Episode 559

Extended Summary

Pippa goes to Gus’ shack and asks him why he didn’t tell her about Sophie being there. Gus says it’s none of his business. Pippa doesn’t want Sophie going there again but Gus tells her if she tries to force Sophie back to school she’ll run away. They head down to the wharf where Pippa reflects on how she thought Sophie had got over what happened at the amateur night. Gus thinks she will go back to school when she’s ready. Pippa doesn’t believe Sophie would go back to the life she had before but Gus tells her that Sophie only sees the arrangement with her as temporary and doesn’t trust her yet.

At the Diner, Ben tries to get Bobby to bake some more cakes for him. After some additional persuading from Grant, Bobby points out she’ll have to do it after hours when the ovens are free which will mean four hours’ gas, electricity and labour. She offers to do it for $10 an hour if Ben and Grant help out and do the clearing up. Grant isn’t keen to be dragged into it, since he’s at school in the morning, but Ben talks him round. Meanwhile, Carly complains about people moving her cook books at home when Pippa comes back. Sophie arrives, saying she was at the library. Pippa tries to engage with her by reminding her she can help herself to a drink any time but Sophie just heads upstairs.

Ben runs into Carly when he goes to the house to check the recipe and Carly tells him she’s going to collect the cake layers from the Diner. Ben tells her he’s already moved them to the cool room at Alf’s store but when he says he wrapped them in shrink wrap Carly says he should have used foil and goes off to sort it. Ben runs to the Diner and uses the phone to call the store, trying to explain the situation to a confused Marilyn. Bobby takes the phone off him and tells Marilyn not to let Carly in the cool room. When Carly turns up, Marilyn distracts her by babbling about how she’d like to meet someone like Ben and could she meet his cousins. Carly asks to go in the cool room and Marilyn improvises, convincing her it’s locked and she can’t go home for her key and Alf’s busy at a prawn night.

That night, Pippa goes up to Sophie’s room with some sandwiches and finds her reading a book on coin detecting. She asks how she got interested in it but Sophie says one of her teachers mentioned something. Pippa tells her she can talk to her if there’s a problem at school but Sophie says it’s fine. In the caravan, Grant and Ben are about to head out to the Diner when Carly turns up. They quickly make excuses about going out together and rush off. During the night, Pippa and Carly both find themselves downstairs, unable to sleep. Carly admits she’s unhappy about Ben going out raging and about him not noticing his ring is missing. Pippa suggests she should talk to Ben about her concerns, saying whenever she and Tom didn’t it caused more problems. Carly asks what’s bothering Pippa and she admits Sophie’s wagging school, asking her not to tell anyone.

Early next morning, Ben and Grant arrive back at the caravan, ready to go to sleep, but Carly turns up, demanding to know where they’ve been until five o’clock. Ben blusters and claims they’ve been doing a cleaning job. Carly wonders why he didn’t tell her and Grant claims Ben’s using the money for a surprise for Carly. Meanwhile, Pippa goes down the wharf and finds Gus fishing, explaining she wanted to talk to him before Sophie gets there. She says he’s right about Sophie not trusting her but she needs to go back to school so she asks Gus to help persuade her. Gus agrees but says Sophie will either open up to Pippa or run.

Back at the house, Carly tells Sophie about what Ben was doing and about him losing the ring. Pippa returns and Sophie makes herself scarce, with Pippa wishing her a nice day. She admits to Carly that she doesn’t know what will happen if Sophie’s teachers find out what’s going on. At the Diner, Ben complains to Bobby and Grant that, even though the wedding cake is sorted, he’s now stuck with Carly expecting a surprise. Carly arrives and gives Ben the ring back. Ben says he was looking for it and didn’t want to tell her because he was worried she’d be angry. Carly tells him that she was upset he didn’t seem to have noticed but she changed her mind when she heard about the surprise. Ben says there is no surprise and Bobby steps in, claiming Ben took the cleaning job to earn the money to replace the ring. Carly suggests Ben use the money to take her out for dinner instead and Ben is forced to agree.

Sophie helps Gus out with his metal detector and they find a watch. Gus says it could be worth hundreds of dollars but Sophie won’t be able to share the money since they have to wait three months and she’ll be gone by then: She can’t hide the fact she isn’t at school forever and when she’s found out she’ll run. Sophie insists he mail her the money but Gus retorts that no-one will know where she is, so either way she’s not getting anything.