Ren Stevens looks like a shoo-in for "Student of the Semester" and among her biggest supporters are Principal Wexler and two admiring young cub reporters, Carla and Marla, who are writing about her for the school paper. But the unthinkable could happen: in Mr. Rupert's wood shop class Ren may get a "C" on her final project. Louis helps her to cope with the possibility that she may have to accept less than perfection.

Meanwhile, Louis' locker has become a mess, and it's not all his fault this time, as a broken steam pipe is creating new life-forms in the muck. Principal Wexler gives him a dusty old janitor's closet as a temporary space, and Louis uses it to create "Casa de Fiesta", a spot which becomes as popular as Studio 54 among the students.

Louis and Twitty are desperate to find the new ultra-cool ""Quasi"" sneakers, but they are sold out everywhere. Tom puts them in contact with his underground source, though, and they set up a meeting with ""Scabbie"" at South Creek Mall. Meanwhile, Ren is leading (naturally) a fund-raising meeting for the school paper. Ruby proposes a fashion show at the Mall, an idea everyone likes better than Ren's, including, surprisingly, Ren's devoted disciples Carla and Marla. Soon everyone is neglecting work on the paper and working on the fashion show. Ren gets upset and Ruby accuses her of being mad because the show wasn't her idea, which seems to be true. Ren angrily insists she'll put out the paper by herself.

Louis and Twitty take a scary trip through the mall basement and meet up with the even scarier character of Scabbie. He takes their money and goes to his ""secret stash"" of Quasis. When the boys realize that he didn't get their shoes sizes, they quickly determine he's not coming back. Meanw