Summary

Chapter Eight begins with Chan’s description of his first day at school. As he walks up to the front door, he notices that everyone else is both white and very blond. He is welcomed by his teachers, who all ask the other students in his classes to applaud him. When they do, Chan comments in his narration, they seem to be doing so half-heartedly. At lunch, he starts to head for the lunchroom, but instead decides to eat by himself. He goes into the gym, where he encounters a group of large-built male students, who almost seem impressed when he tells them he is from L.A. He eats his lunch by himself. At the end of the day, he walks home with Young, who tells him that she was called “pancake face” (45). Chan becomes angry, but both he and...