Time to get to know the girl behind the clarinet. The rest of her family distinguish themselves by spitting out rhymes to booming bass beats, but Jal seeks solace from the chaos of life in the classical tunes that flow over her single reed. Although she seems to be trying to keep a considerable distance from the adolescent conundrum that 21st-century teens have created around her, it is not long before she is sucked into the whirlwind of her surroundings. Can the resulting destruction create something better?

Maxxie has a creepy feeling that someone is watching him. Someone close by. A hot boy maybe? No such luck. Sketch is Maxxie's stalker, a weird loner who spends most days shut up in a poky flat looking after her disabled mum, so her attention turns to the blond boy who lives on the estate. Soon everything in her life is about Maxxie--if only he would even notice her. Meanwhile, the sixth-form college production of 'Osama: The Musical' is teetering towards disaster under the heavy-handed guidance of lecherous drama teacher Bruce. But Sketch is prepared to do anything to get leading man Maxxie, and if she can't have him, she will make sure that nobody can--especially not his current leading lady Michelle.

A visit from Sid's grandfather causes chaos for both him and his dad. His overbearing grandfather is still under the impression that Sid's parents are still together, a pretense Sid's dad is all too eager to maintain. The stresses and strains of the visit soon mount up and eventually something has to give.

Jal learns that she is pregnant by Chris, whom her parents want her to dump so she can concentrate on her schoolwork. When they find out that she's pregnant, both advocate a termination, but when, on Cassie's advice, Jal goes to tell Chris about her condition, she discovers that he has been rushed to hospital with a blood clot on the brain.

While Cassie helps her friend and flatmate Chris during his recovery and goes to her final exam, Sid throws a dinner party to celebrate the end of exams, with Cassie, Chris, Michelle and Tony in attendance. Tensions transpire regarding Jal's pregnancy.

A new batch of students arrive at Roundview College, friends Freddie, Cook and JJ all falling for Effy's charms. Two identical twin sisters,Emily and the dominant Katie also arrive. Effy sets the three boys a dare with herself as the prize for the winner,which results in her having sex with Cook in the college nurse's office.

Thomas arrives in Bristol from the Congo with his parents to follow him, but after sleeping in an empty flat he falls foul of its owner, John White, who demands money. Pandora takes a liking to him and helps him by giving him dope to sell, but unfortunately they find they are selling it on White's turf. White threatens Cook again, but Thomas steps in to champion him and defeats White in a chili-eating contest. However, when Thomas's mother turns up, she is appalled and demands he return to Africa.

The affair between Naomi and Emily intensifies. Cook is running for student president and challenges Naomi to sleep with him if he wins. He does win, but they get no further than kissing. Meanwhile, Freddie tells Naomi that he has fallen out with Cook and loves Effy. Naomi resists the advances of her teacher Kieran to have sex with Emily again, then finds Kieran in bed with her mother. She ends up holding hands with Emily through a catflap.

Since Katie won't leave the house, Emily impersonates her to take her exam and meets Naomi, who tells her that she is going to Cyprus for the summer but declines Emily's invitation to accompany her to the end-of-term ball, though she does turn up on her own. At the ball, the sisters fight when Katie learns that Emily went with JJ, but Emily resists the temptation to hit her sister, instead declaring her love for Naomi and walking off with her. Pandora and Thomas are also able to get it together.

Focuses around Thomas and his coming to terms with life and love in England.

Emily confronts Naomi over her supplying Sophia with drugs. Emily has learned that Sophia was gay and her locker is a shrine to Naomi, who denies any sexual relationship with Sophia. Emily and Naomi then move in together, but at a party where Cook assaults another guest for no apparent reason, Emily gets Sophia's brother to open a box that contains Sophia's hand-drawn account of her affair with Naomi, who rejected her for Emily, hence her subsequent drastic actions.

Effy spends some time in a psychiatric hospital and is discharged under the care of psychotherapist John Foster, but her friends are concerned about Foster's influence over her, isolating her from the rest of them. After she freaks out at the scene of Tony's accident, she returns to hospital, where Freddie visits her and encounters Foster, whom he warns to stay away from her. Foster invites Freddie to his house to talk about Effy.

Loner Franky starts at Roundview and accidentally challenges Mini's position as Queen Bee. Mini plays the long game and Franky finds herself befriended by the girls, but when she won't conform to what Mini expects of her, she is spat out. Franky meets Matty, who understands and empowers her. Franky stands up to Mini, which inspires Grace to join her. A new gang is formed: Franky, Alo, Rich, and Grace. Franky has finally found friends, but in doing so has started a war with Mini.

Grace has always believed in fairytales and happy endings, but is forced to face reality. When Rich accidentally learns that David F-ing Blood is her father, Grace has some explaining to do. Blood disapproves of Rich and threatens to send her back to Mayberry's College for Young Ladies if her grades drop. Grace must pass her drama exam, but with her relationship in turmoil and the whole gang at odds in her production of Twelfth Night, it's not looking likely. Grace manages to pull it off, but Blood goes back on his word and sends her to Mayberry's anyway. Rich rescues her, climbing up to her room and proposing--her real-life Romeo.

Mini, Grace, Franky, Liv, Alo, Rich, Matty, and Nick are on holiday in Morocco--in a crumbling villa with no roof, water, or electricity. While Mini gets together with Alo (demanding that he tells nobody), Franky tells Matty that she wants to end their relationship and she's easily attracted to suave Luke, whose party they crash. She agrees to go off with him, but Liv learns from a local boy that Luke is a notorious drug dealer and has planted 6 kilos of dope in the group's truck. Liv,Grace, and Matty pursue the fleeing couple, but the van crashes. Back at the college Grace is in a coma in hospital while Matty has run away in Morocco.

Alex, a boy who lives with and cares for his eccentric grandmother Miriam in his father's absence, lives by responding to the roll of a die, which is how he decides to punch Alo. But he intrigues Liv, who joins him in his die-rolling activities after meeting Miriam, who likes her. The others are less impressed, especially Mini, who accuses Liv of spending too much time with Alex. After Grace's emotional funeral, Alex comforts Liv, but she's newly upset when he says he's gay and uninterested in her as a girlfriend. Reconciliation of a sort comes when Alex gathers everybody together on a boat he has hired to give Miriam, who has just died and was a sailor's widow, a burial at sea.

Tired of Mini's inconsistent attitude and unaware of her pregnancy, Alo quickly falls for vivacious Poppy, whom he meets at a fancy-dress party; they have consensual sex in her house and escape being caught by her argumentative parents. But Alo is shocked to find that Poppy is only 13 and soon he's arrested for assaulting a minor, suspended from college, and ostracized by his former friends. AT least it brings him closer to Mini and they have a heart-to-heart. She is about to tell him that she is pregnant when Poppy rings to say that she and her mother have persuaded her father to drop the charges against him.

Seeing Alex as her only close friend, Liv is upset when he goes away for a weekend; to make things worse, she feels a pain in her side and sees a lump, but she confides only in Principal Doug, who tells her he's leaving the college. Rich is too busy revising and attempts to get through to Franky, whom Liv still blames for Grace's death, and Mini comes to nothing. When Matty returns from Morocco, Liv takes him to see Franky but she has no desire to speak to him and another confrontation with Mini leads to a fight and Mini crying out that she is pregnant. A shocked Liv once more feels the pain in her side but a visit to the doctor proves that there is no lump: it was a psychosomatic reaction to Grace's death. Feeling better, Liv visits Grace's grave with her younger sister Maude, Doug, and Rich, and they end up dancing.

Seeing Alex as her only close friend, Liv is upset when he goes away for a weekend; to make things worse, she feels a pain in her side and sees a lump, but she confides only in Principal Doug, who tells her he's leaving the college. Rich is too busy revising and attempts to get through to Franky, whom Liv still blames for Grace's death, and Mini comes to nothing. When Matty returns from Morocco, Liv takes him to see Franky but she has no desire to speak to him and another confrontation with Mini leads to a fight and Mini crying out that she is pregnant. A shocked Liv once more feels the pain in her side but a visit to the doctor proves that there is no lump: it was a psychosomatic reaction to Grace's death. Feeling better, Liv visits Grace's grave with her younger sister Maude, Doug, and Rich, and they end up dancing.

Emily confronts Naomi over her supplying Sophia with drugs. Emily has learned that Sophia was gay and her locker is a shrine to Naomi, who denies any sexual relationship with Sophia. Emily and Naomi then move in together, but at a party where Cook assaults another guest for no apparent reason, Emily gets Sophia's brother to open a box that contains Sophia's hand-drawn account of her affair with Naomi, who rejected her for Emily, hence her subsequent drastic actions.

Tired of Mini's inconsistent attitude and unaware of her pregnancy, Alo quickly falls for vivacious Poppy, whom he meets at a fancy-dress party; they have consensual sex in her house and escape being caught by her argumentative parents. But Alo is shocked to find that Poppy is only 13 and soon he's arrested for assaulting a minor, suspended from college, and ostracized by his former friends. AT least it brings him closer to Mini and they have a heart-to-heart. She is about to tell him that she is pregnant when Poppy rings to say that she and her mother have persuaded her father to drop the charges against him.

Alex, a boy who lives with and cares for his eccentric grandmother Miriam in his father's absence, lives by responding to the roll of a die, which is how he decides to punch Alo. But he intrigues Liv, who joins him in his die-rolling activities after meeting Miriam, who likes her. The others are less impressed, especially Mini, who accuses Liv of spending too much time with Alex. After Grace's emotional funeral, Alex comforts Liv, but she's newly upset when he says he's gay and uninterested in her as a girlfriend. Reconciliation of a sort comes when Alex gathers everybody together on a boat he has hired to give Miriam, who has just died and was a sailor's widow, a burial at sea.

Loner Franky starts at Roundview and accidentally challenges Mini's position as Queen Bee. Mini plays the long game and Franky finds herself befriended by the girls, but when she won't conform to what Mini expects of her, she is spat out. Franky meets Matty, who understands and empowers her. Franky stands up to Mini, which inspires Grace to join her. A new gang is formed: Franky, Alo, Rich, and Grace. Franky has finally found friends, but in doing so has started a war with Mini.