"You look pretty nothing to me, the look flashed onto them like a spray of ice water. And then, like a tease, it amended:…or maybe I’m wrong?" 

Mr. Kingsley has a strong power over his students. In these lines, Choi describes the fascination he held with them: a seeming disgust, combined with the possibility of disproving him. This power makes him a charismatic figure among them but allows for the kind of abuses that Mr. Kingsley (as Lord) is later revealed to have committed.

"In addition to crawling, then: touching. Not tolerated but encouraged. Maybe even required." 

This early theater class exercise involves the students crawling around in the dark. This serves as a metaphor for the teenagers navigating the world, which they do without guidance. The touching referred to in this excerpt describes touching between students but can be applied in a larger sense to their experience as performers and as people—they are unsure whether touching, even inappropriate touching, is required but know it is encouraged.

"Remember the impossible eventfulness of time, transformation and emotion packed like gunpowder into the barrel. Remember the dilation and diffusion, the years within days. Theirs were endless; lives flowered and died between waking and noon." 

Choi, narrating as Sarah, describes the emotional intensity of teenage years. This quote illustrates how powerful events happen in a short period of time. In a larger sense, this quote describes the drama even of everyday events in this period, making inappropriate ones harder to distinguish.