Maybe He Just Likes You

Mila is a 12-year-old seventh-grade girl and the main protagonist of Maybe He Just Likes You. The story is told through her first-person point of view, and Dee uses this perspective to highlight the intense feelings of helplessness and shame that come from being a young girl undergoing changes and bullying in middle school. Zara often calls Mila a “baby” or “immature” because Mila is not interested in boys. Mila is happy to ignore the boys or treat them like acquaintances, while Zara, Omi, and even Max are dipping their toes in the waters of flirting and romantic relationships. However, Mila is far from immature. She has a lot of responsibilities at home: Mila has to walk Delilah, wait for Hadley to get off the bus (and then watch Hadley until her mother gets home), do her homework and practice the trumpet, and start dinner. Mila explains that her mother is “working crazy hard all the time,” but their family can “only afford the cheap cereal” (32). Money is tight, and her mother is already under much stress, so Mila doesn’t want to worry her mother when the bullying starts.