<p style="text-align:center">You can preview the full text online with a <a href="/membership">Membership</a></p><div class="linkscroll"><h2>Unnamed</h2><p>Gender unspecified | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 1</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from IT'S NOT A BAD WORD by Emma Richardson:

"She’ll be on your TV screen, in a show that was filmed before you were born. She’ll have red hair. Not bright dyed red, like a firetruck. Not an orange, washed out red. It’ll be a deep red. Natural and beautiful. She’ll play a nurse, and you’ll want so badly to be sick or dying, just so she can come and save you. So she can hold you.
You’ll be seven, and you won’t understand what you’re feeling, all you’ll know is that you shouldn’t be feeling it. She’s a girl and so are you. And you’ll know that isn’t allowed. "</p><hr />
<h2>Unnamed</h2><p>Gender unspecified | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 6</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from THIS IS YOURS by Lily Hensby:

"Just.
Stop.
You’ll be on your own.
Don’t.
Put that back.
Enough.
Bye.
I won’t miss you.
No-one will.
Why don’t you just stay here?
With me.
We can do all the things we used to do.
And what about our spot?
What if some degenerate angsty teen wanker comes and graffitis it?
Who is going to chase them off?
You won’t.
You could pretend to go.
We could make it up.
Tell everyone a lie.
Photoshop the pictures.
Because that’s all it’s for right?
For other people to think you’re amazing.
I’m right aren’t I?
That spot.
Oohhhhh man."</p><hr />
<h2>Unnamed</h2><p>Gender unspecified | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 12</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from ABYSS by Isidora Pandilovska:

"It’s silent. The walls are closing in. I feel tense. I breathe in the sharp air. Everything’s blue. If I listen closely, I can hear the terrifying screams of all the other tortured souls. Begging for mercy.
Oh, how I wish I was in heaven. They punish us by allowing us to look at the golden gate, it reminds us that we are doomed for eternity. I belong to heaven. I deserve to be in heaven. Ever since I was a kid, all I’ve wanted was to walk by the fluffy clouds and have tea with the beautiful angels, but life didn’t work out that way."</p><hr />
<h2>Cameron</h2><p>Male | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 17</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from CROSSROADS AND DUSTY BOOTS by Jordan Clayden-Lewis:

"At a crossroad with dusty boots you say.
A dirty, rusted crossroad lined for God knows how long. The flies buzz and stick to my moist white T-shirt like torturous tape. Tingling skin. Racing thoughts.
Fragmented scenarios in my head, no outcome unless I am dead. I stroll, the sound of my boots going ‘clink clonk, clink clonk’ on the metal of the rail line.
If I walk along this cage of ribs long enough, the big furious beast will come and throttle me whole like a giant fly. Bits of me scattered on the spring wildflowers."</p><img src="/ausplays/css/images/icon-mono-warn.png" style="vertical-align:text-bottom;" alt="" title="" /> <i>Contains adult themes</i><br /><hr />
<h2>Ami</h2><p>Female | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 21</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from LIKE BUTTER by Wallea Eaglehawk:

"Minjun
Countless days I’ve waited for this moment
I sold everything and boarded a plane, ten hours, to you
It’s been three months since landing and it’s nearly time
Just one last step, I cover my face with layers of powder and paint
Now I’m out the door and on my way to you
I step out onto Gangnam
My ears nearly burst from the technicolour churn of a city thrusting itself into the future
The bustle carries me to you
Minjun
After we meet I’m going to take you to the wastelands near my
home town."</p><hr />
<h2>Ella</h2><p>Female | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 30</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from I WORE HEELS, SO SHE WORE HEELS by Lisa Semmler:

"A police report? A real one … No, it’s okay! I know I’m not in trouble, it’s just I never would have thought about doing a police report.
Okay, do I just start?
Right … um.
Can I ask what my housemate Mikayla said in her police report?
Did she even say anything to you because she never talks to me?
No, I didn’t mean that, she’s just shy. Don’t tell her I said that please.
Did she tell you that she noticed the window wide open before we even walked in the door?"</p><hr />
<h2>Erin</h2><p>Female | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 36</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from AUSTRALIAN STRAYS by Rebecca Duke:

"Hope, it’s Erin.
I don’t know what to say really. What is there to say?
It’s been a big week. Our dog got out. Mrs Kelly over the road had a heart attack. The woman who owns the fish and chip shop had twins. We were hoping they were twins remember, for her sake, she was huge. The footy team didn’t win the state shield, again. They cancelled the show, because of the investigation. They’re still looking for you. I didn’t tell them anything."</p><hr />
<h2>Unnamed</h2><p>Gender unspecified | Age unspecified | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 40</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from ALL BUT YOU WHO LOOKED AT ME AND SMILED by Charlotte Smith:

"Look at me.
Please look at me.
That’s all I want. In this very moment, I want you to see me.
You. The one I’m speaking to. The only person I want to hear me.
The only person who ever looked at me. You looked at me and smiled. I want you to hear my words.
That’s why I speak to you now. In hopes, you’ll hear me and see me again. Once you’ve seen me, you’ll hear me. And once you hear me, I’ll be happy.
I’m so lonely. I’m all by myself. No-one ever sees me."</p><hr />
<h2>Sam</h2><p>Male | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 45</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from ON BURNING DAY by Michal I. Hughes:

"Around here everyone had always known who was who and where was where and what to expect us all to amount to. Those belonging to a name everyone knows will stay. They’ll take over the family business, the farm, store, hotel, service station. Sons of lawyers will leave after school to study, only to return. They will become lawyers in the ﬁrms with their parents and maybe their grandparents. Same for the doctors and engineers. Politicians’ kids will probably get into politics and sit in the same worn chair their grandad did. Everything ﬁts together here."</p><hr />
<h2>Rhea</h2><p>Gender unspecified | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 50</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from I NEED GOURMET by Danielle Aquilina:

"Heyyy Gabz. What’s up?
Your bed? Oh yeah, I guess I am.
Huh.
I just had a sandwich. My First Ultimate Sandwich.
It was a bit of a mess.
Clearly.
But I can explain …
So, I was walking home from school today and passed by the deli, which had this cute server boy out the front holding samples of cheese. He sees me and shoves this cheese in my face, so I pop it in my mouth without thinking. And—Bam! My legs just crumble, and as I fall to the floor, he drops the tray and tries to steady me. "</p><hr />
<h2>Carosin</h2><p>Female | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 56</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from THE APPOINTMENT by Rosemary Cann:

"Carosin Juliet Michaels.
Fifteen.
Not that I know of. No cancer or heart failure. Although … my uncle was diabetic, lost a couple of toes … you know. Amputated.
Bit of a limp.
His own fault my mother says.
[In her mother’s voice, mocking.]
‘Self-regulation is vital.’
[Listens.]
English, Maths, Art, Physics … I’m not sure what I want to do …
I mean, did you know what you wanted to be when you were my age?
Of course, sorry.
Well, nothing badly enough to study for seven years for it!
Sorry…
I suppose I feel nervous—a little unsure—about the procedure."</p><hr />
<h2>Hazel</h2><p>Female | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 64</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from I FOUND YOU by Cate Robbins:

"I found you, Rae. I did.
When I woke that morning before you.
I went to wake you, too,
but you stopped me dead—
breathless and cold in your bed.
I stood beside you waiting,
waiting.
Waiting for your chest to rise and fall,
for your cheeks to blush and burst with giggles.
But my toes drained of colour and hope
when I realised that you weren’t joking. Still
pale
sweet.
I was stuck there with you.
And when Mum walked in,
she saw her daughters
both frozen in time …
but only one was breathing.
And then …
Screaming."</p><img src="/ausplays/css/images/icon-mono-warn.png" style="vertical-align:text-bottom;" alt="" title="" /> <i>Contains adult themes</i><br /><hr />
<h2>Cara</h2><p>Female | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 75</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from SWALLOWS by Betty Sweetlove:

"It got to the point I couldn’t stop making noises. I needed to hear something human. It became so dark and cold that all I wanted to see was the stars drained out of the sky. You never think the sight of them could make you sick.

Finally! It’s morning.

Look at the sky, it’s all purple.
Hey!
Coo-eee.
Help.
Someone.
Anyone.

How come it lights up so quick but took forever staying dark?
Well, I guess I woke up the flies. 
I should clean that up. That was when I cried and cried until I was sick."</p><hr />
<h2>Unnamed</h2><p>Gender unspecified | Teen | over 10 minutes<br />Starts on page 79</p><p><b>EXTRACT:</b> from WHERE DOES IT HURT by Alex Travers:

"You phone Chief Inspector Mum of the planet Pluto for regular transmission updates. I sit in the cock-pit, watch as we slowly rotate the Earth and sit behind the wheel as we nudge past Mercury.
Our spaceship is weirdly the same shape as our caravan, ready for our intergalactic mission to the planet Mars. I report for duty as you keep an eye on all things Saturn.
I reckon if we ever crashed to Earth, we had better land on a country that spoke the same language, had plenty of open space and knew how to cook a decent lasagna."</p><hr />
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