Rae's still madly in love with Finn, but will her insecurities sabotage their relationship before it's even begun? Meanwhile, Kester encourages her to face her demons and finally confront the truth about what happened to Tix.

Rae's mother finds out that Rae set off the fire alarm and she is forced to appear before the college principal who decides against suspending her but puts her on a warning. At the therapy session Rae is impressed by an articulate outburst from fellow group member and student Liam, who saw her set off the alarm but swears he told nobody. Back home Rae's mum announces that she is pregnant but Rae herself is far from happy as she increasingly wonders why such a good-looking boy as Finn wants to date her, particularly as his previous girlfriend was the slim blonde Stacey. As false rumours fly about their having sex in a toilet she finds the pressure of being his girlfriend too much and dumps him.

Without Finn Rae does her best to fit in with a clique of cool, slim girls led by Stacey and, with her tastes in popular music and advice to love-lorn Lois about getting a boyfriend winning them over, she actually starts to bond with them. Only Liam has worked out her terrible secret, her refusal to eat in front of other people because of her weight problem though eventually she finds herself able to confide in Stacey about it. However this is a terrible mistake as she soon works out that Stacey surrounds herself with people who are vulnerable so that she can bitch about them and feel superior. This leads to a show-down in a pizzeria where Rae actually eats in public to prove that Stacey was lying and Stacey is exposed to the others. Rae also exposes Archie as being gay when he tries to hide the fact by dating Lois.

Rae is pleased to have the apparently fearless Liam as her best, platonic friend, but is surprised that he wants to keep his group attendance secret. This spells trouble for Rae when Liam's violent girlfriend Amy, said to have been expelled from her last college for assault, threatens her and wants to know why they spend so much time together. She gives her until Friday. Liam refuses to tell Amy the truth but Rae sees he is not so tough when he breaks down and they kiss. Archie is also given the ultimatum by Lois to come out by Friday or else she will expose him. He suggests to Rae they run off together but she dissuades him and is pleased when Finn, anxious to resume a non-sexual friendship, offers to teach her self-defence. Come Friday Archie confesses to being gay to generally positive reactions whilst Amy crumbles when Rae tells her she kissed Liam. Back home Mum explains to Rae that she is converting to Islam as Karim, now a lollipop man, wants their baby born into the religion.

Rae is hanging out with Liam, who is now single, but her mum sees them smoking pot and grounds her. With Finn dating a twenty-four year old and Chloe also hanging out with twenty somethings she feels very young and out of it. She decides to visit her long estranged father, Victor, who gives her driving lessons and a record deck for her birthday but asks her not to tell her mother. Chloe asks her to a party but she freaks out when the older Saul comes on to her and flees, ending up at Kester's before returning home and making up with her mum, agreeing to accompany her to her scan. Victor encourages her to provide the songs for a school play, where she rows with Chloe for not supporting her against Saul. With Finn now living in Leeds the old gang seems to have broken up so she goes to see Liam for comfort - and more.

Chloe is meant to be singing the lead in the college musical but she has disappeared, not for the first time. Rae goes to her house and discovers her diary. She is initially appalled as Chloe describes her affair with P.T. teacher Stephen and distorts facts about Rae, whom she sees as a rival for Finn. However reading on she finds that Chloe describes her as ' a beautiful person, not bitchy and broken like me' and sees that Chloe is clearly less self-assured than she appears. Rae starts to feel for her, recalling the times Chloe helped her. At the therapy group Liam walks out after Kester berates him for being flippant and disruptive and Rae goes after him. She visits Victor but is disappointed to find he is going on holiday without telling her. After splitting with her controlling older boyfriend, with whom she has been staying, Chloe comes to college just before the concert but rows with Rae and leaves. Rae, reluctantly standing in for her, takes the stage but her performance is a disaster and she flees to find comfort and sex with Liam.

After spending the night with Liam Rae goes home to argue with her mother about seeing Victor and resenting the new baby. Following her split with Chloe she feels isolated at college and her efforts to get the old gang back together to find Chloe fail due to their bickering. After getting good advice from Kester she starts to turn things around, saving her mother when she starts bleeding and being glad to have a baby sister as well as saving Chloe from her vile boyfriend and joining her in a triumphant return to college. She finally gets the old group on good terms again and, as the icing of the cake, is prepared for a proper relationship with Finn, who has returned from Leeds.