BooksBarbecue
Back Parachutes
Chapters (93)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Forty-Six
  49. Forty-Seven
  50. Forty-Eight
  51. Forty-Nine
  52. Fifty
  53. Fifty-One
  54. Fifty-Two
  55. Fifty-Three
  56. Fifty-Four
  57. Fifty-Five
  58. Fifty-Six
  59. Fifty-Seven
  60. Fifty-Eight
  61. Fifty-Nine
  62. Sixty
  63. Sixty-One
  64. Sixty-Two
  65. Sixty-Three
  66. Sixty-Four
  67. Sixty-Five
  68. Sixty-Six
  69. Sixty-Seven
  70. Sixty-Eight
  71. Sixty-Nine
  72. Seventy
  73. Seventy-One
  74. Seventy-Two
  75. Seventy-Three
  76. Seventy-Four
  77. Seventy-Five
  78. Seventy-Six
  79. Seventy-Seven
  80. Seventy-Eight
  81. Seventy-Nine
  82. Eighty
  83. Eighty-One
  84. Eighty-Two
  85. Eighty-Three
  86. Eighty-Four
  87. Eighty-Five
  88. Author’s Note
  89. Acknowledgments
  90. About the Author
  91. Books by Kelly Yang
  92. Back Ad
  93. About the Publisher

“It’s everywhere! At my son’s school, a teacher got busted for selling seats in the front row of her classroom,” Patrick chimes in.

“What if I went to international school?” I ask.

My mom tucks a lock of my hair behind my ears. “You know the rules. You don’t have a foreign passport, honey,” she says.

It’s so unfair. While some of my friends’ parents had the foresight to give birth to them in America, my parents were too busy scrambling to get their wedding photos taken before my mom started showing.

When we get back to our villa, my father is waiting for us in the living room.

“Dad!” I exclaim. What’s he doing here in the middle of the day? My mom must have texted him EMERGENCY. I’m glad at least one good thing came out of my refusal to cheat.

“Hi, sunflower,” he says, walking over and kissing the top of my head. The sound of my nickname on his lips makes me want to forget about the fact that I flunked Chinese, that I haven’t seen him in weeks. “I heard about your teacher.”

My mom kicks off her Manolos and plops down on the couch. “What a pompous ass,” she says, calling to Tressy to get us some Pellegrino. “You can just tell she’s one of those people who love wielding her power and just milking it, drop by drop. Is she like that in class?”

I sit down beside her while Tressy brings over three tall glasses of sparkling water and think about the question. I want to say, Yeah, Zhou Lao Shi is arrogant, but what I really want to know is How do you do this? How do you just carry on and have a conversation with your spouse, whom you haven’t seen in weeks and literally have no idea where he’s been, like nothing happened?

“You know, I’ve been thinking . . . ,” my dad says, walking over and taking a seat next to us on the couch. “What about going to America for school?”

My mom puts her sparkling water down and sits up.

“There’s a guy in my office. He was telling me about this school in California . . .”

“You mean for college, right?” I ask. I’ve been considering it myself, going to America or the UK for university.

“No, I mean now, right now. For the rest of your junior year and your senior year,” my dad says excitedly.

He’s kidding, right?

“What are you talking about?” my mom asks for the both of us.

Thank you.

“I’m talking about getting out of this broken system,” my dad says. “You said it yourself, Claire’s teacher is insane. And it’s not going to be any better next year, what with the gaokao. And if you don’t do well . . .”