When Brother and Sister try out for soccer teams, Papa is at first disappointed that they do not want to play baseball, but he changes his mind when he sees them practice.

As her third-grade class makes its selections for the "Graveyard of Boring Words" and learns about "superb synonyms, " slow-footed Nancy enthusiastically plays on the soccer team, with the goal of just being mediocre, or maybe even a little better than average.