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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

Oh. I follow his gaze to his hands. His fingernails are short, his knuckles calloused like mine. My mom says you can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their hands. I look at the worry in his eyes at what he’s just revealed. It makes me want to tell him about all the times my mom’s gone out looking for my dad in the wee hours of the morning.

But instead, I say, “That must have been really hard for you.”

Zach shrugs. Doesn’t elaborate. He rubs his nose and points to his essay. “So you think it can be fixed?” he asks.

“Oh yeah, totally,” I say. I put my hands to the keyboard and start fixing his run-on sentences and his misplaced modifiers. I show him how to add some of the details in. Our arms touch as I type, and I keep mistyping, I’m so distracted. When he reads back the essay, a smile beams on his face.

“How’d you do that?” he asks.

“It’s nothing,” I say. “They’re your details.”

“But the way you put them together . . .” He marvels at me like I’m a wizard. “It’s better than anything I could have imagined.”

I smile.

“Thanks for helping me . . . edit this? Cheat?” he jokes. “Seriously, I don’t know what to call the magic you worked.”

“Well, it’s not cheating,” I tell him, muttering under my breath. “What Heather does . . . that’s cheating.”

“Heather McLean?” he asks.

I bite my lip, not wanting to get into it, but Zach gazes at me with the same discerning eyes I’m used to sneaking glances at in band, and he gets it out of me.

“That’s so messed up!” he exclaims. “You should call her out on it!”

I don’t know about that.

“Once there was this guy who lied about being on the swim team for his college applications.”

My eyes bulge.

“Oh yeah. Everyone knew,” Zach says. “Even the coach, but he didn’t want to say anything because the kid’s parents were major donors.”

“So what’d you do?” I ask Zach.

“I went up to him and told him if he didn’t take it off, I’d tell the school,” Zach says. I look up at him in awe.

Heather walks into the library as he’s telling me this. Zach scoots closer to me, eyeing her as he leans over and says, “Seriously, you gotta say something. Don’t let her get away with this shit.”

“Heather!” I call out, running after her as she walks out of the library and down the hall. I can’t believe I’m taking Zach’s advice. “Your speech the other day, I was just wondering, what kind of research did you do?”