Kiana ends up in room 117 by mistake after a secretary hands her the wrong student's class schedule.

Mr. Kermit learns he is being assigned to room 117, realizing the move is a trap designed to force his resignation.

Mr. Kermit arrives at room 117, douses the trash fire with his coffee, and declares himself the new teacher.

Ms. Fountain stops Aldo's hallway outburst, makes him apologize to the class, and unsettles Mr. Kermit by resembling his former fiancée.

Mr. Kermit argues with Principal Vargas over the intercom to allow room 117 to join the Spirit Week football rally.

Mr. Kermit destroys a vuvuzela at the Spirit Week rally in a rage, and the class is expelled from the event.

Room 117 sneaks all the school's vuvuzelas into Parker's truck and dumps them into the river as a gift for Mr. Kermit.

Mr. Kermit falls into the river while grabbing a vuvuzela box, and the class jumps in after him.

Jake Terranova arrives in room 117 and publicly confesses that he, not Mr. Kermit, caused the cheating scandal.

Mr. Kermit finally reads Kiana's old essay, awards her an A+, and challenges the class to earn puffy-tail stickers through real work.

Dr. Thaddeus discovers a rule in the district handbook that lets him fire Mr. Kermit if students' science scores do not improve.

Principal Vargas tells Mr. Kermit that Kiana's score was disallowed and he will be fired before he can collect his retirement.

Kiana realizes her failure to register caused Mr. Kermit's firing, and room 117 secretly enters the science fair to save his job.

Parker drives the fully rebuilt Coco Nerd across the school parking lot, revealing the class's completed science fair project to the judges.

A newspaper article attacking Dr. Thaddeus for firing Mr. Kermit generates enough public pressure to force him to reinstate the teacher.

Mr. Kermit is assigned the Unteachables class as a trap to force his resignation, while Kiana accidentally ends up in room 117 due to a secretary's mix-up. Despite planning to ignore the kids all year, Mr. Kermit slowly grows to care for them, culminating in the class stealing the school's vuvuzelas and dumping them in the river as a show of loyalty. Jake Terranova's shocking public confession clears Mr. Kermit's name in the old cheating scandal, and Mr. Kermit finally begins teaching in earnest. Dr. Thaddeus finds a rule to fire Mr. Kermit before retirement, and Kiana's unregistered status allows him to manipulate the science exam scores. Room 117 secretly rebuilds Mr. Kermit's broken-down car for the science fair in a desperate bid to keep their teacher. A newspaper exposé forces Dr. Thaddeus to reinstate Mr. Kermit, who then chooses to keep teaching rather than retire.

The headline events that transform Mr. Kermit and his class.

Stepmonster drops Kiana off at Greenwich Middle School and promises to return and register her, but never comes back.

Parker arrives late, slips on butter spread across the floor, and Kiana helps him up and to his desk.

Parker misreads the model name on Mr. Kermit's car as 'Coco Nerd,' and Mr. Kermit adopts the nickname permanently.

Room 117 joins Ms. Fountain's Circle Time, and Elaine surprises everyone by offering a sincere and unprompted compliment.

Mr. Kermit finds the escaped gecko inside his wrecked car and overhears Ms. Fountain describe him as 'barely even alive.'

Kiana learns from her mother over a video call that Mr. Kermit was connected to a long-ago cheating scandal.

Barnstorm realizes at lunch that his football teammates no longer care about him now that he cannot play.

Parker is briefly detained by a police officer who refuses to believe a fourteen-year-old can legally hold a driver's license.

Elaine stomps on Barnstorm's injured foot as a distraction while room 117 secretly loads the vuvuzelas into Parker's truck.

Principal Vargas presents Mr. Kermit's strong first-semester progress reports to Dr. Thaddeus, who immediately accuses Mr. Kermit of falsifying them.

The class takes a science practice test, and Mr. Kermit praises Aldo's effort before frustration can trigger one of his angry outbursts.

Football players corner and bully Mateo in the school bathroom, but the rest of room 117 arrives to drive them off.

The school contacts Stepmonster after finding no registered student matching Kiana's name attached to the science exam results.

Elaine reveals to the class for the first time that none of the violent rumors circulating about her are actually true.

Kiana turns down a film-set tutoring offer to stay in Greenwich permanently, declaring herself an Unteachable.

Kiana's failure to register at Greenwich—set in motion from her very first day when Stepmonster never returns—quietly ticks like a time bomb beneath the entire school year. The Unteachables reveal their personalities through smaller, telling moments: Parker's dyslexia gives Mr. Kermit's car a nickname that sticks, Elaine's fearsome reputation turns out to be entirely fictional, and Barnstorm quietly mourns his lost identity as a star athlete. Dr. Thaddeus refuses to believe in Mr. Kermit's genuine progress, dismissing strong first-semester reports as fraud even as the students visibly improve. When football players bully Mateo in the school bathroom, room 117 bands together as a unified group for the first time. After the science exam, the school's discovery that Kiana was never enrolled forces a reckoning between Kiana and Stepmonster over the cost of staying a short-timer. The year closes with Kiana choosing Greenwich and her Unteachable friends over a movie-set life in Canada.

The supporting moments that reveal each character's hidden depths.

Mr. Kermit accepts the Unteachables assignment with reluctance, consoling himself that it is only ten months until retirement.

Parker rushes outside to help Mr. Kermit start his broken-down car, offering the first sign that the class is not truly lost.

Mr. Kermit passes a Terranova Motors billboard and is flooded with memories of the cheating scandal that destroyed his teaching career.

Parker visits Ms. Fountain's classroom early in the morning and is told bluntly by one of her students that he does not belong there.

The substitute tells the class they would never misbehave like this for Mr. Kermit, forcing the kids to admit they like him.

Mateo decides Mr. Kermit is more like the Grinch than Squidward after the class finds a vuvuzela and hears his anti-spirit speech.

Dr. Thaddeus reads the newspaper story about the vuvuzela incident and lies awake unable to stop thinking about the kids' loyalty to Mr. Kermit.

The entire room 117 class is suspended for the remainder of Spirit Week following the vuvuzela river stunt.

Ms. Fountain pins up a GOODBUNNIES behavior chart in Mr. Kermit's classroom when the suspended students return to school.

Jake drives Mr. Kermit to retrieve his car, and a mechanic's offhand comment about anagrams sparks a breakthrough idea for helping Parker read.

Kiana's baby stepbrother accidentally drops a toy into her drink, and the action helps her grasp a science concept she has been stuck on.

Barnstorm flags down Parker's truck and, during the ride to school, they discover Parker's grandmother has her shoes on the wrong feet.

Kiana opens up to Stepmonster about room 117, and Stepmonster pledges to get Kiana officially enrolled in the Unteachables class.

The Coco Nerd's banner catches fire during the science fair demonstration, and Parker's grandmother defends him by name against Dr. Thaddeus.

Mr. Kermit chooses to sign on and teach room 117 again next year rather than accepting his long-awaited retirement.

From the moment Mr. Kermit grudgingly accepts the Unteachables assignment, small moments begin to crack open his long-hardened shell: Parker's unexpected roadside kindness, a billboard flooded with painful memories of the cheating scandal, and a substitute's offhand remark forcing the kids to admit they actually like their teacher. Each revelation nudges Mr. Kermit and the students closer to genuine connection, from Mateo reframing his teacher as the redemptive Grinch to Dr. Thaddeus lying awake questioning why troubled kids would jump in a river to save anyone. The GOODBUNNIES chart and a mechanic's comment about anagrams give Mr. Kermit renewed purpose and fresh tools, and he begins reaching each student as an individual. Science exam preparation reveals character in unexpected places—Kiana finds a lesson in her baby stepbrother's chaos, while a morning ride uncovers a tender moment with Parker's grandmother. At the science fair, Grams remembers Parker's name and defends him in the story's most emotional scene. The book closes with Mr. Kermit choosing to stay not for himself, but for the students who need him most.