Penelope is a popular, white and beautiful girl at Reardan. She is close friends with Roger. But she has some big problems, she thinks that nobody takes her seriously, she feels lonely and her father is a racist, maybe that’s one of the reasons why she dates Junior. She wants to show her dad, that she isn’t a little and pretty girl.She has bulimia.
The friendship with Junior starts when he notices that Penelope also has problems. She tells Junior that her dream is to go away from Reardan, because it’s boring there, she wants to study architecture and to discover the world. Just as Junior but on another level.
The protest against the treatment of homeless people, shows that she is a social girl.
Penelope changes her behavior towards Junior because in the course of the novel she gets more open and Junior shows her that, she also can do it. Maybe Penelope doesn’t come closer to her dreams, but she has more hope for following and realizing her dreams as before the friendship with Junior.