Alice comes home on the first day of junior high with a list of seven things about seventh grade that stink. The one good thing she can think of (besides getting out at 2:30 instead of 3:00) is that she's friends with everybody -- and that gives her the idea of setting a goal to make it through the entire school year with everyone liking her.

That turns out to be easier said than done, when Alice gets on the wrong side of the school bully, Denise "Mack-Truck" Whitlock. But Alice's problems with Denise pale before the romantic entanglements of her father and her older brother, Lester. And when Alice decides to help them out, life gets even more complicated.