Maddie is Peggy\’s best friend and also teases Wanda but knows in her heart this is wrong. Unfortunately because she is not quite as popular as Wanda she is reluctant to speak up and say that the teasing is unkind. Maddie is also quite poor and wears hand-me-downs, many from Peggy, which her mother alters or embellishes with braid and ribbons to make sure nobody at school remembers seeing them before. It is this fact that makes her reluctant to stick up for Wanda as she is concerned that if the class then realizes she is also poor they will start teasing her instead. Maddie becomes a stronger person by the end of the book and decides that in the future she will be the champion of anyone who is teased and not be one of the children teasing them.