Billie looks around the yard for Sara.

‘There she is,’ Billie says. ‘We had bees in our classroom and she wasn’t even scared!’

‘Sure!’ says Billie’s dad. ‘I’ll go ask her mum. How are you, Jack?’ He messes up Jack’s hair.

Jack shrugs and smooths his hair down again.

Billie’s dad asks Sara’s mum if Sara can come for a play.

‘That would be lovely,’ Sara’s mum says. ‘I’ll pick her up just before dinner.’

Sara walks home with Billie and Jack. Billie talks the whole way.

Sara talks a lot too. She tells Billie all about living on a farm. It sounds so exciting!

‘Wow!’ Billie says. ‘Sara had her own horse! How cool is that, Jack?’

‘Pretty cool, I guess,’ Jack says. But he doesn’t look at them.

When they get home, Jack keeps walking towards his house. Jack lives next door.

‘Hey, Jack!’ Billie says. ‘We have to work on our project!’

‘I’ll do it later,’ Jack says, sounding grumpy. ‘I’m a bit tired today.’

‘Is he OK?’ Sara asks.

Billie shrugs. ‘Don’t worry,’ she tells Sara. ‘He’s just shy sometimes.’

But Billie knows something is not right. She and Jack have been friends for a long time. And no-one knows Jack as well as Billie!

One part of her wants to go see if he’s OK. The other part of her is excited to work on a project with Sara.

Billie decides she will find a way to cheer him up later.

Billie and Sara sit at the computer. They find out lots of things they can do to look after their planet.

Billie writes down ‘R, R, R.’

Billie’s mum walks over with baby Noah on her hip. ‘What does that stand for?’ she says.

‘Reduce, re-use, recycle,’ Billie says. ‘We have to buy less stuff, Mum!’

‘That’s true,’ Billie’s mum says.

‘We recycle what we can. But we can all do better.’

‘On our farm, we grew vegetables,’ Sara says. ‘And had compost bins for our scraps. We kept honey bees, and chickens for eggs.’

‘We grow vegetables,’ says Billie. ‘And we have chickens, too. Hey, Mum! We should get honey bees!’

‘Oh, I don’t know …’ says her mum. But she isn’t really listening anymore. Noah is getting restless. He wants to play on the computer too!

‘But the bees are dying,’ says Billie. ‘Sara and I watched a video about it on the internet. If all the bees die there will be no more food! Bees pollinate the flowers so they can grow into fruit and vegetables. We have to save them, Mum! We need to get a beehive!’