Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of physical and emotional abuse, substance use, and addiction. 

Darren Lynch drops off his younger brother, 12-year-old Joey, for his first day of secondary school at the public school, BCS. Darren is strangely affectionate, but Joey dismisses him, insisting that Darren shouldn’t embarrass him. Joey stops talking when he sees a beautiful girl sitting near the school. Darren tells him that he has to go, and as he leaves, Joey’s intuition tells him that something is wrong. He tries to stop Darren, but before he can follow him, the girl walks over. She introduces herself as Aoife. They realize that they are in the same class together and flirt as they walk into the school.

Joey sits in his room at two o’clock in the morning, bloody and bruised, after getting into a fight with his father. It occurs regularly in their home, with his father getting drunk and beating both his wife and Joey, usually when Joey tries to defend her.

After Darren dropped Joey off at the first day of school, he left their home. Joey is angry and bitter toward him for it, especially since it has made their father even more physically violent toward Joey.