A hard winter came to Lorain, one that required a constant vigilance to keep the MacTeer family warm and fed until spring. The arrival of Maureen Peal, a "high-yellow dreamchild with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back” (62) and the daughter of an affluent family, was a welcome distraction at first. Teachers and students alike fawned over Maureen. Both Frieda and Claudia "were bemused, irritated, and fascinated by her" (53). The girls finally got the chance to get to know Maureen better one day when she offered to walk part of the way home with them after school. As they were walking, the three girls interrupted three boys who were bullying Pecola by calling her "'[b]lack e mo'“ (65), a reference to her dark skin.

The girls were surprised when Maureen, after buying Pecola ice cream, remarked that another student told her that Pecola had seen her father naked. Pecola denied this accusation. The MacTeer girls grew angry and defended Pecola since they had also seen their father naked. Maureen ran away as the MacTeer girls shouted insults at her, but not before she shouted that the MacTeer girls were also "'black e mos'" and that she herself was "'cute'“ (73).