The narrator says that Miss Moore is the "only woman on the block with no first name"; this indicates that she is treated with a formality that no one else really can lay claim to. Further, the children have to be made to look "presentable for travel" with Miss Moore, a woman who "always look[s] like she was going to church though she never did." She made sachets and gingerbread and brought them to the children's homes with books in tow. She also has been to college, and so she feels it is "only right" that she would be in charge of educating the children, though the parents seem somewhat averse to her presence.

The children would rather not learn arithmetic, though; they would prefer to "terrorize the West Indian kids and take their hair ribbons and their money too." The narrator, especially, seems to use sarcasm and disdain to cover up her poverty and shame. She speaks, though never directly to Miss Moore, because she "wouldn't give the bitch that satisfaction." She uses tough language to make it seem as though she does not care about anything and she makes fun of the other children who might have more, like Mercedes.

However, when it's time to go inside the toy store, neither the narrator nor most of the other children feel like they can go in. When they finally do, they are afraid to touch things. Sugar, the narrator's friend, soon comes to realize how unfair it is that some people can spend more money on a toy than other will spend to feed their families for an entire year.