Episode guide: the full story

Episode 11 (series 6) 141

Kurt’s dad has already been sober for two weeks, and it seems like his life is becoming a bit normal again, mainly because he’s getting a job too. The Hartley Heights football team has been accepted into an interschool competition as well, so that’s cool too. Barry’s feeling a bit weird though, and when he arrives at the next training he tells his son he can’t do the training anymore, without saying why. Kurt decides to start training the team himself. Ryan doesn’t want to do what Kurt says because the two are still rivals, and so he quits the team. Back home, Kurt sacks his dad. Di visits him to ask him to resume his position as coach, but he doesn’t want to. He goes to the Shark Pool to get Ryan to rejoin the team, but when Ryan and Barry go to Barry’s place they catch Kurt and Nikki making out, which obviously makes Ryan angry.

Sarah introduces Anita to finding new mates on the Internet, and she starts writing to a guy who calls himself DJ Byron, and is a poet. After a while she wants to meet him, and as Draz finds out he becomes envious and concerned. Anita meets the guy, but he turns out to be a lot older than her and very weird. When she says she wants to go home, he doesn’t want to let her go and even grips her. Drazic, on his way to find his girlfriend, hears her screaming and is just on time to save her from the scary guy.

Draz orders twenty copies of the same CD from the Internet, to sell them to his mates. The CD involved hasn’t been released yet in Australia, namely, as well as the fact that he gets it cheaper. But then it turns out Draz has to pay import duty because he’s ordered so many copies, which makes the CDs so expensive his mates are just going to wait till they can buy it in the shops. Then Sarah tells Draz if you order something by typing in your credit card details on the net, people all over the world can use your card without you knowing, so Draz is extra dead!

Nikki gets mugged when she’s about to start busking, and when she and Mai are doing a project they coincidentally record the mugger on their videotape. They do a performing arts show, and when they catch the mugger red-handed, they claim she’s part of the act, to show people they should be warned for pickpockets. Afterwards the girl gives Nikki her money back and says she’ll never steal people’s money again.

Episode 12 (series 6) 142

Talking about Romeo and Juliet gives Mai the idea of starting a helpline for students with problems, because maybe Romeo and Juliet would have survived if they had someone to talk to. She gets Di Barnett to fund the line and hangs up posters with the phonenumber of the warehouse. Drazic is sceptic about the line, mainly because he’s been in trouble himself and didn’t have anyone to talk to, and he even calls himself and scares Mai by acting like he’s someone who wants to do away with himself. But when he gets a call from a guy, Dave, who really wants to commit suicide, he shows his better side and seriously tries to help him. Dave has already taken a lot of sleeping pills, but when Draz finds he’s at the school, Mai goes there and calls an ambulance to pick Dave up. Luckily he’s going to be okay.

Nikki reminds Ryan of the fact that he’s letting down his touch footie team by not playing with them anymore. Ryan points out he’s the only thing can’t have, obviously referring to Kurt’s relationship with Nikki. She finds him pathetic. Meanwhile Dennis can’t stand Kurt’s comments on him, and quits the team too. But Barry gets Ryan to rejoin. Ryan once more tells Nikki he really likes her, and Nikki once more points out to him she likes him to, but is in love with Kurt. During the next footie training Ryan gets really jealous because Nikki kisses Kurt right in front of him, which is provoking of course, and tackles Kurt so bad he has to get hospitalised and it seems like he’s paralysed. Except Anita, no one wants to know Ryan anymore. He appologises to Barry, but Barry’s sure it wasn’t an accident.

The doctors say Kurt will never be able to play rough sports like football again.

Anita reckons Kath should get a boyfriend, and so she and Sarah fill in an application form for Mates For Life on the computer. Sarah doesn’t really want to submit the form, but when Draz sees it he kisses Neet and in the meantime clicks the submit button. Later when a guy drops in at the Scheppers’ house, Anita fears he’s the first blind date for Kath. The girls try to get rid of the guy, as Kath isn’t home, but when she returns he tells her he’s from the church, and so he isn’t a blind date at all. Later Kath does receive a letter from Mates For Life, and is really angry at Neet and Sarah for interfering in her life.

Episode 13 (series 6) 143

All the kids at school are treating Ryan like dirt. Drazic provokes him at the Shark Pool and the two guys start fighting, which makes Anita really angry. Ryan doesn’t go to school anymore, but hangs around the city instead. When he meets Mario, a drug dealer, the guy handily takes advantage of the situation Ryan’s in and offers him drugs, which he accepts. Anita suspects there’s something wrong with his brother because of his sudden fickle temper. Mario gets Ryan hooked.

Kurt is recovering from his accident, but his dad is really concerned about him, to the point of being annoying. Suddenly Barry wants to throw out all the football prizes he’s earned when he was younger, and when Kurt takes them to Barry’s old footie club, and gives them to an old mate of his dad’s. Later on the guy offers Barry a job as barman at his old club... Kurt doesn’t think his dad can handle selling booze all day long without having any himself. He can, however. Kurt gets his dad’s prizes back, and doesn’t want to forget his old man is a legend.

Albers is dealing with a play called How Does Your Garden Grow, which is about life in prison, Sarah really likes it. When Kath finds Sarah’s book and browses through it, she reckons there’s obscene language on every page and that it’s garbage. She goes to Di Barnett and complains about the book, but Di tries to assure her the book has been deemed suitable for seniors. Kath calls the play pornography and wants it banned, but as it’s the only complaint Di’s had so far, she isn’t prepared to do something about it, logically. During Albers’ next class Kath provides total humiliation to Sarah by taking her out of the classroom and saying Albers is teaching filth to children. Sarah’s really angry because of what her mother’s done, and still wants to study the play, even though it’s not compulsary. Kath keeps complaining to Barnett, and eventually the play is banned, which causes the other students’ to be angry at Sarah. Meanwhile she’s angry at her mum, who reckons she’s broken the rules and feels free to search Sarah’s room and keeps saying complete crap. Then Sarah tells the others she’s with them, and proves herself by interrupting a conversation by her mother and Di. Later, in class, she tells the others the play will be dealt with again, which they like, but at the Scheppers’ place the situation between Sarah and Kath is still tense.

Episode 14 (series 6) 144

Kurt returns to school. Nikki reckons there should have been people qualified to do first aid when Kurt got injured, and tells Barnett the curriculum should include learning how to save someone’s life. Barnett agrees to organising first aid classes, but Nikki knows many students won’t voluntarily take the classes in their own time, so she gets a pretty friend of hers, who’s an actress, to act like she’s the teacher. Heaps of guys subscribe for the classes, but when the real teacher arrives it turns out to be some fat guy!

Mai and Sarah are doing a history project together. Albers’ intention was for the kids to interview their grandparents, but Sarah’s mum hasn’t spoken to her mum for ages, and Sarah’s late father was an orphan. Therefore Mai and Sarah go to the cemetery where Sarah’s dad is buried to do some research on a local family. But when they search the whole place and don’t find a tombstone which has got Sarah’s dad’s name on it, and the place’s register book doesn’t mention him either, Sarah’s puzzled and asks her mum, who’s actually mad at her for even wanting to look the grave up. Sarah goes to the government department to look for her dad’s death certificate, but it isn’t there, so he must be alive! First Sarah’s glad, but then she finds her mum has been lying to her all her life. Later her mum finally tells her what happened: she got pregnant unmarried at eighteen, and the guy left her. She lied because she didn’t want Sarah to be ashamed, and claims she never saw Sarah’s father again.

Mario doesn’t want to give Ryan his drugs when Ryan says he hasn’t got much money, and so he searches his house for money, even his sister’s room, but when he doesn’t find enough cash there he goes to school and to borrows money from Mai. When he comes home in the evening, he starts saying weird things to Anita, who thinks he’s drunk, and is mad because he stole her money. Drazic has already figured out Ryan’s on drugs, but Anita won’t believe him because he’s her brother. Draz looks Ryan up and tries to save him, but Ryan thinks he’s in control of the situation. He’s getting desperate however, and when he needs more drugs he steals the school’s videocamera from Mai’s locker and wants to give that to Mario, who refuses to take it. Draz is sure Ryan took the camera, and when Neet finds out that’s true she says if he doesn’t return it she’ll call their mum. He does.

Episode 15 (series 6) 145

Sarah’s acting a bit offensive to her mum, as she’s doing all the things Sarah can do herself. Sarah doesn’t want to be checked all the time. She also doesn’t want to do so many things in the church anymore, and she wants to stick with the friends she’s made at school, who Kath doesn’t like. When the local minister, Reverend Harris, invites Sarah to come to the church youth group, she isn’t enthusiastic.

Nikki phones a radio station because she can get fifty dollars by just singing a song. Next there’s a call on the radio: the jock wants to talk to Nikki, and when she phones him she’s told that a well-known record company wants to give her a record deal. She goes to the studio twice, but the second time Mai, who went there with Nik, sees the guy who claims to be from the record company is in fact a pizza delivery boy. When Mai tries to tell Nikki she’s being fooled, Nikki won’t listen, but when she finds the envelope that’s supposed to contain a contract, is filled with some money and a letter to thank her for her cooperation. Nikki goes back into the studio and sings a song about what a jerk the jock is, but he shows her the delay button on his panel: the last minutes weren’t broascasted. Nikki realises if she wants a career in music it won’t just fall in her hand, but she’ll have to work hard to get what she wants.

Anita’s still lying for Ryan. Barnett has discovered Ryan’s school results have been decreasing over the last month. She knows he’s going through a tough period after the accident and advises him to get counselling, but he quits school. Anita tries to stop him more than once, and so does Kath, but it doesn’t work. When Ryan tells Mario he hasn’t got enough money, the guy offers him a job as a dealer. Ryan takes the job, but doesn’t deal with it very well: he goes to Hartley and to the Shark Pool to offer the kids there drugs, and he even tries to sell some to Drazic, who kicks him out of the Pool. Later Ryan notices how bad he looks, and then Kurt also points out to him he’s a junk. The dealing didn’t work either, so he tries to return the stuff to Mario, who doesn’t want it. Ryan’s bashed as a pay off, realises drugs aren’t problem solvers and finally returns home.

Mai asked Sarah to fill in for her at the Shark Pool because she had to go to the radio station with Nikki. At the Pool, Draz tries to take advantage of Sarah by letting her do the dirty jobs, but she’s a lot smarter than he thinks. When her mum visits the place to check up on her again, she sees how well Sarah handles the situation and the difficult customers. Kath tells Sarah the Pool isn’t as bad as she thought.

Episode 16 (series 6) 146

Sarah wants to do everything she can to find her father, but her mother’s lips are sealed. Anita agrees to help Sarah, and as they browse a photo album, they spot the same man on several photos, so they think he might be Sarah’s father. They show the photo to reverend Harris, who tells them who the man on the photo is. He’s a car mechanic, and when Sarah visits him he tells her he’d love to be her father, but that he isn’t. Back home, Sarah starts searching through all of her mother’s things, and eventually finds a bible with a slimy message to Kath from reverend Harris. He’s her father... Sarah is extremely angry because of all the lies told to her, and also because her mother is still protecting the reverend, saying he does important work and has earned the respect of the community. Sarah reckons the guy’s a hypocrite, and so is her mother.

Ryan returns to school, but almost everyone is picking on him. This is not making things easier for him, but instead of scolding at Ryan, Kurt puts in a good word for him with Albers, who doesn’t even know Ryan has been doing drugs. Albers invites Ryan to help him clean up the school’s old tennis court, which hasn’t been used for years, to show the other students his intentions are good again. After a while Nikki offers Ryan her help, to make up for her constantly acting hostilely towards him before.

Mai gets robbed at the Shark Pool, and is sure the thief wasn’t just after her money, but after her too. She gets really paranoid, and when at night Draz wants to comfort her, they end up kissing. The next day Draz wants to forget the event, but Mai tells him she thinks she’s got feelings for him. Drazic doesn’t tell his girlfriend Anita about his adultery.

Episode 17 (series 6) 147

A quite known singer approaches Nikki when she’s busking, and tells her she heard her on the radio, and would like to work on a song with her. Nikki’s thrilled, and works on a song she wrote with the singer, without signing a proper contract first. Ryan and Kurt warn her, after all she was already screwed once, and eventually it turns out the singer only wanted to use Nikki’s material for her own sake. She gives Nikki twohundred bucks and thinks that will make it alright. Nikki goes to the studio again with some new material, but insists on signing a proper contract before playing it to the singer.

Sarah is bold towards Kath during breakfast. At school, during computer class, she insists on doing what she thinks is best, and when Di Barnett tries to prevent that, Sarah hits her. All the other students are very surprised, and so is Di. She suspects Sarah’s got personal problems, and doesn’t want to take the punishment any further than a short suspension. When Sarah comes home, she shouts to her mum she’s out of control, and that it’s het mum’s fault. Later she goes to the cop shop to give herself in, but the cops won’t arrest her because she wasn’t reported. When Kath comes to pick Sarah up, she refuses to go home with her. Eventually she does go home, but she tells her mum things will never be the same again. Barnett puts Sarah on a probation, she will have to behave well for a week.

Mai wants to talk to Drazic about the night they slept together, but he doesn’t. Draz starts avoiding her, and even moves Kurt in without her knowing it, to keep them apart.

Episode 18 (series 6) 148

Sarah’s still acting wayward, and refuses to go to the local old people’s home with her mother to do voluntary work, like they’re used to. Ryan offers to go instead, which hugely surprises Kath and his sister. At the old people’s home, Ryan becomes friends with a man, Harold, who used to play in a big band. Ryan brings him some CDs and lets him borrow a CD player, but when there are complaints about Harold’s music, Ryan suggests he buys headphones for him. Harold, however, says he hasn’t got any money, though the owner of the home tries to assure Ryan Harold only says those things because he’s senile.

Kurt decides to cook a sort of feast for Drazic and Mai, and Anita offers to help him. It’s obvious though, that things aren’t quite smooth between Mai and Draz, and the trouble is Kurt knows too, as Mai told him. Only Anita is still ignorant of what’s happened. The feast isn’t very nice, in spite of the food, but due to the tense situation. The next day Mai can’t stand the feeling of guilt she has anymore, and tells Anita what’s happened. Neet is really angry at Drazic but keeps calm and approaches him at the Shark Pool. She asks him if there’s anything going on between Mai and him, but he says there isn’t, and that if there was he would tell her. She pelts him with a drink and leaves, furious. Later he visits her at home, and she says she would have been able to forgive him for fornicating, but that it’s his lies that cause them to be finished.

Ryan tries to convince Kath the old people at the home are being ripped off as they’re supposed to get fifteen percent of their old age pension, but are getting far less. Kath doesn’t want to believe Ryan because she admires women like the home’s owner, the alleged wrongdoer, but when she visits the home unexpectedly she overhears a conversation between Harold and the owner. She’s convinced and appologises to Ryan for not believing him. She gives the owner in to the authorities, and the woman is to be replaced by a fairer someone.

Sarah feels Barnett is picking on her when the probation doesn’t end after one week, and she’s got to do jobs for Barnett after school every day. Therefore she puts a virus into Barnett’s computer and, after a while, offers to try and fix Barnett’s computer, seemingly innocent. Unfortunately for Sarah, Barnett gets a professional to inspect her computer afterwards, who tells her she had a virus which miraculously removed itself. Sarah’s trick didn’t work.

Episode 19 (series 6) 149

There’s a prisoner on a day release scheme working at the Hartley school yard, and Sarah quite likes him. It seems like he understands her. Barnett also assures Sarah he isn’t dangerous. She starts dating him secretly, as people finding out about them could give the guy, whose name is JJ, in and cause trouble. Sarah asks Neet for advice to change her looks so people won’t treat her like a dag anymore. She and JJ end up kissing on their first date, and in the meantime Kath is really worried about Sarah and reckons she doesn’t know what she’s doing and that she isn’t ready to have a boyfriend. Even though Sarah’s seventeen! After their date JJ sends Sarah a rose. When Anita warns Sarah for a guy who’s been imprisoned, but Sarah says she feels great doing this, and besides Neet went out with Draz, who isn’t quite an angel either.

When Kath finds a pack of condoms between Sarah’s clothes, instead of being glad her quite sensible daughter will be doing it protected if she does it at all, she’s devastated. Sarah only bought condoms to be prepared.

Ryan wants to buy a new pair of sneakers, but is broke, as usual. Draz offers to help him: they could go play basketball against two other guys for money. Drazic comes to the Scheppers’ place to talk about their plan, which bothers Anita. Ryan and Draz win their first basketball match. Anita meanwhile suspects Draz still has feelings for her and asks Ryan, who gets a bit crzay as Draz has been asking him the same about Anita. During the second game later on, Anita comes to the court to talk to Draz, and he gets so distracted he and Ryan lose.

Albers gives Kurt an assignment: for two days, he’s got to take care of a doll which acts just like a baby, to find out what’s it like to be a student and a parent at the same time. Nikki wants to act as the fake baby’s mother, which Kurt doesn’t appreciate because if she wouldn’t have been enthusiastic he might have been able to talk himself out of the assignment. He does get to like the idea when she tells him the ‘parents’ should live together for the duration of the test however, and so Nikki moves in with Kurt for two days. First everything goes right, but then the doll starts being quite annoying because it cries all the time, especially whenever things are romantic between Kurt and Nikki. The first night nothing happens because of the baby’s crying, and the next day Kurt and Nikki are really tired. That night the baby doesn’t cry at all, so Kurt and Nikki finally get to the romantic stuff. The next morning it turns out Kurt removed the baby’s computer, and Nikki’s pretty mad, and stays mad for a while. The baby made Nikki rethink her relationship with Kurt, and she reckons they should take things more slowly.

Episode 20 (series 6) 150

Kurt takes Nikki out to a restaurant because it’s her birthday, and Nikki wants to have lobster, which Kurt doesn’t like because he’s so fond of sea animals. When Nikki has to choose an alive lobster she wants cooked, she opts out and has a salad instead. Later the two go back to the restaurant because they want to buy the lobster to release it, even though it costs them ninety dollars. They put the lobster into the aquarium Drazic has got at the warehouse, so they can take it out at night when it’s high tide. Drazic has been cooking a lot lately, and in his innocence he cooks the lobster and serves it that night...

JJ seriously cuts his finger and is taken to hospital. Sarah’s really worried about him, but when she goes to the hospital too, to look him up, she catches him passionately kissing another girl. She’s really sad, and shortly after the event her mum and she decide to leave and go back to the counrty.

The girls are getting pretty annoyed by the guys constantly hassling them, and ask Barnett for a girls only room. They guys don’t accept this and besiege the room, and the whole thing comes to a war between the sexes. Eventually Anita is the first to see sense and start acting normal to the guys again. She also realises she’s been acting this way because of the feelings for Drazic she still has. When he tells her he’s not too bad at cooking and invites her for dinner at the warehouse, she refuses to go, although it does hurt her.