Patty finishes second place at the first track meet of the season, sparking days of lingering anger.

Uncle Tony shares that Patty's father used to send videos of baby Patty learning to run, inspiring her to join track.

Patty's history class group agrees to focus their important women project on artist Frida Kahlo.

Coach runs the track alongside Patty and uses a silver relay baton to explain the importance of team energy.

Coach assigns Patty to the girls' 4x800 relay team, an event she has never competed in before.

Assistant Coach Whit sets up a CD player and instructs the relay team to waltz together during practice.

Krystal and Patty clash at a baton handoff practice, with Krystal accusing Patty of having a white mother.

Coach forces Krystal and Patty to hold the relay baton together until the two reach an understanding.

Becca invites Patty to sit with her group at the cafeteria lunch table for the first time.

Momly reveals she also attended Chester Academy and struggled with the same feelings of not fitting in.

Momly and Maddy are involved in a car accident while driving to Maddy's school field trip.

When the relay team gets lost during a practice run, Patty takes the lead and chooses a direction to guide them back.

Uncle Tony holds out an empty plate pretending it holds one of Patty's father's cupcakes, and Patty finally breaks down crying.

On the morning of the second track meet, Cotton and Ma surprise Patty at her front door.

Brit-Brat drops the baton during the relay race handoff, but Patty refuses to give up on her team and begins her sprint.

Patty Jones opens the story by placing second at the first track meet, sparking a lingering anger that sets the novel's central tension in motion. Her coach recognizes this and assigns her to the girls' 4x800 relay team, challenging her to learn how to trust others. Conflicts with teammate Krystal and a pivotal conversation with Momly about Chester Academy force Patty to reconsider how she sees the people around her. A car accident involving Momly and Maddy tests Patty's composure and ultimately pushes her to lead her lost relay team back through the city. The emotional climax arrives when Uncle Tony uses a pretend cupcake to unlock Patty's long-buried grief over her father's death. Patty's journey ends at the second track meet, where she refuses to quit even after her teammate drops the baton, proving how far she has come.

The headline events driving Patty's journey from lone runner to team player.

Patty braids Maddy's hair and adds red beads before their weekly Sunday church visit with Ma.

Ma tells Patty she doesn't make any junk after Momly brings up the second-place finish on the drive home from church.

Patty attempts small talk with Chester Academy classmates about their weekends but receives no response from any of them.

Team captain Aaron confronts Patty at the first practice after the meet and tells her she cannot check out on her teammates.

Maddy asks Patty to write a letter to Ma's amputated legs and makes Patty pinky promise her own legs will never disappear.

Momly makes turkey wings for dinner every single night after Patty once mentioned she liked them.

Patty sends Ma a smiley face text while Ma undergoes her thrice-weekly dialysis treatment.

Patty develops a routine of walking laps around the cafeteria at lunch to avoid standing alone without friends.

Ms. Lanford informs the project groups they will need to complete their Frida Kahlo assignment outside of class time.

The group visits Becca's house and discovers her bedroom is entirely black with an illuminated galaxy of constellations on the walls.

Maddy unknowingly reveals that TeeTee's mother is Maddy's own teacher, Mrs. S, shattering Patty's assumption that both girls are wealthy.

Maddy fears doctors will amputate Momly's arm at the hospital, and Patty distracts her by asking her to move heavy chairs.

Patty and Maddy witness Ma's full dialysis treatment at the hospital for the first time alongside Uncle Tony.

After the accident, Patty counts Maddy's 30 remaining red beads and notices she is the only one not smiling in Maddy's drawings.

Patty calls Ma for help making turkey wings for Momly, then asks Maddy to finish braiding Patty's hair with the red beads.

Pool 2 traces the quieter but deeply significant events threading through Patty's week, from Sunday routines she shares with her family to the small signs of change at school. Patty's role as caretaker for Maddy is visible in rituals like braiding her sister's hair and keeping track of her red beads, while Ma's steady encouragement keeps Patty grounded. At Chester Academy, Patty struggles to connect, walking cafeteria laps alone and receiving cold responses to her attempts at small talk with classmates. A visit to Becca's extraordinary bedroom and surprising revelations about her partners' backgrounds chip away at Patty's assumptions about those around her. After the car accident, Patty steps into caretaker mode at the hospital, distracting Maddy with feats of strength while hiding her own fear. By the end of the week, small acts of mutual care — Maddy braiding Patty's hair and Ma helping with turkey wings — signal how much has shifted in their relationships.

The everyday moments and background events shaping Patty's week.

Patty's father dies suddenly in his sleep, setting off a chain of events that upends the entire family.

Ma's legs are amputated after she copes with her husband's death by consuming large amounts of sugar, worsening her diabetes.

Patty and Maddy move in with Uncle Tony and Momly after Ma's failing health makes it impossible for her to care for them.

Sunny compliments Patty's Defenders-colored nail polish at practice, causing Patty to smile for the first time since the losing race.

Patty's group partners reject her Harriet Tubman suggestion as too serious, deepening Patty's sense of not belonging at Chester Academy.

Patty feels alienated at relay practice when she learns Brit-Brat, Krystal, and Deja all ran together as a team the previous season.

A lunch discussion about what to send into space leads Patty to realize she never speaks about her deceased father in public.

Patty recognizes a hidden look of pain on Becca's face about her constantly absent parents and connects it to her own feelings of loss.

Momly reveals her mother worked as a night custodian at Chester Academy so that Momly could attend as a student.

Momly passes on the advice she once received: folks who try to do everything are usually avoiding one specific thing.

Coach announces that Patty will run the anchor leg of the relay during a long practice run through the city streets.

Patty admits her burdens feel like too much to Ghost, Lu, and Sunny, and the four friends pull together in a group hug.

Patty reads about Frida Kahlo using sports to heal after childhood trauma and realizes running serves the same personal purpose for herself.

Patty boldly sits at Becca's lunch table without being invited and greets TeeTee and Taylor without any of her usual resentment.

Just before grabbing the baton from Krystal in the final relay leg, Patty reminds herself she carries her mother's strength in her legs.

Pool 3 begins with the backstory tragedies that define Patty's world — her father's sudden death, her mother's amputation, and the move to a new home — before tracing the key moments of insight and change that follow. Patty slowly learns to see beyond surface appearances, recognizing hidden pain in Becca's family life and her own struggles mirrored in Momly's past. A lunch conversation about space and later research into Frida Kahlo crack open Patty's carefully guarded emotional world, forcing her to acknowledge grief she has long suppressed. A critical turning point arrives at practice when Patty discovers she is the relay anchor and must trust herself to lead, and a vulnerable moment with her track friends marks the first time she admits she is overwhelmed. Momly's quietly powerful advice about avoidance plants a seed that blooms at the emotional climax, when Patty finally allows herself to mourn her lost childhood. By the final race, all these small revelations converge as Patty draws on her full support system to push herself forward even when the race seems lost.