Chapter 1 Summary, Analysis, and Study Notes
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens on the first day of school at Rosewood Academy, with Celine Bangura already being forced to socialize. Nicky Cassidy, a classmate, pleads with her to make a TikTok video claiming that rapper Juice WRLD is alive. Celine, who runs a conspiracy-theory account with nearly 20,000 followers, refuses—she doesn't take requests and finds the topic tacky. Nicky storms off, leaving Celine to cross campus alone. She heads to the Beech Hut, the sixth-form common area, and takes her usual table by the noticeboard.
Her best friend Michaela Digby arrives, waving a glossy leaflet for the Breakspeare Enrichment Program (BEP), a wilderness program for 16–18-year-olds that offers a full university scholarship. Celine is immediately captivated by the program's founder, Katharine Breakspeare, a legendary human-rights lawyer whom Celine idolizes. She reads the details: the program is now open to her age group for the first time, and it promises to set participants apart from the crowd and nurture early bonds with prestigious employers. Celine is thrilled—until she spots the list of sponsoring companies and sees her estranged father's law firm, Lawrence, Needham and Soro, among them. She hasn't seen her dad in ten years, and the discovery stings. Michaela tries to reassure her, but Celine insists she doesn't care, slipping the leaflet into her bag.
As they leave for class, Celine notices Bradley Graeme in the Beech Hut, bouncing a football off his head. They exchange hostile looks—Celine gives him her filthiest glare, and Brad smirks back. The tension is palpable.
The narrative then shifts to Brad's perspective. At lunch, he declines a game of five-a-side with his friend Max Donovan, preferring to sit under a weeping willow with his best friend Jordan Cooper. Brad is rereading All Systems Red from the Murderbot Diaries, and he privately laments that he'll never write anything that good. Jordan asks about Michaela Digby, and Brad, after some teasing, tells him she's gay. Donovan interrupts, throwing a football at them and calling them