Tyler, Mo and Bailey found the festive lights towards the back of the shed. Tyler and Bailey positioned the lights at the front of the house whilst Mo worked out where they needed to be plugged into to make them work. They hadn't seen Jody since she'd been in the kitchen earlier, washing up Kazima's baking equipment. The three boys were about halfway through putting up the lights when they heard Mike call them inside and into the kitchen. To their surprise, everyone else in the house was there, looking just as confused as they did.
"Does anybody know anything about this?" Mike asked, pointing down at Kazima's tray of mince pies, which were all burnt to a crisp. Meanwhile, May-Li continued to flap a towel at the fire alarm, which was sounding loudly throughout the house. Everybody continued to look puzzled.
"Kaz spent a long time making these for everybody to enjoy, so whoever sabotaged them had better step forward, or if anyone knows anything, come and see me in the office." Mike explained.
"Why are you blaming us? Kaz might've put the oven on too high!" Bailey asked.
"I was out here when Kaz put them in the oven. The oven was on the right temperature and the timer was set for 10 minutes then, so someone must've changed it." May-Li said.
"I want to know what happened by the end of the day please." Mike said, turning to leave.
"Wait!" Bailey called after him.
"What?" Mike questioned, turning to face everyone again.
"Jody was out here when the mince pies were cooking. She could've easily changed the timer so they cooked for longer." Bailey accused
"Bailey!" Tyler exclaimed.
"You saw me doing the washing up!" Jody defended herself.
"Yeah, but as soon as we left, you could've tampered with the timer, and it wouldn't surprise me considering that you took everyone's stuff only three weeks ago." Bailey said.
"I'm trying to pay everyone back, not sabotage them more!" Jody shouted.
"Well then what about the fact that you've been a bah-humbug all day then?" Bailey pointed out.
"Jody?" Mike asked seriously.
"No one's gonna believe me anyway! No one ever believes me!" Jody exclaimed, before storming out of the kitchen, which was followed by a loud slam of her door from upstairs. Everyone gradually left the kitchen.
"Well done Bailey!" Mo snapped.
"You know what Mike's like, everyone would've been punished, and I'm not missing out on my Christmas because she's selfish." Bailey told his friends.
"Jody's one of the good guys now. Yes, she took people's stuff, which was wrong, but we've all forgiven her for that, and she's trying really hard to pay everyone back." Tyler explained.
"Look, you said yourself that Jody hasn't been acting how she normally would. Taking people's things was bad enough, but ruining Christmas is a whole new level of selfish." Bailey commented.
"She's not selfish! Jody would never do anything like that!" Tyler said.
"Then how do you explain this; you tell Jody Kaz is making mince pies, and she comes downstairs, even though she hasn't been down all day. She then asks us to leave her alone, and Kaz's mince pies are ruined." Bailey pointed out. Tyler was silent.
"Look, it doesn't matter whether Jody did or didn't ruin Kaz's mince pies. She can make some more! We need to focus on getting the lights ready for tonight to lift Jody's spirt, come on!" Mo said, leading the way out of the kitchen and back round to the front of the house to continue putting the lights up.


Meanwhile, Jody lay in her room, fists clenched, when there was a knock on the door.
"Leave me alone!" She called.
"It's only me." Mike said, coming in.
"Go away." Jody said sadly, sitting up on her bed.
"Not until I get to the bottom of this mince pie incident." Mike said, taking a seat on Jody's bed.
"It wasn't me!" Jody yelled.
"Look, you won't be in any trouble. Kaz can always make some more later, but the point is that she spent a long time making them perfect for everyone to enjoy, and it wasn't the kindest thing to do to ruin them." Mike explained.
"I didn't ruin anything!" Jody defended.
"Just between you and me. I won't even tell Tyler it was you if you don't want me to." Mike told Jody.
"I didn't do anything. I know I'm not exactly in the 'festive' mood, but that doesn't mean I'd sabotage Kaz's mince pies." Jody said, trying to keep calm.
"Look, Jody if you just admit it to me now, then I'll pretend this conversation never happened." Mike said softly.
"It. Wasn't. Me!" Jody shouted. "If anyone's supposed to believe me, it's you Mike!" Jody said sadly, laying back down again. Figuring there was no use in forcing Jody to talk, Mike left her to it. But he decided to talk to her later, as he was growing more and more worried about the way she'd been acting lately.


"All good?" Mo asked, taking a step back from the house with Bailey and Tyler.
"Perfect. Everything's straight and the electricity works on all of them this time!" Tyler exclaimed, high-5ing his friends before all three of them headed indoors.
"I might try and talk to Jody about what happened, I'll see you later." Tyler said, before heading up the stairs to Jody's room.
"Go away." She replied once Tyler had knocked on the door. From her voice, Tyler could tell she was upset.
"Look, I know it wasn't you who ruined the mince pies. So does Mo." Tyler told his friend.
"Really?" Jody asked, slightly brighter, as she opened the door to let Tyler inside.
"Of course! You might not be feeling Christmassy, but you're not that much of a kill-joy!" Tyler exclaimed.
"Thanks. But who could've done it?" Jody asked.
"Well, when did you leave the kitchen after you'd done the washing up?" Tyler questioned thoughtfully.
"Um...about five minutes after you left. There was only a couple of bits to sort out since Kaz had already started." Jody explained.
"Was she in the kitchen when you got there?"
"Yeah, she was. And she only left when I came in. Wow, I can really see why I'm getting the blame now!" Jody said, sitting down on her bed.
"Don't worry - we'll clear your name. We just have to work out who could've gone into the kitchen after you left." Tyler reassured her.
"Okay - but anyone could've come into the kitchen after I left and changed the timer!" Jody said exasperatedly.
"Let's just leave it - I'll tell Mike that I was with you the whole time or something. You coming to the switch-on tonight?" Tyler asked. Jody looked thoughtful.
"I'll come for the switch-on, but then I'm going in to read my book whilst it's quiet. I'll get a headache if I stay for the party." Jody told Tyler.
"Oh, okay." Tyler said, slightly disheartened. But he supposed that once Jody was outside she'd want to stay for longer. He noticed that it was beginning to get darker.
"Well, I'd best be helping Mike, Mo and Bailey outside getting ready for the party." Tyler told Jody. "You coming?"
"Yeah, I'll do anything I can to help around here until I get enough to pay everyone back for their things!" Jody exclaimed.
"Great, let's go!" Tyler exclaimed, and with that, the pair headed outside to set up for the big switch-on that evening.


Wow! Two updates in one week! I guess I'm really getting into this! And I have plans for the next chapter! Let me know if you like it so far, and thanks for reading! Feel free to follow if you enjoyed!

~ Fanatic1234