Jaleesa and Denise get a new roommate, talkative transfer student Maggie Lauten. Denise learns that the check for her dorm fees has bounced. To make matters worse, she had also covered Jaleesa's fees to repay her for an earlier favor. Denise and Jaleesa face eviction unless they can come up with 200 dollars by the next day. Denise cannot bring herself to ask her parents for help, as she is tired of being bailed out. When the dean of students realizes that Denise sincerely wants to take responsibilty for her actions, he helps her get a cafeteria job with an advance on her salary. Jaleesa takes delight in the fact that she is now Denise's boss.

Denise's little sister Rudy comes to visit for the weekend. She surprises Denise by immediately hitting it off with Whitley. When Denise and Rudy find it impossible to sleep in the same bed, Whitley allows Rudy to stay in her room. Whitley teaches Rudy all of her beauty secrets, and the two become good friends. Rudy hurts Denise's feelings by spending all of her time with Whitley. Meanwhile, Jaleesa fears the worst after hearing that her sister went to dinner with Jaleesa's ex-husband. Jaleesa clears up the situation, then asks Whitley to stop monopolizing Rudy's time. Whitley tells Rudy a bedtime story about two sisters and a snow queen. Rudy understands the moral of the story and agrees to pay more attention to Denise.

Denise becomes depressed about her grades. To take her mind of her troubles, she calls her brother Theo and asks him to visit for the weekend. Theo, a high school senior, is considering applying to Hillman. He quickly makes friends on campus and has little time for Denise because of his busy social calendar. During an interview, the dean stresses that Hillman is a very difficult academic school. He warns Theo that his fun-filled weekend might be giving him the wrong impression. Denise later reiterates this over dinner; she was an excellent student in high school, and now is having trouble just passing her classes. She wants to take a semester off, but Theo encourages her to tough it out. Meanwhile, Maggie tries to write a letter to her boyfriend.