SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — There was just one last trip for the prince to make. And if there was a chance for democracy in his country of Tonga, the time was now.

As the country's only royal political reformer, Prince Tu'ipelehake had been meeting with the common people, asking what they wanted from their government, for their country's future.

Now he was in America to seek the opinions of expatriate Tongans. In the darkness of a California night, the prince, his wife and their driver rode down the 101 highway. The next day, he planned to meet with San Francisco Bay-area Tongans.

Nearby, a white Mustang and a black Escalade were flying down the busy highway — racing, according to witnesses, faster and faster, until they were going 90, maybe 100 mph.

Edith Delgado, the Mustang's driver, was 18, with a newly minted driver's license. Traffic was heavy; the SUV slowed, the Mustang didn't.

It was almost 9 p.m. on Route 101, and worlds were about to collide.

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Edith Delgado lived in a small, blue-and-white trailer home trimmed with rose bushes near the 101 outside Redwood City. It was the highway she took to meet her friends, go to parties and maybe the one that would one day lead her away from her ordinary life.

Delgado was a hard worker — when she wanted to be. At Best Buy (and later, at Bank of America) she earned enough to pay her cell phone bill and to feed her hunger for the Jordan tennis shoes that filled her closet to bursting.

The youngest of four, the baby who was both doted on and teased, she grew up watching her parents work hard to provide for her and her siblings. Her father, Jose Luis Delgado, is a fiberglass finisher, and her mother, Graciela Delgado, cares for a sick friend in her home.

She racked up hours at Best Buy but slowly neglected her high school classes. Often, friends say, she arrived late, never went to class at all or didn't do her homework. She was too busy at her job or just didn't want to go.

But Delgado wanted a change. She wanted a better life, far away from Redwood City.

"I need to stop," she told her friend Carolina Galdamez. "I need to start coming to school."

She enrolled at Redwood High School, a place for students who fall behind elsewhere. Principal Denise Plante immediately liked this spirited girl with brown, wavy hair and full lips, a silly, fun-loving student who made friends easily and didn't give her teachers trouble.

Soon, Delgado made the honor roll. Plante rewarded her with pizza parties and other treats.

"She really wanted to do well," Plante said.

Priscilla Contreras had noticed the change in her friend. The two had grown up together, first in the trailer park, then in elementary school and later in high school. When Contreras had a baby, it was Delgado who would often come over and sit with her.