Zoey Brooks and her younger brother, Dustin are new students at Pacific Coast Academy (PCA), an elite boarding school in California. While there, Zoey meets Chase Matthews, a friendly guy with high hopes of getting a girlfriend. Chase leads Zoey to her dorm, where she meets Nicole Bristow, a savvy girl who is easily attracted to hot boys, and Dana Cruz, a tomboy who does not accept diversity. A boy named Logan Reese challenges the girls to a basketball match. Logan picks his team, which includes Chase and Michael Barrett, another friendly guy who is willing to accept a challenge. Zoey chooses her team, which includes Nicole, Dana, and Quinn Pensky, a meddlesome scientist who is always inventing wacky items. The girls lose the basketball game by one point, prompting Logan to tease them. The coach of the basketball team then asks Zoey and Dana if they want to join the basketball team because they helped the most. Zoey accepts, while Dana says she will "think about it."

This Halloween, Logan is in charge of making the haunted house.

Dustin's new science partner is PCA troublemaker Trisha Kirby, who much to his delight decides to declare him her boyfriend. When Zoey finds out about this new relationship, she drafts Chase into trying to break them up. In the process of doing so, Chase inadvertently causes her to turn her affections towards him instead, placing him in a love triangle with Dustin, and forcing Zoey and Chase to examine true nature of their own friendship.

It's a brand new year at PCA, but everybody learns that Nicole had to go to an all girls' school (has boy crazy syndrome). The bad news is that they are losing their roommate. Zoey and Lola are worried about Quinn being their roommate, because of Quinn's doing all of these weird experiments. What else can go wrong? Zoey gets a whole new surprise, when she finds Chase doing something she didn't want to see.

The gang accidentally injures Dean Rivers by crashing a model airplane into him. Zoey decides to try and fix Coco with the new Dean in school.