"You are looking at this year’s new ASB President...Associate something. I don’t know. Point is, I’m gonna run for school president. I know. I’m only a seventh-grader, but so is Jennifer Huerta, and she’s the only other person running. She’s such a teacher’s pet. There’s no way I’m gonna lose to her.”
David is the best friend of the story's titular protagonist. This quote marks his first appearance in the story when the two boys are on their way to school. David is announcing his intention to run for class President. He is planning to launch a candidacy against Jennifer Huerta whose identification by David as a teacher's pet instantly identifies her as a potential antagonist in the story. Since David is his best friend, naturally Efrén's immediate instinct is to vote for him even after learning of David's agenda. Among David's intentions as President are shifting the burden of all the actual work to the vice president, raking in millions somehow, and becoming popular enough to get his pick of the prettiest girls.
“I was home watching a report on how undocumented families were being separated. They had kids in cages. Like animals. And that really hurt. You ever buy eggs at the store?...ever notice the labels?...Most of the eggs say they come from cage-free chickens. Which means people in this country worry more about chickens than they do about undocumented children. It makes me feel so—”
Efrén runs into Jennifer in the school library. This is not completely random since the two are the most compulsive readers in the school. After mentioning the upcoming election, Efrén soothes her anxieties by telling her that she'll do great whereupon Jennifer immediately shifts the conversation to the topic of this quote. This leads Jennifer to admit that her mother is in the country illegally and does not have proper documentation. He again soothes her anxiety by admitting that his parents are undocumented as well, promising not to tell anyone about her mother. This is the conversation that stimulates Efrén to realize Jennifer's candidacy for the class president is much more serious-minded than David's. She is focusing her energies on issues related to immigrant status and anti-immigrant prejudices and discriminatory politics.
“School security caught David damaging posters. But he’s not the person who wrote those racial epithets. In fact, he was going around the campus tearing them down. I can only imagine what you must have thought.”
Eventually, the parents of both Jennifer and Efrén are deported. When Jennifer can no longer conduct her campaign against David, Efrén steps up to take her place. This decision creates a rift between the two boys which erupts into outright rivalry. Efrén's campaign posters at school become the object of racist vandalism. One poster reading "Efrén Nava 4 ASB President" is defaced so that it reads "DEPORT Efrén Nava NON-resident." When the security guard catches David, he is brought to Principal Carey's office. Efrén is told that his estranged best friend and current political rival was found "messing with" his campaign posters. Overcome with disgust at the racist attack, Efrén finds it difficult to be convinced that the best friend he has shared so much with over the years could possibly be responsible. Upon learning directly from the principal the truth that not only was David not responsible but that he was actually caught in the act of tearing the vandalized posters down, the fractured relationship is healed. This sets the stage for Efrén to be elected and carry out Jennifer's much more serious platform of addressing problems facing students who are children of undocumented immigrants.
