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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

THREE THINGS HAPPENED THIS WEEK THAT HAD me so jittery with anticipation, I could barely sit still. The first is that Em set up date number two with Fiona. The second is that in the middle of my Algebra II homework the other day, I was able to send Emily a screen shot of the following exchange between me and Shane:

S: Wyd?

CJ: Algebra hw wbu?

S: Same. Trig hw.

So wyd Sat? You free to hang?

More about this in a minute, but let me tell you now that this severely impacted my algebra-doing ability for the evening.

The third thing is that Geoffrey from the Merc emailed Hannah on Thursday and told her that his article was going live on Monday—the day after tomorrow—and it was going to be a “game changer.” But he wouldn’t give her even a single hint about why. We spent the rest of the day Thursday and Friday afternoon guessing what it could be: Maybe one of the McAllisters embezzled funds from their fancy foundation. Maybe one of them is a Russian spy. Maybe one of them buried a dead body under the shop during the years that they owned the property. The more outlandish it got, the better it felt; it took my mind off the actual possibilities and their consequences. And it made waiting easier.

Anyway. It is now Saturday night and I am not at Heart’s Desire obsessively speculating about what’s in the Mercury News story with Owen and Hannah like a loser (not that they’re losers) because I am in the arcade at Bowl-O-Ramen with Nathan Blessing, Ari Chookaszian, and Shane Morgan, eating gyōza and flirting with Shane like a queen. I mean, okay. I’d only give myself a six or maybe even a six-point-five out of ten on the witty-banter scale. But considering that my default mode around Shane is starstruck silence, I’m totally crushing it. So, yeah. I’m going with queen.

It may be because I broke down and put a pinch of southernwood in my jeans pocket before I came here. Or it might be the hit I took off the pen that got surreptitiously passed around earlier. I rarely vape, but I was feeling so nervous, I figured it couldn’t hurt. Flower magic, ha ha—because THC extract is from marijuana, which is a plant—I can’t actually think about it too hard, or I’ll make myself giggle, and I don’t want to look like I can’t handle my shit. Especially since Shane, I realize too late, hasn’t had anything. “I gotta stay clean and sharp for the next couple of tournaments,” he said.