Things don't go quite as planned for Tucker and Becca on the first day of school. Now that they're finally in eighth grade, Becca is looking forward to writing for the school paper and Tucker wants to be the school announcer. However, Tucker soon learns that he's up against Jack, a smooth-talking new kid who seems determined to humiliate him. Meanwhile, Becca and her best friend Christine are disappointed to find that they aren't in the same homeroom.

Christine decides that she wants to take wrestling in gym class with the boys and Becca helps out by starting a petition to let girls enroll. But when Christine shows up, Tucker makes fun of her and, as punishment, Coach Petrowsky assigns him to the girls' rhythmic dance class. Everything comes to a head when Tucker and Becca convince a reluctant Miles and Christine to compete in a boys against girls wrestling match.

Having won the speech contest for the past two years, Becca is determined to hold on to her title this year. After carefully choosing rock climbing as her topic, she throws herself into her research only to find that her academic rival Vega may also have the same idea. Meanwhile, Tucker sees an opportunity to take over the school DJ position, a job currently occupied by his arch-nemesis Jack.

A bully is terrorizing Tucker's younger brother Horace, so Tucker steps in to defend him, only to discover the bully is Jack's younger cousin. Jack then challenges Tucker and Horace to a fight against Garth and him. Meanwhile, Becca and Christine befriend a stray dog that has been disrupting classes and try to save the mutt from the dogcatcher.

Becca is thrilled when her old best friend Maxine has returned after living in New York since third grade. But when Maxine is now Max, and Becca hardly recognizes this seemingly sophisticated person who finds Parkview really boring. Christine can't stand Max and Becca finds herself caught in the middle. Meanwhile, Tucker decides to tell Kerry how he feels about her and organizes a cosmic bowling party in the hopes of getting a moment alone with her.

Tucker and Miles decide to try out for the soccer team and Tucker surprises everyone, even himself, with his natural talent as a goalie. Much to Jack's dismay, Tucker leads the team to victory in their first game. But when Tucker gets benched for grandstanding, he gets kicked off the team. Meanwhile, Becca starts writing for the school paper and, in exchange for having her poetry published, is assigned to the reviled sports column.