The Wannabes

The show begins as five freshman teens (Alan, Andrew, Drew, Mariah and Shaylen) attend an arts academy boarding school where they assume they’d learn to become pop stars, but unfortunately not.  The stuffy academy only teaches the classics: ballet, instrumental music, and Shakespeare.  After a contemporary singing battle in the student lounge, the five teens are given one week of punishment to work at a local café, for free! Fortunately for them Sarah, the daughter of the café owner shares the same hopes of becoming a pop star. She coaxes her dad into letting her and the academy students rock out at the café, but the café owner gets his own ideas.  He has them dress in fruit costumes to promote his latest smoothie creations.  Fruit costumes and all, the band is a hit.  The owner will allow them to rock out every week but the kids bargain to dress in their own disguises. It’s a deal. Our wannabe pop stars are on their way, until they get caught, that is.

Tensions arise when the guys and girls (sans Sarah) jockey which song to sing first at Mr. Moody's Sweet Shop. The guy's song is hot while the girls song is sweet and is about a Unicorn named Sebastian. Arguments escalate in drama class leading up to a whip cream fight with spatulas and icing guns in a western style duel. Mr. Moody, who is having none of this dismisses the kids and their performances as The Wannabes. When they arrive back at the school they are caught by a wary Mr. Pesckow. To their surprise Mr. Moody gives Mr. Pesckow a call and a good report on their work at his sweet shop. This prompts the gang to return and apologize. After a speech about working together as a team, which he refers to as "making a cake". Mr. Moody reinstates The Wannabes and to their surprise their next performance they are dressed as cake ingredients. Back at school, Mr. Pesckow has an odd dream about a unicorn which is ironically are The Wannabes.

After a very successful performance as golden raisins, Mr. Moody praises The Wannabes and plant the seed of their future success. When Shaylen has a hard time with school work she comes up with a crazy idea to quit school and pursue their pop career at Mr. Moody's. The rest of the gang climbs on board. Mr. Moody, aware that this is a bad idea, tricks them into a one day bakery boot camp to see if they have what it takes. Mr. Moody appoints Sarah to manage the rest of the gang, which she takes too seriously. Their first task is a birthday party for five year olds that wears them out. Sarah is brought back to reality when she is demoted to help with the second task which is to help Mr. Moody prepare a huge catering order. By the third task the gang is completely exhausted after cleaning up an enormous mess made by the birthday party celebration. Tired from just one day's work they fall asleep overnight at Mr. Moody's. When awakened by Sarah and Mr. Moody who are on their way to play golf, the gang is startled with the news that they have stayed off campus overnight. But before they leave Mr. Moody gives them their first \"reality\" paycheck and it's more reality than check. Mr. Moody suggests maybe staying in school and not pursuing their dreams so quickly. Shaylen ultimately apologizes to the rest of the gang. They all rush back to school only to be caught by Mr. Pesckow who surprises them by not reprimanding them. Instead he is off to his golf game leaving to wonder if he and Mr. Moody are golfing together.

Mr. Moody hosts a competition ala Guitar Hero called the Beasts of Rock in his sweet shop. Our guys form their own band with hopes to enter and win the competition and win the latest breakaway guitar and game (not yet available to the public). After the boys begin losing to their greatest competition: The Scratchy Kittens, a group of little girls; Andrew comes up with a stunt that ultimately leaves him injured. Sarah, who has been ignored by the boys, takes the opportunity to save the day and the competition. Though they win, they have to wait for the game for six months. Meanwhile, Mariah and Shaylen are charged with selling Mr. Moody's latest creation, vegetable Beastie Bars at the kiosk outside the sweet shop in the mall. This is complicated when the boys insist that their sales are based purely on their looks. Incensed Mariah sets out to prove ala Ugly Betty that she is making sale based on her salesmanship instead of her looks. She goes a bit too far wearing a hideous wig, uni-brow, braces and drab clothes. Shaylen, on the hand, is enjoying the fun of taking phone numbers from boys. When Mariah's attitude changes to 'ugly', which directly affects her sales, Mr. Moody points out this fact and convinces her to readjust. Sarah is brought back to reality when she is demoted and help her attitude and let her real beauty come from within. When she finds that a boy is not as shallow as she'd expect, the lesson of inner beauty is hit home.

After viewing a film in class about global warming, Mariah takes it upon herself to save the world, one school at a time. Her maniacal rampage leads to a student protest which brings about attention from Mr. Pesckow who makes improvements at Highlands. Believing her crusade is successful, Mariah is shocked when she draws attention from the media while she works at Mr. Moody's. Unfortunately, the media turns into a slanted expose on the sweet shop, charging Mr. Moody with several eco-violations. Mariah recruits the gang to help Mr. Moody regain his reputation by making eco-friendly changes to his business. Meanwhile, when Mr. Moody shares fan mail with the gang, Sarah feels less gratified since her mail seems mostly from younger kids while Mariah and Shaylen receive fan mail from more mature boys. After several tokens of affection show up for Sarah, she begins to get suspicious about her anonymous admirers. After an over-the-top singing telegram arrives, Sarah gets the rest of The Wannabes to fess up to the gift giving. Moved by their confessions, Mr. Moody reveals that he's been hiding Sarah's fan mail from mature boys. Sarah asks her dad to trust her to make good decision when being pursued. Though he agrees, seconds later he dismisses a fan boy who's shown up for the 'Prickly Pear' (aka Sarah).

When a rich girl becomes obsessed with Drew's put-on Scottish accent, she woos him with gifts and crowds his space. His friends help him to realize that this girl is manipulative and spoiled. When Drew tries to break it off with her, she threatens to expose the rest of The Wannabes' identities to Mr. Pesckow. Her efforts are foiled when Sarah devises an idea to formulate unlikely replacements for their performance. The trick pays off, but not without Drew learning that he should stick to what he knows: being himself. Meanwhile, Mr. Moody is hosting the Sunshine Ladies annual gathering at the sweet shop. Sarah takes interest in a group of ladies who send her back in time through a dream sequence to their shot at stardom as a group called, The Mermaids. In her vision, The Mermaids are Shaylen, Mariah and she. The Mermaids story is a tragic one leading Sarah to learn that "You should stick to what you know...and no bongos"; Fortunately for The Mermaids, Sarah gives them an opportunity to perform one last time as The Wannabes disguised as cars.

Drew gets discovered by a director who makes him the star of a new commercial for Secure Deodorant. While initially unimpressed, Drew becomes immediately popular and gets a big head. His friends try to bring him back to reality, but he's swayed by his own sense of self importance; ultimately, leading to his being kicked out of the group. After overhearing a conversation from the gang, Drew realizes his friends and being part of The Wannabes is more important than stardom without them. He makes amends and spends his earnings on a gift for them. Meanwhile when Mariah is put in charge of answering Mr. Pesckow's phones, Andrew and Shaylen snoop around his office finding Robespierre, a Siberian dwarf hamster, which is present for his niece. Fooling around with it, Robespierre is lost. Andrew and Shaylen go on a hunt a la the Crocodile Hunter complete with camouflage gear and makeup. After numerous attempts to find him, tensions are heightened when Mr. Pesckow realizes Robespierre is missing. Beside herself, Mariah goes into his office to confess her hand in things. Before she confesses, Andrew and Shaylen show up with "no luck"; until Shaylen discovers Robespierre under Andrew's hat. Mariah is saved at the last minute.

When Shaylen fears failing her dance exam, she enlists a dance tutor, who turns out to be Santiago, the Tango Master also the alter ego of Andrew. Through his unconventional methods of dance (some even involving crunchy peanut butter on shoes), Andrew as Santiago elevates Shaylen's performance even though she does not think so. On the day of the exam, almost settles for an incomplete when her partner trips on his cape and is injured. Andrew steps up, dons his Santiago alter ego, and encourages Shaylen not to settle for anything less than an A. They dance and their performance is excellent. Shaylen, surprised at herself, passes the test. Andrew and Shaylen almost have a romantic moment when Andrew burps up a chorizo and Shaylen is quickly brought back to reality and friendship. Meanwhile, Sarah uses her video game (Sherlock Bones) and deductive powers to single out and catch the person who's been stealing the recipes to her dad's latest creations: Salad on a Stick and the Muffnut!

Sarah finally gets to join her friends at the Highlands Academy when she is accepted into the "Prep Program" for potential students. This seems like a perfect world to her, but becomes the perfect storm; after she makes a few childish mistakes and her friends feel she is too immature to hang out with them at school. Things get more complicated when her new cell phone with video of a Wannabes rehearsal is taken by Mr. Pesckow. She struggles internally (as evidenced a tiny Angel and Devil who appear above her shoulders) with whether she should tell her friends about her blunder or retaliate for their harsh treatment by letting them get caught. She eventually listens to the Angel and tells them what happened. Desperate not to blow her friends' cover, she helps them concoct a plan to break into his office and retrieve the phone. Things do not go smoothly as the gang discovers her "one of kind" phone is not one of a kind. When they bring a collection of identical phones to her, Mr. Moody reveals he retrieved her phone earlier from Mr. Pesckow.

Alan runs for freshman class president and everyone in the group plays a part in his campaign, especially Shaylen who is assigned the task of spying on the other candidate.  Problems arise in Alan and Shaylen’s friendship when Shaylen falls for the other candidate and begins campaigning for him.  But tensions form between Mariah and Sarah when Mariah uses Sarah’s idea of giving excess food to the homeless for Alan’s campaign and doesn’t give her the credit. Alan, realizing that the other candidate is the better man for the job and he was only running for selfish reasons, bows out at the last minute only to win anyway.

An alumnus of Highlands Academy returns to give a sizable endowment to the school during the annual freshman play.  It’s especially exciting since this was the first play she was in and it inspired her star-studded career.  Problems arise when her expensive necklace that she lent to Shaylen as a prop is stolen during the climax of the play.  A la “The Usual Suspects,” each kid has to recall and retrace their steps in order to prove their innocence to Mr. Pesckow.  The gang ultimately piece together truth exposing the alumnus as the thief.

Andrew tries his hand at directing a short film for a contest and gets the gang to act in his production. When they finish and try to leave, the kids find themselves trapped in the school and strange things start happening a la “Blair Witch Project.” The gang ultimately discovers that Mr. Pesckow was behind it all, taping them for his own short film.

Andrew suspects that there’s a secret society within the walls of Highlands Academy. He investigates and discovers an underground dance club run by Alan. Alan explains that it’s reserved for the best dancers in the school and if the gang wants to join, they have to challenge and beat one of the club’s dance crews. After a hilarious attempt to defeat the dance crew, the gang loses but Alan comes to their defense and allows them into the club. But before they can celebrate, Mr. Pesckow arrives and busts them all for having an underground dance club. He then pulls Alan aside, telling him that he only allowed him to have this secret dance club because he’s class president but it’s not a secret anymore so he has to shut it down.