Chapters (93)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Seventy-One
- Seventy-Two
- Seventy-Three
- Seventy-Four
- Seventy-Five
- Seventy-Six
- Seventy-Seven
- Seventy-Eight
- Seventy-Nine
- Eighty
- Eighty-One
- Eighty-Two
- Eighty-Three
- Eighty-Four
- Eighty-Five
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Books by Kelly Yang
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
“Well, you can’t just stay in the bitch’s class!”
I look over toward Dani’s room and tell Jess I’ll call her back. Quietly, I walk over with my laptop and knock on her door.
Dani opens her door.
“Have you seen this?” I ask.
She reads the email from my laptop, then walks over to her own laptop, horrified, and reads it again.
“I think it’s about me. What do you think I should do?” I ask her.
“You have to fight this. This is discrimination!”
“Fight this how?” I ask.
Dani tells me I need to go to the administration. She says she just went with her friend Ming, who’s a parachute too and was having problems with her host family. Mrs. Mandalay was sympathetic.
I shake my head. “I don’t know.” A few weeks ago, I thought nudging was rude. And now to go and complain about a teacher?
“Trust me,” she says. “It’ll be okay.”
When I hesitate to respond, Dani asks, “Want me to go with you?”
We wait outside Mrs. Mandalay’s office, me tapping the floor with my white Alexa Chung patent leather pumps, and Dani studying the quotes painted on the wall outside the office, hands interlaced on her lap.
When the door opens, Dani is the first to stand. She waits for me to collect myself, then we walk inside together, my hand clutching a printout of Mrs. Wallace’s email. I can’t believe I’m doing this.
Gently, I slide the email across Mrs. Mandalay’s desk. I glance over at Dani, who nods encouragingly.
“Mrs. Mandalay, I think this email is really . . .” I pause. Dani had suggested a bunch of adjectives at home—“offensive,” “discriminatory,” “hostile”—but in the moment, they all feel too harsh. “Not nice.”
Dani leans forward and points to the line in the email that reads, “It is best for your future if you speak English 100 percent of the time you are at school. Isn’t that the whole point of attending an American school?”
“This implies that English is the best language for our future,” Dani says. “That is unsubstantiated and one can even argue that it is a form of cultural imperialism.”
I stare at Dani. Whoa!
Mrs. Mandalay puts up her hand. “Thank you, Dani.” She looks quizzically at her. “And why are you here again?”
“For moral support,” she says.
“Again?” Mrs. Mandalay asks.
“Again.”
I take a deep breath and look to Mrs. Mandalay. “This email has caused me and the entire Chinese student community a lot of distress. We feel publicly humiliated by it—”