The Friendship Code #1

by Stacia Deutsch

  “I know . . . ” Her tone softened. “It really wasn’t because you didn’t want to be friends anymore?”

  “Of course not. I always wanted . . .” I paused, putting my hand on her arm. “I want to be friends with you.”

  She looked hesitant.

  “Soph,” I said. “For old times’ sake, let me toss you the ball.”

  She smiled, and I could feel the tension between us loosening.

  “Wait, why are you here, anyway?” she asked. “Did you come here just to talk to me?”

  I figured I might as well tell her all about the notes. She’d known Alex her whole life, so I knew she’d understand.

  I told her about the first two notes and explained why learning to code fast was so important to me.

  “Here’s the latest one,” I said, handing it to her.

  “While there are balls left, hit the ball,” Sophia read out loud. “That’s just like Alex to be so mysterious.”

  “I know, right?” I said. It was nice to talk with someone who knew him so well.

  Sophia bent down and picked up a ball. She tossed it to me. “We still have a ball, so why not hit it—let’s see if you can still throw!” she said with a smirk.

  It took me about three terrible throws to get back into it. Sophia didn’t hit it out of the park, but she hit the balls farther than when she was on her own.

  We quickly emptied the bucket of balls.

  “While there are balls left, hit the ball,” Sophia repeated while we gathered the balls and refilled the bucket.

  “Thing is, if we keep picking up the balls, there’s always going to be a ball to hit. We’ll never run out,” I told Sophia. “That’s what doesn’t make sense about the note.” I pointed to the now full bucket. “And what does this have to do with coding, anyway?”

  “I guess as long as we can, we keep going,” Sophia said. “Maybe it’s about how computers keep on going, as long as they’re charged?”

  “Maybe.” I felt like there should be more to it. And when should we stop? My arm was getting tired.

  After a few more throws, with the best crack of a bat that I had ever heard, Sophia hit the ball across the field.

  “Awesome, Soph! Home run!” I cheered. She held her bat up in the air, cheering.

  From that moment on, Soph was on fire. I got into it, too, changing things up and making her work a little harder. She didn’t miss a single pitch.

  We gathered balls a few more times until we were both exhausted. The sun was setting behind the bleachers, and other school teams were packing up and heading to the lockers.

  I jogged from the pitcher’s mound to Sophia. “I think we should call it a day.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. But your note says ‘While there are balls left, hit the ball.’”

  “But there’s never going to be an end,” I said, rubbing my shoulder. “This could go on and on forever.”

  “Maybe that’s the point?” Sophia said, glancing down at a blister that had popped up on her right hand. She turned to show me the red mark. “Like how you can keep playing a video game until you run out of lives or time?” I shrugged. “How ’bout this,” she continued. “Let’s put the equipment away and try to figure out the coding connection.”

  “Good idea,” I said. Once the balls and bat were back in the shed, we sat in the bleachers and looked stuff up on our phones, but nothing made the connection clear.

  “I wish Alex would just tell me what it means,” I said, getting frustrated.

  “Why don’t I come over to your place?” Sophia suggested. She lived just a block over from me. “Maybe he’ll be there, and we can ask him.”

  “We could, but he hasn’t let his guard down about the notes yet,” I told her. “I doubt he will now.”

  “Yeah, but it can’t hurt to try, right?” Sophia said.

  She was right.

  “Want to ask your abuela if you can stay for dinner?” I said. Sophia had three little sisters, and her mom worked the night shift at the hospital. Her dad was a real estate agent and could get really busy. So her grandmother moved in with them last year from Puerto Rico to help out. “We can corner Alex and force him to explain what this all means.”

  “Sounds great!”

  It was starting to feel like things were back to normal between Soph and me. I realized how much I’d missed her this past year. All because of a stupid misunderstanding!

  As luck would have it, Alex never showed up for dinner. He didn’t answer my calls or texts, either. I knew he was busy with his girlfriend and college stuff, but I wished he’d at least respond to me.

  My mom was still at work, so Soph and I ate dinner with my dad. He was glad to see that Soph and I were talking again, and peppered her with questions about her summer. After dessert, Soph and I tried to search online again for the connection between hitting softballs and coding. We even looked through some of my mom’s coding books, but we couldn’t find anything. After a while, we gave up and took silly selfies together instead.

  It felt like no time had passed at all since we’d stopped hanging out.

  Chapter Eight

  Thursday morning, I rushed into school, fully expecting to find a note on my locker. Alex had left home earlier than usual, saying there was something he “had to do.”

  When I got to my locker, there it was—a note taped to the door—just as I expected.

  As confusing as the ball-playing note was (I was still annoyed about not understanding what it meant), this one was worse.

  It said:

  int number_of_buttons = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8;

  string button_type = “ ”;

  boolean has_sleeves = true false;

  string sleeve_type = “ ”;

  string collar_type = “ ”;

  string lace_type = “ ”;

  I considered texting Alex and asking, “What the heck?!” But since he hadn’t answered any of my texts or calls the day before, I decided not to bother. Besides, he would have acted like he didn’t know anything, anyway.

  If I couldn’t figure this one out myself, I’d have two notes to talk to him about at dinner tonight!

  As I turned the corner, I saw Sophia walking down the hall with a huge pile of textbooks in her arms. They were stacked up past her head, and she was shouting, “Out of the way!” to the other kids in the hall.

  I stepped up next to her, where she could see me from the side.

  “Soph, what are you doing?”

  “Ugh,” she grunted. One of the books at the top of the pile teetered. I grabbed it before it fell. “I went to the office to get the athlete health forms for my parents to sign so I can try out for the softball team . . .” She paused and said, “Thanks for helping me practice yesterday, by the way.”

  “You’re welcome,” I told her. “Any time.”

  “I was about to leave the office when Principal Stephens asked if I was going by the library. He wanted me to return a few books.”

  “A few?” I grabbed another book from the top of her stack. “This is more than a few!”

  “I know.” She shifted her weight to keep the pile even. “He was laughing when he added the last one to the top.”

  We had time before class, and I was headed past the library, too. “Let me help,” I said, taking another couple of books and adding them to my pile.

  “Thanks, Lu. You’re a good friend.” Sophia smiled at me. “I mean that.”

  “You’re a good friend, too, Soph,” I said, smiling back.

  When we got to the library, we dropped off the books on the librarian’s desk.

  “So, I got a new note,” I told Sophia as the librarian scanned the books.

  “Really? What’d it say?” I handed her Alex’s strange lesson for the day.

  “Boo-le-an? String? Type?” Sophia scrunched her face. �
��I don’t get it. Did you text Alex?”

  I shook my head. “There’s no point. And I want to try to solve this one on my own,” I told her. We walked out the library’s large glass doors and into the hall.

  “Maybe we could ask Maya about it,” Sophia suggested. “Button, lace, collar—she’s into fashion and she’s in coding club, so she might have an idea of what it all means.”

  “I—” Talking to Maya wasn’t really on my list of things I wanted to do. I hardly knew her, and for some reason I got nervous talking to her. We’d barely said a word when we made Sophia’s sandwich during coding club.

  Soph could tell what I was thinking. She put a hand on my shoulder. “I can ask her for you, if you want,” she said. “My locker is next to hers and I see her all the time.”

  “I don’t know . . .”

  “I think she’s our best bet for solving this one, Lu.”

  “Okay,” I said eventually, grateful for her offer. “But let’s ask her together.” I was the one getting the notes, and I didn’t want Sophia to have to do the work for me.

  We agreed that Sophia would ask Maya if we could talk at lunch.

  At lunch, I sat with Anjali—for once she wasn’t doing extra work for film club.

  “Sorry for being so MIA with film,” she said. “This week has been crazy. But I want to hear all about the new club. And what’s going on with the coding thing?” she said, taking a bite of her apple. “Are Alex’s notes helping you? Do you still need me to figure out how to fast-track you?”

  I told her about Alex’s latest notes. “I did learn something after the playground thing,” I said. “But I have no idea about the other ones. And I still haven’t learned enough to get started on my app.”

  She took out a granola bar. “Hmm . . . that is annoying. But, Lucy, I really think Alex is trying to help you.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” I answered after taking a bite of my tuna sandwich. I was still unsure the notes were actually helping, but figured it was worth a try. Plus, it’d been fun getting to know Erin at the playground and hitting balls with Sophia on the softball field.

  I saw Sophia at the end of the lunch line and waved at her. She came over and plopped her tray next to mine.

  “Hey, Soph!” Anjali said. She looked back and forth between us. “Wait, are you guys talking again? I thought that was, like, not allowed.”

  Sophia and I smiled at each other.

  I reached for my milk carton. “Yeah, we’re good now,” I said to Anjali. “Sophia realized how stupid she was being,”

  “Hey!” Sophia said, elbowing me. I elbowed her back, giggling.

  “Um, okay, not sure what’s going on here, but I like it!” Anjali said. “Hey, did you guys hear about Erin?”

  “No,” I said, realizing I hadn’t seen Erin by our lockers all day.

  “She went home sick. She wasn’t feeling well in Spanish class so Señora Martinez let her go to the nurse, but she came back to get her things and went home. She had a fever, apparently.”

  “That sucks,” I said.

  “I told her we’d text her tonight to see how she’s doing.”

  Of course—leave it to Anjali to reach out to the new girl. She was doing what she did best—being the nicest person in school.

  “Group chat?” I asked her.

  “Let’s do it!” Anjali said. “Want to be in on it, Sophia? You know Erin from coding club, right?”

  “Sure!” Sophia said.

  I saw Maya approaching our table from behind Sophia, and instinctively got nervous about what I was wearing. I didn’t know why I got so self-conscious around Maya—it’s not like I cared that much about clothes.

  I looked down at my outfit. Black skinny jeans with a white sweater and my jean jacket. Okay, that wasn’t so bad. My shoes were the problem—I was wearing scruffy old sneakers. I tried to hide my feet under the lunch table, hoping she wouldn’t notice.

  Maya was wearing boots with a full patchwork skirt and bright yellow blouse. As usual, she looked amazing.

  “Hey, guys,” she said, taking a seat next to Sophia. “Lucy, Sophia told me you had a question,” she said to me. “What’s up?”

  “Oh yeah . . . thanks . . . um . . . for helping!” I stammered. Ugh, why was I so embarrassing! I reached into my jacket pocket, where I was now collecting all the notes.

  “I told my brother I wanted to learn how to code, and I’m pretty sure he’s been leaving me these weird notes at my locker.”

  I handed Maya the pieces of paper.

  “Lucy’s been trying to figure out what they mean,” Sophia explained. She pointed to the latest note. “Since this one has clothing stuff on it, we thought maybe you’d have some ideas.”

  Maya looked it over, her eyebrows furrowed. She thumbed through the other notes, too.

  “Have you figured out what these other ones mean?” she asked, looking up at us.

  “Well, kind of,” I said. “I went to the playground with Erin—the new girl—on Tuesday after school, and we followed the instructions on the first note. We’re pretty sure it’s about the input/output stuff we learned in coding club on Monday.”

  “Except that you actually gave decent instructions this time,” Sophia said teasingly. She pointed to the second note. “Yesterday, Lucy and I hit softballs to try to figure this one out, but we got nowhere.”

  After a long pause, Maya said, “Lucy, are you sure it’s your brother who’s behind all this?”

  “Pretty sure,” I answered. Anjali and Sophia nodded in agreement. “Why?”

  “Well, I don’t know him, but I think whoever wrote this note knows me,” she said, handing the third note back to me.

  “What?” I was confused. “What do you mean?”

  “I’ll show you,” Maya said. “Can you come to Dress to Impress after school?”

  “The designer clothes place?” Anjali asked. “Why there?”

  “I help out at the store sometimes.” She looked at me. “There’s something I want to show you.”

  “I can go with you, if you want,” Sophia offered. “I don’t have to be at practice today till later. And I’m curious about the note, too.”

  This was turning out to be an even more interesting day than I’d anticipated.

  Dress to Impress specialized in designer wedding dresses, but also custom-made tuxedos and party dresses. If someone needed a dress hemmed or a fancy button replaced, the shop was the place to go for that, too. I’d never been there, but I knew my mom had gone to get clothes fixed for special occasions.

  After school, Sophia and I followed directions to the store from my phone. When we walked by the new computer place, I couldn’t help glancing at the newest models in the window. I loved trying to pick the one I’d get if I could buy a new one—not that that would happen anytime soon. In the meantime, at least I got to inherit Alex’s and my parents’ hand-me-downs.

  I got a glimpse of a few new laptops in cool colors, like metallic pink and gold. But what caught my eye was a flyer taped to the window.

  CALLING

  ALL

  CODERS!

  Don’t miss the six-hour hackathon for middle-schoolers at the community center on October 28! Some beginner coding knowledge required.

  Includes a $100 prize!

  COME PREPARED TO BUILD FOR THE FUTURE!

  Sophia had stopped to take a look, too. “What do you think a hackathon is?” I asked her.

  “No clue,” Sophia said, checking the time on her phone. “C’mon, I gotta get back before the end of football practice. Let’s go!”

  There were some flyers in a basket, so I took one and put it in my jean jacket pocket.

  When we got to Dress to Impress, Maya was sitting on a tall stool at the front counter, sewing a button on a silky yellow dress.

  Afte
r our conversation at lunch, I was feeling more comfortable around her. She hadn’t seemed to notice my scruffy sneakers—and if she had, they didn’t appear to bother her. I was relieved to think she wouldn’t judge me for my clothes.

  “Hey,” I said. “Cool place.” The window display was set up like a school dance scene with a boy mannequin and girl mannequin standing together. The girl’s dress was beautiful; it was teal and white with a low back and long puffy skirt. The guy had a basic black tux, with a teal tie that matched his date’s dress.

  “Thanks,” Maya said, gathering her stuff. “Come in. Did you bring the note?”

  I reached in my jacket pocket where I was collecting all the notes, and took out the latest one. “Yep.”

  “Great.” She opened a door to the back of the shop and led us to a workroom. There were stacks of fabric piled between a rack of partially finished clothing and two sewing machines. I saw bins along the wall that were labeled “lace” and “buttons,” plus other things I didn’t recognize, like “tulle.”

  “This is what I wanted to show you.” From the corner of the room, she brought out one of those mannequins without a head that professional designers use. It had on a gorgeous, shimmery green dress that looked half-finished. “Friends of my mom own this store, and when I help out, they let me use their supplies for my own projects. I’ve been working on this dress for a while—I usually leave it out front, but I thought I’d bring it back here to show you guys,” Maya said. “I’ve already asked Principal Stephens if I can show it at the school’s spring talent show.”

  “Wow, it’s so pretty!” I said, moving in to take a closer look. “I didn’t know you were into making clothes.”

  “This is so amazing,” Sophia said, reaching out to touch the fabric.

  It wasn’t done, but what she’d finished was incredible. The green material shimmered with purple swirls, like someone had mixed two paints, but not blended them all the way. The skirt ruffled around the waist with an Asian floral print down one side. I could imagine Maya wearing this dress, not just to the talent show, but to the middle-school spring dance. She’d definitely have the best dress there.