Going to a new school is hard when you're shy. And Sarah McKinliy is very shy. During her first week of fifth grade at H.C. Stonewelle Elementary School, Sarah does her best to just blend into the crowd. She never does anything to draw attention. Attention is the last thing she wants. Things go well enough that first week. Sarah even makes friends with the most popular girl at school. But things quickly head downhill when her mother becomes a lunch lady at the school cafeteria. Randall Kepliere, the class clown, finds out her mother is one of the lunch ladies and he embarrasses Sarah in front of the entire fifth grade class. Kids she doesn't even know stare at her in the hallways. And the most popular girl at school turns on her and excludes Sarah from her group. It looks like it's going to be a long year...if Sarah can survive it.