1 Chapter 1 Priya Shah jolted awake She was having a terrible day But that wasn't really a surprise because lately all her days were slightly terrible They had been ever since that day August 13 Almost a year ago The most terrible terrible of all the days She felt a lump rising in her throat at the thought but she forced it down with a heavy swallow Now was not the time to think about the worst day of her life She had enough problems happening happening this very second Excuse me Earth to Priya Mrs. Lufthausen glared at Priya over the tops of her gold-rimmed glasses For the last time please can you explain to me why you thought that math class was an appropriate appropriate time for a morning nap Priya gulped She felt a soft cool hand slip into her right hand Mei Her best friend was telling her
she had her back Priya smiled Do you think this is FUNNY demanded Mrs. Lufthausen This is the third time that you have been caught napping in my class this term Of course she doesn't think it's funny cried a voice to her left She has a weird thing where her apologetic face looks like her happy face It's like genetic Right Priya Sami Her other best friend Standing up for Priya like she always did And she wasn't asleep She was thinking obviously Everyone Everyone knows you do the best thinking with your eyes closed It's the only way to solve a quadratic equation in my humble opinion Samantha Levin does it look like I was speaking to you thundered Mrs. Lufthausen Get back to your equations And Priya it is completely unacceptable unacceptable for you to keep falling asleep while I try to teach you basic mathematics If you don't explain yourself now I'm going to have to ask you to leave and wait outside Priya's cheeks burned with humiliation She was a good student She didn't get sent out of class That was the kind of thing that happened to Katie and Angela Not top students like her But now she was going to get sent out for the first time in her entire 2
school history and there was nothing she could do to stop it It wasn't like she could tell Mrs. Lufthausen the truth that she was exhausted because unlike her younger sister Pinkie she was physically unable to fall asleep while her parents were shouting and when she finally did get to sleep after they'd stopped arguing it was time to wake up for gymnastics practice Of course she was tired she'd slept less than a gamer who stayed up all night playing with people in Korea But Priya knew exactly what would happen if she said all that out loud Mrs. Lufthausen would tell the school counselor who would tell her parents and Priya would end up in big trouble Because her parents parents golden rule was Don't Air Your Dirty Laundry in Public which basically translated to pretend everything everything is perfect at all times And if Priya admitted that her gymnastics practice was affecting her schoolwork her teachers would want her to quit especially because gymnastics was totally separate from school Her parents parents would feel shamed into making Priya quit the team which meant her chances at getting into the Teen Olympics would be over forever even though she'd been training for it her whole life And worst of all it would mean she'd never get to watch Dan Zhang do pull-ups ever again 3
