Calli wakes up to find her belongings already packed and realizes her family is moving to a new town again.

Calli and her mom arrive in St. George, Utah, where Calli hopes to finally make a lasting best friend.

On her first day at Black Ridge Intermediate School, Calli's tics erupt in front of the class and Jinsong pretends not to know her.

Jinsong lies to Calli about a student council meeting after school but then runs to catch up with her to walk home.

Jinsong invites Calli to his family's Chinese Moon Festival and accidentally tells her she's beautiful while looking at the moon.

Calli asks Jinsong to be her valentine at lunch, but Jinsong lies and says he already has one.

During science class, Calli's tics intensify, she falls backward off her chair, and she runs out of the classroom crying.

After Calli is taken to the nurse, Mrs. Locke announces Calli's Tourette syndrome to the entire class while Jinsong hides in the bathroom.

Jinsong leaves a bouquet of flowers at Calli's door to apologize, but Calli feeds them to the garbage disposal.

While Calli's mom is away on a trip, Mrs. P'eng invites Calli to join the family at the county fair.

On the Ferris wheel, Jinsong apologizes to Calli and then shouts that he likes her in front of their classmates.

Jinsong punches Duncan and Nyle in the face for mocking Calli and walks himself to the principal's office.

Calli's mom returns from Las Vegas already married to a stranger named Reno and announces the family must move by Friday.

On their last walk home together, Jinsong kisses Calli and she writes her email address on his arm as a goodbye.

At her new Las Vegas school, Calli introduces herself by openly explaining her Tourette syndrome to her classmates, and they laugh with her.

Calliope 'Calli June' Snow moves to a new town and hopes this time she can finally make a lasting friend, but her Tourette syndrome draws immediate mockery from her classmates. Her neighbor Jinsong is too afraid of social consequences to be her friend at school, even as their private friendship deepens. The bullying escalates until Calli's tics cause her a physical injury, forcing her Tourette syndrome into the open in front of everyone. At a county fair, Jinsong finally apologizes and publicly declares his feelings for Calli, but almost immediately her mom announces yet another move. Calli says a heartbreaking goodbye to her first true friend before starting over in Las Vegas — this time with a completely new approach to her Tourette syndrome. The final image of Calli introducing herself honestly at her new school stands as the direct opposite of how her story began.

Calli and Jinsong meet in the apartment laundry room on her first night in St. George and discover they will attend the same school.

Calli's mom cuts Calli's long hair short after catching her pulling it out again.

At lunch on her first day, the popular girls mock Calli for the frog-like vocal tic she made in class that morning.

Calli visits her mom at the flower shop and places a discarded poppy in the rose vase; her mom immediately removes it.

Calli's mom announces she is dating a man named Tom, and Calli immediately worries about how long the relationship will last.

Beatriz leads the entire science class in repeating the word 'precipitation' to trigger and mock Calli's echolalia tic.

School counselor Mrs. Baumgartner tells Calli to stop suppressing her tics and leads her through a series of empowering affirmations.

Duncan and Nyle plant fake valentine cards on Calli's desk pretending to be from Jinsong, then mock her when she opens them.

Calli spends her first night alone in the apartment while her mom is at a convention, checking the locks and frightened by sounds.

After Jinsong publicly declares his feelings at the fair, the popular girl Ivy places a friendship locket on Calli's desk.

Calli completes her long-overdue self-portrait in art class, drawing herself with long hair and holding the moon.

When Duncan and Nyle leave prank love notes on her desk, Calli walks up and rips the notes in their faces.

On the drive to Las Vegas, Calli finally tells her mom how much the constant moving and hiding her tics has hurt her.

After several days of silence at Reno's house, Calli and her mom reconcile and Calli chooses to forgive her.

Jinsong emails Calli that he made the Little League team as a pitcher and Calli replies, promising to visit in June.

This pool follows the smaller but crucial events that drove Calli and Jinsong's story forward: a forced haircut that stripped Calli of her only source of confidence, a discarded poppy at the flower shop that captured how little her mom understood her, and a school counselor who was the first adult to tell Calli to stop hiding. Jinsong's friends escalated their cruelty with fake valentines, while Calli spent a frightening night alone that showed just how isolated she had become. The social tide began to turn after the fair, as Calli earned the popular girls' acceptance and finally finished her long-delayed self-portrait. But a sudden move to Las Vegas forced a long-overdue confrontation between Calli and her mom in a car, ending in forgiveness and a promise of a summer visit that gave Calli something to look forward to.

The quieter moments that shaped the whole story.

Jinsong mocks Calli's tics with Duncan and Nyle after school on her first day, even though it makes him feel sick inside.

Calli picks up a red sandstone rock outside an orthodontist's office and adds it to her egg carton collection as number ten.

Calli secretly carries a poppy pressed inside her astronomy book to school each day as a private symbol of courage.

Beatriz mocks Calli in the school library and calls her 'Cantaloupe June,' and Calli recognizes her from the classroom self-portrait.

Jinsong writes Calli a lantern riddle at the Moon Festival with himself as the answer; Calli nervously guesses 'mooncakes' instead.

Calli tells classmate Kenny and two teachers about her Tourette syndrome while hiding under a drinking fountain after fleeing class.

Calli walks to Jinsong's apartment hoping to make up but finds him eating dinner with Beatriz and leaves without speaking.

After dinner, Jinsong confronts Beatriz about her bullying of Calli, and Beatriz accuses him of abandoning her after her mother left.

Calli packs her belongings as if for another move, then discovers from her mom that she and Tom are still together.

Jinsong abandons his friends at the carnival pitching booth and runs through the fair to find Calli and make things right.

At a Sunday picnic, Calli openly explains her tics to Jinsong's younger brother Chonglin — the first non-adult she has ever told.

Calli decides that her mom and her doctor were both wrong to tell her to hide her Tourette syndrome from others.

Before leaving school for the last time, Calli slips a farewell letter, the poppy, and Ivy's locket through Beatriz's locker.

At a highway rest stop, Calli intentionally slams her other thumb in the car door to make the pain feel symmetrical.

Jinsong spots Beatriz holding Calli's poppy in science class and invites her to join him and Kenny for their assignment.

This pool traces the pivotal moments that shaped Calli and Jinsong's journeys beneath the surface of the main plot. Jinsong's guilt after mocking Calli, her symbolic poppy carried to school for courage, and a misread Moon Festival riddle reveal the gap between what both characters feel and what they dare to say out loud. A crisis in science class finally forced Calli to disclose her Tourette syndrome to another student for the first time, beginning her slow path toward self-acceptance. Jinsong's confrontation with Beatriz and his choice at the carnival to abandon his friends and chase Calli marked his own decisive turning point. The pool closes with Calli leaving a letter of forgiveness in Beatriz's locker, Jinsong choosing to rebuild old friendships, and both characters fundamentally changed by everything they have been through together.