Class Mom (class Mom, #1)

Jennifer "Jen" Dixon, a 46-year-old mother living in Overland Park, Kansas, kicks off the school year by sending a characteristically blunt email to the parents of her son Max's kindergarten class at William H. Taft Elementary School. Jen has reluctantly agreed to serve as class mom after her best friend Nina Grandish, the PTA president, pressured her into it. She is no stranger to the role, having served for seven consecutive years while raising her two older daughters, Vivs and Laura, as a single mother. In her twenties, Jen spent years as a rock band groupie, first with INXS and then with a folksinger, resulting in two daughters by two different fathers. She returned to Kansas City, moved in with her Catholic parents Kay and Ray Howard, and worked at an insurance company, where she met Ron Dixon, the man who became her husband. Ron owns a sporting goods store called the Fitting Room, and Max is their late-in-life child.

Jen's first email draws complaints from fellow parent Asami Chang, who demands Jen step down. Nina defends Jen, but the friction persists. Meanwhile, Jen begins training with Garth, an in-home personal trainer her mother recommended. Her motivation is personal: She publicly broke down crying during a mini mud run at Ron's store after failing to scale a wall and is determined to complete a full mud run.

Curriculum night provides Jen's first face-to-face meeting with the other parents and with Miss Ward, the kindergarten teacher, who arrives dressed provocatively in a leather miniskirt and thigh-high boots. Jen reconnects with Don Burgess, her high school crush, now a father in the class who works in waste management. She bonds with Peetsa and Buddy Tucci, a friendly couple, and clashes with Kim Fancy and JJ Aikens, two status-conscious mothers she privately dubs "Dr. Evil and Mini-Me."

As fall progresses, Jen's attraction to Don intensifies. On a class field trip to the recycling center Don manages, they share a charged moment during a video screening. On Halloween, Don arrives trick-or-treating with his daughter Lulu, and Jen briefly imagines kissing him. She resolves to redirect her feelings toward Ron but finds herself seeking Don's attention through text messages.

In December, Kim Fancy hosts a parent cocktail party at her home that turns sour when guests discover it doubles as a jewelry sale orchestrated by Kim and JJ. Because Jen sent the invitations, she appears complicit. Miss Ward arrives in a provocative red dress; Ron and Buddy later notice its V-cut has switched from back to front, implying the dress was removed during the party. After too much champagne, Jen stumbles into Don outside the bathroom, and they stand on the verge of a kiss before Ron appears and leads her away.

The fallout is swift. Parents complain about the jewelry scheme, and Asami reports Jen to Principal Jakowski, citing the jewelry incident, Jen's email jokes about bribes, and a line directed at Asami ("I understand your people's lust for power") that parents interpreted as racist. Nina, deep in a depression after discovering Sid, the absent father of her daughter Chyna, on Facebook, fails to intervene. Jen steps down, and Asami takes over as class mom.

Don begins texting Jen regularly, and she flirts back despite Nina's sharp warning that the behavior is a gateway to adultery. Jen sabotages Asami's picture day by bringing her mother's notoriously messy brownies to the classroom beforehand, resulting in chocolate-smeared children. Asami's own tenure proves difficult: She traumatizes the kindergarteners by showing them a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. in his coffin during a presentation while Miss Ward is out of the room.

A turning point comes at a concert by Sucker Punch, the college band of Laura's new boyfriend Travis. Backstage, Jen discovers the lead singer is Asami's nephew. Asami, relaxed and genuinely warm, reveals a side Jen has never seen. The two women apologize and agree to share the class mom role, with Asami handling logistics and Jen writing the emails. Asami also shares her conviction that Sasha Lewicki, a parent who responds only with an out-of-office autoreply, does not actually exist: The address in school files leads to an abandoned house.

While running errands in Kansas City, Kansas, Jen witnesses two women arguing on the street, one slapping the other. She later identifies them as Kim Fancy and Miss Ward. Around the same time, Nina reveals she has been secretly dating Garth, who reveals during a trip to an indoor mud run in Wichita that he is a veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan. Watching the competitors, Jen resolves to complete a mud run despite her fear.

Jen's training is derailed when she slips getting out of the bathtub and severely pulls a groin muscle. Garth recommends postponing the April mud run for an August race, and the family persuades Jen to participate in Ron's store's upcoming mini mud run instead. During her recovery, Nina moves in for the week, and the two friends enjoy a restorative stretch together.

The flirty texting with Don reaches a crisis on Valentine's Day weekend. Confusing "Don" and "Ron" on her phone, Jen accidentally sends Don suggestive messages meant for her husband. Don shows up at the restaurant where Jen and Ron are dining, and Ron discovers the full text history. Ron asks if Jen is having an affair; she insists she is not, but Ron walks out. Don later emails to clarify that he always saw their texting as friendly banter, as his focus has been on reconciling with Ali Gordon, Lulu's mother. Jen is stung to realize the attraction was one-sided.

After weeks of tension, Jen and Ron finally talk the night before the mini mud run. Jen's mother has counseled her that the flirting was about mourning her youth, not desiring another man. Jen confesses her anxieties about aging and wondering if her life is enough. Ron tells her she is everything to him and Max. They reconcile.

The next morning, Ron's store hosts the mini mud run. Just before the race, Miss Ward identifies herself as Sasha Lewicki, revealing she invented the fake parent identity to monitor class emails undetected. Jen completes the full course alongside Garth, scaling the wall that defeated her the year before, and crosses the finish line to cheers from her family and friends. After the race, Jen discovers Miss Ward and Kim Fancy passionately kissing.

Miss Ward soon resigns, telling Jen she plans to return to New Jersey. JJ fills in the backstory: Kim Fancy is actually from Edgewater, New Jersey, not Manhattan as she claimed. Kim had an affair with Miss Ward, not with her husband David as people assumed, and the family moved to Kansas to escape the relationship. Miss Ward followed them and won Kim back. JJ admits she may have been "a little in love" with Kim.

Miss Ward departs without returning after Memorial Day weekend, leaving a farewell note on the classroom Smart Board comparing herself to Mary Poppins. The Fancy family also leaves, and parents rally to co-teach with Principal Jakowski for the final two weeks. Jen sends her final class mom email organizing a year-end field day and picnic. Nina hints about Jen serving again. Jen mentally refuses, but a closing email reveals she has signed up as class mom for Max's first-grade class, beginning the cycle anew.