Eleanor & Park

For Forest, Jade, Haven and

Jerry – and everyone else in the

back of the truck

ELEANOR & PARK

Rainbow Rowell

Contents

Cover

Dedication

Title Page

August 1986

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Copyright

He’d stopped trying to bring her

back.

She only came back when she

felt like it, in dreams and lies and

broken-down déjà vu.

Like, he’d be driving to work,

and he’d see a girl with red hair

standing on the corner – and he’d

swear, for half a choking moment,

that it was her.

Then he’d see that the girl’s

hair was more blond than red.

And that she was holding a

cigarette … And wearing a Sex

Pistols T-shirt.

Eleanor hated the Sex Pistols.

Eleanor …

Standing behind him until he

turned his head. Lying next to him

just before he woke up. Making

everyone else seem drabber and

flatter and never good enough.

Eleanor ruining everything.

Eleanor, gone.

He’d stopped trying to bring

her back.

AUGUST 1986

CHAPTER 1

Park

XTC was no good for drowning

out the morons at the back of the

bus.

Park pressed his headphones

into his ears.

Tomorrow he was going to

bring Skinny Puppy or the Misfits.

Or maybe he’d make a special bus

tape with as much screaming and

wailing on it as possible.

He could get back to New

Wave in November, after he got

his driver’s license. His parents

had already said Park could have

his mom’s Impala, and he’d been

saving up for a new tape deck.

Once he started driving to school,

he could listen to whatever he

wanted or nothing at all,
and
he’d

get to sleep in an extra twenty

minutes.

‘That doesn’t exist,’ somebody

shouted behind him.

‘It so fucking does,’ Steve

shouted back. ‘Drunken-monkey

style, man, it’s a real fucking

thing. You can kill somebody with

it …’

‘You’re full of shit.’

‘
You
’re full of shit,’ Steve

said. ‘Park! Hey, Park.’

Park heard him, but didn’t

answer.

Sometimes,

if

you

ignored Steve for a minute, he

moved

onto

someone

else.

Knowing that was 80 percent of

surviving with Steve as your

neighbor. The other 20 percent

was just keeping your head down

…

Which Park had momentarily

forgotten. A ball of paper hit him

in the back of the head.

‘Those

were

my

Human

Growth and Development notes,

dicklick,’ Tina said.

‘I’m sorry, baby,’ Steve said.

‘I’ll teach you all about human

growth and development. What do

you need to know?’

‘Teach her drunken-monkey

style,’ somebody said.

‘PARK!’ Steve shouted.

Park

pulled

down

his

headphones and turned to the

back of the bus. Steve was

holding court in the last seat. Even

sitting,

his

head

practically

touched the roof. Steve always

looked like he was surrounded by

doll furniture. He’d looked like a

grown man since the seventh

grade, and that was before he

grew a full beard. Slightly before.

Sometimes Park wondered if

Steve was with Tina because she

made him look even more like a

monster. Most of the girls from

the Flats were small, but Tina

couldn’t be five feet. Massive hair,

included.

Once, back in middle school,

some guy had tried to give Steve

shit about how he better not get

Tina pregnant because if he did,

his giant babies would kill her.

‘They’ll bust out of her stomach

like in
Aliens
,’ the guy said. Steve

broke his little finger on the guy’s

face.

When Park’s dad heard, he

said, ‘Somebody needs to teach

that Murphy kid how to make a

fist.’ But Park hoped nobody

would. The guy Steve hit couldn’t

open his eyes for a week.

Park tossed Tina her balled-up

homework. She caught it.

‘Park,’ Steve said, ‘tell Mikey

about drunken-monkey karate.’

‘I don’t know anything about

it.’ Park shrugged.

‘But it exists, right?’

‘I guess I’ve heard of it.’

‘There,’ Steve said. He looked

for something to throw at Mikey,

but couldn’t find anything. He

pointed instead. ‘I fucking told

you.’

‘What the fuck does Sheridan

know about kung fu?’ Mikey said.

‘Are you retarded?’ Steve said.

‘His mom’s Chinese.’

Mikey

looked

at

Park

carefully.

Park

smiled

and

narrowed his eyes. ‘Yeah, I guess

I see it,’ Mikey said. ‘I always

thought you were Mexican.’

‘Shit, Mikey,’ Steve said,

‘you’re such a fucking racist.’

‘She’s not Chinese,’ Tina said.

‘She’s Korean.’

‘Who is?’ Steve asked.

‘Park’s mom.’

Park’s mom had been cutting

Tina’s hair since grade school.

They both had the exact same

hairstyle, long spiral perms with

tall, feathered bangs.

‘She’s fucking hot is what she

is,’ Steve said, cracking himself

up. ‘No offense, Park.’

Park managed another smile

and slunk back into his seat,

putting his headphones back on

and cranking up the volume. He

could still hear Steve and Mikey,

four seats behind him.

‘But what’s the fucking point?’

Mikey asked.

‘Dude, would you want to

fight a drunk monkey? They’re

fucking huge. Like
Every Which

Way But Loose
, man. Imagine that

bastard losing his shit on you.’

Park noticed the new girl at

about the same time everybody

else did. She was standing at the

front of the bus, next to the first

available seat.

There was a kid sitting there

by himself, a freshman. He put his

bag down on the seat beside him,

then looked the other way. All

down the aisle, anybody who was

sitting alone moved to the edge of

their seat. Park heard Tina snicker;

she lived for this stuff.

The new girl took a deep

breath and stepped farther down

the aisle. Nobody would look at

her. Park tried not to, but it was

kind of a train wreck/eclipse

situation.

The girl just looked like

exactly the sort of person this

would happen to.

Not just new – but big and

awkward. With crazy hair, bright

red on top of curly. And she was

dressed like … like she
wanted

people to look at her. Or maybe

like she didn’t get what a mess she

was. She had on a plaid shirt, a

man’s shirt, with half a dozen

weird necklaces hanging around

her neck and scarves wrapped

around her wrists. She reminded

Park of a scarecrow or one of the

trouble dolls his mom kept on her

dresser. Like something that

wouldn’t survive in the wild.

The bus stopped again, and a

bunch more kids got on. They

pushed past the girl, knocking into

her, and dropped into their own

seats.

That

was

the

thing

–

everybody on the bus already had

a seat. They’d all claimed one on

the first day of school. People like

Park who were lucky enough to

have a whole seat to themselves

weren’t going to give that up now.

Especially not for someone like

this.

Park looked back up at the

girl. She was just standing there.

‘Hey, you,’ the bus driver

yelled, ‘sit down.’

The girl started moving toward

the back of the bus. Right into the

belly of the beast.
God
, Park

thought,
stop. Turn around
. He

could feel Steve and Mikey licking

their chops as she got closer. He

tried again to look away.

Then the girl spotted an empty

seat just across from Park. Her

face lit with relief, and she hurried

toward it.

‘Hey,’ Tina said sharply.

The girl kept moving.

‘Hey,’ Tina said, ‘
Bozo
.’

Steve started laughing. His

friends fell in a few seconds

behind him.

‘You can’t sit there,’ Tina said.

‘That’s Mikayla’s seat.’