Julia spends the summer cleaning houses with Amá and saves a bit of money. Once senior year begins, Julia meets with Mr. Ingman after school once a week to help with college prep. He encourages her to highlight that her parents are undocumented, because “admissions committees love that stuff” (166). Julia worries that this will get her parents deported, but Mr. Ingman assures her no one is going to report her parents. Julia does not understand why Mr. Ingman is so invested in her, and he tells her that she was one of his best students. He thinks Julia must “get the hell out of this neighborhood” so that she can “become something great” (168).

After jotting down some ideas for an essay, Julia goes to the used bookstore. While reading some poetry, the boy who sits down next to her strikes up a conversation about their favorite books. He introduces himself as Connor, and after joking around for a bit, he takes her out for coffee. When Julia says she is from Chicago, Connor wants to know where she is “from from” (174). She understands that he is really asking about her ethnicity and that he wants to know “what kind of brown I am” (174).