Parachutes by Kelly Yang

Author:Kelly Yang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Forty-Two

Dani

I study the motivational quotes outside Mrs. Mandalay’s office as I wait. It’s my third time in two weeks sitting outside her office, and I’ve nearly memorized them all by heart. I remind myself that both times I’ve been here, she’s given Ming and Claire what they wanted. Still, my fingers grip the corners of the chair. This time is different. This time it’s for me. And I’m not a parachute.

“Please come in,” she says.

I get up and suddenly have second thoughts about coming. I tell myself it’s going to be okay. She’s a woman. She’ll understand more than Mr. Matthews.

I take a seat in Mrs. Mandalay’s office. She looks at me in the kind of distracted way of a busy headmistress who doesn’t really have time to congratulate me on yet another tournament well done. But that’s not what I’m here for. I try to hold my trembling hands steady in my lap as I tell her what really happened in Seattle.

Mrs. Mandalay takes off her reading glasses. She sits there soaking in the information. “So you want to quit debate,” she finally says.

“I— No, I don’t want to quit debate. I love debate,” I tell her. “I want to go to Snider . . . ,” I say, hesitating before adding, “preferably with a new coach.”

“That’s impossible. Even if we can find a new coach, the season’s almost over. And Mr. Connelly is the finest debate coach we’ve ever had, one of the best in the country.”

Did she not hear me? “But, Mrs. Mandalay, his hand was on my leg.”

My voice hitches as I say the words, thinking of how I went to sleep that night in the hotel room, my eyes glued to the silver light beneath my door, petrified Mr. Connelly was going to come to my room.

She jots a few notes down on her notepad. “I’ll have a word with him, and I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again,” she says. “And I’ll see what I can do about Snider.”

I nod, grateful. As Mrs. Mandalay gets up and walks around her desk to open the door for me, she offers me some advice. “I’m sorry you have to go through this. But there will be a lot of situations in life that make you uncomfortable. And the sooner you learn not to let them derail you, the better.”

I think about her words as I walk out.

After school, I meet up with Ming at Budget Maids and tell her what Mrs. Mandalay said.

“That’s wonderful!” Ming says, dragging the bucket of cleaning supplies out to Eduardo’s car. “I’m so glad she can help!”

“We’ll see,” I say, retying my hair in a bun. Now, every time I let my hair down, I think about Mr. Connelly and the awful night at the bar. I’ve even resorted to sleeping with my hair up. “I’m trying not to get my hopes up.”

“He’ll listen to her. She’s the boss,” Ming says. She closes the trunk door and makes a face. “Speaking of bosses, my boss at the host agency shot down my host-rating app idea.

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