Summary

It is early November, and Nate's team is playing away against the Melville Cowboys. Nate thinks it is a perfect day for football and too good to feel bad about anything. Nate decides to focus on today and not worry about the football contest coming up later this month. Unfortunately, Melville scored in the first 3 minutes of the game; but, Nate completes a pass to Pete who scores. The game is tied. Then, Melville quickly outplays Nate's team, and the score is now 21-7 at halftime. Nate feels bad because his passing is off again today. At the end of the third quarter, Coach Rivers takes Nate out of the game and puts in Eric as quarterback.

In Chapter 18, Nate can't remember every being benched in a game before, but he is not really surprised after the way he has been playing. With...