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// 1: Humble Beginnings 
// Story: Reflection 
// by lunabrony 
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	BZZZZZZZ!
The plastic alarm clock sang out a droning shriek, a noise that disrupted whatever sweet dreams had been in the head of the girl sleeping next to it, and jolted her awake with the grace of a sledgehammer. Lara was jolted from a dream involving rolling waves and foreign marsupials. 
Groggily, she read the display: 6:30am. Ugh, just once she'd have loved to let the sun wake up before she did.
"Get up Laura, we're eating in fifteen minutes, remember to wake up Sam or he'll end up sleeping late again!" Her mother called from downstairs. Not a moments peace, and not even the possibility of snoozing; her father had removed that button from this alarm due to abuse of it. The bus would be here in an hour. There was no time to waste.
Daydreaming had taken its toll on her, and not necessarily always for the better. Her grades had been slipping and her attention span had been rapidly deteriorating. "Alright, alright, I'm coming!" She picked up a pile of clean clothes from the floor, quickly changed in the bathroom, and threw her pillow at her younger brother in his bedroom.
"Wake up, doofus. I smell waffles, and I call dibs if you don't get up." He was going to kill her when he found out she was lying about the waffles, but she knew what motivated him.
Laziness ran in the family, at least on their fathers side. He was sound asleep and wouldn't be up and about before 9, at least. 	Their mother didn't exactly have waffles ready. Nor pancakes. Nor fried eggs, bacon or other goodies. 
There was cereal. Joy...
Things were coming back to Laura about today. School break was coming up and it was December. Which meant Christmas was approaching, of course. They wouldn't be celebrating at home, they'd be going up to their granny's for a bigger gathering there. Today was the last droll day at school, and tonight there would be a small ball and the younger classes would put on some crappy theatre play. Her little brother was the second flower on the right.
"Good morning, Laura." Her mother greeted her; and looking a bit bleary eyed, she offered a mug and a jug of steaming coffee.
"Morning." Laura was mumbling, as if she didn't particularly want to be awake. Despite being only fourteen, she took the coffee. She had been having a fantastic dream on which she was floating down a serene river filled with merkangaroos. Yeah, she didn't understand it either. But it made her smile, at least. The play her brother was in? She figured she'd sleep through that. After all, they went to the same school, and in her younger years she'd had to participate in it three times. Three. Horrible. Times. And every single time she'd been a rabbit, with the same lines. "Do I have to go to school?" She pleaded. "I could help out here!" No, those hadn't been her lines. Those were the pleas directed at her mother.
"Not a choice, its law. You either go to school, or big men in strange uniforms start asking questions." Her mother drained her own cup and poured herself a second.
Sam was not pleased that there weren't any waffles, and scowled at Laura. He'd warm up eventually, thankfully he'd put his crying days behind him. After a few threatening glares from mom, he eventually decided that oatmeal was a fine breakfast.
"Any plans for today Laura, other than the Christmas Ball? I was thinking about picking you up after school, then we could head into town, your old dress… I think its time you've gotten something new." There was definitely a promise of clothes shopping. And her mother was restraining a smile. Sam mustn't know that big sister was getting an early present. It wasn't as big as the Fall Formal Ball, but it was the last time she'd get to hang out with her friends until some time in January.
Without hesitation, she replied with a slight whine in her voice. "School AND shopping in the same day? God, mom. You trying to make me die of boredom or something?" But she caught the look her mother gave her, and returned it with an excited sort of spark in her eyes. "Besides, I have a hard enough time convincing everyone I'm cool enough without my mom  picking me up..." She rolled her eyes. She hoped her mother would pick up on the facade.
Laura's attempt at winning back her mom, with a quick retroactive 'being nice', apparently didn't work too well. Her mother put down the coffee jug, a tad bit hard and sighed.
"We don't have to do it, Laura, but you need a new dress, and some new clothes for when we're visiting grandma." She looked tired again, more so than before. "You better get a bath and get properly dressed, bus will be here in forty minutes."
Sam was appalled. "Laura's getting new clothes? What abou-" Her little brother began. Crap. So much for him not finding out.
"You'll get new clothes when you outgrow the ones you're in." She said diplomatically and rubbed her temples.
Laura sighed. She didn't want to argue with her mother, so just said "Yes, mom." And went to do exactly that. She didn't get much time to herself, as she'd barely been in the shower ten minutes before Sam was pounding on the door. "Mom says hurry up!" He yelled. Laura quickly dried off, changed into clothes that were a bit too small for her, and yanked open the door. She was worried about her mother, who seemed unusually stressed.
After a few short minutes, the school bag was packed, just the essentials, history class, math class and literature. Her trusty music player loaded with a healthy library of good music. And of course some her mother hated just to annoy her when the situation called for it. A sack of other small things for the day. Sam rushed past her, on the way out of her bedroom.
"Hi mom! Bye mom!" He yelled, and was fast on the way to the bus stop. Not that arriving there sooner would make the bus come any faster, but Sam was a bundle of energy.
Her mother was rinsing the plates and glasses, putting them into the dishwasher. A simple enough task.
Laura paused just long enough to pick up a couple dishes, and rinsed them in awkward silence. 
"Are you okay?" She asked after a couple moments, setting them in the top rack of the machine. She couldn't stay long, Sam wasn't supposed to be at the bus stop by himself.
"Laura, I just don't know what to do with you sometimes… I try to do something nice for you, and you whine like an eight year old. I try to share a special day, helping you out. You're growing up and that means something, it does for me at least." She closed the water tap. "This month is a bit stressful, and I want the two of us to not drift apart."
"I was only whining because if Sam found out I was getting new stuff he'd go crazy, and start kicking or something until you dragged him along, and I figured that was the last thing you needed right now." She set another glass in the dishwasher. "I'm grateful, really. And I don't think we're drifting apart. At least not like you and da-" She cut herself off, fell silent, and quickly started wiping the counter.
They finished the last things together, and then her mother gave her a hug from behind. "Things will work out Laura, just give it time. Now you better head off, I'll pick you up at five. Go catch the bus, quickly now."
Laura gave a weak smile, hugged her mother, and ran off to catch the bus.
***Later That Day***
The air was chilly, and her breath caused a mist everytime she exhaled. Laura blew smoke, without actually having smoked. There had been some quizzes, and the last class had been cancelled to help with the decorations of the gymnasium. The geek clique had erected large paper mache columns, and decorated it in a pseudo roman middeval mash up, and then the music crowd had placed lights everywhere.
It was evening and the stars shone beautifully, a silver moon hung up above. Laura was looking forward to dress and gift shopping with mom for a few hours. Just the two, she seemed to want to say something important. Perhaps she and dad were breaking up, but it didn't sound like that. Sam was off watching a movie with dad.
People had long milled by, out into cars and buses. She stood by near the big statue in front of the school like a bit of a doofus. Hanging around alone. Her ipod still had a good charge, so things weren't it wasn't bad. If you had good music in your ears you could wait forever for almost anything.
Something suddenly shocked her out of her relaxed state. Quite rudely, at that.
"Out of my way… whatever you are!" Someone pushed past her. Some orange fiery haired, leather wearing girl. She wasn't punk, but she wasn't nice. There was something odd about her, standing shakily on her legs and watching her fingers with odd delight. Drugs, probably. They weren't hard to get, though Laura would never touch them.
The other girl marched off with strongly determined purpose along the road, not offering Laura as much as a second look. It wasn't one of the students from the school. At least Laura didn't recognize her. Perhaps she was one of the staff imported from various banquet halls around in order to cater the Fall Formal.
Laura had no intention of chasing this person down, but she did make a point of yanking her earpods out of her ears. 
"Hey! An apology would be nice!" She hollered, although that was about the extent of her interaction with the rude girl. Laura was actually looking forward to spending time with her mother, she didn't get to do it very frequently anymore and she knew her mother worried that her daughter didn't bother making time for her anymore.
Speaking of her mother, she was running a bit late. She was supposed to be here by now. Ten minutes later she still wasn't there. Laura kept track of time by how many music tracks had passed by. Still no sign of her. Had something happened?
The time moved by, she hadn't gotten a text message either. Or had she? She did then three things which seemed natural at that moment. She took a few steps back towards the statue, fished out the phone, and leaned back against it as she had so many times before.
Waaaaay too far backwards, with the sensation of breaking through an buzzing water line with a glittering splash, Laura was suddenly in horizontal free fall. The world was a kaleidoscope of whirling colors. While her head phones kept blasting out the latest number at full volume.
Seizure! Was the only coherent thought she had time for, then she was ejected from whirling mass of colors, but she didn't have time to gather her surroundings before her head impacted a hard and unyielding marble surface.
Then there was only darkness.