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Tony is a super-confident 17-year-old smart-arse with a good-looking girl on his arm and the ability to charm most of the other females he encounters. He launches a scheme to help his friend Sid lose his virginity before his birthday while making a little profit on the side, but his plan quickly unravels, leaving the friends with a dilemma that requires an urgent solution.

If the world wasn't strange enough, this episode perceives the world through the eyes of Cassie. A world in which you receive messages through your food. A world in which the guy you are interested in only has eyes for your best friend, who only has eyes for his best friend. And a world in which the only person you can talk to is your taxi driver. Welcome to the calm in storm of the surreal.

Time to get to know the girl behind the clarinet. The rest of her family distinguish themselves by spitting out rhymes to booming bass beats, but Jal seeks solace from the chaos of life in the classical tunes that flow over her single reed. Although she seems to be trying to keep a considerable distance from the adolescent conundrum that 21st-century teens have created around her, it is not long before she is sucked into the whirlwind of her surroundings. Can the resulting destruction create something better?

Happy-go-lucky party animal Chris wakes up one morning with a hangover and an erection. Nothing unusual there. Until he discovers a grand in cash and a note from his mum saying she's gone away. So, like any not-so-average pill-popping 17-year-old, Chris embarks on a bender to end all benders. But what do you do after you've thrown the mother of all parties and blown all the money? Well, you sell everything that isn't nailed down and go again--and just hope that everything else will start to make sense. But sometimes, life can make a little more sense than you want it to, and Chris must face the fact that his mum might never be coming home.

Sid is in trouble. Deep trouble. He's failing at everything. His history coursework hasn't made the grade and he's only got a week to deliver something decent or he'll fail the year. And, of course, he's as sexually frustrated as ever and can't get his best friend's girlfriend Michelle out of his head. Will Sid ever buckle down and focus on his future, will his dad ever give him a break, and will he ever wake up to Tony's manipulative ways?

The sixth-form history class go to Russia on a study trip, where their bus breaks down and their drug-smuggling exploit goes awry. Anwar disapproves of Maxxie's homosexuality, but comes to respect him. After a stand-off and police intervention, teacher Tom is forced to pay money to placate the locals--which turns out to be a scam to fleece naive visitors.

Furious with Tony after his numerous infidelities, Michelle ends their relationship and begins an affair with the son of Cassie's doctor. Desperate to get back with Michelle, Tony uses explicit photographs of the guy's sister to drive a wedge between the two lovers.

Things get dark as Tony's silent little sister, Effy, goes missing. Desperate to find Effy, can Tony rely on any of his old friends, or have they all shunned him forever?

It's Anwar's birthday, but he's still not talking to best friend Maxxie. Sid thinks he might have been an idiot with regards to Cassie. Cassie escapes from the institution. Angie and Chris get an unexpected visit that might swing both ways. Tony and Michelle are still not speaking to each other. Effy's still not speaking to anyone, but she's there to point that out to Tony and support Michelle. Everything comes to a head during Anwar's birthday celebration at Seymour's.

Six months have elapsed and Cassie has moved to Scotland, leaving Sid upset. Tony is still having mood swings and blackouts following his accident and, since his mother is suffering from depression, Effy takes over the reins of the household. Maxxie is having problems with local homophobes and his father's refusal to let him become a dancer but agrees to help Tony.

Maxxie has a creepy feeling that someone is watching him. Someone close by. A hot boy maybe? No such luck. Sketch is Maxxie's stalker, a weird loner who spends most days shut up in a poky flat looking after her disabled mum, so her attention turns to the blond boy who lives on the estate. Soon everything in her life is about Maxxie--if only he would even notice her. Meanwhile, the sixth-form college production of 'Osama: The Musical' is teetering towards disaster under the heavy-handed guidance of lecherous drama teacher Bruce. But Sketch is prepared to do anything to get leading man Maxxie, and if she can't have him, she will make sure that nobody can--especially not his current leading lady Michelle.

A visit from Sid's grandfather causes chaos for both him and his dad. His overbearing grandfather is still under the impression that Sid's parents are still together, a pretense Sid's dad is all too eager to maintain. The stresses and strains of the visit soon mount up and eventually something has to give.

Yet another man in her mother's life mean upheaval in Michelle's life: a new house and a new stepsister to cope with and no idea which she dislikes more, and a shredded life with no comforting normality. With her birthday rapidly approaching, she seeks solace from the chaos in the company of her friends--with one noticeable exception. But as most her friends become more of an annoyance than a relief, she turns to a reliable source of comfort to steer her through the storm. But what trouble will this new direction bring?

Chris receives some startling news that forces him to look at his future more closely. Of course this is Chris, so he won't be able to do this on his own. Jal tries a different attitude to life which leads to unexpected happiness; unfortunately, Cassie, still reeling from her heartbreaking discovery, decides to cast her own dark cloud on Jal's new joy.

Feeling lost now that his ex is seeing his best friend, Tony rediscovers himself when he meets a mysterious girl who challenges his beliefs.

Effy, now the lady of the house due to her mother's depression, befriends new naive classmate Pandora, whom she introduce to selling cannabis. She also has a clever plot to help Sid, in exchange for Sid doing her art coursework for school. She also helps her brother.

Jal learns that she is pregnant by Chris, whom her parents want her to dump so she can concentrate on her schoolwork. When they find out that she's pregnant, both advocate a termination, but when, on Cassie's advice, Jal goes to tell Chris about her condition, she discovers that he has been rushed to hospital with a blood clot on the brain.

While Cassie helps her friend and flatmate Chris during his recovery and goes to her final exam, Sid throws a dinner party to celebrate the end of exams, with Cassie, Chris, Michelle and Tony in attendance. Tensions transpire regarding Jal's pregnancy.

The day of the A-levels results coincides with Chris' funeral. Barred by Chris' father from attending, Sid and Tony 'borrow' the coffin to pay their own respects, returning it in time for Jal to make a moving oration. After the funeral, the group shares their results and each tries to decide their future path.

A new batch of students arrive at Roundview College, friends Freddie, Cook and JJ all falling for Effy's charms. Two identical twin sisters, Emily and the dominant Katie also arrive. Effy sets the three boys a dare with herself as the prize for the winner, which results in her having sex with Cook in the college nurse's office.

Hoping for a night of wild abandon, Cook invites everybody to his birthday party at his uncle's pub but the party collapses after Effy's friend Pandora throws up. Cook manages to persuade everyone to gate-crash a party being thrown to celebrate the engagement of a girl called Kayleigh, but he falls foul of her father John White, a drugs baron to Madame Greta's brothel; he again encounters John White and a fight ensues and White threatens to kill Cook if he sees him again.

Pandora throws a birthday party, but her strict mother Angela forbids the use of alcohol so Katie makes some cakes laced with ecstasy; unfortunately, Angela eats one and passes out. This leads to a row between Pandora and Effy, and Effy ends up having sex with Cook again. The next day, it's Pandora's turn to enjoy Cook's sexuality, but Effy cottons on to what has happened, while Emily is observed kissing Lesbian Naomi.

Thomas arrives in Bristol from the Congo with his parents to follow him, but after sleeping in an empty flat he falls foul of its owner, John White, who demands money. Pandora takes a liking to him and helps him by giving him dope to sell, but unfortunately they find they are selling it on White's turf. White threatens Cook again, but Thomas steps in to champion him and defeats White in a chili-eating contest. However, when Thomas's mother turns up, she is appalled and demands he return to Africa.

JJ visits his psychiatrist after feeling 'lost and confused' about his life and friends. He is given lots of medical drugs to calm his Aspergers. He finds that Emily goes to the same clinic as him and they spend some time together; Emily calms JJ down,admits to him that she is a lesbian, and offers advice to help him sort out his numerous issues. JJ and Emily then visit Freddie and walk in on him having sex with Katie. During the confrontation, JJ accidentally informs Katie that Emily is a lesbian. Later, JJ visits Effy and asks her to stop interfering in his friendship with Freddie and Cook. JJ then visits Cook and discovers that he is also having casual sex with Pandora. Later, the group goes to a You Love Her Coz She's Dead gig, where Cook is beaten up after getting into a fight with some ravers. Before the chaos Effy and Naomi have a heart-to heart-outside, where Effy reveals that she knows about her and Emily. Naomi is hit by a wave of relief when Effy states that she does not mind if she is gay or not. Cook has taken JJ's Stun pills; they calm him and also make him tell the truth. Cook reveals that Effy loves Freddie back, but she cannot admit it and does not want a serious relationship. He bizarrely even admits to being genuinely hurt by this as he loves Effy too before admitting to having sex with Pandora, which Thomas overhears. JJ invites an upset Emily back to his house for the night, so she does not have to go home and face Katie. The next morning they sleep together; Emily tells JJ it is a "one-time charity event."

Effy and Cook go into hiding with his father, but Effy contacts Freddie, who turns up with JJ, though it is Freddie with whom Effy ends up sleeping. Cook asks his father if he can leave the country with him on his boat but Cook, Sr. threatens him and must be restrained. Eventually Effy and the boys take the boat back up the river after Cook pushes his father overboard. But despite Effy's evident feelings for Freddie, who ends up with whom is inconclusive.