Plot
Donovan Curtis considers himself ungifted (the opposite of gifted), instead being a prankster and troublemaker. One day, one of his pranks goes too far when he strikes a statue which disrupts an ongoing basketball game. Although no one is injured, the gym is destroyed, with repairs for the damage that was done to the gym being prohibitively expensive. The district superintendent, Dr. Schultz, who was at the game, catches Donovan red-handed. However, after he jots down Donovan's name, he accidentally adds it to a list of candidates for the Academy for Scholastic Distinction (ASD), a school for extremely gifted students.
Donovan expects the mishap and his escape from punishment will eventually be discovered and feels that he will cause more stress to his already stressed household. His older sister, Katie, is currently staying with them and is seven months pregnant. Katie's husband Brad is a Marine who is deployed in Afghanistan. Adding to the pressure, Katie's mother-in-law leaves Brad's dog, Beatrice, who seems to be ill (but was later revealed to be pregnant) and only takes a liking to Donovan. However, after Donovan learns of the error that is sending him to ASD, he is filled with joy by the mistake.
On his first day, Donovan meets his classmates, and while some seem to be annoyed by him (in particular, a girl named Abigail Lee) some take a liking to him, especially Chloe, a girl interested in normal things. While Donovan continues to hide in the academy, his teachers wonder if he really is gifted. Donovan joins Robotics, a class taught by his homeroom teacher Mr. Osborne ("Mr. Oz"), who are preparing for a robotics tournament. Donovan helps give their robot a name: Tin Man Metallica SquarePants. Donovan introduces his classmate Noah Youkilis, a skinny boy with a high IQ (206), to YouTube which proves to be addictive to Noah. Donovan also impresses his classmates by showing his talent controlling the robot with a joystick.
Eventually, Donovan learns his classmates will have to go to summer school for failing to take Human Growth and Development. To help them, he convinces his sister to teach his classmates, which eventually gets approved. Later, during a school dance at the academy, Donovan's Hardcastle friends, the two Daniels (Daniel Sanderson and Daniel Nussbaum), steal the robot. However, one of the perpetrators is thrashed by Noah, who had learned of professional wrestling via YouTube.
A little bit later, Donovan is told to go to the library to take a test, to which he feels nervous because if he fails it he could be kicked out. However, while taking the test, Donovan discovers that someone had hacked the computer and was taking the test for him. For this Ms. Bevelaqua interviews Donovan's classmates about the test. While interviewing Noah Youkilis she says that they could get expelled for cheating on the test, to Noah’s happiness as he doesn’t like being at ASD and would prefer to be at a normal school.
Later, as the team prepares for the robotics tournament, Dr. Schultz finds a video from Noah's YouTube channel "Youkilicious" and recognizes Donovan as the boy who destroyed the gym. He goes to Academy to Donovan's classroom and tells him that he's been expelled. Back at Hardcastle, Donovan begins to feel depressed and filled with guilt. Meanwhile, Chloe feels distraught and skips school to try and find him. There, she runs in the Daniels, whom she manages to convince to find Donovan and bring him to the tournament.
Later, on the day of the tournament, Donovan is taken out of school by the Daniels and Katie. There, he watches the ASD control Tin Man, though he doesn’t participate until Cold Spring Harbor (one of the opponent schools) attempts to cheat by shoving Tin Man with their robot. Angry, Donovan runs down to the ASD and takes over control, using Tin Man to assault Cold Spring Harbor’s robot, with Noah using a chair to crash down. In the chaos, Katie suddenly goes into labor.
Later at the hospital, Dr. Schultz reveals that ASD and Cold Spring had been disqualified, with a different school taking the trophy. However, ASD's team doesn’t care; they are more overjoyed over Cold Spring Harbor’s defeat. Katie’s baby is revealed to be a girl, overjoying Noah as he had predicted the baby would be male and is happy to be wrong for once. Schultz also counts the hospital visit as Human Growth and Development hours, saving the ASD class from summer school.
Soon, Donovan is surprised to see Noah at Hardcastle, and is shocked to hear that Noah took the blame for hacking his test and was expelled; the true culprit was Abigail Lee, who did it out of gratitude.
Noah and Donovan continue to take the ASD robotics class after school, working on a new robot they call “Heavy Metal”. The book ends with Donovan reflecting over the whole experience, saying that people who attended the tournament might question who caused the ASD robot’s rampage, adding that he’ll always know that it was him and “you don’t have to be gifted to know that”.
