"Sapphire!" cried Harry, running up to greet her from school.
"Hello, Harry. Hello, Jeff" smiled Sapphire, scooping them into her arms.
After a quick hug, Sapphire put Harry and Jeff back down and followed them into the living room. Liam and Johnny were playing on the pool table, and Liam looked up as she walked in. Carmen, Tee, Lily, Frank and Toby were crowded around the television, watching some game-show or other. Elektra was sitting on the sofa painting her nails. Sapphire could hear Gus tinkering on the piano nearby, and Mike clanging around in the kitchen, preparing supper.
"Jeff wants to do some drawing!" said Harry, sitting on the sofa opposite Elektra.
"Well Jeff knows where the crayons and paper are." replied Sapphire. She watched as Harry got up and went over to the cupboards, leaving Jeff on the table. When Harry returned she got out her homework, and set about solving the maths questions. About an hour later Tracy arrived.
"Hey guys!" she greeted. "Supper's ready!"
There was a mad frenzy to reach the dinner table as usual by the others whilst Sapphire helped Harry tidy up the crayons. Together they walked out of the living room, down the corridor, to the kitchen. There was some cheese pizza and some chicken pizza on the table. Gina was just pouring some drinks.
"Come on slow coaches!" cried Liam, smiling. Harry stuck his tongue out at Liam and went running to his chair. Sapphire sat down between Harry and Tracy. Gina placed the drinks around the table, and they all tucked into their pizza, smiling and laughing at Liam's frequent jokes. Nobody noticed the figure in black that was watching them through the kitchen window.
After supper, Sapphire helped Tee clear up the table, whilst Johnny took Harry and Jeff outside to play football.
"How was school today?" asked Sapphire, stacking the plastic cups for washing up.
"It wasn't too bad." replied Tee, "Johnny got his lunch nicked again by that Felix Crouch."
"I've told you can I help with that."
"Johnny said that it will just make it worse. Please don't do anything!" begged Tee, "He told me not to tell you."
"I won't do anything unless you want me to." promised Sapphire, wiping down the table. "Look, we've all done now. Why don't you join Carmen and Lily in the living room? Mike will do the washing up later."
Tee smiled at Sapphire and went running off to join the other two. Meanwhile Harry came running in from the garden.
"Jeff's stuck up a tree!" cried Harry, pulling Sapphire towards the door. "Save Jeff!"
"We'll need Tracy's help." said Sapphire. "Let's go and find her, yeah!" Harry and Sapphire went off to find Tracy, attracting the interest of Tee, Lily and Carmen who joined the others outside. Eventually they found Tracy in the office, and she came outside to help.
"Why am I doing this again?" asked the mysterious figure to the person on the other end of the phone.
"I told you. We need a Plan B." replied the voice. "What's going on?"
"Well the giraffe is stuck in the tree and they are beating the branch with sticks to knock it loose."
"Keep your eyes peeled, and report back here after light's out." replied the voice. Then the line went dead.
After a lot of branch bashing, Liam managed to knock Jeff loose and he fell down from the tree. Lily caught him and handed him back to Harry, who went running off inside to give Jeff a "check-up". Sapphire thanked the others and went off after Harry. Everyone went back to their football game, and the girls went inside to find Elektra for some more hair-styling tips.
When it was finally lights out Sapphire tucked Harry and Jeff into bed, drew their curtains and turned out the light. She went across to her own room, and set about finishing her maths homework. All over the Dumping Ground the lights slowly went out and slowly everyone fell asleep. The mysterious figure left across the gravel path, unnoticed.