At home, Mom worries about George, thinking she is gay and will be at the mercy of bullies like Jeff. When George announces she is a girl, Mom is in disbelief and announces that the family will go to Arnie’s All-You-Can-Eat Buffet as a distraction. But George feels that “nothing—certainly not a buffet dinner—could help the fact that Mom didn’t see her” (129).

When Kelly calls George on the phone, she sees that the play means “a lot” to George, who thinks that if her Mom saw her in it, she would realize that she was a girl (132). Kelly hatches a secret plan to give George the role of Charlotte in the second performance.

Later at Arnie’s, when Mom is away at the buffet table, Scott asks George about Mom’s gloomy state of mind. He guesses that George told her that she was gay and affirms that he will be supportive of George if that is the case. George says, “I told her I think I’m a girl” (139). Scott accepts George’s truth and asks if she wants to have an operation to remove her penis. When George replies that she might, Scott says that this is “weird.