Eleanor & Park Chapter 12 Summary

Park

When Eleanor gets on the bus the next day, Park knows something's wrong: "She got on like she was lost and ended up there" (12.2).
She's wearing the same clothes from yesterday, and she doesn't have her schoolbooks.
Park's left the mix tape for her on the seat. She picks it up, but won't take it. Finally, Eleanor admits that she doesn't have any way to listen to it, and covers her face. Park realizes other kids on the bus are watching.
Without even touching her, Park takes out his own Walkman, puts the new tape in it, puts the headphones on Eleanor's head, and turns it on.
They stay together when they get off the bus, which Park thinks is weird: "Usually, they broke away from each other as soon as they hit the sidewalk" (12.18.) They walk together to their lockers, and finally, Park says, "Well, now you've heard the Smiths" (12.20);
Eleanor actually laughs.

Eleanor beats herself up for not just taking the tape, and thinks about Park. In her head, he's still the "Weird Asian kid" (12.25). She's only ever known one other Asian person in her life, and their school only has three or four other Asian kids, total. Park's eyes are green, though, Eleanor's noticed, so she's not really sure what nationality he is.
Eleanor's afraid she's going to reveal more embarrassing details to Park, like the fact that she doesn't own a toothbrush. She's been considering telling her school counselor, Mrs. Dunne, though not about Richie.
She's waiting to see Park in English class later that day. Everyone in gym is unusually nice to her, which she doesn't notice, but at the end of class everyone's waiting for Eleanor to get to her locker. Her gym locker is covered with a box of maxi pads, colored red with Magic Marker, with the words "Raghead" and "Big Red" written on them.
Eleanor has to get her clothes out of her locker, and cries but hides it. Two black girls, DeNice and Beebi, approach her afterward. "Those girls are trifling," De Nice says. "They're so insignificant, God can hardly see them" (12.53). The girls help Eleanor clean up, and Eleanor thinks if they weren't there, she "might have kept some of the pads, the ones that didn't have any writing on them, because, God, what a waste" (12.52).
When she finally gets to English, she realizes she must really like Park, because even after what's happened, she only cares about seeing him again.

On the bus, Eleanor listens to Park's Walkman again. He offers to let her borrow it, but she refuses. Finally, she borrows just the batteries, looking "dead serious, cold sober" (12.67). Park still thinks this is pretty weird.