Why does Scout start hanging out with Miss Maudie?

Scout, Jem, and Dill enjoy playing the Boo Radley game. Their favorite part is reenacting the rumor that Boo stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors. One day, Atticus catches them playing outside with a pair of scissors. He questions their game, but they do not tell him what it is. He leaves them to play, but seems hesitant. After this, Scout is unsure about playing the game. She feels her...

Scout, Jem, and Dill enjoy playing the Boo Radley game. Their favorite part is reenacting the rumor that Boo stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors. One day, Atticus catches them playing outside with a pair of scissors. He questions their game, but they do not tell him what it is. He leaves them to play, but seems hesitant. After this, Scout is unsure about playing the game. She feels her father would disapprove. She had also hears laughing coming from the Radley house. She wonders if Boo knows about their game. Scout expresses her concerns about playing to Jem, but he mocks her. He calls her a girl:

Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with (Chapter 4).

Scout begins retreating from Jem and Dill. She goes to the house of one of the only women she trusts: Miss Maudie Atkinson, a neighbor and old friend of the Finch family. Scout enjoys spending "most of the remaining twilights that summer sitting with Miss Maudie Atkinson on her front porch" (Chapter 5). Scout feels she can talk to Miss Maudie and trust her.