Reyna uses her tuition money to buy Betty a plane ticket to Santa Cruz, promising her sister they will graduate from college and become independent. She moves Betty into her campus apartment and enrolls her at Santa Cruz High School. Reyna wonders if she is in over her head until she remembers Diana’s positive impact on her life. Betty thrives in Santa Cruz, while Reyna struggles with an unsupportive professor. Reyna’s trip to Mexico reinforced her desire to write about her birthplace, prompting her to pen a collection of stories set in her hometown for her advanced fiction course. Her professor calls her stories outlandish and criticizes her writing style, while praising her white classmates’ stories about partying.

Rather than feeling defeated, Reyna chooses not to let criticism and her difficult past affect her. The word “impervious” becomes her personal mantra. Reyna’s Chicano literature professor, Marta Navarro, encourages her to persevere, comparing Reyna’s writing to that of acclaimed 20th century writers Juan Rulfo and Tomás Rivera. Just as Reyna’s confidence begins to grow, she learns that Betty has been cutting class. She also receives a letter from Campus Housing informing her Betty has to leave, or they will both be evicted.