Dress Coded

This section covers Chapter 6: “Will’s Texts”; Chapter 7: “Dress Coded: A Podcast, Episode One (Take Two)”; Chapter 8: “Definitions”; Chapter 9: “A Brief History of Fisher Middle School’s Dress Code”; and Chapter 10: “Fingertip.”

Molly’s neighbor and best friend, Will, texts her after the trip is cancelled, saying he thinks Olivia was looking for attention, which angers Molly. She does a second take of the podcast episode, suggesting to Olivia that she provide a background and ask her questions. Molly explains how Olivia was yelled at for wearing a tank top, before Dr. Couchman announced that the camping trip was cancelled. Some classmates overheard Dr. Couchman talking to another teacher about the incident, and word got out that Olivia was responsible.

Pearl arrives at the treehouse as Olivia describes how she wasn’t thinking about her clothes at all; with a sweatshirt around her waist, she was rushing to call her sister to bring something to school. Dr. Couchman and Mr. Dern saw her and yelled at her for the dress code violation (her tank top), calling her selfish. Olivia asked for another chance, but when she was told to put on her sweatshirt, she refused, saying she needed to wear it around her waist. Molly begins to ask another question that she warns might be embarrassing, but Olivia asks her to stop, saying she’d rather be homeschooled. She asks Molly why she’s trying so hard to share what happened, and Molly insists that neither the incident nor the school bribing students with a camping trip is fair. She suggests scrapping the podcast episode and inviting her friends Navya, Ashley, and Bea over instead, to privately share what happened.

Molly remembers how their elementary school didn’t have a dress code. She went shopping for clothes with her friend, Liza, before they started middle school, and bought shared outfits in different colors. Liza was dress coded on the first day of middle school for wearing a shared pair of shorts for which Molly was never dress coded. Molly’s friends think it is because her “behind [is] much smaller than Liza’s” (19). The students are often dress coded by the dean of students, a woman everyone calls “Fingertip” because she makes girls extend their fingertips to see if the hem of their shorts fall below what is dictated by the dress code. Fingertip constantly stares at the girls, looking for any opportunity to give them warnings, and targets girls with more developed bodies. Molly reflects on the definitions of the word “pullover”—both a piece of clothing and a verb for calling students out at Fisher Middle School for a dress code violation.

This section covers Chapter 11: “It’s Okay to Trick Your Friends If It’s For a Good Cause”; Chapter 12: “The List of Things We Had Planned to Do on the Eighth-Grade Camping Trip to Strawberry Hill State Park”; Chapter 13: “My Plan Works”; Chapter 14: “Danny Brings the Pizza”; and Chapter 15: “Lunch Bunch.”

Molly bribes Navya, Ashley, and Bea to come over with pizza, which she asks Danny to buy. While they wait, Olivia reveals that she resents her breasts, while Molly resents not having developed them yet. Molly’s friends arrive at the treehouse, and Pearl tells the group Olivia’s story: She noticed Olivia had a period bloodstain and told her immediately, but Olivia was too embarrassed to go to the nurse in case a boy was there, so she decided to call her sister. Pearl remembered she had extra pants in her locker and ran to take them to Olivia, when she saw her being yelled at for the tank top. Once they hear the story, all the girls hug Olivia and vent about teachers being unfair to them.

Danny brings Molly her requested pizza, and Pearl secretly asks if Danny still hates Molly. Molly changes the subject, but later reflects on their tense relationship. When Danny was in middle school, their parents started getting called in because of his constant fighting and talking back. Molly began to get quieter as Danny began to get crueler. In the fifth grade, the school counselor invited Molly to join “Lunch Bunch,” a group therapy session with other children disguised with pizza, ice cream, and board games. She talked about the stress Danny was bringing her and her parents. Later, when Danny revealed the truth about the sessions, Molly stopped attending.

Molly and her friends decide to start a “whisper campaign” to help Olivia, telling other girls what happened until the true story spreads. Molly reflects on the things she and her friends planned to do on the camping trip, which included staying up all night, swimming in the lake at midnight, and wearing whatever they wanted.

This section covers Chapter 16: “By Nine O’clock in the Morning”; Chapter 17: “Talking to a Seventh Grader about a Difficult Topic”; Chapter 18: “If You’re Not a Big Fish, Your Mom Won’t Feel Like Frying You”; Chapter 19: “Gilbert Pettibones Waffle the Third”; and Chapter 20: “Dress Coded: A Podcast, Episode One (Take Three).”

By nine o’clock the next morning, everyone at school knows Olivia needed to keep a sweatshirt around her waist to hide the period bloodstain on her white jeans; she was going to call her sister to bring a tampon. Other girls respond to her with hugs and sympathy, while the boys remain silent. On the bus home, Molly’s seventh-grader neighbor, Mary Kate, asks her about Olivia’s story. Molly confirms the truth, and tries to reassure Mary Kate that period-related incidents don’t happen often, though she also advises her to always keep a spare pair of pants in her locker.

Molly’s mother greets her and Danny at home. She quit her job the previous year to be a full-time parent, because of Danny’s issues. Molly discusses the camping trip and dress code with her parents, asking her mother to talk to the principal about how wrong it is to police girls’ clothing; however, she says there are “bigger fish to fry” (36). Molly asks if she can wear whatever she wants to school, as she wants to take a stand, and her mother approves, saying she is proud.

Molly remembers how her friendship with Bea began in first grade, when they were the only two girls in their bus group on a field trip. They were going to adopt and share the care of a mouse, named Gilbert Pettibones Waffle the Third, until their teacher stopped them from taking it home. However, Molly knew Bea would be a good friend, and is proven right, as Bea is her first official guest on the podcast. In the third take of the first episode, Molly explains her issues with the dress code and Bea describes her own experience being dress coded for wearing the same shorts as everyone else.

This section covers Chapter 21: “Treehouse Slime Factory”; Chapter 22: “My Fountain Brother”; Chapter 23: “A 217-Person Group Chat”; Chapter 24: “Letter to Scott Kleinman”; and Chapter 25: “Sometimes Apples Are Just Evil.”

Molly remembers spending all of fifth grade making slime with neighbors Will and Mary Kate in her treehouse, even starting an Instagram page called “@TreehouseSlimeFactory.” The enthusiasm eventually petered out, but Molly still has a special case her grandmother gave her to store slime. The previous year, after Danny’s fourth suspension for vaping at school, he asked Molly if he could use her case to store his vaping paraphernalia, and she agreed hoping it would improve their relationship. She reflects on throwing coins in the fountain outside the local Cheesecake Factory, wishing for a brother who is kind to her.

One of Molly’s classmates, Scott Kleinman, begins a 217-person group chat, informing the class that his parents are willing to chaperone an independent camping trip to Strawberry Hill. All the parents decide to meet and discuss this idea. Molly’s class comprises 220 people; two students are headed to India at the end of the year and won’t make the camping trip, and she wonders who the third, missing classmate is. She imagines a letter she’d want to send to Scott after attending his Bar Mitzvah: She was impressed by his use of Hebrew and his parents’ emotional speech about him. Molly feels sad that her own parents will never be able to praise Danny or her, as she doesn’t feel particularly special.

Molly’s bully Nick and his “minions” begin calling Olivia “Tampon Fail.” He has called other classmates cruel names in the past, including racist slurs. Molly’s parents have always told her to ignore Nick; however, she tells Olivia to fight back.

This section covers Chapter 26: “Dress Coded: A Podcast, Episode Two”; Chapter 27: “How Does That Make You Feel?”; Chapter 28: “Oh, the Places I Won’t Go!”; Chapter 29: “Razor Burn”; Chapter 30: “The Parent Meeting at the Library Takes a Turn”; and Chapter 31: “Mother’s Day.”

Molly records a second podcast episode with Liza, who shares her experience being dress coded. She has been pulled over 37 times so far, and asserts that Fingertip always finds something wrong with her outfit, from a stray bra strap to the length of her shorts. Molly learned how to interview people from the therapy sessions her mother made her attend, after she stopped going to “Lunch Bunch.” She reflects on the potential homes she overheard her mother suggest to her father, so Danny can have a fresh start; however, she doesn’t wish to go.

Molly and Liza decide to violate the dress code together, and wear their matching tank tops and shorts. Molly doesn’t get pulled over, but Liza gets a warning. Molly asks Tom, one of the boys she sits with at lunch, whether or not her shorts distract him, and he is confused as to how to answer. Tom had a traumatic brain injury after a skiing accident years ago, and Molly and her friends are the only ones who talk to him now.

Molly’s mother comes home upset from the parents’ meeting, having learned about how badly Olivia was treated. When Molly reveals she is doing a podcast on the dress code, her mother suggests she send a petition to the interim superintendent to have the dress code revoked. On Mother’s Day, Molly gives her mother a silver ladybug charm and a card, along with blueberry pancakes she makes with her father. Her mother cries upon reading the card. Danny doesn’t remember or mention Mother’s Day; the previous year, on this day, he stole his mother’s cars keys and tried to drive away, before Will’s father stopped him. After this, the children’s mother insisted their father stop DJing on the weekends, as she couldn’t parent Danny alone. This is why Molly’s parents are always worrying about money or considering moving to another country, and why Molly tried so hard to make her mother happy this day.

This section covers Chapter 32: “The Petition Spreads Like Poison Ivy”; Chapter 33: “Weekly Bulletin”; Chapter 34: “Most Trips to the Mall Involve Pretzels”; Chapter 35: “Dress Coded: A Podcast, Episode Three”; Chapter 36: “A Cairn Is a Pile of Stones”; and Chapter 37: “Letter to My First-Grade Daisy Troop.”

Molly and her friends write a petition to remove the dress code during study hall. Nearly every boy and girl in the seventh and eighth grades sign it, and Molly delivers 312 signatures to the interim superintendent’s office. Later, she goes shopping at Nordstrom’s with Ashley for white dresses for their eighth grade graduation; Molly’s mother gives her $75 to buy a dress. Ashley finds a dress and a pair of high-heeled shoes, which total $312. As Ashley’s mother casually pays for them, Molly realizes their gap in wealth. This reflection and Nick and his friends pelting her with pretzel bites ruin her mood.

Molly interviews Pearl for the third podcast episode. Like Molly, Pearl has never been dress coded and is certain it is because both of them have smaller chests. They discuss Catherine, a girl who transferred to a Catholic school, who was dress coded for showing her shoulders, when she only took off her sweatshirt because she was running a temperature.

Molly walks with Pearl through the woods behind her house, carrying brooms in case they run into bears. They wait in the school garden for Pearl’s mother to pick her up. The garden has a cairn of Kindness Rocks: Every first day of middle school, Mrs. Tucker gathers the seventh graders and asks them to bring a rock with a word or phrase to remember throughout middle school. Molly and Bea wrote “Be Kind” on their rocks; Pearl wrote “Choose Kindness.”

Molly imagines a letter she’d want to send to her first-grade Daisy Troop. Troop member Emma invited all the girls, except Megan Birch who has cerebral palsy, to get face paintings before a trip. Megan’s face had fallen when she boarded the bus and saw the other 12 girls, all partnered up, with their faces painted. Molly now knows that Megan is smart and funny, as she is Molly’s eighth grade lab partner. She reflects on how it is possible to be “cruel by exclusion” (75).