Josiah Price's little brat brother

Meet Barak. That's Barak like the army lodging, not the president.

Barak is like most 13-year-old boys. He has discovered the secret to twisting a plastic water bottle into an air-pressure-powered projectile weapon. He enjoys free T-shirts and putting his buddies in unprompted headlocks. And like most 13-year-old boys who grow up in the middle of the country, he dreams of being on a football team and hearing a packed stadium cheer his name.

The only difference between Barak and the rest of the sixth graders in Greentown, Indiana, is that he knows that will never happen. He began his life in intensive care, battling what would become hypotonic cerebral palsy. The disorder keeps the brain from communicating properly with muscles, making them weaker and floppier than a healthy person's muscles.