Big Nate: In the Zone

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The book opens with Nate getting yelled at by his Principal Nichols. A flashback occurs revealing the story behind the situation, where Mrs. Godfrey gives him an assignment to write a report on the War of 1812, the outline of the project being due the day after. Nate's best friend Teddy Ortiz offers to help because his father has lots of books on the topic. Nate manages to write a good outline, but he forgets to bring it back home with him. Teddy promises to bring it back to school, but spills maple syrup on it the next morning, destroying it.

A panicked Nate tries to calm down by using his personal method of hitting himself on the forehead with a plastic bottle, which Mrs. Godfrey finds him with and orders him to dispose of. Nate angrily throws the bottle at the trash can, which ricochets off of it and hits his school principal, Principal Nichols, leaving him extremely angry with Nate. Nate is then tasked by Mrs. Godfrey to hand in another outline by the end of the day. Nate then elaborates on how this is one part of a streak of horrible luck he's been having.

Nate heads to the library to finish his outline; after finishing, he notices Jenny and Artur showing affection for each other, and due to him resenting their relationship, he writes up with a list of insulting pet names for Artur. Chad comes into the library shortly after. Nate hides the paper with the pet names and disguises it as him writing a new "Ultra-Nate" superhero story, and he puts Chad in as a sidekick upon his request. Chad also requests that a girl named Maya be put in it, and the story should revolve around Chad saving her, revealing that she is his crush.

Afterwards, Chad wonders about how amazing it would be to fly as shown in the comic they created, and Nate gets an idea on how to simulate flying. His idea is to jump on a pile of beanbags from on top of a desk. However, when Nate jumps onto the beanbags, he bursts one, and Mrs. Hickson, the librarian, assigns both of them detentions and sends them to the life skills teacher, Mrs. Brindle, to fix it.

When they enter the room, Mrs. Brindle offers them stuffed cabbage rolls to eat instead of the usual sugar-filled snacks that Chad says she serves. When Chad asks why she is serving overly healthy food, Mrs. Brindle says that the school is focusing on a new fitness-oriented program called the "Fitness Zone", which encourages students to take more care of their health; she also says Principal Nichols will host an assembly elaborating more on it. After Mrs. Brindle fixes the beanbag and Nate and Chad are able to return it, they start noticing big changes in the school because of the Fitness Zone. A frustrated Nate is informed by his friend Dee Dee that Principal Nichols wants to see him in his office. When he arrives, Principal Nichols tells him that he wants to have Nate's band, Enslave The Mollusk play at the assembly, and voids Nate and Chad's detentions for the event. When Nate meets up with Chad in his physical education class, Chad states that he knew something like it would happen because he believed in a small plastic foot that he had that seemed like a good luck charm.

After school, Nate, his friend Francis, Teddy, and Artur get together to compose a rock song centered around the Fitness Zone's values, and when Artur asks for a Fitness Zone paper that Principal Nichols sent Nate, Nate thoughtlessly tells him to check his backpack for it, and Artur sees the list of insulting names about him, causing him to angrily quit. Afterwards, Nate is selected to take Artur's role as the singer, and the group finally comes up with the song.

On the day of the performance, Marcus Goode, a popular, trendsetting seventh grader, decides to give them support.

Unfortunately for Nate's luck, Maya is shown to be going out with Marcus, which ends up making Chad heartbroken. Later, Nate finds out he has to go back home, as Nate's dad wants to discuss on his report card. However, he then reveals one of his report cards back then, when he was not exactly an "honor roll student". But Nate's dad still gives him a punishment of no drawing comics before bed. Nate loopholes around this and he finds out that his dad did not prevent him to draw on his sneakers. The stylized sneakers make him more popular than Marcus, causing Marcus to be very envious of Nate. Over the next week, Nate becomes "in the zone". He is asked to sign other kids' sneakers, his punishment is canceled, he is the MVP of back-to-back shutouts in soccer, and gets perfect scores on all his tests. However, he realizes is becoming like Artur. Nate mentally digresses and asks Artur to rejoin ETM. After successfully inviting Artur back, they run into Coach Calhoun, who tells them about Field Day. Marcus and Maya appear and Marcus makes a bet that 6th-grade will not win a single event on Field Day as well as calling Chad "Superchunk." Maya steps up angrily and tells Marcus to stop, stating "What's he ever done to you!?" then breaking up with Marcus. Nate then gives the Foot to Chad so he can try to hook up with a remorseful Maya.

However, the luck stops, as in a turn of events, the Foot ends up in Mrs. Godfrey's desk due to Mrs. Godfrey thinking it's a "toy" after finding it in Chad's hand. On Field Day, the 6th-graders are given the sports they are the worst at, and Gina is captain of the 6th graders. Nate has to do the 60 meter hurdles, and though he was able to gain a head start, he trips over the last hurdle, causing his competitor, Kareem Trillin, to win. The last sport is the three-legged race. Nate and Artur team up to make sure that Chad and Maya are a team. Soon, because Marcus and his partner, Jakob, do not work together, while Maya and Chad do, Nate wins the bet. The next week, an assembly is announced to give ETM a second chance. Before playing, Nate reveals that if he lost the bet, it would be a nightmare—he would become a mini-Marcus for a week. He also states that Marcus is about to be defamed. The song is a success, and Marcus is humiliated in front of the school with Chad hitting Marcus' head with a bottle and Nate states that he and his pals do not need the lucky foot when their show is currently a hit.

• Nate Wright: a rebellious 6th-grader and the main protagonist.
• Chad Applewhite: one of Nate's friends.
• Marcus Goode: a 7th-grade bully and the main antagonist.
• Francis Pope: Nate's best friend.
• Teddy Ortiz: Nate's other best friend.
• Maya: the love interest of Chad.
• Artur Pashkov: the singer of ETM and Jenny's exchange student boyfriend.
• Jenny Jenkins: Artur's girlfriend and the girl whom Nate has a crush on, though she does not reciprocate.