Eleanor & Park Chapter 40 Summary

Eleanor

  • Park's getting more concerned about the messages appearing on Eleanor's books, telling her to check them after gym class. He thinks she needs to tell someone about them, but Eleanor thinks it would be useless to tell Mrs. Dunne, since she doesn't know who's writing the messages. 
  • Eleanor doesn't want to accuse Tina, because of Tina's history with Park. Eleanor asks Park if Tina was his first kiss, and Park says yes, but they were only twelve, and it didn't matter to him. 
  • One afternoon, after gym, DeNice and Beebi wait for Eleanor as she checks her books for messages. She doesn't find any messages, but when she looks for her clothes, she can't find them. With the help of Mrs. Burt, the gym teacher, they eventually find Eleanor's clothes… flushed in a toilet. Mrs. Burt tells Eleanor, "You've got to stop letting them get to you […] you just encourage them" (40.77).
  • Um… last we checked, Eleanor was doing her best to ignore all the bullying, Mrs. Burt.
  • Mrs. Burt offers to take Eleanor to the school counselor's office. Eleanor realizes she has to walk through the hallways in her skin-tight gym suit, and she's utterly humiliated—so when she leaves the gym, she just walks out of school instead. She throws her wet clothing in the trash, even though they include her new jeans and her favorite shoes, and then thinks twice about it. Eleanor tries to make it to Mrs. Dunne's office, but Park walks out of one of the nearby doors. Ordinarily she'd be thrilled, but she's even more mortified than before, and runs into the counselor's office.
  • Mrs. Dunne drives Eleanor home, where Eleanor tells her mom most of what happened. Eleanor's mom washes out her clothes and tells her she's lucky to have Tina; for a minute, Eleanor is totally confused until she remembers her lie.
  • She's too humiliated to go over to Park's that night.