In the following, Iam going to summarize the 16th chapter of the novel ‘ The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’ by Sherman Alexie.

Arnold is at school watching Penelope play volleyball against the girls from Davenport Lady Gorillas. However Arnold’s beautiful Penelope and her team loose, he still is focused on Penelope playing volleyball. He is facsinated by her and talks about her skin colour and compares it to a vanilla cake. Because of Junior wanting him and Penelope being a couple, he even adds him as the chocolate topping on her being compared to an vanilla cake.Junior is obviously very confused about what he should do about his feelings. That’s why he decides  write an email to Rowdy asking  for an advice. In his email, Junior talks about Penelope by calling her ‘a white girl’. Therefore, Rowdy rapidly gets angry at Indians treating white women like ‘ bowling trophies’. He also seems as if he is still angry at Junior leaving the rez. As a result of it, Arnold decides to ask Gordy about how he could get penelope to be in love with him. Gordy who does research on the internet ends up telling Junior about an article about hundreds of mexican girls disappearing. Gordy believes that Junior is a racist which is the reason why junior notices the similarity between Rowdy and Gordy.