At Ralph Waldo Emerson High School, bookish student Barney Springboro (Scott Baio) performs various scientific experiments on laboratory mice until his friend, yearbook photographer Peyton Nichols (Willie Aames), retrieves him for a class assembly. Peyton questions Barney's disinterest in finding a girlfriend as the students rally in preparation for an upcoming baseball game against a rival high school. Afterward, Peyton seduces one of the school administrators, Corinne Updike, and Barney returns to his experiments.