Chapter 16

After a week off with no exercise as I traveled with the team over spring break along with the aftermath of the accident, I was ready to get back into my normal morning routine running to school. The problem was that the accident became a small national story, a bigger regional story and unfortunately with five dead including two students out of one town and one high school the news was devastating.

Rounding the hill that shielded the house I found out how big the story was as I could see a number of news vans parked to either side of our driveway as well as across the highway. Of course the first one I noticed was the news van from my least popular channel, parked on the shoulder nearest our driveway as they had been there the longest. In addition to the van with a different reporter I could see inside, there were six additional cars with reporters inside.

As soon as I was recognized they all started getting out of their vehicles and before I could get past those at the gate, there were enough of them blocking the driveway that most normal people would stop due to their blockade of the driveway. Since I had no intention to give them or anyone an interview, I never slowed down and simple plowed into them sending four of them to the ground with their notepads and voice recorders and one camera flying off in different directions. Never bothering to look back at what I had done I smiled thinking that maybe I was being too hasty in my assumption that that day was going to be a lousy day.

If that was not enough of a message to leave me alone, one of the reporters tried to drive along beside me shouting questions at me trying to get a reaction from me. Stating I would not be doing any interviews he continued to drive beside me pacing me to the point that I called 911, saying that I was a fifteen year old boy heading to school and I was being followed by some guy in a car. At first he did not believe that I had called the cops but when I stopped to get a look at his license plate, he finally get the hint and took off. Only that was not the end of the matter as I came across him again, only this time he was in the parking lot of school surrounded by three police cars and the reporter was laid out on the ground. It could not happen to a nicer fellow.

Getting the attention of the nearest officer I told him what had happened at Brodie's place and what he did afterward. He did thank me for telling him what had gone down but he suggested that using the 911 system that way was not a good idea. Sending me on my way he said that he would advise the reporter that was still face down that it was a bad idea to trail a fifteen year old kid as someone might get the wrong idea. I never saw the reporter after that but there were other vultures out on the sidewalks shouting questions and asking to interview the students that were walking to school.

School was anything but normal as details from the accident were already in the national news and as students realized that the missing were their friends, there were tears and wailing were heard through the halls. As soon as the bell rang the principal made the announcement over the loudspeaker about the accident and who was involved. She covered the details that three coaches and two students were among the dead and even with her withholding the names everyone knew who was missing. She went on to say that grief counselors would be on campus for anyone wanting to talk to someone. When she finished talking it was like the gates of heaven opening up and kids who never knew the players or the coaches were now grief stricken and the whole pathetic show made me sick. By the time classes ended, the principal made several more announcements informing us that a memorial service for the students and coaches who died would be held on Thursday.

Leaving the school that day to head to the studio I had never been so relieved to be away from so many phony people. For the ones that I considered a waste of life I expected nothing else and I was not disappointed. The ones that did disappoint were the ones I considered the 'good' kids as I heard more than a few laughing about how they were getting out of class.

Steve tried to put it in perspective suggesting that if my life had taken a more normal path that I might be one of the ones looking to get out of school. He went on saying that since I was the first person on the scene no matter what had happened I would be affected. As we discussed it further he actually suggested that I might benefit from some of the counseling as my anger at my classmates was out of proportion and that I might have what military doctors called PTSD.

After that we talked about what I remembered about the accident when I woke up in the snow. That was when I made a slip telling him my part in cutting the bus away so that I could save Rosemarie and Kaitlyn's feet. That prompted another discussion as to how I could do that and I told him how after we finished with the big transformer how I had gone back to Brodie's work shop and became the human plasma cutter. Steve laughed at the title I gave myself but did agree later when he asked for a demonstration in his garage before class started.

Walking to his garage I gave him a description on how I had first decided I could do that and I mentioned that the idea came to me after I hit the rail with the bolt. After closing the door, I put a couple of pieces of metal together and proved that I was indeed the human plasma cutter.

Walking back to the studio, Steve kept glancing at me as we walked then after each look he would say under his breath, "You're going to need a bigger boat."

Asking him what he meant he stated that it was a line from the movie Jaws. I had never seen the movie and Steve suggested that I should as it was a classic. That night after class I did as he suggested finding the movie on the Internet. Yes it was entertaining but after growing up playing in the ocean I was not impressed.

Tuesday the circus of surrounding the accident became surreal as not only did a couple of the less seriously injured return to school. Through pestering of their friends they got their version of the story of the crash and its aftermath. Adding to that was that they gave interviews not only to the local reporters but two of them made it on the morning shows being interviewed by the big morning show hosts. They told of what they remembered before the accident and after hyping my part in the whole thing one of them added that they had seen a white flickering glow when they were waiting for the fire trucks to arrive.

Wednesday was even worse because in addition to the news shows trying to get me to come on their shows more girls granted interviews before they returned to school. They added their narrative to the accident including the white light that they thought was hanging around outside of the bus.

Thursday started out exactly like Monday and seeing the additional reporters out on the highway surprised me since the day before there were only two. Running down the lane my plan was to mow a couple more down but unfortunately they separated to either side giving me room to run which I appreciated. What caught me off guard was their question asking if I had seen the video of the accident. I had no idea what they were talking about but I was not about to stop and have they put words into my mouth.

The rest of the team returned to school for the memorial for their friends bruised and battered minus Brianna, Kaitlyn and Rosemarie who were still hospitalized but had been moved closer to home but were not well enough to come to the memorial.

Thankfully in the gym everything was normal and I let the idea go that there was something new on the Internet. With only a few looks from other students that I passed in the hallway I let the idea slip that anything was wrong. That changed right after driver's training as I was summoned to the principal's office.

Arriving at her office, I was immediately shown in and to my surprise a number of people were already there besides the principal. They included Brodie, my mother Sue, both student resource officers and a man and a woman that I did not know. That was short lived because as soon as I was seated they introduced themselves as Idaho State Police accident investigators; Mark Jensen and Maria Alvarez.

They started the meeting thanking me for treating everyone and not losing anyone else on the bus, after that they started to go over my statement as to what happened and what I had seen. My mother asked why they were going over the same things I had told them in the hospital and they stated that there was new evidence, that in conjunction with my statement left them more confused and they were seeking answers. After that there were a few questions back and forth as my mother and Brodie defended me while the officers tried to get around them.

In the end they started showing the video from the driver's video cam showing me exiting the bus through the windshield. The video was blurry of course due to the violent nature of the accident, but there was enough detail in the video to show that I should not have walked away from the accident the way I did. The second video turned out to be from the voices that I heard laying in the snow and what it showed was very damaging to my illusion to nothing going on around me since that video showed my bloody face, unconscious, alongside the road, with a torn scalp and compound broken arm and leg. All my injuries were visible due to the fact that when I had boarded the bus I knew it was going to be warm so I had worn shorts and a tee shirt so there was no way for me to hide what had happened. Then there were the accident scene pictures and they confirmed where I had stopped and bled on the ground while I had been unconscious.

The only one not in shock was Brodie as he had been a witness to my abilities, of course he did not know everything but he had a good poker face and gave nothing away when the investigators started asking if I wanted to add anything to my previous statement.

Of course I did not and I said so. When the two investigators stated that there were questions not being answered and they wanted me to go with them my mother snapped out of her grief at seeing my injuries stated that I would not be going anywhere but back to class as I had not committed a crime and unless they had evidence to the contrary this would be my last police interview. The two officers tried to posture but now my mother was in full protect her children mode that nothing they said would change her mind going so far as to reminded them about the Fifth Amendment. The Principal joined in at that time saying that she had other meetings to attend and that any further contact would have to be with the consent of the School District's Attorney.

Neither investigator wanted to stop at that point but for the time being they backed down saying that they would file their reports though others might return with more questions which my mother stated that any contact with me, her son, without notifying either her or Brodie, my legal guardian present, would force her to consider all of her legal options. I had no idea if any of that was true but it sure sounded good to me.