Chap­ter II begins with Mibs Beau­mont, the nar­ra­tor, reflect­ing on her life at home fol­low­ing a trau­mat­ic inci­dent involv­ing her father. That night, she shares a dim­ly lit bed­room with her younger sis­ter, Gyp­sy. Mibs lis­tens to the sounds around her—Gypsy’s steady breath­ing, the muf­fled activ­i­ty of her moth­er and broth­er Rock­et down­stairs, and even the low rum­bling of the earth itself. The atmos­phere is thick with the noise of a fam­i­ly nav­i­gat­ing its own sense of insta­bil­i­ty. Mean­while, Mibs’ moth­er and Rock­et are mak­ing plans for an ear­ly trip to Sali­na, where their father is receiv­ing med­ical care. Mibs longs to accom­pa­ny them, hop­ing for a brief escape and the sim­ple dis­trac­tion of motel soaps, but she remains at home with Grand­pa, who seems trou­bled and rest­less, unable to find peace.

The next morn­ing brings a sense of unease and antic­i­pa­tion. It is the day before Mibs’ thir­teenth birth­day, and she feels bur­dened by the respon­si­bil­i­ties that seem to pile up around her. She is tasked with look­ing after her younger broth­er, Sam­son, who is moody and with­drawn, adding to the weight she already feels. As they make their long bus ride to school in Hebron, Mibs wres­tles with the teas­ing from her peers. Her unusu­al name, Mis­sis­sip­pi, has made her a tar­get for cru­el nick­names and hurt­ful rumors about her family’s trou­bles. Mibs is eager to leave Hebron Mid­dle School behind after her birth­day, antic­i­pat­ing a change that will bring relief from the mock­ery, as she hopes to tran­si­tion to home­school­ing. She sees this as a way to escape class­mates like Ash­ley Bing and Emma Flint, whose teas­ing she finds unbear­able.

Through­out the last day of school, Mibs strug­gles to keep her focus, her thoughts con­sumed by the wor­ries about her father. The emo­tions she has been car­ry­ing all day final­ly reach a break­ing point when the teacher announces her depar­ture from school. The oth­er stu­dents respond with indif­fer­ence, fur­ther deep­en­ing Mibs’ feel­ings of iso­la­tion and lone­li­ness. Through­out the day, Mibs qui­et­ly wish­es for a skill or tal­ent, a “savvy,” that could help her deal with the bul­lies. She fan­ta­sizes about a pow­er that could silence her tor­men­tors or even trans­form them into friends, seek­ing a way to escape the pain of being mis­un­der­stood.

When Mibs returns home, she finds a shiny gold mini­van parked out­side, its pres­ence a sign of the arrival of Miss Rose­mary, the preacher’s wife. Known for her metic­u­lous nature and overzeal­ous desire to main­tain order, Miss Rose­mary has come to help the fam­i­ly in the wake of the acci­dent. Mibs and Sam­son, feel­ing the oppres­sive weight of Miss Rosemary’s judg­ments, attempt to sneak inside unno­ticed, but her pres­ence feels unavoid­able. Miss Rose­mary imme­di­ate­ly begins clean­ing the house, her actions under­scor­ing the absence of the mater­nal care that Mibs des­per­ate­ly longs for. Her com­ments about the need for a moth­er only deep­en Mibs’s anx­i­ety, as she tries to nav­i­gate the emo­tion­al tur­moil caused by her father’s con­di­tion and the impend­ing changes in her life. Miss Rosemary’s insis­tence on clean­ing feels like a reminder of every­thing Mibs’s fam­i­ly lacks—stability, warmth, and the love that should come nat­u­ral­ly in a home.

This chap­ter explores the com­plex­i­ties of Mibs’s emo­tion­al land­scape as she grap­ples with the chal­lenges of her family’s sit­u­a­tion and the cru­el­ty of her peers. The bur­den of respon­si­bil­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly in car­ing for her younger broth­er Sam­son, weighs heav­i­ly on her, fur­ther iso­lat­ing her from her child­hood inno­cence. Her long­ing for a dif­fer­ent life, one where she can escape her class­mates’ cru­el­ty and her family’s strug­gles, is pal­pa­ble. The arrival of Miss Rose­mary adds a lay­er of ten­sion, as she rep­re­sents both the well-mean­ing but oppres­sive forces try­ing to impose order and the absence of the mater­nal care Mibs needs. As the chap­ter pro­gress­es, it becomes clear that Mibs is at a turn­ing point, on the cusp of major changes, both in her per­son­al life and in her under­stand­ing of her role with­in her fam­i­ly. This turn­ing point hints at the chal­lenges and growth she will expe­ri­ence as she begins to nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of ado­les­cence, respon­si­bil­i­ty, and self-iden­ti­ty.