"Today’s the day!" Mẹ says as she wakes Ngọc Trương up. It’s been more than a year since they left Vietnam.

It started in  July 1976, the Communists from the North ruined their lives, Ngọc's Ba is taken away because he’s a teacher and someone snitched his hatred towards the government.  Worried that they may be next,  Mẹ took her daughter and went in with hundreds of Vietnamese people on a boat and eventually settled in San Jose, California.  

The US felt very different compared to her old life. Food is more accessible, listening to music such as disco, and she even loves to watch movies in the theaters. Ngọc enjoyed her new home.

Ngọc got into the third grade, although her English is limited, she managed to catch up to her classmates on the other subjects and even receive high grades.  She doesn't feel like she needs help as that’s what Asian students also do. Every time the teacher asked for any questions. Ngọc either remained silent or said, “I’m good.”

Despite her academics, Ngọc did not feel happy. Although her class has some Asian students, they take most of the top students and unlike Ngọc, are fluent in English. This made her feel like she needed to do better.

Not even teacher praises are helpful. “Oh my goodness Miss 

Trương! You are so polite! You're just like the other Asian students and not like the rest of the class! Your parents must raise you so well and you must have a lot of money to help you in your studies!" This bothered Ngọc as she lost her Ba, and they are tight on money.

One day, Ngọc's and her Mẹ went to church for Mass. She noticed the child pianist made a wrong note in one of the church recitals. Later as they are about to leave after it ended, they overheard the pianist’s mother yelling at him for the note mistake. “How could you make a mistake? I made you practice the piano since you were little and you still didn’t play correctly? You are disgraceful!” The mother angrily said.

This makes Ngọc scared as if she made a mistake, her mother would have the same response as the pianist’s mother.

A new day of school arrived, and the teacher announced that an upcoming reading test is next week. 

Ngọc is worried, English is her weakest subject and she’ll be tested for how bad she’ll be. But she can’t be seen as someone who is struggling in school as none of her Asian classmates do.

During the days before the test, Ngọc spent her entire free time studying what the test is about. She forced herself to memorize vocabulary and understand sentence structures. It only left her very tired to the point that she skipped dinner in order to study.