Knowing 11

Tadhg Lynch was at a weird age when his family finally burst into flames. Literally.

At 12, no one expects it to shatter you. They expect you to not remember too much. To just move into a new house, join a new family, and move on with life. That's easier said than done. Every second of the day, Tadhg sees his parents. He sees his father's fists, his mother's tears. He sees all the nights when Joey was too high to come home, and Shannon was living her high school life with Johnny and Claire. The nights his father's anger turned to him.

Tadhg has always been used to being overlooked. He's a middle child in a family with six kids. No one notices he's struggling, not even his family. No one knows the true Tadhg. The one he keeps hidden.

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Aisling Doyle was a wallflower. She didn't have friends at school, and she preferred it this way. Tommen was a jungle of high class eejits anyways, and Aisling wasn't interested in dealing with them. Instead, she enjoyed watching them. All the interactions and conversations people had just a few feet away from her, because if she wasn't loud and obnoxious like the rest of them, they didn't realize she was there.

One of her favorite people to watch was the school rebel, Tadhg. The boy ended up in the principals office at least once a week. When he wasn't in the office, him and his idiot friends were crashing down the halls or playing Hurley on the field while the rugby team shouted for them to get off.

What happens when the impossible happens: someone gets to know Tadhg, and someone starts noticing Aisling.