Chapter 1 Summary

Kaitlin Malone is beginning her senior year in high school. She will be attending a school built by the Crutchfield family on Crutchfield land called Twin Oaks High School. They are farmers who are barely scraping by. The Malone family has hated the Crutchfield family for generations, and the present generation because of something that the Crutchfields did to Kaitlin's father. Eighteen months before, Kaitlin's father killed Robert Crutchfield.

Kaitlin and her younger sister Abby, a freshman, head out to school together in Kaitlin's car. They are using the last name "Hampton" of their mother's maiden name.

Chapter 1 Analysis

The stage is set for the novel in Chapter 1. Kaitlin and her sister Abby are the newest members of a generations-old feud between the rival families of the Malones and Crutchfields. Like the warring families of Romeo and Juliet in the eponymous Shakespearean play...