Episode 509

Extended Summary

During the night, Sophie sneaks downstairs, makes herself a glass of salt water and drinks it. Heading back upstairs, she tells Carly she’s feeling sick. Carly leaves her in their room while she goes and gets Pippa. Sophie runs to the bathroom to throw up and Pippa feels guilty for not listening when she said she was ill. Next morning, Tom, Pippa and Carly discuss the incident and ask Steven if there’s been any illnesses going around school. Sally complains about having to go and see Alf to confess about Claws since it was Mullet’s idea but Tom reminds her she went along with it. Pippa takes some food up to Sophie in her room. Sophie asks if she’ll have to take time off school and Pippa says one day won’t matter. When Sophie acts reluctant, Pippa suggests she could go in if she’s worried about getting behind so Sophie quickly backtracks and Pippa says she’ll call Don.

Sally and Mullet are on their way to the store but Sally is refusing to let Mullet walk with her or carry her bag. She has gone back to calling him Mullet and is angry with him for getting her into trouble. Alf is saying goodbye to a customer, Carol, when the pair arrive and Sally says they’ve got bad news. Mullet hands him a parcel which turns out to contain the remains of Claws; Sally says that they cooked him. Mullet says it was all his fault and Sally shouldn’t be punished, she’s only there because Tom insisted. Alf says Mullet should come back to the store after school for his punishment.

Tom, Carly and Ben are chatting about the wedding around the table. Ben says about twenty of his relatives will be coming, plus Dave as best man, and Tom offers to put them up in the caravan park. Pippa is on the phone to Don and tells the others he was most worried about the list of schools Sophie was supposed to be giving him. Upstairs, Sophie goes through the drawers to retrieve some chocolate and quickly gets back into bed when Pippa comes up. Pippa tells her about the list and suggests she write it out. Sophie says she’s got a headache and her eyes hurt and asks Pippa to write it out for her. After a bit of persuading, Pippa agrees.

At the surf club, Adam tries to convince Alf to let him fit some new cupboards at the surf club, pointing out that since they’re already assembled he’ll just have to take the old ones out and put the new ones in and that he’ll be cheaper than a tradesman. Despite Matt making a few interjections doubting Adam’s abilities, Alf agrees. Matt is having difficulty with a rope winch which has got stuck and Adam tries to help him out with it but manages to pull the handle off. Later on, Alf checks on Adam’s work and tells him the new cupboards will be arriving later. Matt tries to give Adam some advice, pointing out he needs to ease them off gently over one of the nails or the whole thing will come down. Adam tells him to go down the beach on patrol instead. As Matt leaves the room, he hears a crash and returns to find Adam on the floor with the cupboard on top of him. Adam asks for help getting it off but Matt heads down the beach instead.

Carly and Ben are chatting about his job hunting at the Diner when Steven and Sally arrive. Sally is trying to avoid talking about Mullet and Steven explains Mullet took the blame with Alf. He tells Sally that Mullet did it because he likes her and the three of them all needle her with stories about Mullet facing the punishment alone and being emotionally scarred by Sally turning her back on him. Although she claims not to care, Sally seems affected by their words. Back at the caravan park house, Tom tells Pippa that Alf was fine about what happened. Pippa goes upstairs to take Sophie some lunch and finds her listening to music on headphones and dancing along to it. Although Sophie claims she was just testing to see if she felt better, Pippa tells her if she’s well enough to be out of bed she’s well enough to go to school.

Sophie is with the other students in Don’s class as one of the boys, Roger, reads out another poem. Don asks about similarities between the two poems they looked at and Roger says both of the main characters didn’t reach their full potential. Don agrees and says they need to write an essay for homework about how that was the case. He asks Sophie to read out the other poem to refresh their memories but Sophie, talking hoarsely, says she has a sore throat from being sick the previous night. Don dismisses the class and Sophie joins Steven in the corridor, where the students are laughing at a cartoon of Grant someone has put on the board. Sophie doesn’t seem to understand the joke written underneath it. Rogers notes that her sore throat seems to have disappeared. Steven asks her about it and she walks off in a huff.

Carly is serving Mullet a milkshake at the Diner. Sally comes and sits with him and asks what the punishment was. Mullet says that, since Alf’s outboard motor has packed up, he wants Mullet to row him out to his crab pots. After he’s gone, Sally and Carly worry that Alf will be too heavy for Mullet to row. Alf and Mullet are packing up the rowing boat down by the water when Sally comes running up. She says it was her fault as well so she should share the punishment. Alf agrees and Sally and Mullet take the oars and start rowing. Calling him Murray again, Sally asks Mullet if he likes her and says she likes him.

Pippa is reading a book at home as Steven asks Sophie if she’s got over her tantrum. Sophie says she understood the joke, she’d just had a difficult class and didn’t feel like laughing. Pippa goes to return the book to the library and Sophie asks Steven to help her with her homework. He agrees if she’ll sign his cast. He suggests she starts by reading the poem through but Sophie asks him to read it instead. Steven says Sophie will understand it better if she reads it herself. Sophie tries and Steven realises she can’t read. Sophie admits she can’t but says she doesn’t care and runs upstairs. Steven looks worried.