It is summertime, and six-year-old Ramona Quimby is on her way home from the park with her sister Beatrice, who she calls “Beezus,” because Mrs. Quimby sent the girls off earlier so she could attend to an important errand. Ramona is anxious to see her mother and explain how she bravely defended Beezus at the park.

When they arrive home, Mrs. Quimby sees that Beezus is upset and asks what happened. Beezus shouts at her mother never to call her Beezus again. Ramona jumps in to explain that while Beezus was pushing her on the swing, boys from Beezus’s class approached and exclaimed, “Jesus, Beezus!” (16). When the boys began repeating the phrase, Ramona leaped off the swing to defend her sister. Beezus interjects, explaining that Ramona preached a sermon to the boys, and she fears they will humiliate her by telling everyone in sixth grade.

While she listens to Beezus complain, Ramona goes from feeling triumphant to dejected as she realizes that her sister is not thankful for her intervention but instead is ashamed of her. She thinks, “[…] she had been proud of herself because she thought she was being brave. Now it turned out that she was not brave.