The Hundred Dresses

As Maddie sits at her desk, she remembers how the 100 dresses game with Wanda started. She and Peggy had skipped to school, singing, one day in October. Their friend Cecile had arrived in a new red dress. Peggy, Maddie, and other girls from their class complimented Cecile on her dress. Wanda arrived and tentatively joined the group of girls. She said to Peggy, “I got a hundred dresses home” (29). Suspicious, the group asked her why she doesn’t wear them to school. Wanda was evasive, but insisted that she had 100 dresses. Peggy loudly declared that they must be beautiful, and the other girls laughed. This, Maddie reflects, is how the “game” started.

Maddie feels relieved that she hadn’t had to join in the taunting of Wanda that morning, even though she and Peggy were late to school as a result. She considers, not for the first time, confronting Peggy about her bullying; however, she reflects on the fact that her own dress is one of Peggy’s old ones, disguised with a new trim to look different. Maddie worries that she will be victimized next if she encourages Peggy to stop bullying Wanda.