Summary

Several years later, Poppy, who now uses female pronouns, is having a sleepover with her friends Aggie, Natalie, and Kim. The other girls talk about growing breasts and getting their first period. They do not know the truth about Poppy’s body. The next chapter, “Rival Neighborhood Princess,” opens with a flashback in which Rosie and Penn have just moved to Seattle. The houses in their new neighborhood are right next to each other. Their next-door neighbors, the Grandersons, introduce themselves immediately, and Rosie lets slip that Poppy “used to be a boy” (128). The Grandersons, whose daughter, Aggie, is the same age as Poppy, decide it is best not to tell their own girls for the time being out of fear that “it would be unnecessarily confusing for them” (130). Rosie and Penn go along with this. Poppy, who seems...