Kaylee is upset when she and her best friend Jenna are put in different classes at school for the first time, but with the help of Maggie, a very friendly classmate, things start looking better.
Meg continues to write in her diary about her family's adventures in the Kansas prairie in 1856 as they try to return to a more normal life after surviving a cholera epidemic, separation, and invading Border Ruffians.
Everything goes wrong for eleven-year-old Artie on his first day at Ardmore Middle School, from the moment his alarm goes off until the next morning, when everything is repeated exactly the same way.
Frankie begins his first day at Miss Wart's Academy for Ghouls and Goblins excited and eager to learn, but when the other students tease him for being different, he demonstrates what he already knows about being scary.