GIRLS LIKE THAT by Evan Placey

The GIRLS stand at the front of the stage facing the audience.

EM Slut

ANA Skank

ALL Whore

GRA Slag

ANY Tart

MOL Tramp

SHO Slapper

EVE Slut

ALL We are the St Helen’s girls

SCA St Helen’s is a special school.

SHO Twenty girls from different parts of the city, different backgrounds, who might not
otherwise have ever crossed paths.

EVE If only.

GRA At St Helen’s we are civilised girls. We know the pecking order.

MOL Who’s at the top

ALL Who’s in the middle

SHO Who’s at the bottom

GRA I am in the middle. A comfortable place to be. I’d recommend to any five-year-old
that this is the wisest place to be.

SCA Definitely.

ALL Scarlett is at the bottom. Full stop.

Change. Present.

MOL We’re in history when it comes.

SCA Miss is droning on about famous women in history.

ANA I am texting a boy.

EM Secondary school is mixed, so we can see the male species in the corridors and stuff,
make sure we don’t all turn out to be lesbians.

SHO It’s nice to have girls that really know me, that remember in year three when I won
the singing competition with my rendition of ‘Since U Been Gone’.

ANY It’s nice to have girls that remember our school trip in year five when the bus broke
down and we had a slumber party on it.

SCA Girls who remember when I set my hair on fire in science class.

GRA Girls who remember the time I laughed so hard I peed a bit

ANA Girls who remember when my period went on the cafeteria bench and I refused to
get up

EM Girls who remember that my mum had an affair with the maths teacher

ALL Girls who remember when I put my tampon in cord-end first and had to go to
hospital

MOL Girls who remember when I asked Nurse Nancy if a clitoris was a kind of dinosaur

SHO Girls who never forget.

SCA Buzz

EM Flash

MOL A text

ALL An email

SHO A message

ANA A tweet

ANY And the classroom is brighter as phones come alight (Scarlett runs out)

GRA A photo of Scarlett.

EVE Naked

GRA What a little slut

ANA What a little skank

SHO And it’s funny

GRA And it’s kind of sexy

EM And it’s ugly

ANA And so I

EVE- DELETE

ALL And it’s over.

MOL Except I don’t

ANY Because someone else will

MOL Someone else definitely will anyway

ANA So I

GRA Forward

SHO Tweet

EM Send

SHO If a photo’s taken and no one’s there to see it, was it really taken? I mean didn’t
Plato or someone say that?

ANY Scarlett has a mole on the top of her left breast. Well my left, her right. And it, or
actually maybe it’s her left too, cos the camera does it in reverse, right? Does it? I’m
confused.

ANA And I feel good because my breasts are bigger than hers.

SHO And I feel good because her shoulders are bony

ALL And I feel good because her belly button is an outie

MOL And I feel good because her nail polish is chipped

GRA And I feel good because she has a mole on her right or left breast

ANY Miss is still talking about feminism and the word reminds me of femidom like Nurse
Nancy told us about so I start laughing, and when she asks me why I’m laughing I tell
her I have a disability.
SHO At lunch the corridor is buzzing. A boy says….

EM Guess I know what I’m doing tonight

ANA I’d tap it

ANY Tyler. That’s what he says.

GRA I don’t think you should be looking at that

MOL A boy says this. Jay.

ANA You what?

ANY It’s Tyler.

ANA Want the photo all to yourself?

GRA No. That’s not. I haven’t seen it actually.

SHO You gay or something?

MOL Some other boy has piped up.

SHO Bet you are. That’s why your parents named you Jay. Cos it rhymes with gay

ANY Logic doesn’t really matter at this point.

GRA And Jay does it. He looks at the photo. And I’m a bit angry at how easily he gives in..

ALL And then the corridor goes silent

ANY And there’s Scarlett looking up at me from my phone screen, and there she is two
feet away from me

MOL And so we say nothing.

EM And Scarlett says

SCA Hey

EM We just pretend she’s not there. Personally, I don’t think she was actually talking to
me.

ALL The problem with girls like that is they give all girls a bad name.

EM And it wasn’t planned, but we all just turn away.

ANY And as she slinks away, I feel really sorry for her. We all do I think.

EM After school Scarlett is nowhere to be seen.

ANY And I’m a bit worried.

GRA We’re all a bit worried. Because you hear stories and stuff. And it’s just a stupid
picture. She wouldn’t do something stupid…

EVE Would she?

GRA Buzz

SHO Click

ALL Pop

ANY Flash

EM And a new photo has come through. Except this time it’s not Scarlett.

ANA It’s a different photo.

EM Russell. Completely naked.

SHO And the boys’ nickname for him – Big Mac – well let’s just say it’s now clear it has
nothing to do with his love of fast food.

MOL Russell’s friends are high-fiving him and acting like it was any other day.

GRA Like my brother says: if a key can open lots of locks, it’s a really good key. Like a
master key. But if a lock can be opened by lots of keys then it’s a really shit lock. Do
you see?

Change in time.

ALL The next week someone asks where Scarlett is?

MOL Miss answers that she has transferred to another school.

Change in time

ALL It’s been a good two months since we’ve seen her. I almost don’t recognise her.

ANY What she’s doing at McDonald’s with some guy in the middle of the night, I can’t say.

MOL Some guy from her new school.

EM ‘Scarlett.’

ANA Someone says it quietly. She doesn’t hear. Or pretends not to.

EM ‘Scarlett.’

GRA And still she focuses her eyes hard on the guy, not blinking. Like maybe if she focuses
hard enough we’ll just disappear. Or maybe she will.

EM ‘Scarlett.’

ANY And then someone goes over. Not me. I don’t – I would never….I just watch

SHO ‘Scarlett, how are you? Don’t you recognise me?

ANY Scarlett just stares ahead. And I don’t understand why she doesn’t say something.
Speak up! It is 2022! Women have earned the right to speak! She just keeps staring
at the guy like she’s a statue, still not blinking.

SHO ‘Scarlett is an amazing photographer. Has she shown you any?’

EM But the girl can’t find it on her phone. And Scarlett’s eyes finally blink. A hint of relief.
A different ending.

MOL But then another girl, I, or whoever it is, says: ‘I’ve got it.’ And finds the boy’s phone
on her Bluetooth and presses send.

ANA And then we leave. Or else it’ll be another thirty minutes for the next night bus.

Change in time

GRA Scarlett is missing. She has been missing for over twenty-four hours. We know this
because the police officer who comes to talk to our class tells us so.

ALL He wants to know if any of us have heard from her.

ANA He thinks she may try to kill herself or have already done so. He doesn’t say this in so
many words.

GRA He doesn’t say this at all. But we know. We are intelligent girls.

ANY He also doesn’t tell us that on the Monday after we saw her at McDonald’s everyone
at her new school had seen the photo. But we know this too. We have Twitter.

EM And at night, the news is showing her school photo.

ALL And I wish they’d stop showing it. And the newsreaders keep asking – where did she
go? Why did this happen? Who is responsible?
EM And I feel like I’m gonna throw up

ALL And I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach

EM Because the screen switches to live footage. At the river. It’s dark and you can’t see
anything. But the newsreader in the suit erases any doubt. They’ve found a body.

Change in time

ALL We are in history and we have brought candles. Miss has given us permission to do a
kind of vigil.

MOL And we stand in a circle holding hands.

ANA And Miss says ‘Would someone like to say something?’

SHO And then a girl’s voice says

SCA I would like to say something

ANY And it’s like a ghost. Because standing there is Scarlett.

MOL And it’s like, it’s almost like she’s actually there...

EM Because she is actually there.

ALL At about this same moment, Scarlett’s parents have confirmed the body from the
river is not that of their daughter.

SCA (Presentation notes in hand.) Miss, you asked us to research the history of women
in our family. I have basically learned that in my family history there were always boys who
were arseholes who made things shit for the girls in my family. But things have moved on
for my generation. Because for me, it is not so much that boys are arseholes – they are – but
more that the girls have become the arseholes the boys used to be. (Puts away notes.)

I used to ask myself every night why? Why? What did I ever do to you? But then I realised
you are all nothing. There is a big bad world that is just ready to swallow you up. But when
it swallows up you lot, it will vomit you back up. Because you are indigestible girls. You are
food poisoning. And the world will know you are girls like that. And you will be all alone.
Together, but alone. And I will forget you. I have forgotten you. Because I am not a St
Helen’s girl. But you will not forget me. After all, you have my photo to remember me by.

Change in time

MOL The year is over and we must go our separate ways. Well not me. Me and 4 of the
girls are going to the same uni. We’re going to be flatmates.
ANY I have decided to move to Canada. Like proper Canada. Like I’m going to go live with
the indigenous people and go ice-fishing and there’s no internet and no phone
reception and I’m going to live in an igloo.

EM I’ve accidentally been assigned a flat with all boys instead of girls for September. I
explained to Mum that I called but it’s too late and there’s nothing they can do. So I
can’t change. (pause) But I never actually called.

ANA Something has changed. I try to rewind, to replay that moment when it
changed….but I don’t know when it was. When I decided I no longer want to hang
around with girls like that.

GRA And I know I will never be with all the girls together again.

Change.

GRA I am with all the girls together again.

ANA We are forty-five years old. We are at St Helen’s for a reunion.

ANY And it’s like no time has passed at all. It’s like we are sixteen again. Except that I have
a sixteen-year-old. A daughter.

GRA Mine are twelve and thirteen, God help me. Can I fast-forward please?

MOL My three are all boys. I still don’t know what to do with them.

EM And I look around for her.

EVE But she’s not there.

ANA And as we’re heading to the car park, I see some girls in the playground. But
something’s wrong.

ANY One of them has built a snowman, but someone is trying to destroy it. A boy.

MOL And then suddenly without planning, without saying a word, the girls start to link
arms. All twenty of them.

EM Making a barrier between the boy and the snowman.

ALL And then one of them speaks, the smallest of the group:

ANY Us girls stick together. Think you can break through us, boy? Go on.

EVE Just you try.