Eleanor
- Eleanor's mom isn't going to let her babysit because she's upset that her dad didn't invite the rest of the kids over. Eleanor begs her not to talk to Richie, because Eleanor thinks that "Richie would say no just for the pleasure of saying it. It would make him feel like the king of Spain" (18.16).
- Finally Eleanor's mom relents, but makes Eleanor agree to split the babysitting money with her siblings. Eleanor agrees, because all she wants is "the chance to talk to Park on the phone" (18.19).
- The next day on the bus, Eleanor asks for Park's phone number, and he starts laughing—"I feel like you're hitting on me" (18.23), he says. He thinks maybe she isn't allowed to talk on the phone. He offers to write the number on one of her books, and instead spots a lewd phrase scrawled on it. He asks her why she would write that, and she says she didn't write it, but doesn't know who did.
- Eleanor's angry with herself for letting him see the book. She's trying to keep the details of her life from him, because she doesn't want to admit things like "I don't have a phone, and sometimes when we're out of dish soap, I wash my hair with flea and tick shampoo…" (18.42).
- She doesn't think it would do much good to explain to Park that she wasn't bullied this badly at her old school. She'd had some friends there. That said, "there was no one like Park at her old school. There was no one like Park anywhere" (18.51-52).
- Finally, she tells Park about the babysitting, and she asks to memorize Park's phone number, which he sings to the tune of "867-5309."
Park
- Park thinks about seeing Eleanor for the first time, and how she looked, with curly red hair and freckles, and the way she dressed. He "remembered feeling embarrassed for her," and now "he felt the fight rising up in his throat whenever he thought of people making fun of her" (18.78-80).
- Park realizes that the bullying Eleanor endures is really bothering him, especially the writing on her book—"All morning long, he'd wanted to punch something" (18.83).
- He hates the times when he thinks other kids are making fun of both of them, and admits to himself that he has moments when he thinks about pulling away from Eleanor, but when he sees her, "he couldn't think about pulling away. He couldn't think about anything at all. Except touching her" (18.92-93).
- Park cancels on Cal and tells him he has something else to do; "Like, a girl something" (18.98).
Eleanor
- Eleanor's too nervous to eat lunch. She's already memorized Park's phone number.
- On the bus, he tells her he feels like they have a date, because they're "never really together" (18.129).
- Park holds her hand to his heart, and "it was the nicest thing she could imagine. It made her want to have his babies and give him both of her kidneys" (18.134). Ah, young love.