Original air date: 2/22/2022 (produced in 2021)
Production code: 101
The episode starts on September 9, 2026, the first day of sophomore year of high school at Watersman High School for our protagonists. Nia Thompson and Lexi Reed are in the school hallway. Lexi is excited at being sophomores but Nia is sad because it is the one year anniversary of her breakup with her ex-boyfriend, Ethan, who left her because he was in love with Jill Charlotte.
Then Jill comes by and says hi to Nia and Lexi, giving them passive aggressive comments and remind Nia that it's her first anniversary with Ethan, and that he is the best boyfriend ever which makes Nia mad as it is Jill's intent to rub it in Nia's face that now she has her ex-boyfriend. Jill leaves the conversation. Nia says she doesn't understand why Jill hates her so much and treats her like that. Lexi comforts her.
Nia goes to her first class, which is Geometry with Mr. Jacobs. The seating chart chose that she is sitting at a table with Jill, Ethan, and Jill's friend Rebecca and she is upset that she has to sit with them all year long. Jill pretends to be nice to her at first but says even more passive aggressive comments. Rebecca insults her which makes her even more angry and she says she's going to get Mr. Jacobs to change seats with her. Then, Ethan comes over and says hi to Nia, which makes her even more mad as she thinks he's going to make fun of her. Jill tries to calm her down by telling her she was just joking and calls her sensitive, which elicits laughter from other students.
Meanwhile, class starts and the scene changes to Ms. Duncan's theater class with Lexi. In the class, Ms. Duncan has students share their name, pronouns, and an interesting thing they did this summer. Lexi sits next to Mason, and Lizzie is next to Makayla. Makayla shares that she starred in a short film during the summer, revealing she has acting experience. However, Makayla causes a small conflict with Lizzie about pronouns that is shut down by Ms. Duncan.
Ms. Duncan then has the class pair up so that they can interview their assigned partner about their life and then introduce the other one to the class to get to know each other. Lexi is paired up with Makayla, who says she doesn't care about Lexi and starts making fun of her. She says she should be in the senior acting class and that she's more talented and overqualified for the sophomore class. Lexi says she likes acting just as much as she does, but Makayla doesn't believe her since she hasn't acted in any films or plays, but Makayla has been doing acting since she was young so they aren't equally as talented. Lexi doesn't remember Makayla being so mean. Makayla reveals that Jill thinks she is a great actress and that she became friends with Jill, and Lexi understands why Makayla is suddenly so mean. Makayla says that Jill and Rebecca are nice when you get to know them, but Lexi says she doubts it considering how they treat Nia.
When the class regroups, Lizzie and Mason do the sharing of each other's story, and we learn that Lizzie is Mason's best friend as they know each other very well. Makayla says she's going to barf and that they should get a room, however, Lexi tells her that Lizzie is into girls. Makayla says that makes her uncomfortable because she shared a locker room with her last year. Lizzie says that Makayla doesn't have to worry because she's not her type and then Lexi and Makayla do the activity. Lexi introduces Makayla normally but Makayla introduces Lexi in a rude way, implying that Lexi hates acting and is only in the class for the credit so they might as well forget about her. Ms. Duncan shuts the drama down and says that they need to work together.
After Geometry class ends, Nia asks Mr. Jacobs if she can change seats because she won't be able to work well if she has to sit next to her ex-boyfriend and her bullies. Mr. Jacob refuses and says she has to deal with it and then kicks her out of the classroom.
Later, Nia and Gregory are eating lunch together, waiting for Lexi. Nia tells Gregory about how terrible her day has been. Nia's situation reminds Gregory of how he was in a relationship with someone who doesn't want to be with him, his ex-girlfriend Kaycee from New Mexico. He says on the first day of school last year, he video chatted with Kaycee during lunch, and that she wanted to break up with her, but he convinced her to stay with him but they still ended up breaking up the following summer. But Gregory feels guilty that he didn't just end things on that first day and that if he could go back in time, he would break up with her then and there. Upon mentioning time travel, Nia has an idea.
Lexi shows up at the table, a bit late because she had to get her own lunch from her locker because the school lunch isn't inclusive to vegetarians. Lexi mentions that Makayla was being rude to her in drama class and that she has grown a huge ego since becoming friends with Jill and Rebecca and starring in a short film. Nia tells Lexi to speak with her in the hallway where they decide to return to the first day of their freshman year of high school to help Gregory, and Lexi can see what Makayla was like back then and try to change it so she's nicer in the future. The two time travel by thinking of the time period and touching each other.
They go back to September 8, 2025, one year ago, and the first day of their freshman year, where they are in the gym sitting on the bleachers for a speech. Nia can tell that it's 2025 because Lexi used to have her hair straightened back then, and then, the principal began a speech where she welcomed the class of 2029 to their first year of high school, confirming that it is indeed a year ago.
Lexi and Nia split up after the assembly to their first classes. Nia goes to her science class where she has to relive her breakup with Ethan but it won't be so bad this time since it's been a year. Lexi sees Makayla on the first day of school, who looks very different a year ago, wearing glasses and two braids, looking more like a typical nerd.
She seems super shy and nervous on the first day of school, and she even is made fun of by Jill Charlotte. Lexi learns through a dialogue between Jill and Makayla that Makayla has a cousin named Michael that Jill used to date in middle school, but they broke up in the Spring, and now she "has her eyes on a new guy." Jill even calls Makayla "an ugly nerd who will never amount to anything in her life." Rebecca approaches Jill and tells her she's suspicious about Michael suddenly disappearing and now his cousin Makayla is here. Lexi finds the situation a bit sketchy as well.
In science class, Nia enters and sees Ethan, who then breaks up with her, saying he is in love with Jill Charlotte, just as he expected. Then she sits at her seat with Gregory, whom at this time she hasn't yet met because he is a new student. He also looks different with shorter hair and no peach fuzz. He introduces himself and asks her about what just happened. She mentions she had relationship problems and he says he's having them too and tells her about his situation with Kaycee and she acts like she doesn't already know about it. Nia convinces and offers to help him break up with her and she offers to be there for moral support.
In the first year drama class, Lexi tries to meet Makayla since she wasn't mean, but when Lexi starts to ask Makayla stuff about herself, Makayla gets defensive and tells her to leave her alone stop interrogating her. Then she apologizes for snapping at her like that and then feels bad. Lexi gives Makayla a heads up that Mr. Chen, the drama teacher at the time is in his last year of retirement isn't going to want to teach them very well and he makes them read and take tests the whole time. Her prediction was correct.
Later, at lunch, Nia is in the hall with Gregory and she supports him and he begins the call with Kaycee. On the call, he says they should break up, and Kaycee is relieved that he is on the same page with her and they can still be friends. Gregory suggests if she ever comes to Watersman, they should play soccer together again and Kaycee says okay, but he'll have to accept that he's going to lose. They hang up, and Nia congratulates him.
At the lunch table, Lizzie and Mason from last year are with Lexi, wondering where Nia is. Lexi tells them that Nia and Ethan broke up today. Lizzie and Mason are surprised and concerned for her. When she comes, they give her a hug, but Nia assures them that she will be okay and she's realized Ethan wasn't the one for her. She then gets a hug from Lexi, and they time travel back to 2026 at the same point that they left and they talk about what they did.
After school, Jill threatens Makayla to never make friends with the "lame nerds" in Nia's friend group, and if she doesn't, Jill will reveal what she knows about Makayla. Makayla promises she won't. Then Jill suggests they go to the mall and go shopping with Rebecca and they go.
At Nia's house at night, she is working on homework when suddenly, she becomes tired and a sparkling sound is heard. She somehow is teleported through time by herself to an unknown room where an older woman is there. She asks where she is. The other woman tells her to stop playing dumb with her and that she knows exactly where she is. Then the old woman says she is going to extract Nia's time travel powers out of her, and that it is going to hurt. Nia screams for her not to hurt her, then Nia is suddenly back in her room as if nothing happened. Nia thinks that it was just a strange dream and returns to her homework. The episode ends.
Tropes in this episode include:
- First Day of School Episode: This episode takes place on the first day of the characters' sophomore year of high school. There's also a second first day, as Nia and Lexi travel back one year to their first day of school during freshman year to help fix Gregory's problem as well as learn about Makayla's past.
- Freshman Fears: Freshman year, Makayla was super shy and nervous for the first day of school. She even gets bullied by Jill.
- Flash Forward: At the end, Nia is forced to go to the future, where she is locked in a padded cell with an old woman who wants her time travel powers.
- In Medias Res: This episode takes place a couple of months after Nia and Lexi have received the power to time travel.
- Long-Distance Relationship: Gregory broke up with his girlfriend because she didn't believe long distance relationships would work.
- Offscreen Breakup: This episode mentions two offscreen breakups, one between Nia and Ethan which happened exactly one year ago in 2025, and another between Gregory and his long distance girlfriend Kaycee, who broke up over the summer. When Nia and Lexi go time traveling back to 2025, we actually see Ethan and Nia's breakup and Nia helps Gregory break up with his girlfriend earlier on the same day because Gregory knew he shouldn't have convinced her to stay with him for more time.
- Pronoun Trouble: When asked what her pronouns were during class icebreakers, Makayla says that she is straight, so she doesn't have pronouns. When explained that everyone, including straight people, use pronouns, Makayla said she thought only "gays and transgenders" used them.
