Park
- Park's friend Cal tells him he's going to ask out a girl named Kim. Cal calls her a "Betty" (7.6). Park tries to convince Cal that Kim's too cool for him, then turns down Cal's offer to get another girl for Park.
- Cal notices that Eleanor's staring at Park. Park thinks about her weird clothes, but he's noticed he likes a few things she wears. "She's on my bus. She's weird" (7.35), he explains to Cal.
- Cal thinks Eleanor has "jungle fever," and Park tries to explain that this "isn't even the right kind of racist" (7.26), giving us a clue that maybe there aren't a whole lot of Asian people in this community. Park, annoyed, tells Cal that asking Kim out is a good idea after all.
Eleanor
- Eleanor's in the library looking for a poem, and ends up in the African American section because it's empty. She's noticed that most of the kids at this school were black, but "most of the kids in her honors classes were white" (7.42). They get bused in from other neighborhoods, and tend to be nicer, or at least "scared of getting in trouble" (7.45), which makes them act nicer.
- She picks out a poem called "Caged Bird" to memorize, which is now a famous poem, although Eleanor doesn't seem to know it.