Booked

This section begins with the poem “Gameplay” and concludes with “Class ends.” Nick plays FIFA online with his friend Coby and wakes up before school. He plays Ping-Pong with his mom in the poem “Giddy-up.” Nick takes the bus to school, where he daydreams about soccer in Honors English class. His teacher Ms. Hardwick asks him a question, which Nick mishears. In the poem “Busted,” Ms. Hardwick assigns him extra work based on his malapropism, which means “the amusing and ludicrous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of a similar sound” (18). 

Nick nervously tries to talk to his crush April at Miss Quattlebaum’s School of Ballroom Dance & Etiquette. Nick and Coby, who play for rival club soccer teams, both receive invitations to the upcoming tournament called the Dallas Cup. While Nick and Coby text about the Dallas Cup in the poem “Trash Talk,” Nick’s dad interrupts. He tells Nick to memorize words from a dictionary he wrote called Weird and Wonderful Words. 

Two bullies, twins Dean and Don Eggleston, have returned to school after being expelled. Dean flirts with April in the library, and Don shoves Nick to the ground.