Excerpt from The Silence that Binds Us by Joanna Ho, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

He nodded with his eyes closed. "I didn't get in." He paused. "I didn't want to ruin the mood at dinner. Everyone was so happy about Princeton."

Stanford had been Danny's dream ever since a couple of its basketball players visited our elementary school when he was in second grade. I was only in kindergarten, so I don't remember their visit at all, but Danny begged my parents for a Stanford sweatshirt, and he wore it so much it smelled funky even after it got washed. He applied early last fall but got deferred.

"Oh, Gē, I'm so sorry." I wrapped my arm around him and snuggled in. "They have no idea what a colossally bad decision they made."

He grimaced and said quietly, "I should be happy about Princeton, right? But I really wanted Stanford."

"You worked so hard. You deserved Stanford! The only kids from Sequoia Park High who get in to Stanford are the ones whose parents went there or work there. The whole system is stupid, Danny. It's their loss." I pounded my hand into a pillow. "You okay?"

Danny didn't respond; he just stared at the ceiling again. His silence was a black hole, so I kept talking to fill the void. I poked him and forced a smile. "You'll love Princeton, Gē. They don't know what they're in for."

He lifted himself to his elbow and smirked as he gestured to his six-foot frame. "They won't be able to handle this."

I laughed. He patted my head again. "Don't be upset about Ma," he said. "She just worries too much. She'll always watch out for you ... even if you get a nose ring like Calvin's." He hooked two fingers in his nose and stuck out his tongue. Just like that, he was himself again.

I blinked at the transformation. It happened so fast, I started to wonder if I'd imagined Black Hole Danny a moment ago. "Danny, you didn't answer my question. How do you feel?"

His phone vibrated and he checked the glowing screen. "It's Marc."

His fingers flew as he typed a response. "People are going to Annette's tonight. Her parents are out of town. I think Tiya's riding with Marc." He reached over the mattress and started making sweeping motions on the ground under my bed. "Where's your phone, May-May? Tiya's probably blowing it up. I think going out will cheer me up. You wanna come?"

I patted around the bed for my phone too; I swore I'd just had it. I am pretty sure my phone has legs because it is always wandering off and hiding itself in the weirdest places. Once, after hunting around the house for hours, I found it in the refrigerator.

I finally found it—not under the pillow, but somehow tucked in a corner inside the pillowcase—and Tiya had indeed been blowing up my phone.

I checked my voice mail and found Tiya's message. I hit play and put it on speaker so Danny could hear it too.

"LET'S GO OUUUUUTTTTT TONIGHT! I have to go OUUUUTTTTTT tonight!" Tiya's voice blasted through the tinny speakers of my phone as she sang Mimi's song from Rent. I knew the song because Tiya had been into musicals since freshman year and she'd taken it upon herself to school me on Broadway. She liked them because she could sing along hella loud and sound amazing. I liked them because I loved listening to her sing.

Excerpted from The Silence that Binds Us by Joanna Ho. Copyright © 2022 by Joanna Ho. Excerpted by permission of HarperTeen. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.