In the aftermath of the surgery, his mom comes back home to live with him and his dad again, and for a while Nick believes that his parents are going to get back together. Nick’s struggles to cope with all of these changes in his life become even more complicated when he develops a perforated appendix, a situation that leads to emergency surgery that keeps him out of the tournament in Dallas. Coby, however, fights back, unlike Nick, who continues to feel victimized by the Egglestons, by his seemingly cold father, and by his parents’ divorce. He is joined in his love of the game by his buddy Coby, a mixed-race immigrant who plays for a rival team who encourages Nick in his attempts to spend time with April and who is also on the receiving end of bullying from the Egglestons. Nick also continues to practice soccer, preparing to go with his team to an important tournament in Texas. MacDonald, the school librarian and a former rap producer who encourages the reluctant Nick to read. Throughout all this, Nick develops an unlikely friendship with Mr. Complicating this situation is the presence of the bullying Eggleston twins, one of whom (Don) sees April as his girl, and bullies Nick out of spending more time with her.
Meanwhile, Nick’s regular school routine continues, albeit in a more unfocused way than usual, given that the girl he has a crush on (April) seems to like him back. Her decision to take the job (partly because things are difficult between her and Nick’s father) triggers the first major change in Nick’s life: the realization that his family is no longer a unified one. Narration also reveals that Nick’s mother loves horses, and has been invited to work with high-level racing horses in another state. Narration reveals that Nick’s father is a writer, and has published a dictionary of unusual but meaningful words, a dictionary that he wants Nick to memorize (throughout the book, examples of those words and their definitions appear in the text).
Nick’s story begins on a day when everything seems to be relatively normal: he sleeps late, after playing on-line soccer into the night his parents are arguing and he is caught daydreaming in school. A "/" in the summary or a quote indicates a line break within a stanza a "//" in the summary or a quote indicates a break between stanzas. Dialogue poems, of which there are several, are printed with Nick’s dialogue in regular typeset, with the words of other speakers printed in italics. Most material is present tense, with the exception of remembered material, which is in past tense.
The entire book is written, except where noted, in blank verse. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, New York. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Alexander, Kwame.
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