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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

Shane’s talking about Sabrina right now, which is weird and just a little off-putting. Also we’re watching Nathan and Ari shoot zombies, which makes it weirder. I mean, they’re not shooting real zombies, obviously. Fake zombies in a video game. Not that zombies are real. Nathan and Ari are playing a video game in which they pretend to shoot real zombies’ brains out. That’s not weird. The weird part is that Shane is talking to me about Sabrina, which is weird, and watching Nathan and Ari at the same time. And that makes for a very weird listening experience. Weird. Weird. Weird.

“. . . and like everything always had to be perfect with her,” Shane is saying. “It was like, chill out, dude. And she was— BRO! THAT WAS LIT!” he shouts as a zombie blows up. “She was always stressed out. Like she’d cry, and she’d be all, ‘What if I’m not good enough? What if I’m not smart enough? What if I don’t get in anywhere?’ And I’d have to be all— OHHH FUUUCK. YOU’RE FUCKED, NOW, BRO— I’d have to be all, ‘You’re great, babe, you’re totally gonna get in everywhere.’ Like, constantly.”

“Sabrina worried that she wasn’t good enough?”

“Constantly,” Shane repeats glumly. “It was hard work being her boyfriend.”

Ari and Nathan end up dead, or possibly undead, and start arguing about who should pay for the next game.

“And she always got mad if I wanted to hang with these guys instead of her.” He leans into the little game booth to punch Nathan, who gives him the finger. He turns to me and says, “You, on the other hand, are very chill.”

He smiles. I smiles. I mean, I smile. He smiles at me, and I smile at him, at his beautiful hair and his beautiful mouth and his beautiful eyes and, God, he’s just so beautiful. And did he just imply that he liked me better than Sabrina the Overachiever? Which kind of rhymes? Because I don’t have a stick up my ass like her? I think he did. I think I might as well just die right now because there’s very little chance that life will get any better than this moment that I’m in right now.

But the moment is very rudely interrupted by—no, not zombies, not Nathan or Ari. It’s Lilianna Ortiz, Nikki Henry, and Brynn. For Fucking. President. I knew we were waiting for Lilianna, who is Nathan’s girlfriend, to show up so we could bowl. I did not know we were also waiting for Nikki, which is fine. I definitely did not know we were waiting for Brynn, which is not fine.