Cyrus was just a baby when he was left on the steps of the Northfield firehouse. But growing up surrounded by heroes didn't make Cyrus brave like his firefighter, football star dad or the firefighters who helped raise him. Instead, he's as skittish and scared as the stray dog who parks his head on Cyrus's shoulder and earns the perfect name - Parker. Cyrus's dad's strict no-pet rule means Parker can't stay. With football tryouts around the corner, a dog would only be a distraction. But a distraction is exactly what Cyrus wants: from the fact that he's the only sixth grader who can't read a whole book by himself, from the way his two best friends are treating the new kid, and from how he'd rather tap his feet to a record than score enough touchdowns to break one. Cyrus feels as out of place as the stray dog who captured his heart. But if fitting in means pretending to be someone he's not, maybe this is the year Cyrus can decide to be his own kind of normal - and there's nothing braver than that.