With dry theatrical humour Lachlan also takes us into the lives of ex-students, through the droll character of Dezzie in her checkout job at GOLO. This hysterical scene provides a glimpse into the lives of students who have dropped out and whose most exciting years are possibly already behind them; who stare in wonder as they encounter ex-teachers as customers with children—‘Looks like he hates her’ (p.31)—and are forced to consider that teachers may have some life outside school. Lachlan’s informed observation is a damning indictment of so many state high schools staffed by teachers who ‘never grow up because they never leave school so they never get a chance to go out into the real world’ (p.59). Petchall at least represents teachers working within the system who care for their students—even if they are in danger of burnout.

Into this place of inertia and aimlessness comes a voice of remarkable energy, pace and rhythm: fifteen-year-old Tamara. Tamara is the student lurking at the back of many classrooms that shows some glimmer of potential, of talent; a writer in the making. She is also a smart-arse, quick-witted, with an incredible acerbic tongue. As the playground erupts into lockdown-drill chaos, Tamara wryly comments:

one girl looks like she is fuckin’ shitting her sports daks (p.10)

Tamara observes the world around her and narrates it to us with rich detail and texture. At the same time we are acutely aware that she is only fifteen, and from the opening scene, that she is ‘Three weeks, six days, seven hours’ (p.3) into her first relationship—with Jasyn Donovan, aka ‘Squid’. It is a relationship for which they have no positive role models, nor any guidance. Both mothers have shot through. Squid’s follows random men around the country and Tamara’s has left to start again with a new man of means. Over the course of the play we witness the inevitable destruction of this doomed first love. As appalling as it is, it feels inevitable, like a distant slow-motion car crash that we can neither prevent nor look away from. Lachlan masterfully divides the sympathies of the audience. Is any one person really to blame? Can one expect more or better for these young characters?