As Kevin prepares for his first day of ninth grade, he promises Winnie, nervous over starting a new school, that he'll think about her every hour. But Kevin ends up having a rough first day, with his locker being taken by bully Tony Barbella, who already has a locker, Becky Slater hating Kevin again after Craig Hobson broke up with her, and having to take shop class, a class he doesn't like. The one bright spot for Kevin is meeting an attractive new student, Madeline Adams, who distracts him from his hourly thinking of Winnie.
Includes examples of
- Adults Are Useless:
- When Kevin goes to Mr. Cutlip for advise on all the problems he's been having on his first day of ninth grade, Cutlip's solution is to send him to do laps.
- Kevin gets punched in the stomach by Becky hard enough to collapse him into the ground and the girls' PE teacher does absolutely nothing to reprimand Becky.
- The shop teacher—who appears to be at least half-deaf (the machines are quite loud) and possibly crazy/a touch senile—doesn't seem at first to understand Kevin's request for a transfer to a new class, then challenges Kevin to arm wrestle him for it.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Madeline thanks Kevin for being nice to her, since it's not easy being the new girl, by giving him a kiss.
- Brick Joke: When Kevin tries to get his locker back from Barbella, he tells Kevin that getting it back would entail Barbella bending Kevin's thumb all the way back to his elbow. By the end of the episode, Kevin mentions having sore thumbs after demanding the locker back from Barbella.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Kevin promises to think about Winnie every hour, but a few times, when it's about time to think about her again, he gets distracted by attractive student Madeline Addams, struggling to remember Winnie.
- First Appearance: Madeline Adams.
- Insane Troll Logic: Becky's reasoning for blaming Kevin for Craig Hobson dumping her is a double helping, as a) it presupposes that introducing a couple makes you responsible for the outcome of their relationship, and b) that the definition of "introducing" covers "you were trying to run me over and hit him instead".
- Karma Houdini: Kevin beats Becky at a race, and she takes it out on him by punching him in the gut. She doesn't seem to get into trouble for it, even though a teacher was there when she did it (she even seems to be smiling).
- Misplaced Retribution: After Craig Hobson broke up with her, Becky holds Kevin responsible since he introduced them and goes back to hating Kevin (and seems to now also hate men in general). That would be enough all on its own to qualify for this trope, but on top of that, what really happened was that Becky met Craig because she hit him with her bike while trying to ride Kevin over, as well as the fact that Craig was one of Kevin's friends.
- Put on a Bus: Craig Hobson broke up with Becky and went to military school.
- Shop Class: Kevin has to take one, which he is not very thrilled about. His teacher agrees to let him take another class if he can beat him at arm wrestling.
