FORT WORTH — A tough weekend doesn't get any easier on Monday as students return to Trimble Tech High School in Fort Worth.
Questions remain about how a ninth-grader and a senior ended up dead following a violent collision.
Jeanette Lopez, 15, died in Friday's head-on crash; 17-year-old Ivan Torres lost his life the next day.
Police believe Ivan was behind the wheel and may have been drunk... and racing when his pickup truck crossed the center line and crashed into another truck.
But on Sunday evening, those who knew and loved Jeanette focused on her life and the days ahead at Trimble Tech without her.
Counselors will be on campus to help anyone who wants to talk about the two lives lost, and a third student who remains in critical condition.
Friends gathered for a visitation Sunday they began saying goodbye to a young girl who — even her short life — managed to touch so many others.
Shoulder-to-shoulder, they shared memories of good times, leading to contagious laughter.
What a visitor soon learns is that Jeanette Lopez was the common thread that connected four friends. Each now carries a cell phone photo of Jeanette along with fond memories.
"A young girl like that, getting into a car crash... she was too young to die," Moy Ramirez said.
Jeanette was a passenger in the truck that slammed head-on into another vehicle on Friday. Police said 17-year-old Ivan Torres, also a Trimble tech student, was driving. He died on Saturday morning.
Classmate Rachel Rivera took a moment to reflect. "It still doesn't seem real," she said. "Every time I see it, I just cry and think, 'Is there anything I could have done to change it?"
But these friends know they can't change the past; so they look to the future.
"She was a good person. She brought energy. There's nothing negative to say about her," friend Taylor Avent said. "She always hung out with positive people."
"At least she's watching over us, being with our prayers. She will not be forgotten. Never."
E-mail mmoore@wfaa.com
