As Joe and Michael are heading towards the Drivers License place, Michael, whom is behind the wheel, freezes as he hears the voice on the radio say that a man had been murdered by a stray bullet that had came from the sky. He immediately drives off and goes to a secluded place. Later on that day, after thinking that the shot that they had fired possibly wasn’t the shot that killed Mr. Ward, they headed back to the Drivers License Place where Michael failed the drivers test because he could not think straight.
For the next two months, Michael and Joe hide the secret that the bullet had actually shot Mr. Ward. All the while, Michael takes the time to get to know the lives of Amy Ruggerio and Jenna Ward. During this time, Jenna Ward starts to realize life without her father and how she must learn to interact with her mother more, incase the need for support arises. While Jenna mourns the death of her father, a strange boy starts to appear at the front steps of the church that is across the street from her house.
After many nights of watching this boy, and seeing him around town, she finally realizes that it is Michael who has been sitting on the steps every night. After many months of finding out where the shot came to, the police were able to narrow the search area down to within a four block area. Among these four blocks were Michael’s house and Joe’s house. When the police arrived at Michael’s house, his dad brought up the gun that Michael had received from his grandpa at his birthday party.
Michael, trying to be sly, told the cops that Joe had the gun, that he was letting him borrow it. Upon this, Joe said that the gun had been stolen out of his car along with his CD player. After the police were done, Michael met Joe at a special spot and told Joe how he had hidden the gun under the wood pile in his backyard. One day, when Michael thought the police would not come back around; he came home to find the police searching his backyard with metal detectors trying to find a gun or a bullet.
When the Sergeant went into the woods behind the house, he came out with a bullet that Joe and he had shot off on the day of his birthday. The bullet matched the bullet that they had recovered from Mr. Ward, but without the gun, the police could not place Michael as the killer. With the pressure mounting, Michael finally breaks out and realizes he has to give up. So, on a Saturday morning he goes to Jenna’s house to confront her and her mother and then turn himself in.