Bold and tenacious Riley Novell is a 13-year-old from Richmond, Virginia, and she’s also Addison Franke’s character. After Riley’s mother gets promoted, she and her family move to San Diego, California. At Riley’s new middle school, kids tease her about wanting to be on the football team. Everyone tells her that girls can’t be football players. Riley fiercely disagrees and tries out for the team anyway in the hope of showing her school what “playing like a girl” really looks like.

Meet Chase Manners­–Rowdy Meys’s character. He’s spunky, athletic, and highly intelligent. He does it all, playing both soccer and football, and somehow managing to be one of the top students in his grade. However, there’s one problem. Chase has vitiligo, a condition that makes his skin look patchy. Because of this, other kids make fun of his skin by calling him names. But then a new student arrives, meets Chase, and can’t stop raving about how cool he thinks Chase’s skin is. Soon other students begin to agree, and Chase realizes his condition is just another characteristic he has that makes him stand out from the crowd.

Adela Escojido’s character, eighth grader Lorelai “Rory” Mae Porter, was recently diagnosed with ITP, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, a bleeding disorder in which the immune system accidentally attacks the platelets in your blood. When this happens, excessive bruising and bleeding can occur. All she wants is a normal life again. Not only does she have to spend a lot of her time in the hospital and take steroids that make her gain weight, but her two best friends have also ditched her to be with the more popular girls. Her life is different and she certainly has many new obstacles to overcome, but Lorelai remembers how her last name is Porter, and Porter means “doorkeeper.” She knows that she’s the one who has the key to unlock her future, and therefore her true self; however, this can only happen if she lets it.

Evan Elzy introduced us to his character, Kyle Smith, who lives with the challenges of being autistic. He particularly struggles with other students making fun of him for his disorder. However, once this shy red-headed freckled-face kid joins the basketball team, everyone is blown away by his incredible talent! The students quickly learn that sometimes there is more to somebody than meets the eye.