Picnic

Later that afternoon, Millie wears one of Madge’s dresses, looking lovely (if slightly uncomfortable). Madge enters and complains that Millie didn’t help her cook, and with an affected dramatic flair, Millie argues that she was busy getting dressed. Millie asks Madge how she looks, and Madge tells her that she looks very nice and offers to let her keep the dress. Millie self-consciously questions Madge about how to behave on her date with Hal. Although Millie spent the morning swimming with him, she is nervous. Other girls have been giggling and whispering because they find Hal so attractive. Madge and Millie disparage one girl, Juanita Badger, who Millie alleges does sexual things with boys in the back of the movie theater. Flo enters and pronounces, “Now I tell myself I’ve got two beautiful daughters” (35), which mortifies Millie. Flo sends Millie over to show herself off to Helen. Flo worries about allowing Millie to go on a date with “that young hoodlum” (35), but Madge is sympathetic to Hal. She also refuses to be a “wet blanket” and police the other teens’ drinking. Sending Madge in to get ready, Flo jokes that she should be careful not to get stuck in front of the mirror, which upsets Madge in a way that perplexes her mother.