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Through the eyes of 14-year-old Benjamin, and set over the course of a long, hot, Queensland summer, the Law family navigate a series of sometimes disastrous events which become memorable milestones, and serve as a reminder that at the end of the day family can sometimes feel more like a sentence than a choice.
During a particularly harrowing sex ed module, Melissa and Benjamin excitedly scheme to get into a Year 12 party where there'll be booze and – more importantly for Melissa – boys. Despite his reservations, Benjamin tries to sweet-talk his parents into letting him go, but encounters a Jenny-shaped roadblock, insisting Benjamin is still too young for Aussie teen parties where drinking and fingering is abundant.
When Jenny rear-ends the car of a fellow parent at drop-off, she expect there'll be hell to pay. Instead, she's pleasantly surprised to discover the driver is handsome, confident, manly, and would like her number – not for insurance purposes. Later at school, Benjamin has a huffy encounter with Simmo, who now has his sights set on making Benjamin's school life a living misery.
Benjamin struggles with a crippling addiction to spying on Klaus pumping iron across the road, and is riddled with anxiety over what it means. So when Candy and Wayne announce over lunch that they’re taking everyone camping, Benjamin – to everyone’s horror – is a bundle of enthusiasm, seeing this as an opportunity to escape temptation.
With the big dance around the corner, Benjamin is pumped. He and Melissa have been workshopping matching outfits for years and finally have the chance to bring their vision to life. Except for one hitch: Melissa’s already got a date. Meanwhile, after seeing Pete at the shops, seemingly already happy with another woman, Jenny decides to put herself out on the market and takes up internet dating.
Benjamin wrestles with his feelings towards Klaus after a drama exercise with his handsome nemesis leaves him all tense in all the wrong places. Elsewhere, Jenny battles her own anxieties after Pete calls out of the blue to ask her out to dinner.
Aunty Maisy and Daisy crash Jenny's kitchen with a crisis: Maisy's son has come out and it's the end of her world. Benjamin overhears, and convinces himself that Jenny is homophobic. Resentful, he throws himself into the task of winning the upcoming talent quest while blocking his mother out, deciding now isn't the time to come out and that it may never be.
