Make Your Home Among Strangers

Lizet and Jillian have a chat in the dorm about networking and internships, and Lizet worries about her inability to find a job beyond babysitting Dante all summer. Jillian also expresses passing interest in Ethan, which makes Lizet uncomfortable. Later, Lizet meets up with Ethan at his biweekly study hours. When no one else shows up, Ethan makes a show to prove he isn’t flirting with her, or trying to get her alone. Lizet lies about the engagement ring again but tells Ethan the truth about being poor, and some of the tension dissipates from their friendship. Lizet continues to go to study groups and work long hours in the lab, mostly avoiding her family and Omar. Omar checks in regularly on Mami, and Lizet feels thankful by midterms that she has “the permission to scratch [Mami] off the list, to put her out of my mind by believing she’d given up” (274). 

Lizet gets a vague email from Professor Kaufmann asking to meet in person, and she immediately becomes nervous. Lizet anticipates another incident like the one with her writing teacher: In class that day, she quietly says goodbye to all her treasured equipment, imagining she won’t see it again.