How It All Goes Down
- On Saturday morning, Laurel wakes at sunrise as usual (yes, she's one of those… a morning person). She takes her mom's guitar on a walk and plays some simple stuff she knows.
- While touching her shoulder to brush away an insect, Laurel notices a bump on her back. She investigates it in the mirror when she gets home and discovers that it's a mysterious circular lump between her shoulder blades. Maybe it's just a zit? Not that she's ever gotten one before… (lucky).
- She asks her mom to look at it, and she agrees that it's just a zit. The whole thing is kind of weird, though, since Laurel's fifteen and a half and has literally never gotten zits or her period. She does have some curves, though… so maybe it's just related to her bio family's genetics, which, since she's adopted, she's in the dark about.
- As Laurel's heading to David's place, she sees Chelsea out for a run. Chelsea accompanies her the rest of the way to David's, where they're treated to the yummy sight of him mowing the lawn in nothing but a pair of jeans and old tennis shoes.
- Chelsea and Laurel both seem to enjoy the sight; Chelsea admits that she has a crush on David, while Laurel insists that she's just in it to get ahead in biology.
- The biology test goes fine, and things in general seem fine with Laurel and her new friends, until she notices that the bump has gotten bigger. Now it's the size of a quarter. And within a few days, it's grown to the size of a golf ball. This puts Laurel on edge—what if it's cancer or a tumor?
- David invites her to a bonfire at the beach with a bunch of their friends that weekend, but Laurel declines because she doesn't like the smell of smoke and she doesn't like the feel of salt water. Besides, she's still all emo about the lump on her back.