Young Ernie Douglas becomes the unwilling object of the affection of Dodie's six year old friend while Barbara is asked by the Board of Education to take a substitute teacher's job at a local high school. She finds her stepson Chip in the class and he embarrassingly becomes her prized pupil.

Dodie calls upon her big brothers to help her fight her battles in the school playground when some girls say that Douglas is not her real name. Steve feels he should formally adopt Dodie to make it official but this only solves half of Dodie's problems.