The Running Dream

High-school junior Jessica wakes up in the hospital with a below-the-knee amputation after a school bus accident. A track star, Jessica is devastated, convinced she’ll never run again. While her father fields calls from well-wishers, she notices that he seems angry with her track coach, Kyro. When Jessica’s best friend, Fiona, also on the track team, visits, she reveals that one of their teammates, Lucy, died in the accident. Fiona visits Jessica again after Lucy’s memorial service. While Fiona sobs, asking why Lucy had to die, Jessica thinks that Lucy is the lucky one: she doesn’t have to deal with disability or rehabilitation.

Jessica goes home from the hospital. One morning, Fiona calls and insists on taking Jessica out to lunch. Jessica, realizing she’ll need to use the upstairs shower, hops and scoots up the stairs. While showering, she feels grateful she at least has both her arms. At lunch, Fiona convinces Jessica to return to school. The following morning, Fiona drives Jessica to school, where Fiona has hung up a “Welcome Back Jessica!!!” sign. At lunch, she takes Jessica to Kyro’s classroom, where the track team throws Jessica a party. At the party, Jessica asks Kyro why her father is angry with him. Kyro explains that it has to do with “insurance issues.”

In Jessica’s last-period class, Math, strict teacher Mrs. Rucker asks whether Jessica will sit with Rosa. When Jessica realizes that Rosa is the disabled girl who sits in the back of class in a wheelchair, Jessica’s first instinct is to shy away from associating with her—but then she thinks about how some people in school have ignored her since her amputation, and she decides to go sit with Rosa. Rosa and Jessica start passing notes. Jessica learns that Rosa is a freshman with cerebral palsy who’s very good at math.

Back at home, Jessica asks her mother about the “insurance issues” that Kyro mentioned. Her mother explains that normally, the insurance of the man who caused the accident would be liable—but the man who drove into Jessica’s school bus didn’t have insurance, and he’s dead. Now the school’s and the bus company’s insurances are fighting over who’s responsible. Meanwhile, Jessica doesn’t have health insurance.

Jessica’s mother takes her out of school to local prosthetist named Hank to measure her for a prosthesis. Later that week, needing help with the math she’s missed, Jessica eats lunch with Rosa and gets tutoring from her. The next day, Kyro and Fiona show Jessica videos of athletes running track on special prosthetic limbs, and Kyro explains that the track team has started a fundraiser to buy a running prosthesis for Jessica. Jessica is very hopeful until that evening, when she overhears her father mention that prostheses cost $20,000. Afterward, she doubts her team will raise that much.

Jessica gets her new walking prosthesis from Hank. That evening, Fiona convinces Jessica to come to the team’s fundraiser the next day. At the fundraiser, Jessica’s crush Gavin, who works on the school paper, shows up and takes pictures. The following morning, Jessica learns that Gavin got an article published about Jessica and the fundraiser in the local paper, encouraging people to donate.

One morning, Jessica is walking her dog through her neighborhood when she sees Rosa sitting on Rosa’s porch. The girls talk about Gavin’s article, and Rosa asks why Jessica likes running so much. When Jessica talks about loving the wind on her face, Rosa says she wishes she could feel that.

Kyro calls a track-team meeting and announces that after Gavin’s article, the team has gathered almost $5,000—and an anonymous donor has agreed to match their fundraising dollar for dollar. He also announces that Channel Seven, a local news station, wants to interview Jessica about the fundraiser at the track meet that afternoon. At the meet, local news anchor Marla Sumner interviews Jessica. Gavin is also there, and when Jessica awkwardly thanks him for the article he wrote, he calls her “amazing.” A couple weeks later, Kyro announces that the track team and their anonymous donor have raised more than the $20,000 for Jessica’s running prosthesis.

The school year ends. Over the summer, the track team throws Jessica a party when her running prothesis arrives. Jessica relearns how to run. Seeing Rosa as she runs through her neighborhood, she has an idea. She tries running while pushing a wheelchair. Gavin, jogging through the neighborhood, spots her and asks what she’s doing. He also offers to jog with her back to her house. When she tells him she doesn’t want him being nice to her just out of pity, he admits that he likes and admires Jessica. They kiss. Afterward, as they walk back toward Jessica’s, Jessica explains that she wants to do the River Run, a 10-mile race that November, while pushing Rosa—to show Rosa what running feels like.

Later, Jessica proposes her idea to Rosa. Rosa is thrilled. They test-drive a jog around the block with Jessica pushing Rosa in her wheelchair, but afterward, Jessica is winded. Later, she approaches Kyro, asking him to help her. He makes a training schedule for her that includes weightlifting and increased protein as well as running.

Gavin and Fiona start accompanying Jessica on her training runs. Jessica is bothered by how many people recognize her from the news and praise her, complaining that she wants the River Run to be about Rosa, not herself. Someone tells the local news about Jessica’s training, and Marla Sumner contacts Jessica about doing a story. Jessica agrees—if the story will center on Rosa. The news segment ends up focusing on how Jessica and Rosa both want to be seen as individuals with disabilities, not seen as their disabilities.

On the day of River Run, Jessica starts the race too fast and exhausts herself—but she crosses the finish line, and Rosa has a great time. Afterward, Jessica thinks that she can do anything.