Plot
Nate Wright, a rebellious and semi-incompetent sixth-grader, heads to school one morning, only to realize that he accidentally left his lunch at home. His best friend Teddy Ortiz offers to share some Chinese leftovers for later that day, and offers Nate a fortune cookie, which contains the message, "Today you will surpass all others", much to Nate's delight.
Nate attends homeroom and Social Studies with Mrs. Godfrey, his least favorite teacher, who gives him a detention slip after catching Nate reading from a list of insulting nicknames he made up for her, though Nate almost got one for eating in class. In English class, Nate tries to write a love poem for his crush Jenny in-secret, only to get caught by Gina, a bratty know-it-all teacher's pet and Nate's rival, who tries to humiliate him in front of Jenny and her boyfriend Artur. Nate ends up making a scene and insults Gina, causing him to receive another detention slip from English teacher Ms. Clarke. During art class, Nate attempts to sneak one of his drawings into the display case just outside of the classroom, but pops the knob off of the case, slams against the wall, and gets caught by art teacher Mr. Rosa, his favorite teacher, who gives him yet another detention slip.
Nate becomes bitter over how poorly his day is going. During lunch, he, Teddy, and Nate's other best friend, Francis Pope, decide to sit with their other friend Chad, and find him reading from a book of world records. Nate and his friends get the idea to try and have Nate break a record in an effort to make the fortune come true. Their brainstorming leads them to have Nate try breaking a speed-eating record by eating 148 servings of green beans (provided by the rest of the students in the cafeteria) in 10 minutes. With the rest of the school cheering him on, Nate reluctantly starts the challenge, only for Principal Nichols to suddenly notice the commotion mere minutes later. Furious, he demands Nate to clean up the mess, only to slip on a puddle of bean juice and fall over, following which he demands Nate to come to his office for a lecture, during which Nate receives yet another detention slip.
Nate's meeting with Principal Nichols causes him to be late for gym class. Whilst by himself in the changing room, Nate accidentally gets his gym shorts wet. Fearing humiliation, Nate is quickly forced to grab a pair of extra-large-sized shorts he finds elsewhere in the room, and stuffs them full of towels in an effort to make them fit. After leaving the changing room, however, Nate discovers too late that the shorts belong to his psychopathic substitute gym teacher, Coach John, who is subbing for Coach Calhoun. Believing that Nate is making fun of him, Coach John forces Nate to run wind sprints and gives him a fifth detention slip.
During math class, class teacher Mr. Staples assigns a surprise pop quiz, which Nate apparently manages to breeze through with no hassle. Seconds after the time runs out, however, Nate discovers that there were eight more questions on the back of the sheet he did not notice. He desperately tries to solve them, writing numbers at random, but Mr. Staples then tries to take the quiz paper from him. With Nate trying to keep ahold of the quiz paper, it ends up tearing in half, and Nate receives a sixth detention slip. Finally, Nate has science class with his elderly teacher, Mr. Galvin, whom is rumoured by the students to have never laughed at anything. With his fortune in mind, Nate gets the idea to try to become the first person to make Mr. Galvin laugh. In his vain efforts, he first sticks pencils up his nose, tells a joke about chromosomes, and tries showing off one of his comics to Mr. Galvin, with all of them failing and to get his special drawing pen confiscated for doing so. His last effort involves trying to tickle Mr. Galvin in the armpit with a feather duster, only to be yelled at to sit down. Later, however, Nate notices that his pen has opened and leaked whilst in Mr. Galvin's pocket, causing him to burst out laughing. Furious, Mr. Galvin gives Nate his seventh and final detention slip.
The school day finishes, and Nate bitterly makes his way over to the detention room. Upon presenting his slips, however, detention supervisor Mrs. Czerwicki informs Nate that he is the first student to have received seven detention slips in one day. Realizing that his fortune has "come true", Nate becomes ecstatic, choosing to celebrate by signing a drawing he had done on the desk during his last detention, in which he declares himself as a "school record holder".
