Episode 140

Extended Summary

Bobby checked with Miss Fenwick in the staff room to see if both Donald and his secretary were in there. Bobby didn’t want to disturb them on their break so she would wait outside for him while Alan put the notice in the “Out” tray on Donald’s desk. Donald saw Bobby and she had to stall him so she told him that she would be going back to wearing school uniform. She wanted to say something else but Alan came to her rescue. She regretted telling Donald about going back into school uniform and it was because she was in a weird mood after Frank’s accident so therefore she wanted to rebel against the system. Plan B of Alan’s plan was to spread the word that Tommy Carroll the surfing legend would be at Ailsa’s store at 4 pm. It was a front for the big fight between him and his father so Alan wanted an audience for it. Miss Graham, Donald’s secretary, took the folder from the “Out” tray, she questioned Alan’s notice but Donald told her to continue with her work.

Celia went to all her favourite places Stewart’s Point, Dangar Inlet and the beach before leaving for Tahiti as she wanted to fix them in her mind. This was the first time she had travelled for any length of time, she was scared of travelling because she was a real homebody. Alf encouraged Celia to get out of her comfort zone, to enjoy herself while she was there and to come back with some stories to make Betty’s hair curl. One final farewell at the beach and Summer Bay before Celia was being driven to the airport by Alf.

Frank was moaning about wanting a secretary to do all the typing as he can’t get used to typing. Brett came in with the newspaper that had headlines of the proposed development site and he wanted to know if Frank had anything to do with it. Frank thought that it would be good publicity and denied any knowledge of it. Brett wanted to release the news in his own way but there were damaging facts and figures in there. Frank found ways of shifting the blame for the leak from the printer to the removalists. Brett gave Frank the benefit of the doubt this time but next time he would not be so generous. Ailsa and Frank were in the store discussing the newspaper article. Frank thought that he would lose his job for sure but Ailsa was just amazed at how well the article was written. He hadn’t made up his mind about the development but Ailsa feared that the quality of life would be ruined if the development went ahead.

Brett was doing some damage control over the phone with his father saying that he would cope, that he would talk to the editor and would tell him that there would be plenty of advertising coming their way and he begged not to get his sister Stacey involved. Brett realised that Ailsa was the main problem and that if she made any more waves that he would create problems for her and that the baby was the main priority.

Alan and Bobby were impatiently waiting in Barbara’s Chemistry class for the notices to arrive and be distributed. Bobby and Alison were having some interaction with Barbara over a chemistry question when Miss Graham delivered the awaited notices. Barbara issued instructions for homework while the students walked out of the room with notices in hand. Alan and Bobby noticed that Barbara ran straight to Donald’s office presumably after reading the notice. Alan reminded Alison, Carly and Bobby that Tommy Carroll would be at the store at 4 pm before he headed to the beach. Barbara showed Donald the notice and was appalled by its contents, he asked who distributed the notice and immediately summonsed his secretary to his office. Barbara suspected that it wasn’t Miss Graham’s fault and that someone else was behind the prank. Donald told her to tell the staff about the notice, take names of the students that they had taken the notices off and that he would do some damage control later on while Donald and Barbara were going to round up the students who hadn’t left for the day and get the notices off them. Alison arrived at the store and asked Alan where Tommy was and he mentioned that the action would be starting real soon.

Roo dropped by the office to see how Frank and his new job was going. He was enjoying the job even though Roo abused him of not taking it in the first place. They talked about Celia going on holidays before Brett interrupted and abruptly ordered Frank to go to the Post Office. Roo was appalled by how he treated Frank. Brett was only concerned about Roo’s baby and his paternal interest in it nothing more. Roo was blackmailing Brett about his rights to the baby, if he treated Frank well then he would get to see it.

Students were already mingling at the store waiting for the arrival of Tommy Carroll. Floss and Neville arrived with Bobby in tow claiming that she had lost a chain outside and that she needed Neville’s help with his metal detector. They took a break and ordered two cappuccinos before starting the search again. Bobby talked to Alan and hoped that Donald would make an appearance soon otherwise there wouldn’t be anyone left. Donald was in his office on the phone to a parent advising them that the notice was a sick prank and that the contents of the notice would never happen at any school that he was in charge of. He left Barbara to answer the phone calls while he went to track down Alan. Barbara warned him about Alan’s condition but he was sick of his condition being used as an excuse.

Carly and Alison thought that it was an April Fools joke and that Bobby and Alan had concocted something together. Donald arrived and wanted to see Alan outside, the two of them argued with Alan provoking his father in order to hit him and then he faked being ill by clutching his head where his aneurism was before making a miraculous discovery. He was amazed that his father actually cared, Donald realised that he had been fooled and hit his son, which was witnessed by the students, Floss and Neville. Alan finally had the ammunition he needed to get rid of Donald as Principal.