Ms. Slade returned to the front of the room. “Okay, guys, I’m glad you’re excited, but keep those phones off. We have work to do. You can start clicking after school.”
Clicking. Allie smiled. She liked the sound of that. A lot. Enough to overlook all the reasons she had been waiting to share it.
She hid her phone under her desk and typed a quick group text to Maddie, Zoe, and Emma:
Allie
changed my mind
invite everyone you know
let’s see what Click’d can do!
By the end of Advanced Computer Science, Click’d had sixteen new users. At the end of sixth, there were twenty-seven users. And more people joined throughout seventh period. Allie tried not to think about it, but it was impossible with all those strangers downloading her game and taking her quiz. Would they know how to read the clues? Would they know how to access the leaderboard?
By the time the final bell rang, there were thirty-two users. She left seventh period with a smile on her face. She couldn’t wait to get home and log into the CodeGirls server so she could see what was happening on the back-end database.
Allie had barely taken ten steps when her phone let out a bloop-bloop.
She looked down. The screen was bright yellow, and Allie felt the adrenaline surge through her whole body. Someone was close!
She cut through the crowd bound for the bus, listening for sounds. And as soon as she turned the corner that led to the front of the school, her phone let out three bloops as it changed from yellow to red.
Allie stopped and looked down at the photo. She knew this girl, Claire. She sat behind her in photography class the year before, and she used to stare at her dark curly hair, envying the way it always seemed to fall in perfect ringlets. Allie could never get her curls to look like that. In the picture on her phone, Claire still had braces, but Allie remembered how excited she was when she got them taken off right before summer vacation.
Allie listened carefully. From across the grass, she heard the sound again.
She came up on her tiptoes, trying to see over the crowd, and spotted another phone high in the air. It was still at least thirty feet away, but it was moving toward her, and Allie could see the screen tinted red and flashing fast.
Her heart kicked into a whole new gear as she held her phone higher. She saw a hand waving to her, and she waved back as the two of them twisted through the crowd.
They were both smiling as they stopped in front of each other. Claire turned her phone so Allie could see the photo she’d taken with her dad on a hike a few months back. “I thought I knew you! We had photography class together last year,” she said as she brought her hand to her chest. “Claire Friedman.”
Allie already knew her name, and not just because they’d had a class together. Everyone knew Claire. She was an eighth grader. A super-popular eighth grader.
“Hi! Allie Navarro.”
Claire gave her phone a little shake. “I just installed this thing. I have no idea how it works, do you?”
Allie beamed. “Yeah. Now we tap our phones together.”
“Really?” Claire smiled even wider as she brought her phone to Allie’s. Their phones vibrated and the screens flashed white, and then their leaderboards appeared. Claire’s name and photo appeared in Allie’s #5 spot.
“My first friend!” Claire said. Allie looked over and saw her name in the #8 spot on her leaderboard. The rest of the slots were still little blue question marks. “This is so cool! I’m going to invite all my friends.” She opened her contacts and started putting little check boxes next to all the names. “I’ve never even heard of this app until today.”
Allie took a deep breath, trying to keep her cool. “I just released it this afternoon,” Allie said. Claire was bent over her phone, focused on her screen, but when Allie added, “I built it,” her head snapped up.
“You what?” she asked with wide eyes.
Be cool, Allie told herself, but she was finding it hard to act like it was no big deal when it was totally a big deal. “I built Click’d at computer camp over the summer.”
Claire was still staring like she was waiting for the punch line. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Was it hard?”
Allie laughed too loudly. “Yeah. Really hard.”
Woo-hoo, their phones called out. Claire looked down at her screen and laughed. “What was that?”
“That means we take a selfie. It’ll go out to all the users to announce that we clicked.”
“Shut up! That’s awesome!” She threw her arm around Allie and pressed her cheek to hers, and Allie tried to look relaxed, even though she was totally freaking out on the inside.
Claire took the picture and then looked at Allie again. She blinked fast and said, “Wow. Okay. Mind. Blown.” Then she went back to checking boxes. “Now I’m telling everybody about it.” She pressed the INVITE button, and then pointed to the line of buses waiting in the roundabout. “I’d better go before my bus leaves without me.”
Allie followed her gaze. Her bus looked nearly full too. “Yeah, same here.”
“Well, I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah. See you.”
Allie ran to her bus and climbed the steps. As she walked down the aisle toward Zoe, she looked around. It was impossible not to notice that everyone seemed to be typing on their phones, and Allie couldn’t help but wonder if they were downloading Click’d. Or maybe they already had, and they were busy taking the quiz. She couldn’t believe all these kids were already playing her game.
Allie flopped down in the seat next to Zoe and pulled out her phone. “Check it out! Five down. Five to go.” She turned her leaderboard in Zoe’s direction.
“Ha! I’m beating you.” Zoe slapped Allie’s arm with the back of her hand and showed Allie her screen. “I only have the number seven slot open.”
“When did you do that? School’s only been out for, like, eight minutes!”
“PE.” Zoe tucked one leg under the other and turned toward Allie. “You should have seen the locker room during seventh period. You would have died. None of the teachers were around, so everyone broke the no-phones rule! A bunch of girls had already installed Click’d and taken the quiz, so by the time I got there, they were already holding up their phones and walking row to row, listening for bloops.” Allie smiled. She loved that Zoe had already adopted the sound effect like it was a real word. “A few seconds later, my phone started going nuts!”
Allie looked at Zoe’s leaderboard. “I know Lizzie. She’s in my science class,” Allie said. “And these guys are both in my math class. Oh, and Ajay Khanna and I went to the same elementary school. Do you know him?”