Snot's Brownie troop arrives at Camp Crescendo and catches a first glimpse of Troop 909 from the bus.

Arnetta and Octavia mock Troop 909 with escalating 'Chihuahua' insults as the girls disembark the bus.

Arnetta asks Daphne whether a Troop 909 girl called her the n-word, and Daphne nods in confirmation.

Arnetta declares the troop must take revenge on Troop 909 for using a racial slur against Daphne.

Janice breaks the troop's silence and proposes they physically beat up the Troop 909 girls.

Arnetta announces a secret meeting to plan exactly how the troop will confront Troop 909.

Snot inadvertently reveals that the camp bathrooms are the only place Troop 909 will be unsupervised.

The troop hikes to the camp bathrooms together to assess the space as a confrontation site.

Inside the bathroom, Arnetta explains the full confrontation plan, including the signal for others to rush in.

Mrs. Margolin arrives and forces the reluctant troop to sing the despised 'Doughnut Song' before departing.

Arnetta and Octavia enter the bathrooms first but never give the signal; Snot leads the rest of the group inside anyway.

Inside the bathrooms, Octavia calls the Troop 909 girls 'retarded' and the big girl firmly pushes back.

The Troop 909 leader tells Mrs. Margolin that her girls are delayed learners with special needs, not racists.

Arnetta tries to identify the racist culprit, but the chosen girl cannot speak; another 909 girl shouts 'I'm a Brownie!'

On the bus home, Daphne silently hands Snot the blank journal she won for her prize-winning poem.

The black Brownie troop arrives at Camp Crescendo and almost immediately forms a hostile impression of the all-white Troop 909. When Arnetta claims a Troop 909 girl called Daphne a racial slur, the troop rallies around a plan for revenge, with the camp bathrooms chosen as the confrontation site. The plan moves forward through a night of scheming, culminating in the troop entering the bathrooms where Troop 909 is gathered. The confrontation collapses immediately when it becomes clear that the girls in Troop 909 are developmentally disabled, not racist. Arnetta's attempt to single out a culprit falls apart completely, and the troop rides home in heavy silence. Daphne's quiet gift of a blank journal to Snot closes the story with unresolved, melancholy weight.

The core story of Camp Crescendo's Brownie confrontation.

Mrs. Margolin is introduced as the troop's showy, religious leader who treats her role as an evangelical calling.

The narrator explains that growing up in an all-black Atlanta suburb made meaningful encounters with white people rare.

Arnetta begins using 'Caucasian' as a cutting insult at school, and the other troop members enthusiastically follow her lead.

Snot describes Daphne as the quietest girl in the troop and notes she won a prize for a Langston Hughes Day poem.

Snot quietly argues that Troop 909 may not actually be racist, but Arnetta and the rest of the troop dismiss her.

Daphne spontaneously begins cleaning the bathroom while the rest of the troop finalizes the confrontation plan.

Elise asks when the secret meeting will be held, and Arnetta coolly tells her it has already taken place.

Mrs. Hedy arrives at the cabin visibly distressed about her impending divorce from her husband.

Mrs. Hedy asks the girls to sing Brownie songs to cheer her up, and she watches them with teary, grateful eyes.

As the troop approaches the bathrooms that evening, they notice the lights inside are already on.

Arnetta tries to shame the Troop 909 big girl into silence by threatening to call her a tattletale.

Octavia urges the group to leave the bathrooms and pleads with the Troop 909 girls not to tell any adults.

A park ranger accompanies the Troop 909 leader to the bathroom, then departs as the leader tends to her upset girls.

Back on the bus, Arnetta and Octavia mock the Troop 909 girl who proudly declared 'I'm a Brownie!'

Daphne asks Snot whether her father ever thanked the Mennonites for painting his porch.

Before the confrontation at Camp Crescendo, the story establishes key background: the troop's insular upbringing, their flawed adult chaperones, and the social dynamics that make Arnetta's plan possible. Small but meaningful moments—Daphne quietly cleaning the bathroom, Mrs. Hedy's tears over her divorce, the girls singing Brownie songs—fill in the world around the main conflict. The night of the planned ambush unfolds through hesitations and social pressure, with Arnetta working to keep the group in line. Inside the bathrooms, the confrontation quickly unravels as Octavia's cruelty meets an unexpected response and the adults arrive. The aftermath on the bus reveals that the girls have not entirely shed their prejudice, even as Daphne's gentle final question hints at a more compassionate way of seeing the world.

The supporting cast, buildup, and aftermath of the failed confrontation.

Snot notes that the troop is curious whether Troop 909 will resemble the white people they have only ever seen on television.

After Arnetta's revenge declaration, the troop silently looks to Daphne for guidance, but she retreats into her Girl Scout handbook.

Arnetta directly confronts Snot, asking whether she plans to tell on them, making clear Snot is the only holdout against the plan.

Inside the scouted bathroom, Snot is unsettled by the vaulted wooden rafters, which remind her of being inside a whale.

Arnetta tells Snot 'Don't think. Just fight' when Snot asks what happens if Troop 909 denies using the slur.

Arnetta asks Daphne to join the confrontation; Daphne's silence makes clear she will not participate.

Mrs. Margolin leaves the cabin for the evening, and Arnetta immediately signals it is time to head to the bathrooms.

The big girl from Troop 909 announces she would not mind being a tattletale at all, completely deflating Arnetta's tactic.

Mrs. Margolin arrives at the bathroom accompanied by Daphne, discovering the tense standoff between the two troops.

The Troop 909 leader reveals that some of her girls are echolalic and may repeat any word they happen to hear.

Snot's entire troop falls completely speechless as the truth about Troop 909's members becomes impossible to deny.

Octavia asks on the bus why the troop had to share a camp with 'retarded girls,' revealing that prejudice persists.

Arnetta tells the group about a white woman who silently stared at her and her mother in a mall without saying a word.

Daphne urges Snot to finish her Mennonite story, addressing her as 'Laurel' rather than by her humiliating nickname.

Daphne ends the story by suggesting the Mennonites would help a stranger 'just to be nice,' quietly undercutting cynicism.

From the troop's first curious glances at Troop 909 to the final words spoken on the bus ride home, this pool traces the emotional and moral turning points of the story. Snot repeatedly notices what others miss—the eerie beauty of the bathroom's rafters, the weight of Daphne's silence, the cost of Arnetta's certainty—but is unable to stop what is already in motion. The confrontation in the bathrooms breaks down not with violence but with a revelation, as the Troop 909 leader's explanation of echolalia dismantles the entire premise of Arnetta's plan. The troop's collective speechlessness in that moment is one of the story's most powerful beats. The journey home brings no clean resolution, only Arnetta's mall story, Snot's Mennonite story, and Daphne's final words, each layering new complexity onto questions of race and power. The story closes with Daphne's simple suggestion that someone might act kindly toward a stranger—an ending that is either naively hopeful or quietly wise.