C.J. and Friends: School's Out

As the final recess of the year takes place at 98th Street School, The Recess Gang plots one final escapade on the school. Rigalli smuggles some of the school's ice cream supply, and she, Vance, Rus, and Mickey catapult all the ice cream they smuggled from the roof of the school. As Mr Boyd rushes out to stop the mess, C.J. uses Greta's voice-over machine to sound identical to Principal Prickly's, but then the *real* Principal Prickly shows up and takes C.J. to his office. It is too late for Principal Prickly to give C.J. any real punishment for his prank, as there are only mere minutes before the final bell of the school year rings.

Now that school is finally out for the summer, C.J. and her friends are excited to get started on their vacation. However, C.J.'s happiness is short-lived when she finds out that all five of her best friends (and later, most of their schoolmates) are going to be spending most of the summer are various camps around the state to improve their skills. C.J. unhappily rides her bike around town, doing things by herself, when she notices that there is something going on at the school. She sneaks inside and finds a secret group of scientists using a laser beam to levitate a safe. Panicked, she tries to tell her parents and the police, but no one believes her. When she gets Principal Prickly to come to see what's going on, he is dematerialized when he tries the enter the school. C.J. uses her sister Betty's diary to blackmail her into driving to all the camps to pick her friends up.

C.J. and her friends infiltrate the school grounds at night and steal a crate of documents, but when they find it filled with Weather Maps, Test Scores, and other boring information, they accuse her of inventing a plot to bring them back. They are about to head back to their camps until they see the tractor beam come out of the school's roof and shoot out a green laser and are shocked to see it. They agree with C.J. that something is going on and they need to find Prickly since they have no proof.

Back at C.J.'s tree-house, C.J. concocts a scheme to stakeout the school every night from her tree-house, but Vance and the others are worried that they could be discovered missing from their campsites. But C.J. manages to create cover-ups and have other campers cover for them. As they stakeout the school; the Gang realizes that they may not have many future summers to spend together.

The next day, with the rest of the gang back at their camp; C.J. finds Prickly's golf pants in a dumpster, concluding that Prickly is held hostage in the school. So C.J. and her friends infiltrate the school at night with Rachel and Boyd on their tail, trying to have them arrested, but their plan is ruined when Boyd gets stuck in the basement window.

While eavesdropping on a heated conversation between the scientists and another man, they are caught spying after Mickey burps and they flee with Boyd and Rachel watching confused. C.J. is captured and is put in a storage room where Prickly is tied up in thick ropes and gagged. C.J. gets rid of the gag and the two are met by a man named Dr. Wilhelm Billington, who is revealed to be the mysterious man talking to the scientists.

After Billington and his men leave, Prickly relates to C.J. how, back in the spring of 1968, he and Billington were best friends. The latter became principal of 98th Street School and, during a private conversation with Prickly, revealed that he intended to move to abolish recess to improve test grades and further his career. Billington was criticized by the parents for it but refused to back down and Prickly went to the superintendent as a means of convincing Billington to change his mind. The superintendent instead fired Billington who still would not change his mind and promoted Prickly to the rank of principal. Billington's business partner, Boris P. Boyd, stated that Billington is no longer his partner, driving Billington into a hateful vengeance. Later, Prickly says, Billington went on to become Secretary of Education but he was fired by the U.S. President when he tried to abolish recess again, only this time it was nationwide.

C.J. and Prickly escape, but are caught again by Billington's bodyguard. C.J. uses her walkie-talkie (in Prickly's drawer) and tells his friends Billington wants to destroy summer vacation.
C.J.'s friends manage to flee the school grounds and go through the crate of documents again. Rigalli finds a date book that says lunar perigee (which happens to be 12:22 the next afternoon) on it; Greta deduces that it is no laser beam, it is a tractor beam, Billington is trying to move the moon's orbit using the beam when it is closest to the earth. Billington reveals to C.J. and Prickly that his ultimate plan is to turn summer into winter so that kids will be forced inside to study.

C.J.'s friends get his sister, Betty, after convincing her to drive to the camps again, where they pick up their friends. Rus draws up the plans and leads a free-for-all battle to attack the school and rescue C.J. and Prickly. C.J. and Prickly escape the cage that Billington has imprisoned them in and disguise as two of Billington's guards. Rus' plan works, and most of the guards and ninjas are knocked out. All the kids pour into the auditorium. Another set of guards protects Billington as he prepares to pull the lever. As Wilhelm voices his goals, C.J. points out her plans' flaws but the villain is still intent on going through with them and orders for the beam to be ready.

However, Boris P. Boyd arrives with an army of teachers and other school faculty members. After rejecting Billington again, he brings the teachers in and a fight breaks out. In the chaos, Billington tries to activate the beam but Prickly punches Billington though this causes Billington to slumps and triggers the beam and Prickly cannot reverse it. Billington gloats on his imminent success as everyone is horrified but C.J. tosses her baseball to Vance, whose accurate arm destroys the machine. This act saves the day and causes Billington to bemoan the failure of his plans.

The police (who were presumably given proof of the events) soon arrest the protesting Billington and his cronies for their crimes.

The kids are lauded as heroes for their success. C.J.'s friends inform her they intend to spend the rest of their summer with her, as they only little time to be kids. C.J. is excited but decides to handle one thing, she rushes into Prickly's office to thank him, only to be thanked by Prickly for being reminded of why he wanted to be an educator. C.J. runs off with her friends, while Prickly puts on the peace symbol necklace, a memento of his past friendship.