Laura

Laura is a fellow student at Chien Tan whose support helps Ever move from the humiliation of Sophie’s betrayal toward renewed friendship and creative action. She is not given an extensive independent plot, but her practical kindness and participation in Ever’s dance ensemble make her part of the community that turns solidarity into performance.

Support for Ever

After Sophie’s actions leave Ever exposed to hostility from other students, Laura offers direct reassurance: she tells Ever she was brave to confront the boys. Debra also looks after Ever at dinner, but Laura’s words name the courage Ever has shown at a moment when she is struggling with the consequences of the scandal. Her support is not abstract; it meets Ever amid public judgment and helps counter the insult and scorn directed at her.

Laura’s warmth also has a teasing, body-confident edge. She jokes that, if she had Ever’s figure, she would distribute the photographs herself. The remark does not erase the violation at the heart of the leak, but it refuses to treat the images as proof of shame. In the same exchange, Laura and the other girls hand Ever a napkin-wrapped package containing six of the photographs they have collected, making their solidarity tangible as well as verbal.

Taking Part in Ever’s Dance

When Ever asks the girls from her club to join a dance for the Chien Tan talent show, Laura is among those she approaches. Ever proposes combining American and Taiwanese music with ribbons and fans drawn from the girls’ electives; Laura responds positively to the invitation. Her participation helps give Ever’s plan the beginnings of a group rather than leaving it as a private attempt to recover confidence.

During the preparation, Ever directs Laura to step forward as the choreography is organized. The routine grows from a dance Ever had developed with Megan into a fifteen-girl performance: three groups of five use fans, ribbons, and jazz steps, then interweave as the music builds. Laura’s place in the rehearsal reflects the ensemble’s collaborative structure, in which Ever adapts earlier material and coordinates dancers with different skills.

The rehearsals also bring Laura into the circle around Lena, whom Ever praises for dancing as if made of water. Lena explains that her mother gave up a dance career to raise her and that she herself considered professional ballet before deciding that its subjectivity and competitiveness were too daunting. Laura’s involvement is part of the shared setting in which dance becomes not just a technique to master but a subject through which the students disclose different relationships to ambition and risk.

Place in the Collective Story

Laura’s role belongs to a wider pattern of students supporting one another through action as well as conversation. At the National Palace Museum, she and Ever encounter Sam and David on the ground while Peter and Marc climb onto them to form a human pyramid. When Ever asks what they are doing, Marc explains that they are taking back stereotypes about Asian men. The Gang of Five’s later beauty-contest performance carries that challenge onto the theater stage: the audience cheers as the young men perform femininity on their own terms, and the Dragon joins the applause.

Laura is not identified as a performer in that contest, nor does the narrative assign her a separate role in its outcome. Her significance instead lies in the company she keeps and the dance she helps make possible: both episodes place her in a student community where inherited expectations can be challenged through coordinated, visible performance. By helping Ever rebuild a group after betrayal, Laura contributes to the novel’s movement from shame and isolation toward companionship and self-expression.