Maleeka Madison, the thirteen-year-old protagonist of The Skin I'm In, is a smart student who exhibits special ability in writing. Nevertheless, she is teased for her dark skin color and home-made clothing. Chapter 11's cafeteria scene highlights Maleeka's relationship with her peers at school. In particular, an especially rude girl named Charlese takes advantage of Maleeka. Charlese is a bully who, alongside other classmates, routinely asks Maleeka to complete her homework. In the cafeteria scene, Charlese finds something on her burger, along with lettuce in her milk and some dried food on her fork. Maleeka brings her own food so that she doesn't have to tolerate the questionable food. Charlese insists that she deserves to get what she pays for in the cafeteria, and makes Maleeka bring her food back to the lunch lady. When Maleeka obliges her and does so, the lunch lady, Ms. Brown, nearly throws it out, but Maleeka stops her, preferring to cover the burger with ketchup and mustard and return it to Charlese. Charlese takes the burger back from Maleeka, but then tells her to get lost.

The scene at the cafeteria epitomizes Maleeka's larger predicament in school. Specifically, she is caught between earning the affirmation of her peers and respecting authority and her own principles.