Poppy Moore is a seemingly spoiled teenager living in Malibu, California with her father Gerry. In a wild prank with all her friends, she ruins/gives away her father's girlfriend's belongings. Her father returns home and angrily informs her that she is going to an English boarding school to straighten her out.
Arriving at Abbey Mount, Poppy refuses to acknowledge the authority of head girl Harriet Bentley making an instant enemy. Authoritarian and snobbish Harriet has used the authority of her rank, her family's connections with Abbey Mount, and the school’s tradition of allowing prefects to enforce its rules to effectively bully who she pleases. The girls at the school are afraid of Harriet though the teachers appear to regard her as an exemplary pupil. Harriet has an obsessive crush on the son of the school’s headmistress Mrs Kingsley. However it is implied that Mrs Kingsley is not fond of her Head Girl despite Harriet’s efforts to ingratiate herself to her. Harriet is also the captain of Abbey Mount’s lacrosse team though she lacks any real ability as a player and the team performs poorly against other schools.
Poppy does not get along with the girls in her room Drippy, Kiki Josie and Kate She does not abide by the school rules and sneaks out after lights out. There is a fire drill before she can get back to the room and unknowingly meets the headmistress's son, Freddie. Later, Poppy and Harriet get into a fight after Poppy displays her disdain for the lacrosse team and insults Harriet calling her "Horseface". Freddie observes the fight and flirts with Poppy, making Harriet jealous which amuses Poppy and other team players. Poppy is called to see Mrs Kingsley who rather than punish her for fighting displays understanding and support. However after the meeting Harriet manipulates her "maid" into pouring a bucket of coffee water over Poppy to teach her a lesson.
Isolated and upset Poppy is approached by Kate and she tells her that she has been struggling since the death of her mother in a car crash. Kate agrees to help Poppy get expelled from Abbey Mount and obtains the support of the other room mates. A series of pranks fail to result in punishment from Mrs Kingsley, enraging Harriet who sees Poppy as a threat to her status over the other girls and the system she upholds. Kate suggests that Poppy targets Freddie as Mrs Kingsley has forbidden any Abbey Mount girl to have contact with him.
After attending a shopping trip where Poppy changes her hair from blonde to its natural brunette the girls attend the school disco. Poppy promptly upstages Harriet, who has dressed as Keira Knightly from the film "Pride and Prejudice" to attract Freddie,instead Poppy dances with and later kisses Freddie. The morning after the disco, with the girls hungover, Poppy is challenged by Mrs. Kingsley to make an effort at Abbey Mount and discovers her talent as a lacrosse player. Her success results in Poppy replacing Harriet as captain. Poppy trains and motivates the Abbey Mount team leading them to victory after victory.
Poppy goes on a date with Freddie and realizes that he is more than just a scapegoat to be used to obtain her expulsion from the school. However after leaving her computer open, Poppy's emails are hacked and rewritten by Harriet. She is resentful of Poppy's popularity at Abbey Mount, the loss of her coveted place as team captain, erosion of her previous dominance over the school and especially Freddie's attraction to Poppy. The forged e-mails are then given to the girls and Freddie. The forged emails that suggest Poppy has been using everyone at Abbey Mount for her own advantage—laughing at the idiocy of her new friends and the foolishness of Freddie. All her roommates are hurt and devastated by the lies. Poppy loses her friendships and relationship with Freddie
Feeling alone and upset, Poppy retreats to a quiet corner of the school kitchen and plays with her souvenir lighter. Absorbed and unthinking she accidentally lights a thread at the bottom of the kitchen curtains setting them alight, but quickly puts it out. After hearing footsteps Poppy leaves the scene leaving the lighter behind. When she returns to her room, she sees the building in flames, supposing the flames were not originally extinguished. She and Kate get everyone out of the school, but Jennifer "Drippy" Logan is missing. Poppy remembers Drippy's cravings for ice-cream and runs into the building - forgetting her own safety - and rescues Drippy from the freezer.
Freddie finds Poppy's lighter after the fire brigade extinguish the building and returns it to her, still angry. After an assembly with Mrs. Kingsley who informs the pupils that the fire was not an accident and demands that the culprit come forward Poppy confesses to starting the fire and after doing so, discovers a lacrosse team photo from 1977 and learns her mother both went to her school and was captain of the team. Mrs. Kingsley has no choice but to propose her for expulsion before the school honor court, a trial by peers system. Freddie and Poppy apologise to one another and make-up.
The honour court is called into session with a gleeful Harriet prosecuting Poppy and demanding her expulsion from Abbey Mount to the evident disapproval of Mrs Kingsley. The girls discover that it was Harriet who wrote the emails and attend the court to show support to Poppy. Kate first and then the other girls in turn stand up and tell Mrs Kingsley that they were with Poppy at the time of the fire, the show of support spreading among all the pupils present (Including Harriet's "maid" ) thus sabotaging the court proceedings.
The show of support for Poppy among the pupils goads Harriet into accidentally disclosing her knowledge of the lighter and inadvertently that she was the actual cause of the fire by relighting it. Harriet's two deputy prefects Jane and Charlotte pick up on this joined by Mrs Kingsley. Poppy directly accuses Harriet of restarting the fire and declares her innocence to the court. Initially reacting with smug confidence and indignant anger at being accused the questioning by Jane, Charlotte and Mrs Kingsley unnerves Harriet.
Shocked and infuriated at the turn of events and faced with the disintegration of her position at Abbey Mount Harriet flies into a hysterical rage, railing furiously at Poppy, shouting angrily that Poppy had ruined everything for her at Abbey Mount and that she had "Only finished what you started!" An angry Mrs Kingsley stops the honor court and orders a now shattered Harriet to her office. Harriet is later shown stripped of her rank of Head Girl and expelled in disgrace from Abbey Mount. Harriet's formerly loyal deputy prefects, Jane and Charlotte, then humiliate her in front of her parents.
The film ends with Poppy and the lacrosse team in the finals. Poppy's father comes to visit and is taken back by how much she looks like her mother. They win the finals and Poppy celebrates with her father, who is proud of the person she has returned to. The credits show her friends and Freddie in Malibu with her, declining a call from her Malibu friend, deciding her school friends were better anyway.
The End.
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Wild Child
AdventureWild girl, her dad changed her school without her agreement, and she said goodbye to her old friends, so she is trying to get a new friends.
