You wander through the cottage

You find Karen (very drunk) and she tells you she wants you to hook her up with Jon. She is so drunk that she tells you she only wants his money. You tell her Jon is a good friend and started dating Lexie Whyte again last week (Jon and Lexie have been on and off boyfriend/girlfriend since seventh grade). Lexie's father is a prominent attorney. You tell Karen you have wanted to date her for a long time, but she was always with someone. She says she can't date you as you are poor and Amber would kill her. She tells you Amber likes you even though you quit sports and gave up getting top grades. You tell her Amber seems to hate you and is mean to you. Karen says that is because you don't notice her. You think Jon should get better than a drunk gold digger like Karen. If she wants money, what about Tom? Needing to distract her from your crazy, fuck anything friend Jon, you say "What about my friend Tom?"

Some back round information.

What Karen doesn't know is that you were there with Jon when he had a near fatal accident. You were a Star Boy Scout with Jon and Bobby. You and Bobby were going to start eighth grade and Jon was going into ninth grade. You were all on your way to Life and planned to go to Eagle. You and Jon were out with Bill and some others, riding. Jon somehow lost control of the O.R.V. You were all riding far enough apart (for safety) that no one saw what happened to Jon. Bill and some older Smith cousins were ahead of Jon. Jon and Jon's younger cousin Cory were next, then Tom and Joe. You and then Bobby was last. Jon knew the trail as well as anyone and had never had a problem. When you rode up on the scene Tom and Cory were trying to move Jon. Jon is on his back, without his helmet on and his left thigh is bleeding profusely.

You told them not to move Jon as that could hurt him more. Tom argued that he is in the middle of the trail and could get run over. Tom goes again to move him and you punch him out (not for the first or last time in your troubled friendship). You send Joe back up the trail to light his emergency flare and warn any other riders. You send Cory ahead to get the others and tell them what happened. You were all only ten minutes from a rendezvous point. You send Bobby a little ahead to light his flare and warn riders coming from that way. You light your flare and the three signals mark distress.

You kneel next to Jon and monitor him for breathing. His chest barely moves but he is breathing. You shed your sweatshirt and apply it to the large gash on his thigh. The shirt is not sterile but is better than bleeding out. After about three minutes, Bill comes back. Cory finds Jon's helmet about 100 feet away in some brush. Bill finds a piece of Jon's jeans and a trickle of blood near a sharp rock where it is figured that Jon first landed after he was ejected from his O.R.V.

They saw your flares and stopped and were all coming back when Cory rode up on them. Cory told them Jon wiped out and was hurt bad. They were just able to get cell reception and called 911. Rescue workers were coming. The first paramedics get there on their O.R.V.'s in about twenty minutes. They brace and stabilize Jon but they will have to carry him out without using the O.R.V.'s as it will be too bumpy. Everyone helps carry his stretcher almost a mile, to the nearest site a helicopter can lift him out.

Mr. Smith after hearing the tale has rewarded you ever since. Even with the precautions, Jon luckily survives two risky surgeries and recovers fully after eleven months. The effects of your dirty shirt are minor and the doctors all said that he would have bled to **** if you hadn't. Jon doesn't remember anything from that day or the next six weeks. Analysis of the wreck shown he wasn't traveling too fast. The tire marks were inconclusive and what caused the wreck is still unknown. This incident and the firing of your wrestling coach after the ninth grade season, started you toward your current risky behaviors, not very preppy or athletic. Jon was conservative and quiet before the accident. Something snapped and he has been wild ever since. As part of his recovery he has developed an athletic body. He is a senior even though he is almost 19, having missed a year of school from the accident.

Back to the story.

While you are pissed at Karen's shallowness and rejection, what she says about Amber makes some sense. In seventh grade you got all A's. You played baseball, football, and you wrestled. You and Amber were paired for a science project in the beginning of the year and you both did well and seemed to get along. Amber was just a little shorter than you. She was taller than everyone in middle school by the end of eighth grade. You passed her up again in tenth grade and are about two inches taller. She was considered a freak and the growth spurt may be why she is bitchy. You take Karen to find Tom.