Stephanie begins her first day of the eighth grade by ignoring her younger brother, Arthur, who is a year younger than her. Stephanie decides to run for student council president for the school year. After allowing a good portion of the school's male population to kiss her, she wins the election. She loses her best friend, Voula, by neglecting to thank her during her speech.
Against her father's orders, Voula attends the school dance, but doesn't tell him she's going. Stephanie asks Wheels to be her date for the date, and he accepts. Before arriving, Stephanie, Heather and Erica go to Lucy's house and start drinking her parent's alcohol. By time they get to the dance, Stephanie is drunk. After a short time, she runs to the washroom, where she is sick. Voula is persuaded by everyone to give a speech for the school, that was supposed to have been given by Stephanie. Voula's father walks into the gym, and takes his daughter home.
Yick feels that Mr. Raditch gives him poor marks without even reading his work. Arthur suggests copying some of Stephanie's old assignments and submitting it as Yick's, to see if his marks improve. All is fine for the first little while, until Mr. Raditch discovers that Yick has been cheating. Melanie and Kathleen want to experiment with drugs and buy pills off of Joey, not knowing that they are actually vitamins. After overhearing what Joey has done, they both confront him and demand their money back.
Joey and Rick work together on a school assignment. While working at Rick's house, Joey discovers that Rick's bruises aren't the results of school yard fights, but an abusive father. Joey confides in his mother, who contacts the school to let them know. Although angry at first, Rick is relieved when he gets to go live with his brother.
Melanie fears she is too flat chested for the school swim team. After constant complaining that her mother wont buy her a bra, L.D. takes Melanie to the department store. When she arrives at school, wearing her bra, she is the victim of much ridicule and teasing. At the big swim meet (girls team vs. the boys team), Joey makes a loud comment about Melanie's chest to the whole school, and L.D. tosses him into the pool.
Many of Ms. Avery's students think that she is a lesbian. Caitlin, who admires her teacher, defends these rumours and insists that her teacher isn't gay. After dreaming that her classmates think that she is also gay, Caitlin begins to act self-conscious at school. Caitlin confronts her teacher, who informs her student that she is not gay. After confiding that she has been questioning her own sexuality, Ms. Avery informs Caitlin that these dreams are perfectly normal and that everyone her age has them.
Stephanie asks Wheels out on another date, and rumours start floating around the school that they will have sex on their date. Wheels unknowingly buys condoms at the drugstore where Stephanie's mother works. All pressure and plans are quickly ended, when Wheels arrives at Stephanie's house for their date, and Stephanie's mom recognizes him from the drugstore.
L.D. is worried when her father is admitted to the hospital. She fears that after losing her mother to cancer, her father will die as well. She is afraid to see him in the hospital, as it may stir up memories of when her mother was stayed there. She is relieved when everything turns out ok, and her father returns home.
Voula befriends Lucy by helping her with her homework. After her marks improve, Lucy shows her appreciation by taking Voula shopping for clothes. At the store, Voula learns that her friend shoplifts. Lucy steals a sweater Voula likes and they are both caught when leaving the store and are taken to the police station, where Lucy is charged. Stephanie meets her favourite soap opera star at a book signing and agrees to go out on a date with him. After he tries to seduce her, Stephanie informs him that she lied about her age and that she is a minor, and he flees.
In an effort to impress Caitlin, Rick joins the school's anti-pollution committee. Yick buys a vase, passing it off as an ancient family heirloom for his school project. When Arthur accidently breaks the vase, Yick gives his class a recount of being a refugee from China and moving to Canada.
Shane and Spike have sex for the first time, at Lucy's party. Spike is later worried when her period is late and fears she might be pregnant. Her mother discoveries a home pregnancy test and takes her daughter to the doctor to find out for sure. It is then discovered that she is indeed pregnant. Meanwhile, Yick likes Melanie, but is afraid to ask her out. Arthur tries to give him advice, but everytime Yick follows Arthur's plans they backfire. Yick finally gets courage and asks Melanie to go on a date skating and she accepts.
Wheels meets his birth father for the first time when he comes to town. Wheels finds he has a lot in common with his father and is hopeful that they will become close. After realizing that his father doesn't feel the same way, Wheels is hurt. Spike is considering giving her baby up for adoption once it is born, and asks Wheels for advice.
After Wheels rejects a date with Stephanie, she starts flirting with Joey to make him jealous. After she appoints Joey as sports rep on the student council, the grade sevens retaliate because Yick was interested in the position first. They start an impeachment of Stephanie as school president. After Joey finds out she was using him to make Wheels jealous, he resigns from the position. Stephanie vows that next semester she will change and will do a good job as president.
Spike is given an egg to take care of for a week, to show her what taking care of a baby is like. Stephanie and Alexa are both attracted to Simon, the new student. Stephanie is jealous to see him and Alexa together at Lucy's party. Feeling guilty, Shane asks Spike if there is anything he can do to help her. She gives the egg to Shane and tells him to take care of it. Shane arrives at the party with the egg and starts tossing it around the room with his friends. Spike leaves, feeling upset, telling Shane how upset she is at him. Shane later tells his parents that he got her pregnant.
Lucy takes a liking to her substitute teacher. She is pleased with all the attention he gives her. L.D. sees him look down Lucy's top in class and warns Lucy to be careful. Lucy tells L.D. that she is just jealous. Lucy agrees to stay behind after school and help her teacher. Wheels walks in and finds the teacher's hands on Lucy's shoulders. Lucy runs home and is comforted by L.D. The following day at school, the teacher asks Lucy if she'd like to stay after school again. "Not in a million years", she replies. Wheels has been making poor marks, so his parents make him tutor with Ms. Avery after school. This means that Wheels must quit the band until his grades are better. He also ends up getting glasses since part of the problem was he couldn't see the board well. Meanwhile, Joey and Snake find Simon playing bass guitar in the gym, and ask him to be the zits' new bass player.
When a new student, Liz, transfers to the school; Joey takes an immediate liking to her. Rumours begin circulating that Liz is a wild girl, who likes to have sex and Joey wants to know if its true. While working after school on a project at her house, Joey asks Liz if she wants to have sex. Liz then kicks Joey out of the house and he later realizes how sorry he is, because he actually likes her.
Shane tells Spike that his parents want to meet her and her mother to discuss the baby. When the five meet, Shane's Dad announces that his son will attend a private school. Shane tells his father that he isn't going away, and wants to be around when the baby is born. Melanie breaks a date with Yick by saying her mom wont let her go. Yick later discovers that Melanie lied, when he runs into her and Snake, on a date, at the movies.
Caitlin learns that she has epilepsy and doesn't want her friends to know. While attending Susie's slumber party, Caitlin has a seizure and her friends find out. Caitlin loses the lead part of the school play to Kathleen and decides to drop out of the show. She later realizes that dropping out won't change her condition and re-joins the show. Meanwhile, a painfully shy Michelle is terrified to give a speech in front of the class. Joey teases her by calling her a mouse (quiet like a mouse) and making squeaking noises. When Michelle tries to get out of the speech by telling Mr. Raditch she has a sore throat, he doesn't fall for it and tells her to talk about something she knows. She gives her speech on her shyness, and everyone loves it. Afterward Joey tries to get Michelle to write his speech.
Dwayne, the school bully, challenges Joey to an after school fight. After almost chickening out, Joey shows up to fight, but still gets hurt. Desperate to win Simon's affections, Stephanie asks him if he wants to help out with the school dance. She is later crushed when he tells her he is dating Alexa and isn't interested in seeing her.
When Kathleen and her classmates prepare for their part on a tv quiz show, she invites them to her house to practice. She is embarassed when her mom appears drunk in front of her friends. Her mother later misses the taping of the quiz show, because she has been drinking. Kathleen later decides to speak to a counselor about her problems at home.
Erica meets an older guy at the school dance and french kisses him in the school stairwell. She later feels ill, and thinks he may have given her mono. When he drops by the house to visit, Erica is too sick to go out. He asks her twin sister Heather to go for a drive instead, where he kisses her as well. Heather tells Erica what happened and they both go to the doctors office to see if they have mono. They are both relieved to find out Erica had just come down with the flu.
After her father decides to seek custody of her, Stephanie becomes depressed. This depression doesn't improve when her mother announces she plans to marry her new boyfriend. Arthur finds a stray dog and wants to keep him. His mother refuses this, but Stephanie tells Arthur she will cheer up and maybe this will make their mom change her mind about keeping the dog.
Caitlin overhears that the PTA want to throw Spike out of school because of her pregnancy. She then decides to write an article about it for the school paper. When Mr. Raditch refuses the article to be published, Caitlin decides to release an underground newspaper. The whole school receives a copy and applaud her efforts. The only other disapprover, besides Mr. Raditch is Spike. She confronts Caitlin about not discussing this with her before publishing the article.
Snake's parents go out-of-town for the weekend, leaving him home alone. Joey and Wheels convince him to let them sleep over. When they oversleep, an underage Joey drives Wheels to an appointment in Snake's parents car. All goes well until they see another vehicle bump into the car while it is parked. They spend all their money getting the taillight fixed, only later to discover that Snake's father had broken it himself the week prior.
The substitute teacher from "A Helping Hand" (season 2, episode 2) is back, only this time is teaching Susie's class. Lucy warns Susie to be careful around him, but Susie doesn't know what she means by this. After the teacher touches Susie; her, Lucy, L.D. and Wheels report him to the principal.
It's the end of the school year and Joey wants the band he formed with Snake and Wheels to perform at the graduation dance. It is then announced that the eighth grade class will return to Degrassi in the fall, as the school is adding an ninth grade. Mr. Raditch informs Joey that he has to repeat the eighth grade due to poor marks. Joey doesn't want to perform at the graduation dance after this, but Wheels and Snake convince him to. Also at the dance, Spike goes into labour.
At the start of the new school year, Wheels's parents forbid him to hang around Joey, as they feel he is a bad influence. Spike returns to school, having had a baby girl during the summer. She ignores Shane, who says he wants to see the baby. Lucy meets an older guy, Paul, who she begins dating. Yick finds out that Arthur's mother won over a million dollars in a lottery over the summer. While out at Joey's place, Wheels is startled to come home and find out that both his parents were killed by a drunk driver.
At the start of the new school year, Wheels's parents forbid him to hang around Joey, as they feel he is a bad influence. Spike returns to school, having had a baby girl during the summer. She ignores Shane, who says he wants to see the baby. Lucy meets an older guy, Paul, who she begins dating. Yick finds out that Arthur's mother won over a million dollars in a lottery over the summer. While out at Joey's place, Wheels is startled to come home and find out that both his parents were killed by a drunk driver.
Lucy devotes most of her time to boyfriend, Paul, and neglects her friends. When her parents go out-of-town for the weekend, Lucy decides to invite her friends to a sleepover. After she has already invited them, Paul convinces her to have a party instead. He tells her not to invite her friends, as it should be kept to high-school students only. At the party, Paul tries to persuade Lucy to have sex with him. After she refuses, he leaves. At school, Lucy's friends are upset with her for not inviting them to the party. L.D. then informs Lucy that Paul told everyone he had sex with her at the party.
Arthur and Yick exchange gifts for Christmas. When Yick assumes that Arthur spent more money on his gift, they get into an argument. The two friends remember all that they have been through together, and become friends again.
Caitlin has a big crush on Joey and agrees to work with him on a school project. The more time they spend together, the more Caitlin thinks he returns her affection. Caitlin mistakenly thinks Joey has invited her to the dance with him. When she arrives, she is crushed to find out that he is there with Liz.
Snake is excited when his older brother comes to visit for a couple of days. He is later shocked when his brother announces that he is gay. Snake doesn't know how to deal with his brother's revelation. As he tries to come to terms with this news, Snake's brother announces that their parents have kicked him out of the house after he tells them his news.
When Liz tells Caitlin about her interest in animal testing, she tries to convince her to write an article for the school paper. Liz and Caitlin work together in order to let the students know about this topic. When Kathleen informs Caitlin that animal testing is necessary in some cases, Caitlin does some research and learns that Kathleen is right.
Erica has a crush on Clutch, Paul's friend. She finds the nerve to ask him to go bowling with her and her friends and he says yes. As Erica has to attend a dentist's appointment during the date, her twin, Heather fills in until she gets back. At the end of the date, Erica is disappointed when Heather tells her that Clutch actually likes Lucy.
While working on a science fair project together, Melanie is shocked to read in Kathleen's diary about her diet. It appears that Kathleen is anorexic, which causes her to faint during the science fair. Kathleen is furious with Melanie when she tells Ms. Avery. Ms. Avery insists that Kathleen talk to the school nutritionist.
Snake asks Melanie to go to a rock concert with him. When she can't find the money she needs to buy a concert ticket, she steals the money from her mother's purse, with the intent to pay her back. When a babysitting job falls through, Melanie confesses that she stole the money. Her mother grounds her, and wont allow her to go to the concert. BLT bets Joey that he can't find a date for Friday night. After numerous attempts, he finally asks Caitlin, who agrees. She later finds out that Joey asked her out on a bet and is furious with him. Joey convinces Caitlin that the money he won wasn't the reason he asked her by ripping up the twenty dollar bill.
Tired of living with his grandparents, Wheels decides to track down his birth father. Joey and Snake attend a concert, where Luke and Shane take acid. Wheels tells Joey and Snake that he is running away to find his father, and swears them to secrecy.
Wheels locates his father at a hotel and surprises him with his arrival. Wheels's grandmother asks Joey where her grandson is. Joey reluctantly tells her and she goes to the hotel to take him home. Wheels tells her he wants to stay with his father. When Wheels's father tells him that he can't stay, he returns home with his grandmother. The police inform Luke that they found Shane. He had jumped from a bridge and is now in a coma.
Arthur doesn't like his father's new girlfriend, and him and Yick plot to break them up. Arthur is frustrated when his attempts don't work, and is shocked to see that his father's girlfriend had spent the night. At the school open house, Arthur is furious when his father brings his girlfriend. Arthur feels bad when his father later tells him that he broke up with her.
BLT invites Michelle to the graduation dance and she accepts. She introduces him to her parents, who then forbid her to go out with him. They tell her she is too young to date, but she wonders if they don't want her to date him because he is black. When she questions her mother about this, her mother says they are just looking out for her. Michelle decides to go to the dance with BLT anyway.
Lucy has a party while her parents are out-of-town. Joey, Snake and Wheels get Clutch to buy a case of beer for them. They are stopped by the police when they decide to have a drink on their way to Lucy's. Shane comes out of his coma at the hospital. When Lucy's parents call from the airport because their flight is cancelled, everyone cleans up and leaves. Before her parents arrive, Clutch shows up, drunk. Lucy hurries him out before her parents show up and later breaks up with him because of his drinking.
At the end of the school year, Joey asks Caitlin to the graduation dance. Ms. Avery informs Spike that her grades were poor and encourages her to make them up in correspondence courses. Faulty wiring causes the fire alarm to go off at the dance as the students stand outside and watch their school burn down.