Thea

Jarvis needs space and privacy to study for his college SATs. Meanwhile, Thea is outraged when she learns that Mitch Mallard, the banker who holds the mortgage on the diner, eats there for free -- while Thea's kids have to pay.

Thea takes a day off, leaving the kids to do the household chores, and visits her favorite barbecue restaurant, Mickey's, only to discover that Mickey has died and new owner Roy's cooking is awful. Enter new head chef Thea.

Marcella uses Jerome to make her boyfriend, Dwayne, jealous while Jerome uses the relationship to meet his own needs. Meanwhile, Thea decides to fix her own plumbling after Clark refuses to make time to do it for her.

Danesha has a social studies project on single parents to do for school with the help of her classmate, Cliff Croverd, who just happens to be the most popular guy in school. Guess who they choose to interview about the experience of single parenthood?

Jerome finds he has a knack with stocks which leads Thea to lend him a real investment stake.

When Danesha's romance with Leonard disrupts the household, Jarvis and Jerome hatch a plan to split up the lovebirds.

Thea acquires an unwanted admirer.

Jarvis lets his younger brother drive and they get into an accident; but it's no accident that the boys don't tell their mom who was behind the wheel. To punish them, she cooks up a scheme with Lynette, who pretends to have lost her wedding ring in her trash, now at the bottom of a very fragrant dumpster.

The kids are not pleased when the washing machine breaks down, which means endless trips to the laundromat. Meanwhile, Danesha's boyfriend is in hot water after he kisses another girl, and Thea puts him through the wringer before he can come clean with Danesha.

We are introduced to Thea's hectic routine, working at the supermarket checkout by day, dressing hair by night, and supervising her four demanding children. James gives his mother $25 which he earned delivering sandwiches during his school lunch hour, but she insists that he keep the money and eat his own lunch in the cafeteria henceforth. Danesha returns from taking Jerome clothes shopping, but Jerome blabs that he had to try on endless badly-fitting clothes while she talked on the phone to her new boyfriend Leonard, who is meeting her at the library later to study, and Thea insists that Jerome pick her up at home so she can inspect him. Meanwhile, Jarvis is supposedly at a friend's house doing a geography assignment, but Thea has found his geography book and knows that he has been at the video arcade instead, and grounds him before she leaves to attend a memorial service. It's the night of a big video game competition, and Jarvis sneaks out to it despite James' attempts to keep him a