When Willowdean and Ellen go to the pageant registration, they run into Millie and Amanda. Millie announces that they, too, are going to compete in the pageant. Willowdean, however, doesn’t think this is a smart idea:

I’m not doing this to be some kind of Joan of Fat girls or whatever. I’m doing this for Lucy. And for me. I’m ready to go back to the version of myself I was before Bo. […] I’m doing this because I want to cross the line between me and the rest of the world. Not to be someone’s savior (155).

Ellen disagrees and thinks if the girls want to enter the pageant, they should. Will, Ellen, Millie, and Amanda walk to the registration table. Willowdean is told that she needs her mother’s signature, which she has not gotten, to register. Willowdean’s mother shows up and asks if Will is pulling some kind of joke. She admits that she doesn’t think Will had the right intentions in joining the competition. Will tells her mother that if her mother doesn’t let her compete, she is saying that every girl in the competition is better and more deserving than Willowdean. Eventually, with the promise that she will not give her daughter any special treatment, Willowdean’s mother signs the registration form.