At the Galleria Mall, six teens learn the ropes at their first jobs while negotiating the bumpy road through their high school years.
It's the summer they've been waiting for! No more begging for allowance-Jonesy, Nikki, Jude, Jen and Wyatt are all applying for part time jobs. Jen is totally prepared for her interview at The Penalty Box and sails through, but the others do horribly,including Caitlin, the most spoiled girl in school who is forced to get a job after maxing out daddy's credit cards.
Work pressures are getting to the gang and everyone is dying for a day off. After scoring a job at the mall's indoor amusement park, Jonesy comes up with way to get rid of all their blues - he can get them all in for free! They start planning their excuses so they can get a day off and hang out at the amusement park all day long. One problem: work-a-holic Jen (the one who needs a day off more than anyone) doesn't want to risk losing her job. So the rest of the gang put their plans in motion to break Jen out of The Penalty Box. Nikki and Caitlin become friends, and Jen manages getting caught with only probation - Jonesy ends up getting fired.
Jen's going for her driver license and Jude, the only one with a valid permit to drive, is giving her some tips. At first she's timid, she's worse than an old lady driver...but after training at the virtual driving game in the arcade, Jen's a lean, mean, driving machine. After Wyatt loses his lucky jacket, he's convinced he's doomed to a life of bad luck. Caitlin has set out to prove to him that luck has nothing to do with your successes in life...or does it? Ask Jonsey...who just got fired again.
Christmas at the mall sucks: Line ups, impatient customers, and last-minute shopping is enough to drive anyone crazy. Caitlin tries to get the rest of the gang into the Christmas spirit and plans a Chris Cringle gift exchange. The gang is way too wiped out by the X-mas rush to get into the mood, and eventually Caitlin herself gives up. When Jonesy(who gets fired from his elf gig in Santa's Village) gets them all locked inside the mall after closing, the gang discover the true meaning of Christmas at the mall.
Caitlin's been slacking big time... she hasn't ordered lemons in ages, she ignores customers, and her lemonade just plain sucks. When Jonsey scores a job running a giant lime juice stand situated right across The Big Squeeze, Caitlin thinks it's great... until his lime threatens to put her lemon out of business. Jonsey christens it ""The Party Lime"" and puts tons of elbow grease and ""Lime-style"" into the grand opening, and soon everyone's hanging out at his juice stand - including Caitlin. When her boss sees how low the profits are, he threatens to move the Lemon to a Strip Mall unless things change - fat. Will Jonsey take one for the team and deliberately get fired? Meanwhile, Wyatt has scored back stage passes to the Mighty Weasels Concert and Jude and Nikki are clamoring over one another to get Wyatt to choose them. Wyatt begins to enjoy the power...
When Jen finally gets Caitlin a date with Kyle, the hot guy she's been crushing on, Caitlin has GOT to find the ""perfect outfit"". He always sees her in her dorky lemon hat - she wants to look extra-not-dorky tonight. After a desperate search for the perfect dress, Caitlin's ready to be the perfect potential girlfriend for this perfect date... but the ""perfect evening"" doesn't go quite as planned. Caitlin barfs sushi all over the dress, her date, Jonsey and Wyatt... and Jonsey gets fired. Meanwhile, Nikki gets her big chance to manage the Khaki barn for a day... and learns that the power trip over the clones (as fun as it was) just isn't worth losing your soul.
Jen is shocked when the gang reveals that they all ""skim little"" off the top at work. A free drink here, free demo CD there... aren't they terrified that they'll get fired? But then Jen sees how incredible the new Leon Shreds boarding jacket at the Penalty Box looks on her. It's so hot that she scores a date with a guy who's never noticed her until she slipped that jacket on, but it's way out of her price range. When Coach throws her into the penalty box - again - Jen finally snaps and swipes the goods. She's feeling pretty hot until the jacket is discovered missing. Jen is terrified - she's got to get it back before they figure out who took it. Jude falls in love with a talking massage lounger and is convinced he's found his soul mate. Can the others convince him ""Betty"" is just a chair? Oh, yeah, and Jonsey gets fired.
Jen falls instantly in love with Coach Halder's son Corey, who has just started working at The Penalty Box. She goes on a date with him, only to find that's he's horrifyingly similar to his dad. Yuck! She's got to get out of this - and fast. But Corey seems to be in love with her... and her friends warm her that she can't break up with him or she might lose her job. You can't dump the boss's son!!!! But maybe if Jen is the WORST date in the world, she can convince Corey to dump HER... Meanwhile, Jonsey destroys a receiver in Stereo Shack and agrees to work the damages. Unfortunately, the manager is a hard core Star Wars fan named Darth who Jonsey used to torture in middle school... and now Darth can taste the revenge. Jonsey gets humiliated… then fired.
Nikki's manager of the Khaki Store is feed up with her attitude, so thanks to a suggestion from Jonsey, she uses reverse psychology on Nikki and made her become Employee of the Month. And Jonesy is taking a job as a 'Secret Shopper' in order to get free stuff every time he inspects a store.
Star Contest comes to the mall, and when Wyatt performs his original song about how awesome his friends are, he wins the regional finals. He gets his big break opening for Utility Pole, but the gang all miss the concert due to unforeseen circumstances (boys, sales, exploiting Wyatt's new fame...). Upset that they all ditched his show, Wyatt rewrites the words to his song at the last minute to reflect his feelings and tells everyone his friends suck. Suddenly the song has a life of its own and is playing all over the mall - and the gang have become pariahs in their own hood. Jonsey takes a job as Wyatt's manager, but gets fired. And Jude tries to instill a new ""barter system"" in the mall by paying for things with Stick IT Kabobs and Gyros.
The Penalty Box staff party is coming up and Jen has a crush a new worker. When she fails to get his attentions, Jen turns to her friends for help. The plan? Jen'll find a person to be her date other than the new worker to make him jealous. And it turned out her date would be... Jude! Mean while, Nikki and Jonesy go to a movie together to learn a line from it. However, later on, they get trapped in an elevator.
Wyatt is so nice all the time, so when Jonsey gets him stuck with a double-date, both females are attracted to Wyatt. Jonsey is fed up, and pledges to be as nice as Wyatt. Meanwhile, Catlin tries to help Jude get in touch with his feminine side. Everything works out in the end (sort of...)
Caitlin and Jen are beside themselves - Dog Toy, the COOLEST boy band EVER, are coming to the mall to shoot their next live video and they're auditioning local kids to put one lucky fan in the video - on stage! Jen has had a mad crush on Jason, the lead singer, for EVER and Caitlin is in LOVE with all of them. They drag a reluctant Nikki to the auditions, but when Nikki actually gets the part, Jen is furious. Traitor! How could she, she HATES boy bands! Jen refuses to talk to Nikki - until she uncovers Nikki's deep, dark secret - she's a CLOSET BOY BAND FAN! The guys, for their part, can't STAND boy bands... and having been abandoned by the girls for Dog Toy for the week, they resort to typical teenaged guy behaviour. The girls have obviously had a tempering affect on them - without their influence, they run wild around the mall... and hilarity ensues. Jonsey gets a job as the mall mascot and gets fired.
OK, So Nikki and Jonesy have had a Love-hate relationship since the beginning of the show, and Jude talks to Jonesy to ask if he actually LIKES Nikki. And so Jonesy admits that he likes Nikki. So Jen and Caitlyn overhear this and try to stop their date, because if they get in a fight, they'll, of course, have to take sides. So they come up with a plan to stop their relationship from going too far by telling Nikki that Jonesy is looking for a babysitter to look after his bratty little sibling. So when Jonesy tries to ask Nikki out, She gives him a flat out no. Eventually the spills out when Nikki comments to Jonesy how much of a jerk he was being for asking her to babysit.They go to the movies, and Wyatt, Caitlyn and Jen interrupt. So they leave the movie.Meanwhile, Jude borrows this highly concentrated lotion from Jen,which pretty much paralyzes him, and he shows up on the date, when Jonesy and Nikki are about to KISS, and they end up having to help Jude. So in the end, Nikki and Jones
Wyatt asks Serena out for Valentines Day and makes tons of traditionally romantic plans for the big night - flowers, candy, reservations - the works,. But when he overhears Serena talking about how cheesy Valentine's Day is, Wyatt panics and cancels all his plans. Caitlin and Jen convince him that this is in fact a mistake of gargantuan proportions and that Serena's feelings will be hurt if he plays it too cool on this holiest of girl holidays. So with mere hours to go, Wyatt searches high and low to find the perfect gifts for his crush, Meanwhile., Jonsey ventures waaaay out on a limb and asks Nikki out a date - but Nikki turns him down because she doesn't do Valentines Day dates anymore. Her Valentine's Day Date Embargo stems from some very bad experiences in years past and she's not about to risk another bad date. Nikki tries to convince Jen and Caitlin, who are searching frantically for dates, that they don't need a guy to have fun on Feb. 14th, but the girls try to find some anywa
Every year Caitlin is chosen in a contest to represent The Khaki Barn and win a free wardrobe. This year, her longtime ""frienemy"" Tricia is NOT going to let it happen so she enters too. When the contest comes to an end, the Khaki Barn rep. cannot choose between Caitlin and Tricia and Tricia challenges Caitlin to a shop off, winner takes all, so of course Caitlin accepts. It looks like Caitlin is about to win, but Tricia trips her as she's swapping bags and Caitlin is disqualified. While that is happening, Jonesy is running a new food booth in the food court called ""Roast Burky Chunklets"" and with help from Jude, Jonesy forgets to refrigerate the meat, and everybody except Caitlin experiences food poisoning, including Tricia. Because of this, Caitlin is crowned the new Khaki Girl.
Wyatt has taken Serena out on a few dates now, but their ""relationship"" is yet to be defined, and Wyatt finally gets up the courage to ask her if she'd like to be his girlfriend. Serena tells Wyatt she thinks she's a little too ""mature"" for him, being one year older and all, and Wyatt is crushed until Jonsey convinces Serena that younger guys are puppies – ""easily trainable"". Wyatt takes Serena on what Caitlin assures him is a ""mature"" date, but it ends up backfiring on him big time. Meanwhile, Caitlin's dream of being part of the Albatross and Finch family looks like it just might come true. The usually ‘legacies only' stores is holding an open audition for new Greeter Gods and goddesses and Caitlin has got her snobby stares to perfection. But her dreams of getting out of them lemon for good are shattered when the A&F crew choose Jonsey instead. Caitlin learns through Jonsey's experience that working at A&F isn't all the catalogues crack it up to be…
When Jonsey starts working at The Penalty Box and doing a much better job at sales than Jen, Jen is furious. The two start competing for commissions and the customers become the spoils of war. The competition extends to their personal lives when Jonsey makes a comment at lunch about how ""guys are just naturally better at some things"" and Nikki, Jen and Caitlin take offence. Soon the lines between the sexes are drawn and an all out all-over-the-mall battle of the sexes begins, culminating in the ultimate dare of a lifetime. Meanwhile, Jude starts a Dude Daycare at The Mall and ends up with more kids – and trouble – than he can handle. Will the guys have to ask the girls for help after all?
Jonesy becomes the manager of a guru. When the guru is unable to come to the mall for his speech, Jonesy gets Jude to take his place. Jude gives people his ridiculous advice, leading to catastrophic events with Wyatt stuck up a ladder when he is afraid of heights.
Jonsey's new gig as the production assistant for local cable access isn't moving his new ""film career"" forward as quickly as possible, so he decides to film his own, ""Prank T.V."". And the first victim - Nikki. Caitlin agrees to be an accomplice and convinces her to spend the day with her getting a girlie make-over. Nikki reluctantly agrees and endures her personal nightmare of a day - manicures, waxing, and the ultimate horror - bikini shopping - all to make Caitlin feel better about getting dumped by a guy she wasn't even dating. But what will Nikki do to them when she finds out she's been pranked?
Wyatt's sixteenth birthday has finally arrived, and no one could be less thrilled than Wyatt.
The guys have a bit of a shock when all three girls' cycles synch up and they all start behaving - well - differently. In fact at first the girls are confused too - Caitlin's snappish, Nikki's emotional, and Jen's too doubled over in pain to do anything. Unfortunately, their behaviour is threatening to disrupt the boys' biggest movie night in a year... and the guys NEED to get the tickets from Caitlin's purse. Will Jonsey's new job at Super Terrific Happy Sushi under the training of Hiro the Sushi Samurai help Jonsey defeat the dragons and get the tickets... or get him fired?
The gang is in agreement - Jen is always butting into everyone else's business. In fact, they’re convinced that it is physically impossible for Jen to keep her opinions to herself for 24 hours. Jen, being competitive in nature, decides to take that bet. The gang have some fun toying with Jen and come up with wild plans that they know that she knows are a bad idea in order to win the be. Meanwhile, Jude’s been acting strangely lately, skipping skating sessions, forgetting about movie marathons with the guys, losing passion for his Stick-it art - it's very anti-Jude. After much sneaking around and spying on him (Jen tries to resist but gives up and takes a loss on the bet - this is way too interesting!), the gang learn that Jude's ""big deep dark secret"" is that he’s flunking several classes at school. They all get together to help him get his grades up... but will Jude have to repeat a year?
Jen's hotter and more popular older sister Courtney comes to town, and the entire gang abandons Jen, with the guys astonished by Courtney's looks, and girls loving to listen about her life, ex-boyfriends, and trips abroad. But when Courtney takes the gang to a nightclub using a Fake ID, Jen is out to prove that she's more fun than her sister, but accidentally rips her dress while dancing, exposing her boobs.
The Big Dance is coming up and everyone is desperately looking for dates.... everyone except for Wyatt. Wyatt is head over heels in love with Serena. So in love, in fact, that he doesn't care if Jonsey and Jude rib him like crazy for it - which they do, without abandon. When Serena goes on a senior's trip to France with the rest of her class the week before the dance, Wyatt isn't worried.... so everyone is shocked when he receives a text message from Serena saying that they're trough. ""She broke up with you on a TEXT MESSAGE?"" The girls tend to Wyatt's broken heart (and making sure Serena pays) while the guys help him get 'back in the saddle' in time for the dance.
Jonesy, Wyatt, and Jude try to prank Ron by closing down all the bathrooms and photographing him with his pants down, but ended up pranking Caitlin. Meanwhile, Jen wants to stop Coach Halder's Jason Voorhees-style jokes at the Penalty Box.
The whole mall becomes infested with zombies. Jen has a giant zit on her forehead, and only the gang, Ron, The Clones, and Darth are left. The Clones go first because of their stupidity. Ron and Darth both act surprisingly more heroically than usual, and both sacrifice themselves to save the rest of the gang while fighting off many zombies. They find out that Starr is alive too and Jude comes up with a plan to kill the Zombies. It works for a while but fails later. The group gets bitten, Jude and Starr are left, they kiss, and then Zombie Jen pops her zit, and Jude pukes in Starr's mouth again. Jude wakes up and finds that he is dreaming. But when he goes to the mall that morning, he sees that Jen has a zit on her forehead and screams in horror.
