Beyond the Bowling Ball Bombing. From Under the Sun, #1

Winner of IndieReader's 2022 Discover Award for Science Fiction*A B. R. A. G. Medallion HonoreeTop Shelf Magazine's 2021 First Place Winner for "Young Adult Sci-Fi"* Terrance is a bullied high schooler who frequently takes the long way home to avoid trouble. It is a plan that usually works-until the day that the bowling ball falls from the sky. He barely escapes the ensuing devastation that turns a sleepy suburban neighborhood into a disaster zone.
In the media frenzy that follows, the incident is dubbed "the bowling ball bombing" and overnight Terrance becomes an unlikely national figure and high school celebrity.  Experts are baffled by the incident while crackpots suggest theories that range from alien tractor beam malfunctions to government conspiracies. Most reasonable people, including Terrance, conclude that the world will never solve this mystery.
Then Terrance receives an unusual puzzle box with an inscription that claims that he will learn the secret when he opens the box exactly five months after the bombing at 7:57 pm. He assumes that it is a joke until the prediction comes true.  He soon finds himself in the hands of a benefactor who claims that Terrance had unwittingly inspired the creation of time travel. As an alleged favor, Terrance is sent 98 years into the future where he discovers evidence suggesting that his benefactor has sinister intentions.
While fleeing through time and space, Terrance tries to take control of his destiny, only to find himself in an epic battle for his freedom. *The all-in-one hardcover won IndieReader's 2022 Discovery Award for science fiction and was Top Shelf Magazine's 2021 first place winner for "Young Adult Sci-Fi." That story is also available in paperback and eBook as a trilogy, of which this is book #1 (of 3).