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Back Parachutes Save as PDF
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

I nod. Jay hasn’t arrived yet, thankfully, but the ad board members have. There are four faculty members on the board. They are Mr. Matthews, the school counselor; Mr. Francis, a PE teacher; Ms. Sloan, a teacher I don’t know; and Mrs. Mandalay. The door opens and in comes the student representatives. My eyes flash with surprise when I see Emma Lau, the girl from my class.

She gives me a small, guarded smile as she takes a seat—I can’t believe she’s here! Jordan Bekowski, the other student rep, sits down beside her. Nancy and Florence quietly come in after them.

“Great, are we all here?” Mrs. Mandalay asks.

The door opens. I draw in a sharp breath as Jay walks in.

“Sorry I’m late,” Jay says.

He takes a seat across from me. I sit up, trying not to be intimidated as Zach stares Jay down. The door opens again, and a bunch of other parachutes follow Jay in, faces both familiar and new. They must be his character witnesses. Mrs. Mandalay calls the meeting to order and goes over the rules of the proceedings.

“Claire, since you are the claimant, we will start with you. Can you please walk us through what happened the night of Friday the fifteenth?” she asks.

I pull out my speech. I’d prepared it in advance and rehearsed it a thousand times in my room, like Dani always did before a big debate. As I read my statement, my voice is nowhere near as strong as hers. It wobbles with emotion. Still, I manage to get the words out. When I get to the part where he pushed me onto the bed, Jay interrupts me.

“Excuse me, I didn’t push you onto the bed. You climbed onto the bed with me,” he corrects.

Mr. Francis leans forward. “So you’re saying it was consensual?” he asks Jay, scribbling on his notebook.

“No! It wasn’t consensual!” I object. I stare into Jay’s eyes, daring him to lie to my face. And he does. Effortlessly.

“Yes,” Jay answers.

I turn to the teachers. “He pinned me down. I screamed no! So many times!”

Mrs. Mandalay motions for me to calm down.

“And then what happened?” Ms. Sloan asks.

“Then I took a shower,” I say.

“Where? At your house?” Mr. Francis says.

I shake my head. “At his place,” I say.

Mr. Matthews’s eyebrows squeeze together into a tight, confused wrinkle. “Why?”

“I wanted to get him off me,” I say. He would too if a squid had just slithered all up and down his body. I wanted to take a million showers.

Mr. Francis clears his throat. “Yeah, but why did you do it there?” he asks.

I glance at Jess. Help!