Boseman High School Shenanigans: Episode 1

"It wasn't my fault," Zach tells his parents defiantly. "And it wasn't about me being trans either before you start thinking that. How would those guys even know?" he reads the messages on his phone and frowns before quickly typing responses to both of them.

Zach: Hey Ab
Zach: Sorry for worrying you
Zach: Got roughed up a bit but it's fine. I'll call you later
Zach: I need to talk to Emily first
Zach: Make sure Emily goes straight home and stays there. Tell her I need to talk to her
Zach: And stay there as well. Don't go wandering around the city
Zach: I'm fine mostly
Zach: But you'll hear all about what happened when you get home
Zach: And then again every day for the rest of the year
He looks up at his parents. "I need to talk to Emily," he tells them. "Can you drive me to her house in a bit? That's where Rose will be too, so we can pick her up."

"Almost!" she answers with feigned nervousness. She was building the act for when the reveal came. Though she had to wonder if the man had heard something as he marched passed the offending room. Heard, and ignored…

"There’s an ethical concern in one of the stories. We wondered what you might think of it!"

She waits to see if the mention of journalistic ethics is enough to get the man to stop, or if he continues to walk on.

"I don't know!" Emily was feeling a little panicked. Something was up and her needing to be home was weird and making her feel paranoid. Was it the people they were fleeing, the reason why they were in the WP program? Were her parents even ok?

"I was only catching bits of the conversation between him and someone else and then he sort of forgot about me for a bit I think. I think he said go home, make sure you were safe and he'd come by later, and then he said he better hang up. So we better go straight to my place. He seemed pretty adamant about that. I guess something is happening there or is going to happen there and now I'm worried."

Freddie is concerned about Emily riding around with Marco, although that's probably safer than them driving. He does feel better though, he thinks.

"Emily, are you sure you want to go with them? Stay a bit longer, will you? I can drive you home in a little. Call your folks and see if they're all right." That's a lot of excuses, but he has a gut feeling they need to talk some more.

"I ... naaa ... I can't. I feel like I need to go home. Something in Zach's voice. Alarm bells, you know?" She offers Freddie a weak smile for caring even though she thinks he's a dolt.

"I'm not thrilled going with Marco but I'm too fucked up to drive. I'll have to get a ride back later to get it."

She had thought of calling her mom but she never calls her and that would alarm her mother so she didn't feel like that was the right thing to do. "I'll know pretty soon what's up so I better get going. If you want you can come over when you're able to drive."

"Okay, let me know if everything is okay. I'll hang out here then. Maybe go for a swim."

He's not excited about this plan, but what's Marco going to do?

Zach rolls his eyes. "No, she went to hang out with Emily," he says. "Emily Richardsen. The girl I'm going to Homecoming with. She's new in town as well and Rose wanted to make some new friends."

He hesitates, then he adds, "Well, and the fact that Freddie was going to be there as well definitely didn't hurt. He wanted to ask Rose out for the dance and I'm pretty sure that's the main reason she went." He feels just a tiny bit guilty at throwing Rose under the bus but if it gets at least some of his parents anger off him and onto her, that would be a relief. "Also, Marco drove her. I told her not to go with him because he's a creep but she wouldn't listen. You know how she is."

The dramatic scene ends as the beater Camaro takes off. Something about Marco's look tells him that the confrontation isn't over. Whether the man comes back later, after getting hoover-head from Rose, Freddie doesn't know.

He grabs the leftovers from the subs and his extra drink and tosses them in the trunk of his car. He peels.off all of his clothes and tosses them in, leaving his tight briefs on and keeping his car key. He grabs the towel from his exercise bag and closes the trunk.

That Jeep. A swim is good physio for him, although a river isn't the safest choice. He stands the key under a bush and walks to the river. Leaving the towel on the bank, he wades in. His body shows little scarring from the accident, airbags saved him from much of that, but the impact was still formidable. His soft tissues have a way to go before he's back to normal, if he ever recovers fully from the tears and sprains. His once daunting athleticism is a shadow of what it once was.

He swims, aiming upstream of the Jeep, knowing the water will carry him downstream.

Emily catches Rose's look but quickly looks ahead to direct Marco who is making her nervous. Was the pot making her paranoid? She felt terrible, almost shaky and her heart was banging against her chest. Wishing that Freddie had come with them she glances back at him through the rear window. She had let her disappointment with him get the better of her good judgment and now here they were, two girls alone in a car with this man she didn't know.

Gathering her wits about her, trying not to imagine some horrid scene at home she tells Marco where to go.

"See that turn up ahead? Make a right and a quick left. You'll run out of road in a few miles. Just stay on that and you'll end up at our place."

She pictured the drink she'd left at the river bank. Her mouth felt like cotton and she would have loved a sip of it right now.

Now that his curiosity had been piqued, and Lily was on the spot… it occurred to her that she didn’t really know how to tell this story.

"It’s just…" she starts, as the gears start to kick into overdrive. She looked to Wendy, and knew how slimy the girl must feel. A million ways to trick the man into stumbling upon the scene himself. Or to try and metaphor the whole thing and make it for and have him understand. And…

She stops then.

"Mr Levitt…" her face drops then, and she looks at her shoes.

"… Wendy and I just saw something disgusting and… gross… and inappropriate in the Language Resource Center. We thought someone should…"

Without looking up then, she steps to the side, in case the man wants to move beyond her to investigate the whole thing.

"They didn't fucking know!" Zach replies, his voice raised to almost a shout, which he's sure is a bad idea but can't stop. Forcing himself to sound more calm again, he adds, "It was random, okay? They were probably drunk or something and looking to be idiots." He does not mention the f-word being thrown at him. That might undermine his case, even if he thinks that was not personally related to him. He hopes.

"She's just a friend, dad. Emily's new in school, so am I. We figured we might as well go together. Safer than asking anyone I'm really interested in, you know." He tries to meet his dad's eyes in the mirror as he says this. After that, he sighs. "And Marco is just Marco. Some asshole who likes younger girls. Doesn't matter anyway. Rose could get wasted at a college frat party full of perverts and you'd just tell her what a pretty dress she was wearing. I walk to get myself a burger and get in fucking trouble for being reckless somehow."

"I'm not sure, Rose," Emily says, her back to the girl.

As she nears Steve, Emily lowers her voice. "Are you sure everything is okay? Where are mom and dad? I got a call from Zach that was really weird and he told me to go directly home. Something is off. I can feel it."