Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition
Hard-Knock Life
As the curtain rises, "It's a Hard-Knock Life" could seriously be Karl's theme song. He works five jobs and his mom has dozens of cats that stink up the house. Plus, she spends all of his money, and on top of that, he's trying to get out of group therapy so everyone will think he's normal instead of psychotic. So, yeah—some hardcore conflict going down here.
Rising Action
Marti Shakes It Off
Karl's world gets shaken up a bit when Marti Nielsen, Girl Genius, joins both his class and the therapy group. Marti is a free spirit, and unlike Karl, she likes being weird and having weird friends and doesn't really care what that makes her in the eyes of other people. Haters gonna hate, ya know?
Climax
That Time We Slept Together in a Hotel and Our Moms Walked In
The story reaches its emotional high point when Karl and Marti share a hotel room downtown after circumstances prevent them from going home for the night. They sleep naked to avoid lying around in their dirty clothes, and everything would have worked out great if their moms hadn't figured out where they were. Now, everyone's yelling at each other, and Karl's world, which has been threatening to detonate for the past three days, is on the verge of total collapse.
Falling Action
Field Trip Time
After Bill, Dick, and Coach Gratz put two and two together about what's happening at Karl's house, Coach Gratz takes Karl to the next town over to set up a bank account so he doesn't have to worry about his mom taking his money from work. Things just got a whole lot easier for our boy.
Resolution
I'm Lovin' It: The McDonald's Crowd Unites
The Madmen chill at McDonald's during Karl's night shift and talk about how even though they're not the most popular people ever, they're still the most awesome friends any of them has ever had. Tierden and Harris drive by and splash water all over them, and they have a mud fight in the parking lot.