Twelve (novel)
Twelve is a 2002 novel by Nick McDonell about drug addiction, violence and sex among mainly wealthy Manhattan teenagers.
While Twelve follows the lives of a number of wealthy young adults, it centres on that of 17-year-old drug-dealer White Mike.
[1] White Mike: Philosophical 17-year-old drug dealer who roams the streets of New York, peddling marijuana to rich teens.
Chris: A plain 17-year-old young man who desperately wishes to lose his virginity to Sara Ludlow the hottest girl in his school.
A psychopath, gun nut, and ex-cocaine abuser who collects bladed weapons, which he buys from a shop in Chinatown.
Illegally buys an Uzi and goes on a shooting spree during a party at his house at the climax of the book, killing several of the party-goers.
White Mike is a drug dealer who has taken his senior year in high school off to sell marijuana to his wealthy peers.
The novel takes place over a five-day period in December 1999, beginning on the night of the 27th and ending on New Year's Eve.
He then visits the rec center, where Hunter, a friend of his has gotten into a fight with a black basketball player named Nana.
Hunter then leaves and goes home, thinking about the fight with Nana while listening to James Taylor on his discman.
Before he can get into his building he witnesses a drug deal between two shady characters, a pale white boy and a heavy black man.
The deal then erupts into violence when the heavy man shoots the pale boy with a gun wrapped in a hand towel.
Nana tries to escape but is killed as well by the heavy man, who pockets the pale boy's revolver before fleeing the scene.
There is an overview of the party and we then meet Jessica, a school mate of Sara and Chris who heads to the bathroom to do some cocaine.
The narrative shifts to Claude, Chris's brother, and Tobias, a male model, taking a trip through China Town.
Claude takes home his weapons and arranges them in his closet, all in perfect order like some private shrine.
After talking with some boys who witnessed the fight at the rec center, two detectives place Hunter under arrest because of the blood still on his clothes.
Jessica calls Chris and asks for White Mike's phone number, telling him that she wants more of the drug she had the party, Twelve.
He is placed in the same room as Sean, the high school football star who happens to be Sara Ludlow's boyfriend.
Andrew loans her his Dave Matthews Band CD, thinking it will make a good excuse to see her again.
After the party Claude returns to China Town with Tobias and illegally buys an Uzi submachine gun from one of the shops.
Chris is having a boxing lesson when Sara shows up, requesting money for some Twelve which she will give to Jessica.
Andrew is bored so he goes for a walk and ends up in Carl Schurz park where he meets and eccentric old man named Sven.
White Mike is walking home and sees Captain, a homeless bodybuilding black man, injuring himself by hitting a brick wall and calls an ambulance.
We are then introduced to Timmy and Mark Rothko, two unlikely wanna-be "cool kids" who get their kicks stealing CDs, smoking weed and speaking in an exaggerated hip-hop vernacular.
White Mike has a phone conversation with an old friend of his and Hunter's, Warren, and then decides to take a train ride down to Coney Island.
She enjoys watching the "dregs of humanity" on television and holds a fake talk show with her stuffed animals in which she comments on a fictional school massacre.
Hunter's father remembers an incident that happened when he was in school, when a boy died at a drunken fireside party.
Andrew and Molly meet in the kitchen and grow closer, deciding to head out for pizza when Lionel arrives.
The novel was adapted into a 2010 film of the same name directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Chace Crawford, Kiefer Sutherland, Emma Roberts and 50 Cent.
