The Tryout

Six months prior, Christina and her mother drive up to Venable Middle School for Christina’s first day of seventh grade. Christina is worried that she and her best friend Megan don’t have any classes together, but her mother assures her they can see each other at lunch and that Christina will be too busy to notice anyway. Christina walks up the steps and is greeted by cheerleaders who welcome everyone to their first day. Inside, she feels smaller than all the other students around her, and she rushes to find her homeroom class. There, a boy named Tobin (who Christina knew in elementary school) calls Christina “rice girl” (13), something he is known to do. All morning, all of her teachers have trouble pronouncing her last name, or they don’t even bother to try. At lunch, Christina is beyond thrilled to see Megan for the first time that day. She notices Megan has the same brown loafers as all the other girls. Lunch goes far too quickly as the girls catch up on their first mornings at the new school. Christina feels like crying as she says goodbye to Megan.

When Christina and her parents moved to Grangeview, Texas, Christina was in third grade. She was the only Asian American kid in her class, but she had a teacher that was understanding and eager to learn Christina’s name. At lunch, Christina’s food was mocked by her peers, and people didn’t include her because they thought she was different. That was when Christina met Megan, who asked Christina to be best friends without even knowing her. Christina agreed, and they’ve been best friends ever since.

After school, Christina’s mom picks her up and wants to know about her first day. Christina says that she looks forward to art class but doesn’t say much else. She and her mom head to the family restaurant, The Golden Dragon, where Christina is greeted by her dad, uncle (on her mother’s side), and the rest of the staff. She eats a buffet meal and thinks about how her family moved to Grangeview so her dad could open a restaurant somewhere that lacked them. Christina notes that her father and most of the employees are Thai, but he chose to open a Chinese-style American restaurant instead, as Thai food was still an unknown concept to most people in Texas at the time. Christina’s dad immigrated to the United States from Thailand at age 19, and her mom was born and raised in Texas. Christina likes the restaurant but was resentful of it at first because she didn’t want to leave Dallas.

Christina’s life gets busier as school picks up, and she remembers simpler days when she and Megan would spend all day playing together. They loved pretending and making up stories and dramatic scenes, and Megan appreciated that she could be herself around Christina. In seventh grade, Megan is always busy with homework or gymnastics, and she has less time to hang out with Christina. Christina starts to notice that everyone around her is becoming preoccupied with sports, and a couple of girls in gym class tell her that she’s lucky she doesn’t need a sports bra yet because “Asian girls are flat-chested” (48). Christina wonders if she should have forced herself to join a sport even though she isn’t really interested in them.