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Back This Time Will Be Different
Chapters (77)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part I
  6. 3
  7. The History of My Beef with Brynn Foer-Preston
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part I
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part I
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part II
  20. 13
  21. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part II
  22. 14
  23. 15
  24. 16
  25. 17
  26. 18
  27. 19
  28. The Complicated History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Imaginary Relationship with Her Nonexistent Dad
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part III
  33. 23
  34. 24
  35. 25
  36. A Brief, Backward History of the McAllister Family, as Paraphrased from the San Jose Mercury News
  37. 26
  38. 27
  39. 28
  40. A Quick and Eerily Relevant History of Asians in America
  41. 29
  42. 30
  43. 31
  44. 32
  45. 33
  46. 34
  47. 35
  48. 36
  49. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part IV
  50. 37
  51. 38
  52. 39
  53. 40
  54. 41
  55. 42
  56. 43
  57. 44
  58. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part II (Or Maybe It’s a Prequel)
  59. 45
  60. 46
  61. 47
  62. 48
  63. 49
  64. 50
  65. 51
  66. 52
  67. 53
  68. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part III
  69. 54
  70. A Note from the Author
  71. Index of Flowers and their Meanings
  72. Acknowledgments
  73. About the Author
  74. Praise for This Time Will Be Different
  75. Books by Misa Sugiura
  76. Back Ad
  77. About the Publisher

The kids lined up in front of Owen are starting to get restless, so he stops making googly eyes at Sabrina and turns his attention back to the line. Sabrina stays at his side, and they continue to talk and laugh as kids take turns entering their names and contact information. This is messed-up. I want things to stay the same between me and Owen. I am not interested in a romantic relationship with him. And yet I’m watching him and Sabrina like I’m a jealous ex-girlfriend. I need to get a grip.

I’m so intent on their budding romance that I don’t notice Shane standing next to me until he says, “Watcha looking at?”

I look around. No Nathan, no Ari. Did Shane come over here just to talk to me? Or—to sign the petition? “Nothing. I mean, I was watching the line. For the petition.”

“How come you’re not involved? Isn’t your family part of the whole scandal?”

He knows. He cares. “My mom and my aunt are kind of on opposite sides, and they want me to stay out of it. At least in public. They think I’ll be putting myself at risk of getting trolled or something.”

“Yeah, but . . .” He trails off uncertainly.

“What?” Oh no. He thinks I’m an apathetic loser.

Shane tilts his head, looks at the ground and sighs, as if he’s thinking about how to put this delicately. He says, “So I know this is totally cynical, right, but think of applying for colleges next year. You could put links to newspaper articles about how you’re involved. And if you get trolled, you could write about that in an essay about, like, the risks of social activism or something. I mean, you don’t want to fake it. You have to care, obviously. But if you do care, you should go all in.”

“Hmm.” Sigh. Am I trash for being excited that he cares enough about me to give me advice, even though it’s cynical? It’s smart advice. Exactly what I would expect of Mom, which . . . sigh.

“Are you going to sign the petition?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I wasn’t going to. I mean, it’s not that I’m opposed to it. But lots of my friends think we should keep the name, because of tradition, and like, school loyalty and shit like that.” Oh no. Please, Shane, don’t say that you don’t want to change the name.

He regards the people signing the petitions and continues, “I’m okay with changing the name . . .” Whew. “But it does seem like a lot of time and money for something that only affects a few people. Like it really doesn’t matter that much to me what we call this place. It has nothing to do with me.” He wrinkles his forehead. “Wait, that’s not racist, is it?”