Eleanor & Park Chapter 13 Summary

Eleanor

  • Eleanor's feeling much better the next day, partly due to clean clothes, but mostly because she can't get Park's songs out of her head.
  • The music makes her feel different: "it set her lungs and stomach on edge […] it made Eleanor feel like everything, like the world, wasn't what she thought it was […] And that was the greatest thing" (13.3).
  • She tries to hide it, but she can't help grinning at Park when she sees him on the bus. She doesn't say anything until they're nearly at school, because she can't figure out what to say, but Park finally asks what she thought of the tape.
  • Eleanor tells him the tape was "so awesome" (13.12). Finally, they start talking about the amazingness of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." 
  • Eventually, Park turns away, but Eleanor finds she doesn't want them to stop talking. "I love the X-Men. But I hate Cyclops" (13.35), she offers. She tells Park she thinks Cyclops is boring, like Batman. 
  • Park disagrees and tells her he's bringing The Dark Knight Returns.

Park

  • In English, Park notices that Eleanor's hair "came to a soft red point on the back of her neck" (13.51).

Eleanor

  • In history, Eleanor notices that Park chews his pencil, and that Kim, another girl in class, has a crush on him.

Park

  • Park makes a tape with "the Joy Division song on it, over and over again." He takes batteries from everything in the house and asks his grandmother for more batteries for his birthday. (Oh, Park. We're swooning.)