Chris tests poorly on a standard exam and his teacher, Ms. Morello refers him to the school's guidance counselor, Mr. Abbott. Chris tries to explain that the whole situation is a big mistake and he didn't understand the importance of the test, Mr. Abbott puts him through a series of mental evaluations and eventually determines that Chris must attend a remedial class.
Caruso relinquishes his role as school bully after getting bullied himself. However, without Caruso to establish the school's power hierarchy and with everyone vying to fill his shoes, Chris and Greg realize they'd better come up with a fast solution. Meanwhile, a reluctant Julius is forced to use his vacation days and schemes to find extra work without Rochelle finding out his secret.
Things take a literal turn for the worse when a license-less Chris volunteers to move his dad's car, but finds himself driving the car all the way to school to impress Tasha. Meanwhile, Rochelle spends an interesting day at traffic court with Drew and Tonya.
After the family's home is robbed, Julius and Rochelle decide to get a dog, something Chris has always wanted. Unfortunately, Julius is all about the security and less about the fun, so Chris is put in charge of training the dog to be an attack dog. Without a television to occupy their time, Drew and Tonya amuse themselves by making prank phone calls.
When Chris's entire family comes down with the flu, Rochelle and Julius make arrangements for Mr. Omar to look after Chris until the family recovers. Unfortunately, Mr.
With no extracurricular activities to his name, Chris decides to join the writing staff of the school newspaper. However, when his writing skills fail to impress, Chris concocts a fictitious story about a serial killer loose on the streets of Bed-Stuy, which eventually finds its way to the local Brooklyn paper and causes quite a panic within the community.
With Greg's father out of town, Chris invites Greg to stay at his house for the week. However, Chris' attitude changes after Rochelle and the rest of his family start waiting on Greg hand and foot and Chris becomes an afterthought. Meanwhile, Julius, who is making extra cash by driving a taxi, picks up a fugitive who wants Julius to drive him all the way to Las Vegas.
When Doc refuses to give Chris a raise, Chris goes out and gets a new job at the local Chinese restaurant. Although the job pays more, after taxes he ends up making less money, and it's much harder work, so he quits and asks Doc for his old job back. Meanwhile, Rochelle and Julius are at a loss to explain why Drew is failing a class until they meet his pretty teacher.
When a new student, Albert, enrolls at Corleone, Chris realizes that he has a lot more in common with Albert than just being the only two African American kids in school.
With Christmas break right around the corner, Chris's holiday cheer turns to holiday blues when his teacher, Ms. Morello, assigns homework requiring each student to do a good deed over the break.
Chris and his family decide to take a trip down South to attend the funeral of Julius' distant relative. Unfortunately, while waiting for the bus at Port Authority, Chris and Julius get sucked into a gambling scheme and are too afraid to tell Rochelle that they lost all their money.
When Chris discovers that his long-standing crush, Tasha, likes "bad boys," he decides it's time to lose his "nice guy" image and win over the girl of his dreams. Meanwhile, the entire family is thrilled when Julius is named employee of the month and wins a free dinner for the family at a fancy restaurant, but it turns out that the gift has a few unexpected restrictions.
After finding out that Tasha is going to "spin the bottle" parties, Chris is determined to get an invitation to the next party so he can finally experience his first kiss.
When Tasha breaks up with her boyfriend, Chris is more than happy to step in and serve as her escort for the Easter Pageant, but first he has to figure out how to be in two places at the same time without his mother finding out.
In an attempt to keep his younger brother, Drew, out of further trouble, Chris reluctantly agrees to skip school and accompany Drew on a mission to find his idol, hockey great Wayne Gretzky.
Chris is so desperate to raise the funds to go to a Run DMC concert that he jumps at the chance to participate in Mr. Omar's Black Funeral Directors' (BFD) scholarship fund. Meanwhile, when Rochelle injures her arm, she quickly realizes that the longer she's out of commission, the longer she can avoid taking care of Julius and the family.
Chris attempts to help Malvo, a career criminal who was recently released from jail, turn his life around by going back to high school. Rochelle is alarmed by the parenting skills of one of Tonya's friend's parents and decides to share her wealth of knowledge. A die-hard Dodgers fan, Julius feels betrayed when Drew decides he's a fan of the Mets.
Chris must come up with a school project for Earth Day, so he decides to collect cans, believing it will be an easy task and something Julius can help him accomplish. When Rochelle is called to school to discuss Tonya's inappropriate behavior, it quickly becomes obvious to Rochelle that it's a case of the apple not falling far from the tree.
On a mission to become one of the "cool" kids, Chris is caught with cigarettes and suspended from school. Of course, Tonya intercepts the call from Chris' school letting his parents know he has been suspended and decides to blackmail him. Meanwhile, in an effort to get even with Julius for keeping a coat given to him by his ex-girlfriend, Rochelle decides to parade around the neighborhood in inappropriate clothing.
Chris and Greg are without dates to the ninth-grade dance, until Greg gets asked, leaving Chris as the odd man out. Ms. Morello suggests to Chris that he ask the only girl who hasn't been asked yet, Carrie White, and she accepts.
Chris decides to buy his mother an expensive bottle of perfume for Mother's Day to pay her back for all the things she has done for him, but when he learns that it costs much more than he anticipated, Chris buys an imposter version of the perfume from Risky.
Chris's excitement about graduating from junior high school is ruined when Greg announces that he'll be going to a different high school in the fall. Not wanting to be separated from his best friend, Tyler sets out to qualify for the necessary grant money needed to attend Greg's expensive school. When Tonya's ballet partner is injured, Rochelle volunteers Drew to be his sister's new partner in the Swan Lake recital.