same argument in the car when the car jumped the divider and hit them head on. Taylor felt the steel crush in towards them before the airbags deployed. She could feel her legs pinned by the dashboard. Her head hurt, she hurt everywhere. She could barely breathe. Looking to her left, Taylor saw her mother was slumped over, her head lolled to the side.
"Mom," she called out to her, trying to wake her. "Mom, please wake up!"
Her mother didn't wake up, and the darkness at the edge of Taylor's vision took over as she slumped into unconsciousness.