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Back This Time Will Be Different Save as PDF
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

But Shane throws his head back and lets loose a great burst of laughter. “You’re funny,” he says, and I’m saved from having to think of another clever response by one of Shane’s bros, who half-tackles him out of nowhere and says, “C’mon, bro, hurry! I’m one tardy away from a detention!”

Shane takes off running, and I float to history because Shane Morgan just laughed at a joke I made.

I’m in my seat and pulling my history textbook and binder out of my backpack when my phone buzzes.

Hey, sorry I ran off like that

BTW, I will never be afraid of you

Cuteness factor > fear factor

How nice it must be to be Shane Morgan, who can type Cuteness factor > fear factor and risk nothing because there is probably not a single boy-liking person at this school who wouldn’t have the exact same internal reaction to it that I’m having, which is basically a million bedazzled exclamation marks.

It’s so extra of me to go all starry-eyed over one flirty text. I pull myself together, then type, The cuteness is just a facade. He’s probably having twenty conversations like this with other girls, but I don’t even care. Because when does this kind of thing happen to people like me? Never. Because reality. Until now. So take that, reality.

A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part II

Day 33

Unlike Mom’s, my periods have always been regular. After that first year of randomly spaced periods, during which I lived in terror of blood-splotched jeans (I wore a shirt tied around my waist pretty much constantly), my periods settled down like good little children to every twenty-eight to thirty days. So when I woke up on day thirty-three and saw nothing, I edged into low-grade anxiety.

Maybe it’s just a fluke, I told myself. Maybe it’s nothing.

I spent much of that day in my room, googling terms like “missed period” and “teenager period three days late.”

It could be stress, one article read, or increased strenuous physical activity. No and no. It was summer vacation. Unless I was stressed about Andy leaving in the fall? Be honest with yourself, CJ, I told myself. Are you? No. I wasn’t even very sad, really.

New birth control prescription was another possibility, though not for me. Why wasn’t I on the pill? Or any of the other things the articles listed: copper IUD, hormonal implant, shots, rings—holy ovaries, there were a shitload of birth-control devices I’d never even heard of. Why, why, why hadn’t I thought to get myself one of them? I mean apart from the obvious problem of expense, or the nightmare of having to talk to Mom about my sex life.