The original setting is Westlake, an affluent suburb in the DFW area. The two most important characters are Christian "Chris" and Piper "Pip" Sterling. They are tight-knit. Christian is a high school junior at Westlake High, and Piper is his younger sister who is a freshman. They are the younger siblings to Parker "Parks" Sterling, a US marine who is currently deployed overseas.

Their parents are Bishop and Victoria Sterling.

Christian is a popular student at school, known for his charm, athleticism, and good looks. An ace quarterback on the school's varsity football team, he possesses one of the strongest arms ever seen. Behind a phenomenal edge rusher, he is the 2nd-ranked player in the recruiting class of 2024, two years ahead of when he will graduate. He has a large group of loyal friends who hang out with him in between classes, and is a local celebrity at the school. It is his dream to one day play for the storied Dallas Cowboys.

And with this comes immense pressure to succeed. Academically, socially, and athletically. Piper considers him the most confident and charismatic person she knows, afraid of nothing. She does not know that he took adderall to manage his time, but this is a minor concern. He can also be quite self-conscious when it comes to his image.

Piper, on the other hand, only had a small clique of friends. She was never considered "ugly" or "plain", but she had certain interests that were niche and didn't necessarily align with the typical Westlake High social scene. She hung out with two girls, Blanche and Poppy, that most others considered beneath her. Her brother was big man on campus, for crying out loud. Piper was one of the most notorious students for her fervent disdain for what was essentially a religion in Texas. She hated football, finding it too aggressive and violent for her taste. But it isn't the fact that she disliked football, it was the fact that she stapled printed studies relating to head injuries in football players all over the school bulletin boards. She had developed a reputation as the school's "activist nerd," or "Pipsqueak", as some of her classmates liked to call her. Most of all, they considered her a threat to derail the career of their beloved quarterback, her brother. For this reason, she was often an outcast. No one dared bully her; that was a line that no one wanted to cross, considering her status as the star quarterback's sister. Christian is thankful that his sister is looking out for him, but he'll never abandon football.

Piper was known for her admiration of  for winter sports, particularly skating and ice hockey, and even curling. She'd been skating since she was four, and had taken up figure skating in elementary school, and she originally struggled mightily at it. But with determination and perseverance, she had quickly become one of the best in her age group, competing in regional competitions and even winning a few medals. She had always found solace and peace on the ice, where she could let go of all her worries and just focus on the beauty and grace of her movements. Everything changed around the age of 9, when she discovered Grusha Sorokina. Okay, write the next. Grusha is actually active, and competing for Russia. Not only that, she is a phenom who has  been used to skipping grades to compete against older and more experienced skaters. Russians call her "Ice Baby" because she was often among the youngest competitors, if not the youngest, on the ice from 2015 to 2020. She won gold twice in the World Junior Figure Skating Championships before being granted an exception to compete in the senior level at the age of 13. She proceeded to earn a bronze before winning gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and two more world championships, with one silver. She hoped to defend her title in Mammoth Lakes in 2022.