Sumner F Period discussion

In the first thirty pages of Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall an intriguing quote opens the book, "They say that just before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes, but that's not how it happened for me." The main character Samantha Kingston is a popular high school student with her best friends Lindsay, Elody, Ally, and her perfect boyfriend Rob Cokran. The opening quote explains to readers the last moment Samantha had before she died in a horrible car crash. The book seems to set itself up to be a sad and depressing book but then after turning a few pages Samantha wakes up. Samantha realizes she is being given the chance to relive her last day until she gets things right. Samantha is introduced as she is getting ready for school and her daily routine is described. Lindsay picks up Samantha and they start their route to pick up their other friends. The girls interactions with eachother- girls bringing each other their favorite coffees, their favorite bagels- seems like what a girls dream friendship would look like. They all seem to live in such luxury, driving Range Rovers, and going to a good school in Conneticut. It is around Valentines Day and the image obsessed girls start to worry about getting lots of Valograms (roses and a note sent from a special someone). They all have competitions to see who get the most and then Lindsay and Samantha decide to skip 7th period, where there later invited to a boy named Kent's house party. Samantha states that he has been in love with her since they were best friends in preschool. The theme of compassion kind of comes into play because Samantha knows Kent is not the happiest person and does not have many friends and she wants to make him feel loved but without making herself look "uncool".