Character Analysis
The second of the three factions in the territory wars comes from the Jellicoe School, a government-run boarding school for wards of the state, as well as some local kids and "the children of alternative environmentalists" who want to "instill a love of nature" (2.3) in their children. The school has a strange combination of abandoned kids, gifted students, and budding criminals, including five arsonists.
Jellicoe School also runs on this weird House system that seems almost Harry Potter-esque when you think about it—you almost expect Hannah or some other authority figure to whip out the Sorting Hat and get down to business.
It's school policy that "the House leaders, with the help of the rest of the seniors, take care of their own Houses with the assistance of an adult" (2.4), and consequently, each House has its own rules and personality. There's Lachlan House and its band of dramatic teenage girls, Darling House with its subdued, submissive environment that forbids bad language, and Murrumbidgee, the guys' dorm where Webb once reigned as House Leader.
So what's the point? Jellicoe School may not have a crazy points competition among the Houses like at Hogwarts, but this hierarchy is crucial when it comes to selecting the School's leader for the faction. According to the Underground Community's rules, "the leader has been chosen in year seven and is groomed for the next five years" (2.5). It's under this method that Taylor assumes the position at the start of the book.