- Twenty-two years after the events of the prologue, Taylor Markham is having a bizarre recurring dream that she's sitting in a tree with a boy who listens to 80s music on a Walkman, which was like an iPod before there were iPods.
- The boy likes to hear Taylor's stories about living at the Jellicoe School, especially the school's war with the Townies and the Cadets from the Sydney military school.
- He's also peculiarly interested in Hannah, the housemother for Taylor's dorm, as well as Taylor's mother and a mysterious Hermit who whispered something in Taylor's ear and then promptly blew his head off.
- They also talk about the time Taylor apparently ran away from school to find her mom and the Brigadier from the military school found her and brought her back to Jellicoe.
- Dude. We may not know who any of these people are, but clearly this kid's been through a lot.
- We also learn that whoever Hannah is, she's writing a book that has a car wreck in it. Hmm… that sounds an awful lot like the prologue we just read. Could it be part of her book?
- Okay, that's enough curiosity-provoking exposition for now. Let's get on with the story.
- Taylor is awakened from her dream by a bunch of kids shining flashlights in her eyes. Taylor has been expecting this—it's apparently a special night, and kids at the school love doing melodramatic stuff like trooping into people's rooms with flashlights.
- The kids walk Taylor down the hall, where she sees some girls peeking through their doors at her. One of them is her best friend, Raffaela, whom she's known since Taylor first came to Jellicoe School.
- On her first night at the school, Taylor told Raffaela a story about something that happened to her while she lived in the city with her mom. Taylor no longer remembers what she said, but it was terrible enough for Raffaela to look at her with horror and say she would pray for Taylor.
- Taylor is marched to a hut out in the woods and tells us that since she was in seventh grade, she's been being trained to "take over." Take over? Take over what?
- Inside the hut there are candles lit everywhere, which makes this whole thing feel kind of creepy and cultish. The seniors from all the houses at Jellicoe School are there, along with protégés they've been training for apparently the same position as Taylor.
- The senior in charge explains that they've gathered in the creepy candle-lit hut for the "official passing-on ceremony," where Taylor will become the leader of Jellicoe School in the territory war with the Cadets and Townies.
- According to the rules, Taylor will have ultimate authority to decide what territory is traded between the three factions. Meanwhile, all this talk about houses and factions is just making us think about Harry Potter and Divergent.
- That doesn't mean the job is totally hers yet, though. The other house leaders can also overrule her appointment as leader in a unanimous vote and install one of the other protégés instead of her.
- Did you get all that? Whatever this business is, it's really complicated.
- In this case, things aren't really looking good for Taylor—the dude in charge says she has a lot of weaknesses and isn't a popular choice for the job. Still, she knows Jellicoe better than any of the others and has been there the longest, which is pretty important for someone who has to negotiate territory stuff.
- As predicted, the minute the senior leaders step down and leave the hut, the other house leaders immediately try to get Taylor to back down.
- Her chief opposition is Richard, who feels pretty indignant about losing the position to Taylor and wants to get back what's rightfully his.
- Only Ben Cassidy, Taylor's sort of nerdy friend who heads up one of the houses, stands up for Taylor, securing her the position.
- Taylor says that her first strategy as leader is to get the Townies to side with the Jellicoe School faction. While pretty much everyone disagrees with this idea, Taylor reminds them that they've lost a considerable amount of territory in the last few years, leaving everything split pretty much between the other two sides.
- Bottom line: We may not know exactly what's going on between the school, the Townies, and the Cadets, but whatever it is, it's been going on for awhile. And it's serious.