Ramona’s days become boring and monotonous, and she is always in a foul mood. The continuously rainy weather does not help, and Ramona even becomes dissatisfied with her daily lunch. She tries to make her schoolwork more interesting by imagining creative responses to the basic questions in her reader, but Mrs. Griggs marks her answers incorrect, even though Ramona reads the passages carefully. Ramona does not enjoy school because she believes Mrs. Griggs does not like her. Though she is bored and spiritless during the day, Ramona becomes frightened and anxious at night.

She fears sleeping in her new room in the dark, but she refuses to tell anyone, lest her family thinks she is a baby. Each night, she tries every tactic to delay bedtime, but her mother insists she goes to bed on time. She tries to get the cat to sleep with her, but he does not enjoy snuggling with Ramona. Ramona goes through a nightly ritual in her room to make her less frightened. First, she closes the curtains and checks the closet, and then she pushes her bed away from the wall so nothing can reach out and grab her.