Rafe Khatchadorian, who enjoys a passion for art and has an incredible imagination, transfers mid-year to Hills Village Middle School after being kicked out of his previous one. On his first day, he meets the strict and exceedingly vain Head teacher Ken Dwight and his obsequious Vice-principal Ida Stricker. Dwight forces students to comply with an extensive list of rules that are mostly senseless while Stricker follows along with his antics. Later that day, an assembly focused on the BaseLine Assessment of Academic Readiness standardized test, led by Dwight, is interrupted when another student grabs Rafe's sketchbook in which he had drawn the principal as a zombie repeating "B.L.A.A.R." over and over. Dwight responds by destroying the sketchbook in a bucket of acid, much to the dismay of Rafe.