from a young age, hannah catharine gallagher had learned to fend for herself.

her father was a drunk and her mother was an unstable bipolar woman who left her seven children to fend for themselves. the lack of parental figures had left her with years of hurt that she never wished on her three younger siblings, so she did everything that she could to protect them, but sometimes it wasn't enough.

to escape what was the reality of her life, hannah turned to her creative side, writing stories and creating characters that would fill that void in her heart. one day, theo carter - a friend of kevin, veronica and fiona - found one of her old stories crumpled up and thrown into the trash. after reading it, the man decided to print it out and submit to ackrington academy where he was an english teacher, hoping to give the girl a chance of the scholarship that was given out every two years. and she got in.

though she got in, hannah didn't have any friends at school, and that was by choice. her classmates tried to get close to her, but she would just push them away. she couldn't risk anyone finding out that she was from the southside - the students at the school were far too judgmental for that. the only people who knew of her scholarship was theo, the headmistress and the administrations office, and she wanted to keep it that way. besides, it made it easier to steal from people if they didn't know her.

and anyway, hannah liked to think that she didn't need any school friends, that it would get in the way of her stealing and therefore selling those stolen goods to support her family. her family, they were all she needed. fiona had sacrificed her life to take care of them and hannah would do anything to try and repay her for that. her, lip and ian were the three musketeers, doing everything together, protecting each other at all costs, as well as their younger siblings. and debbie, carl and liam she loved with all her heart, doing all she could to help send them on school trips and activities with their friends.

she was happy and content with her life, and then her older sister went and got herself an involved boyfriend.