Chapters (77)
- Cover
- Dedication
- 1
- 2
- A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part I
- 3
- The History of My Beef with Brynn Foer-Preston
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part I
- 8
- 9
- A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part I
- 10
- 11
- 12
- A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part II
- 13
- The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part II
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- The Complicated History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Imaginary Relationship with Her Nonexistent Dad
- 20
- 21
- 22
- A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part III
- 23
- 24
- 25
- A Brief, Backward History of the McAllister Family, as Paraphrased from the San Jose Mercury News
- 26
- 27
- 28
- A Quick and Eerily Relevant History of Asians in America
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part IV
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part II (Or Maybe It’s a Prequel)
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part III
- 54
- A Note from the Author
- Index of Flowers and their Meanings
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Praise for This Time Will Be Different
- Books by Misa Sugiura
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
I know that Owen blames me for everything, and I’ve discovered that I really don’t like living with that. So despite being frantic to finish the flower-magic pins I’ve promised everyone for tomorrow, here I am at his house after work, trying to talk things over. His mother directed me to the backyard, where he’s mucking around with a hoe in their little vegetable garden.
“Brynn was shitty and totally insensitive,” I tell him. Instead of answering, he chunks at the dirt with the hoe: chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk. “Come on,” I say. “You were there. You heard her. She didn’t think she did anything wrong.”
Owen looks up. “Maybe, but your vibe felt really hostile. It wasn’t like, ‘We get that you want to help, but you’re hurting us.’ It was more like, ‘Fuck you, get out.’ That wasn’t cool. And how do you think the school board is gonna take the news that we kicked Brynn off the committee? At best, we look disorganized and fragmented. At worst, we look like we hate white people. Is that the image you want to present?”
I roll my eyes. “They don’t have to know. And they’re not going to believe we hate white people.”
“We booted the only white kid on the committee, Ceej, and that’s all some people need. I get that she was shitty, but it would have been worth trying to educate her and work with her.”
He goes back to hoeing: chunk, chunk, chunk.
Frustration scribbles itself into a knot of tangled thread in my skull. “It’s not like I don’t get that. I’m not an idiot. In fact, if it was anyone else, I probably would have given them another chance.”
“Anyone else?” Owen stops chunking and stands the hoe upright. “Are you saying it’s about Brynn and not about what she did?”
“It’s about Brynn not caring who she uses or who she hurts as long as it makes her look good. She wasn’t going to stop just because we asked her to. Believe me, I know. I did us a favor.”
“So it’s personal? You compromised the entire movement for personal reasons?”
I wish he would stop obsessing about that. “Owen. Nothing’s been compromised. Stop obsessing about our image and stop blowing things out of proportion. Anyway, if you’re worried about how we look to white people I’ll ask Shane to join us. He said he’d be down to help with anything. He has tons of white friends, and he can get them all to come to—”
“You didn’t answer my question. Did you ask us to vote Brynn out for personal reasons or not?”
“I mean . . .” Yes? Kind of? “I wasn’t the only one who voted her out.”