60 pages • 2 hours read
Julie MurphyDumplin
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 45-48Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 45-48 Summary
Willowdean’s mother buys Will a dress for the pageant, and Will promises herself that she will at least try it on. It’s tight, but her mother says they can let it out a few inches. Willowdean agrees that they can make it work.
Willowdean sits with Millie, Amanda, and Hannah on the day that the pageant contestants show their talents and get the costumes the girls will wear for their talent performances approved. The judges admit that Amanda’s kicking, head butting, and juggling of a soccer ball isn’t a traditional talent, but they accept it. Hannah, surprisingly, sings “Send in the Clowns.” Millie plays “Somewhere over the Rainbow” on the xylophone.
Willowdean’s attempt to perform a magic trick fails, but her mother approves her anyway. However, Mrs. Dixon accuses Willowdean of not taking the pageant seriously. Willowdean agrees and thinks about how her attitude is not fair to her mother or to Millie, Amanda, and Hannah. She enlists Lee Wei, the drag queen, for help by sending an email to Dale, the bouncer of the drag club the girls visited a few weeks before. Lee teaches the girls how to walk and makes them all practice. The girls also get lessons on stage makeup and clothes. As they drive home, Will thinks about the change the girls have made during their morning with Lee:
There’s something different about us. I can feel it. It’s not a walk. Or a makeup tip. It’s not anything you can label or take a picture of, but I feel it like you do a birthday—nothing you can see, but something you intuitively sense (270).
Willowdean and Bo study for the World History test together at Bo’s house. They talk about Bo’s relationship with his father and about Lucy’s death. When Bo is called outside to help his father with something, Willowdean drinks lemonade with Loraine, Bo’s stepmother. Loraine is an astrologist and is not surprised to hear that Willowdean is a Leo. Bo’s an Aquarius, and Leos and Aquarians make good partners, according to Loraine. When Bo drives Will home, he kisses her lightly, telling her that he wants to kiss her but doesn’t want to mess things up again.
Bo tells Willowdean that he goes to church every Sunday, not because he is religious, but because it became habit when he went to private school and he likes the tradition. Willowdean agrees to go to church with him the next day. In the church parking lot, one of his old classmates asks if Willowdean is Bo’s girlfriend. Bo says he is “working on it” (288). When Will asks Bo about Bekah, he says that he was trying to get over Will or make Will jealous but then he saw Will with Mitch and it was him that was jealous. Bo tells Will that he wants her to be his girlfriend.
Chapters 45-48 Analysis
In Chapter 45, Mrs. Dixon tells Willowdean that she bought a pageant dress for Willowdean. While it doesn’t perfectly fit Will, Will’s mom believes she can work with it to get it to fit for the pageant. In this scene, we begin to see Willowdean and her mother getting along. This interaction causes Will to reflect on her relationship with her mother: “Her voice is too high and her smile too big, but I don’t care. I can ignore those things. Because she’s making an effort to meet me where I am” (258). Just as Will begins to accept her mother for who she is, she feels that her mother is, in turn, making the effort to accept her.
There are many surprises at the pageant talent show rehearsals, emphasizing the novel’s theme that people aren’t always what you think of them. Throughout the novel, Will's view of others, as well as of herself, begins to evolve. The courage and dynamic personalities of her new friends continually challenges her expectations of what “outsiders” are capable of. Through her new friends, Will starts to take the pageant more seriously. After she fails to prepare for the talent segment and her mother challenges her poor attitude, Will recognizes that she needs to commit to the pageant.
Worried about their participation in the competition, Willowdean asks Lee Wei, the drag queen from the Dolly Parton revue the girls went to, to help her, Millie, Amanda, and Hannah rehearse. Lee teaches the girls not only how to walk, pose, and be self-confident on the stage but also gives them life lessons as well. Lee teaches them to appreciate their individuality, saying: “Life is a river and we’re not all headin’ in the same direction” (265).
Lee also says that he wishes he had friends like the girls when he was in high school, but the girls can’t believe anyone would want to be friends with them. Lee elaborates on his prior insecurities, which motivates the girls:
I wish I would’ve had friends that were going after things they weren’t supposed to have. I was scared of myself at the age. I was so scared that all the big things I wanted would never be anything more than wants (268).
In Chapter 47, Bo tells Will that Will looks like her mother. Will is taken aback by this because she knows that her mother is considered pretty. Will agrees when Bo asks if she wants to study for their World History test at his house. Bo’s neighborhood is not what she expected. While Bo’s house is maintained well, the neighbor’s is run down. Will realizes that her assumption that Bo's family is financially well-off is incorrect. This instance reinforces the notion to not judge a book by its cover, and Bo lets this be clear to Will when he challenges her assumption about his family's wealth.
