Twelve-year-old PJ spends his days playing war video games with his friend Nev and texting with Ethan, an online friend he met through gaming.

Playing with Nev gets PJ out of the house, where the fights between his parents have gotten worse. Imelda insists that Dickie reach out to his wealthy father for financial support, but Dickie doesn’t want to. The fights frighten PJ because his father has become “a totally different person. Even when he’s acting like his usual self, it seems just like that, acting” (99). Cass has also been more dismissive of PJ, so he can’t even turn to his sister for help. PJ misses the days when his father was fun and his sister was nice to him. PJ is also trying to keep his own problems hidden from his already-stressed family. For example, he’s grown out of his sneakers—to the point of bloody blisters—but doesn’t want to ask his mom for a new pair.

Victor is an odd man about town who renovates houses and does landscaping. He’s a survivalist and believes that everyone needs to prepare now for the deterioration of the planet and the ensuing wars that deterioration will provoke.

One day, Nev gets bored of PJ.