Lock and Key (novel)
After her drug and alcohol addicted mother abandons her, child services forces 17-year-old Ruby Cooper to move in with her sister, Cora, who had left for college when Ruby was young. Ruby is upset about this arrangement and continues to wear the key to her old home on a chain around her neck. After learning she will be transferring to a new high school, Ruby attempts to run away but is found out. Nate Cross, Jamie and Cora's next-door neighbor, covers for her. Over the span of the story, Ruby slowly becomes closer to Nate.
Ruby Hirose
Ruby Hirose was born to Shiusaka (Father) Hirose and Tome (née Kurai) in Kent, Washington on August 30, 1904. She was the second child of seven children in the family, but because the first child died very young, grew up as the oldest child of six in the family. She had four sisters and one brothers, and they lived in the White River (Shirakawa) area around Seattle, WA. The second child in the family was Fumiko, two years younger than Ruby. Fumi, as she was called, contracted tuberculosis as did her mother. Fumi died in 1925 and her mother Tome died in 1934.