For a health class project, Mr. Belding pairs up the boys and girls and gives each one a computer chip-controlled baby to take care of for a week. Ryan is happy to be paired with Rachel. He wants to tell her how much he likes her, but the crying baby keeps ruining his attempts. Nicky and Maria are totally negligent as ""parents."" Nicky wants to hold a New York coffeehouse night at the Max and Maria wants to sing there. Both of them want to pursue their interests while neither wants to bother with the baby. Katie and Eric are parents together. Eric is a good father, having helped raise so many siblings, but when the baby runs a fever while in Katie's care, he thinks she can't take good care of the child.

At the ""coffeehouse"" night at the Max, all three couples get in big fights and all the yelling and crying babies ruin Maria's song and they drive away the audience. Mr. Belding tells them if they don't improve as parents in the next three days they will all fail the assignment. Everyone