The Picture Day Plot

Buddy Norman, a member of the Odyssey Middle School stage crew, tells his tale like a seasoned secret agent, beginning with his personal motto: "Sometimes, duty comes before friendship. Other times, friendship is duty." While organizing props after school, he overhears two disgruntled drama students plotting revenge against student body president Emily Jones. Emily and the student council have canceled the school play they wanted, replacing it with a play written by her friend Zoe Grant, and the plotters plan to ruin Emily's clothes and hair on picture day so her school photo is wrecked for the whole year.

Buddy rushes to warn Emily, but she wants nothing to do with him. Months earlier, on the first picture day, Buddy cornered her in the lunch line to pitch a fantasy book club, showed off sword moves with a ruler, and sent her lunch flying all over her new dress. She forgave him, but she has learned to keep her distance, and today is her one chance at a retake. If it goes wrong, the yearbook will show a silhouette and a question mark where her face should be. Undaunted, Buddy appoints himself her personal Secret Service agent until she has a flawless picture taken.

Emily tolerates her overeager bodyguard until he hustles her into the band room, which he declares a safe house. Just as she reaches the door to leave, Buddy pulls her to the floor, and water balloons filled with jalapeño cayenne mustard sail over their heads. Shaken, Emily finally believes him. She recognizes the attackers' voices as Adrian Farris and Luke Brooks, two theater students angry about the play. Her sensible plan is to tell a teacher, but by the time they bring Ms. Adelaide to the scene, every splatter of mustard has vanished. The teacher kindly promises to keep investigating.

At lunchtime, their friend Carrie mentions that lots of students are upset about the play decision, then teases that Buddy and Emily are acting like a couple. Embarrassed, Emily orders Buddy to leave her alone in the cafeteria. Ducking into the art room, Buddy finds Ms. Adelaide searching for a missing container of glitter she bought for the canceled play, which was her own choice. She isn't angry at Emily at all; she admires how Emily stood by her convictions even knowing people would be mad. But then she mentions that Carrie was supposed to play the lead, and Buddy realizes the truth: Carrie is behind the whole plot, and he has just left her alone with the president.

Buddy races to the cafeteria, where Carrie drops the act and opens fire with dual ketchup bottles. He yanks Emily out of range, and the two escape on a bicycle, Emily pedaling while Buddy rides the pegs, with the three attackers in pursuit. They slip into the school theater and hide in a hollow space under an old steamboat set piece until the search passes. In the quiet, Emily asks Buddy why he came back after she was so mean to him. Setting aside his spy-movie act for a moment, he admits she is his friend, and he has been trying to make up for ruining her first picture day. He points out that Emily believes in righting wrongs too, which is exactly why she made her unpopular decision about the play and stuck with it.

With pictures about to start, they make a straight run for the gym, only to be ambushed by Carrie, Adrian, and Luke, armed with two buckets of Ms. Adelaide's missing lime-green glitter, the kind of mess that would never brush off in time. Carrie offers to call it all off if Emily reinstates the play. Emily refuses, declaring, "It's my duty to stand by my decision." When the first bucket flies, Buddy leaps in front of his president and takes the full glittery blast himself. Before the second bucket can be thrown, Ms. Adelaide appears, recognizes her stolen glitter, and marches the three plotters off to the principal's office.

Sprawled on the floor and sparkling from head to toe, Buddy confirms that Emily is glitter-free and launches into a dramatic death scene, gasping, "It's been an honor serving you." Emily thanks him warmly but excuses herself before the performance ends, since she has a picture to take. Only then does the story pull back to reveal that Buddy has been recounting this entire saga to the mayor of Odyssey, who simply asked whether he had any volunteer service experience. The mayor, recruiting helpers for a city hall picnic rather than secret agents, decides Buddy qualifies for kitchen duty flipping burgers. There is just one concern: even after ten showers, Buddy still glitters, so the mayor may have to station him in the back.