Holly, Natasha, and Julia are preparing for the band trip to New Orleans, but the girls start fighting with each other when Julia seems more interested in her boyfriend Seth.
Holly thinks the brass section will win the band's bake-sale fundraiser, and that her crush will ask her to the winter dance, but things don't go as planned.
On her first day of seventh grade, Holly Mead learns that her new band director is surprisingly strict and that her best friend has replaced her with the new French horn player.