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.
Jack Ruby
Ruby was the fifth of his parents' 10 surviving children. While he was growing up, his parents were often violent towards each other and regularly temporarily separating; Ruby's mother was eventually committed to a mental hospital. His troubled childhood and adolescence was marked by juvenile delinquency with time being spent in foster homes. At age 11 in 1922, he was arrested for truancy. Ruby eventually skipped school enough times that he spent time at the Institute for Juvenile Research. Still a young man, he sold horse-racing tip sheets and various novelties, then acted as business agent for a local refuse collectors union that later became part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).