Allie
friend drama stuck working next to my nemesis! miss you like crazy!
Courtney
Allie
Courtney
Goodnight
Allie
Goodnight
Allie returned to the Fuller University server, clicked on the CodeGirls logo, and navigated over to Click’d’s source code. She blinked a few times as the colorful text filled her screen, and then she brought her fingers to the keyboard. “Okay, bad code,” she said. “I’m tired. And I’m done messing around. I’m not going to stop until I fix you. Got it?”
Allie sat down next to Zoe on the bus, let out a long exhale, and dropped her head on Zoe’s shoulder. Zoe patted it and asked, “No luck?”
“I was up until midnight. I fixed the issue in the code, but every time I tested it, it caused a problem somewhere else. It’s going to take a little longer.”
“Well, I deleted all my pictures, just in case.”
“Yeah,” Allie said. “So did I.”
Allie closed her eyes and the two of them rode the rest of the way in silence. Every once in a while she’d hear a bloop-bloop-bloop and see a phone make its way around, but most of the people on Bus #14 seemed to have found each other. Between the gentle rocking and hum of the engine, Allie almost drifted off. But when the bus pulled into the roundabout and she and Zoe stepped off, she suddenly felt wide-awake again.
The bus might have been quiet, but the campus definitely wasn’t; the scene on the front lawn was even crazier than it had been the day before. Everyone was running around, dashing past the roundabout and disappearing into the hallways. They were tapping phones, snapping selfies, and comparing leaderboards. And Mr. Mohr was standing in front of the office with his arms crossed, watching the whole thing. Until the bell rang, there was nothing he could do about it.
Allie walked to her locker feeling pumped with adrenaline. But when she turned the corner, she saw Maddie waiting there, staring at her phone and looking upset.
“Chris is gone,” Maddie said as soon as Allie was within earshot.
“What?”
Maddie spun her phone around. “Look. Gone. Emma, too, and you and Zoe are down to nine and ten. I barely know the rest of these people!”
“That’s part of the fun, remember?” Allie said as she gave Maddie’s shirtsleeve a shake, just like Maddie had done to Emma the day before. But Maddie’s face fell, and Allie could tell she wasn’t in the mood to joke about this. “Hey, don’t worry. You’re probably still his number six.”
“I’m not. I checked. I’m gone from his leaderboard, too.”
Allie went back to swapping out her books.
Maddie rolled her eyes and leaned back against one of the lockers. “You don’t get it, Allie. You weren’t here last summer. Zoe and Emma know…I’ve been waiting for months for a reason to talk to him and I finally did, and now it’s just…so…over!”
“No it’s not,” Allie said, nudging her with her shoulder. “Look, Click’d got you two talking. That’s the hard part, right? Who cares if your status has changed? Just go up to him and say something like, ‘I miss your face…on my leaderboard.’”
Maddie started cracking up. “Seriously? ‘I miss your face’?”
“No,” Allie said, laughing along. “You’ve gotta get that pause in there, and then really deliver the rest of it.” She tried it again. “You have to say, ‘I miss your face—pause—on my leaderboard.’ It’s not the same without the pause and the second part.”
Maddie started laughing even harder. “Not that I have a clue about any of this!” Allie said, still giggling. “You’re the flirt, not me. Gotta run.” She shut her locker and gave Maddie a wave. She started to walk away when she heard Maddie say, “Allie! Wait.”
When Allie stopped and turned, Maddie stepped in closer.
“As much as I appreciate the flirting advice,” she said, still giggling, “and trust me, I do, I kinda had another idea.”
“Yeah?”
“I was thinking…You know, I’m real-life best friends with the developer of Click’d.”
Allie looked at her sideways. “True. And?”
“And, so, I get perks.”
“Perks?”
“Yeah, I thought, maybe…you could go in and, you know, tweak a few things?”
“Tweak a few things?” Allie repeated. She looked at Maddie like she must have misunderstood her.
Maddie clasped her hands together, pleading with her eyes, and Allie laughed again, even though she knew that wasn’t the reaction Maddie was expecting.
“No way.”
“Come on! Puhhhhllllllleeeeeeese!” Maddie begged, stepping in closer, but Allie kept shaking her head. “It wouldn’t hurt anything and no one has to know. Just change a few of my answers to match his? Just change my ocean to forest and my noodles to pizza, and like, change ten more things so we have more in common than anyone else.”
“No.” Allie couldn’t believe what she was asking.
Maddie combed her fingers through her hair. “Okay, fine. Can you at least tell me what number he is now? Because seriously, how am I supposed to sleep at night without knowing? I mean, what if he’s my eleven? Then you may only have to change, like, two or three things. That’s it. That’s nothing.”
Allie hung her head, but she could tell Maddie wasn’t ready to give up.
“I can’t do that.”
“But what if he’s my eleven?” she repeated, gripping Allie’s arms with both hands. “Which reminds me, why can’t we see past the top ten?”
“Because I thought it would be more interesting.”
“Interesting? That’s not interesting! That’s evil.”
Allie snarled as she wiggled her fingers in front of her and let out an evil laugh, trying to make Maddie smile.
“Stop it!” Maddie swatted at Allie’s fingers, but that only made her wiggle them harder.
Then Maddie folded her arms across her chest. “Fine. Okay, I have another idea! Don’t change anything. Just look at Chris’s quiz answers and tell me what he picked. I’ll delete my profile, go back in, and answer the same way. That way you’re not changing anything!”
Allie pictured the database, filled with columns and rows of information. Hundreds of names and cell phone numbers, answers to more than fifty personal questions. “First of all, he would totally notice if you fell off his leaderboard and then suddenly reappeared. Think about it,” Allie said as she tapped her finger against her temple. “And second of all, that’s cheating.”
Maddie laughed and threw her hands in the air. “Cheating? Who cares? It’s not like you created a game to reverse the effects of climate change. It’s a friendship app. And you said it yourself, it’s all for fun.”
“It is.”
“Well, it was a lot more fun when Chris Kemmerman’s name was on my leaderboard.”