Paul Fisher moves from Houston, TX to Tangerine, FL in the summer before his 7th grade year. He hopes to play goalie for the soccer team, while his brother Erik will be the star kicker for the high school football team. Paul tries out for the soccer team, and makes it easily. His brother quickly rises to stardom among the football crowd, and gets a bully and lackey named Arthur Bauer.

Before the soccer season starts, Paul is kicked off the team because his mother filled out an IEP noting his bad vision (though technically blind, Paul can see fine with glasses.) Paul is furious. Meanwhile, the boy who was meant to hold the kicks for Erik is killed by a lightning strike. At Paul's school, a giant sink hole swallows all the t-shacks that held the 7th grade classrooms. Seeing an opportunity, Paul begins to attend Tangerine Junior High, where he is still eligible to play soccer.

He makes the team at Tangerine, but only as a backup. They have an excellent season, winning all their games, even against Paul's old school. He plays goalie and other positions throughout the season and loves it.

Throughout the school year, Erik mocks and harasses several of Paul's friends, including Tino, one of Paul's teammates. When Luis, Tino's older brother, goes to speak to Erik, Arthur hits him in the head with a blackjack, and Paul sees from a hiding spot under the bleachers. Antoine (the quarterback from Erik's team sees as well). Several days later, Luis dies from an aneurism that was aggravated because of the assault.

At a senior celebration, Tino and Victor (another soccer player) attack Erik and Arthur in retaliation for Luis's death. Erik and Arthur or beaten up badly, and when a coach attempts to grab Tino, Paul jumps from the stands to help, allowing the boys to run off.

After the ceremony, Antoine confesses that he was ineligible to play for Lake Windsor High because he lived in Tangerine. The entire season was wiped from the records, including Erik's record breaking kicking season. Paul suddenly remembers the reason he was nearly blind was because his brother's old friend Castor sprayed his eyes with spray paint when he was five.

Antoine's confession, and Tino's attack, coincides with the discovery that Erik and Arthur were also stealing jewelry from neighbors, as well as the discovery of Arthur's attack on Luis. Paul corroborates the story, and it becomes clear that Erik is not a healthy person. His football dreams are over. Arthur is arrested.

Paul is expelled from Tangerine because of his "assault" of the football coach, but the students all praise him for it. He finishes the year at a private school with the plan to return to Tangerine and play soccer the next year.