Boseman High School Shenanigans: Episode 1

"I don't... no paramedics," Zach grunts. Once those get involved there is no way his dad won't hear of what happened. "I'll be fine. I just need to sit and catch my breath for a bit..." After he made sure his head isn't bleeding, he tries to sit up again but is stopped by a pain in his gut. He's not quite sure what happened, but it feels like he landed on something. As he looks around the ditch, he notices that it's full of trash. In fact, it seems like it would have been a miracle for him not to land on anything. Judging by all the blood, he's almost certain he got himself at least partially impaled on something, but he doesn't dare to look. He takes in a sharp breath, then nods. "Two guys in suits who were in that SUV," he confirms. Then he tries to get up again. Most of his injuries are minor scrapes from a really unlucky fall, but that one spot he doesn't want to look at really hurts. "Really, I'm fine," he lies, not very convincingly. "I'll take a quick break and then I'll be good as new."

As he already knows that the officer is not just going to let him go, another thought occurs to him that makes him break into a cold sweat. The paramedics are going to want to check him over. They'll need to take off his shirt for that. "I'll refuse any medical examination," he tells Bentley. "You can't force me to accept it."

"Yeah Rose. I don't know but he doesn't sound good."

As she closes in on the van. With her phone clutched tightly to her ear she asks again, "Zach? Zach you still there? Who is with you that I hear in the background?"

"There's someone or someones with him Rose but I don't recognize their voices and can't really make out what they are saying."

Freddie stops chewing not due to Marco's dude speak, or the undeniable allure of the two girls trying to make out, but as the nature of their body language tightens when Emily's phone rings. Concern radiates from them both.

He steps up the sub and his over when Emily calls for him. In clearer thinking days, he might have sexy ideas on just how exactly he can "help" them, but those don't surface at the moment. "What's going on?"

"You okay?" Lily asks, her tone no longer jokey or dramatic.

"They shouldn’t be doing that here. Do you want to complain to someone?"

And then she’s quite a moment, listening for the steps. She sits on the floor of the girls bathroom, and knows it’s Levitt.

"That’s Levitt now. Do you want to tell him about this? You know he’ll raise hell for us! He’d probably march in there right now and catch them in the act!"

"Zach. Zachary Tidwell," he tells the officer. There's no use in lying about who he is. "I'm new in town, but yeah. High school." He then bites his lip, hesitating before revealing the reason why he doesn't want to be examined. The main one, since at this point, even Zach has pretty much given up on the hope that he'll be able to keep his injuries from his parents. Even if he got Rose to sneak him out a spare set of clothes, they'd have to be blind not to see that he's scraped and bruised all over. In a shaky voice, he admits, "I don't want anyone to look at me." He gestures vaguely towards his upper torso and chest. "Here." He does not explain why that is, though.

Instead, he finally notices the faint voices coming from the phone in his hand and he realizes that he was going to call Emily. He moves his arm and the screen turns on, revealing an ongoing call with Emily. Shit. He puts the phone up to his ear. "Emily?" he asks. "It's Zach. Sorry. I'll have to call you later. There's something really important." He wants to hang up but then adds, "Maybe it would be best if you just go home. Like, right away."

"Hey." she says softly.

"Stay here. I’ll talk to Levitt about it. I’ll be back in a sec!"

Checking that Wendy agrees, Lily will push off from the floor and exit the bathroom, hopefully in time to cross paths with the English teacher.

Emily ignores Rose and speaks into her phone."Wait. What. Go home? Why home?" Emily waits frowning in dismay. None of this was adding up and the snippets of conversation she was picking up made no sense.

Shaking her head she replies to Freddie, "I have no idea what's going on. Nothing good is all I can figure out, but Zach just told me to go home and that he'd call me later. I think I'm a little too stoned to drive though."

Freddie senses there is something odd there, after all, what does Zack know about Emily he doesn't? There is only one thing that makes sense -- her house might be on fire or the scene of another disaster. Maybe ambulances are there. "Your home. Your family, are they all right?" He shakes his head, and says, "I'll drive you. The Tesla nearly drives itself, just let me rinse my face to sharpen up."

He'll go to the river and splash water over himself. This is a bad idea, Freddie. But if you don't do it, she will drive herself.

"Emily, I need to hang up," Zach says into the phone. "Go home. I'll come by your place later to talk. And make sure Rose is safe." Of course, it's unlikely that he'll be able to visit her later, both due to his injuries and the fact that he's probably not going to be allowed to leave his house again until he's eighteen. But that's something to worry about later.

"Nothing's there," Zach lies in response to Bentley's question. "I just don't want anyone to look at me, okay?" He lies back again, looking up at the sky for a moment before letting out a heavy breath. "You better call my mom," he then tells the officer, unlocking his phone and offering it to her. He prefers it to be his mom, even though the outcome will probably be similar regardless of which parent gets the call. Just, he didn't have a conversation with his mom only minutes before, telling her it's perfectly safe. "Get this over with."

"My home is fine. No, Zach says for me to go home. None of this makes sense. He's in some kind of trouble. Maybe someone is holding a gun to his head. I don't know."

But Emily pulls up short for a sec. "Wait. Maybe he does mean for me to go home because something is wrong there. Shit! Shit!

Freddie sees the Wrangler, and wonders if someone is making out. It's that kind of day, but he doesn't see anyone there.