Twelve Years Before Chapter Summary
Twelve years before the massacre at Sterling High, Peter attended his first day of kindergarten with his best and only friend Josie. This is where the bullying began. Lacy sends her son off to school with a superman lunch box, that gets thrown out the window on the first day. Josie comforts Peter by telling him, "I've got peanut butter, we can share"(66).

The next page begins with Alex in a conference room at the jail, where she is a defense attorney. She excels at her job and is told she would become a great judge. Whit Hobart, Alex's retired boss who still swings by to see how she is doing, convinces her to become a judge. Whit reminds Alex of the father she never had.

Once Peter comes home from another day of school, Lacy begins to wonder what really is going on after several lunch boxes have disappeared, although suspicious Lacy shrugs off her curiosity.

Alex rushes to the elementary school to find Josie in the principles office. Alex and Josie talked about what really happened at school. Josie explains she punched a boy at school because she was sticking up for her friend Peter. She tells her mother that no one else would do anything about it, so she did. Alex questions if there was any teachers on recess duty, when Josie defends that there was only aides. Alex realizes both sides of the story and tells Josie, "You can't break the rules, not even when it seems like everyone else is doing it"(71).

Lacy goes to talk to Peter's teacher. Peter's teacher believes he should stick up for himself, because he won't always have someone there for support. Lacy disagrees and amused that the teachers really don't do anything.

While Lacy is at parent/teacher interviews, Alex is being interviewed for the position of a judge. Alex nervously, aces the interview and is Sterling's newest judge.

Later in the chapter, Peter and Josie are together for a play date at the Houghton's house. Alex comes to pick Josie up to go home for supper, but the two mothers both have trouble finding the kids. After turning the house upside down looking for the duo, Alex and Lacy here Peter say, "Here. Like this."(81). Alex raced down the stairwell that led to the basement to find her daughter and Peter playing with a gun. Alex, outraged questions the Houghtons how this could happen. Lacy explains nervously, that Peter must have got a key from his dad's secret hiding spot. The gun was Lewis's, Lacy's husband, who hunts and stores his guns in the basement. Peter becomes grounded, but is still aloud to go hunt with his father. He enjoys the time they spent together, and realizes that hunting is something for only the two. Peter's older brother Joey always came first, and was better at everything, but hunting was Peter and Lewis's thing.