1896, in the Manhattan Orphanage for girls, Joss Kelly was sitting alone in her room. She had been sweeping the floor when one of the other girls had thought it would be a good idea to start insulting her. She'd slammed the broom handle into the girls head, knocking her unconscious. The orphanage "Mother" Mrs. Turner ended up locking Joss up in her room for the rest of the day with no food or outside contact. Little did the woman know, she had just succeeded in sealing the fate of Joss's escape.
Joss's older Brother by two years, Jack Kelly, had chosen that night to break his little sister out of the Orphanage. The two had been planning to break Joss out for the past week after Jack had escaped from the refuge. He'd told her that he wouldn't let one of them be free if the other was still trapped.
Jack tapped on the window of Joss's room, giving her a giant grin. She smiled right back. Her room was in the basement, the only place where the windows weren't bolted shut, because Mrs. Turner had assumed no one would be small enough to fit through. Luckily for Joss though, her weeks of eating very little had caused her to become thin enough to fit through the window. Jack pulled at her arms as she shimmied through the window. When she was finally out, Jack gave her a bone-crushing hug, and the two ran off to the newsie lodge where Jack had been staying.
That night, Joss Kelly, sister to a criminal and Orphaned girl became Jace Kelly, brother to Jack Kelly the Newsie, and decided that no one would cage her up again.