maisie initially wants to be on the cheerleading squad, but she did not make the cut during tryouts. she is infatuated with a boy at her school, eric delong, and will do anything to be near him. because he tries out for the wrestling team, maisie decides to try out too. she makes the team but discovers that wrestling is a lot harder than she initially thought. she wins some of her matches but most of her opponents forfeit because they don't think it's right for a girl to wrestle a boy. she has to decide if she should do things that other people want her to do or things that she truly wants to do and is good at.