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Nic's parents divorce
David and Vicki's divorce is believed to be one of the major causes of Nic's addiction to meth. Nic was obligated to fly a ridiculous amount of miles between San Francisco and Los Angeles as a child. Flying between homes caused him to feel like he had an unstable family and home life. This instability and uncertainty in his life might have even caused him to experiment with drugs and alcohol in the first place. -
David marries Karen
Karen plays a key role in Nic's life by playing the role of a mother-like-figure when Nic is not staying with his real mother (Vicki) in Los Angeles. Nic and Karen share similar interests such as drawing and movies which helped them to easily get along with one another. To add, in the future, Karen will encourage Nic to remain sober and treat his addiction in rehab. -
Jasper is born
Even though Nic and Jasper are half-brothers, Nic loves Jasper just the same. In the future, Jasper will give meaningful reasons why Nic continues to experiment with drugs (there is a devil on Nic's shoulder). Yet, no matter how high Nic seems to appear, he always seems to show love and tenderness to Jasper. -
Nic smells like cigarette smoke
This is a turning point in Nic's life. Nic smoking cigarettes indicates the first stage of his addiction to meth. This shows that he is now interested in experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Yet, what makes the matter worse is that Nic at first lies to David and tries to convince him that he was just hanging out with a group of boys who were smoking. David clearly sees through his lies but does not punish him, yet only lectures him about the dangers of cigarettes. -
David finds marijuana in Nic's backpack
David finds a bag of marijuana in Nic's backpack while looking for a sweater. David confronts Nic right away while Nic is playing with his friend outside. Nic unwillingly answers all of David's questions. Marijuana is known as the gateway drug which foreshadows the worse things to come. -
Nic confesses about Lake Tahoe
Nic confesses to David that he and his friend Philip drank small portions of different alcoholic beverages to get "drunk". He confesses that they were bored and wanted to know how it felt. Nic continues by saying how they did not have the flu in the morning but were puking due to the amount and variation of alcohol they consumed. As you can see, drugs and alcohol cause Nic to lie, steal, and not act like his normal self. -
Daisy is born
David and Karen have another child and name her Daisy. Just like Jasper, Nic treats Daisy with care no matter if is using drugs and alcohol or not. -
Nic is caught buying marijuana in high school
Nic is caught buying marijuana from a boy in high school. Instead of being suspended, he is given a warning due to the fact that the staff knows how teenagers crave to experiment with drugs and alcohol. Yet, they warn Nic if he is caught buying drugs again then he will be suspended from school. Nic loves his high school so much that this warning causes him to change his ways by not consuming drugs or alcohol and keeps his grades up. -
Nic goes to Paris
Nic goes to Paris to become fluent in French. Yet instead of benefitting him, Nic is sent in a downward spiral. Nic is able to easily obtain alcohol and drugs in Paris at any time he wishes. This causes him to have a hard time adjusting to life when he gets back home since he cannot obtain drugs and alcohol as easily as he did in Paris. Nic also now has a stomach ulcer at the age of seventeen. -
David smokes marijuana with Nic
After returning from Paris, Nic is now regularly doing drugs and alcohol. As David and Nic are having a conversation about marijuana, Nic bluntly asks David if he would like to smoke pot with him. David replies yes. By David saying yes, this just gave the idea to Nic that doing drugs is ok since he dad is doing them. -
Nic is arrested
Nic is arrested right in front of the family's eyes including Jasper and Daisy who are confused and crying from Nic being forcedly taken away from them. Nic was arrested for not showing up for court when he was caught purchasing drugs. This continuously shows that Nic is going behind his family's back in order to buy drugs. -
Nic goes to rehab
Nic finally agrees to go to rehab in Oakland even though he truly does not want to. His horrible attitude foreshadows his fail of an attempt to go to rehab. Within the few days of the program, Nic has run away. -
Nic steals from Jasper
Nic steals an eight dollars from Jasper's piggybank. We can finally see how low Nic is willing to go in order to get money to buy drugs. His drug addiction has gone so far that it made him steal from the one person who he always showed love to, Jasper. -
Nic overdoses
Nic overdoses and is sent to an emergency room right away. David thinks Nic will now want to go to rehab since he hit rock-bottom. Yet, Nic does not stay there for long when a nurse calls David and informs him that Nic has ripped out his IV's and run away. -
Nic's last attempt at rehab
Nic is currently in rehab trying to detox and rid himself of his addiction, while David is home, peacefully knowing that David is no longer out on the streets.
