Click'd

by Tamara Ireland Stone

  “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?”

  “Nope, never met him before. But between sixth and seventh, I’d had my whole head stuffed in my locker, checking my stats, when my phone blooped and started flashing and stuff, and when I looked up, Ajay had his head in the locker right next to mine. He was watching his phone flip out, too! We started cracking up, and then we tapped phones, and boom! Number six.” Zoe brought her chin to her chest and glanced at Allie out of the corner of her eye. “And he’s kinda cute, don’t you think?”

  Allie nodded. “Definitely. And he’s nice, too, so I think you two should be a thing, like ASAP, because I need a cute success story.”

  “If you insist,” Zoe said with a shrug. “But only because I’m part of your street team and you need my help.”

  The bus pulled out of the roundabout and into the street. Allie tried not to check her phone every thirty seconds, but she couldn’t help it.

  “Whoa.” She hadn’t meant to say it. The word just slipped out.

  “What?” Zoe asked.

  “Sixteen people have joined in the three minutes since we got on the bus!” Allie did a little dance in her seat. “I was hoping for fifty users—maybe sixty—before Saturday’s presentation, but I might have that many by tomorrow. Don’t you think?”

  “I think you’ll have double that by tomorrow. This thing is moving!” Zoe drummed her hands fast on the seat in front of her, and the girl sitting there turned around and shot her a glare. Zoe apologized.

  Suddenly, Allie’s phone went bloop-bloop.

  She and Zoe stared at the flashing yellow light. They listened. And they looked around, but no one on the bus seemed to be responding.

  “Yellow is one hundred feet, right?” Zoe whispered.

  Allie nodded.

  “Then it’s coming from outside.”

  They both heard the bus engine rumble to life. They stood, trying to get a better view out the windows. The bus inched forward, but it couldn’t go very far; there were two buses in front of them, waiting to turn into the street.

  Bloop-bloop-bloop.

  Suddenly, they heard a pounding sound coming from the front of the bus. “Wait!” a muffled voice yelled. The driver pulled on the lever and the doors swung open.

  “Thanks!” a guy said as he climbed the stairs. He had his hand on his chest and he was trying to catch his breath. “I didn’t know where to go.”

  “Find a seat,” the driver said. And then he added, “Quickly.”

  The boy pulled his phone from his pocket and looked at the screen, and then he took a seat in the third row.

  Bloop-bloop-bloop.

  Allie watched him glance down at his phone. And then he slowly turned around.

  She held her phone in the air with one hand and waved at him with the other.

  He waved back. And then he twisted in his seat, and pointed at Allie as he said something to the girl behind him. She took the phone, passed it to the guy behind her, who passed it to the girl behind him. It traveled toward Allie, row over row.

  Penny McCaskill was sitting across the aisle with the guy’s phone in her hand. She tossed it to Allie like they were playing hot potato.

  Zoe leaned in closer, her shoulder brushing against Allie’s as she tapped the two phones together and watched the screens light up, side by side. Their leaderboards appeared.

  Marcus Inouye. Allie looked at his profile pic. She didn’t know who he was. And she was certain he hadn’t taken their bus last year, because she would have remembered him.

  “He’s in my Spanish class. His family just moved here from Denver.” Zoe tapped on his profile. “Cute pic,” she whispered.

  Allie felt her stomach do a little flip-flop. Yeah, it is, she thought.

  “Well?” someone yelled, and Allie and Zoe looked up. Marcus was turned around, kneeling with a big smile on his face. “Where did you land?”

  “Three,” Allie yelled back, holding up three fingers.

  He nodded approvingly. “Nice. Where am I on yours?”

  “Six,” Allie yelled back, and Marcus gave her a thumbs-up.

  Zoe elbowed her in the side. “Dude, that was kind of adorable,” she whispered.

  “A little bit, right?” Allie whispered back. She was beaming as she handed his phone back to Penny, who started it up the aisle again, headed back to Marcus.

  “Okay, what just happened?” Penny asked.

  Zoe answered before Allie had a chance to. “Allie built it at coding camp over the summer. It matches you up with friends; everyone’s playing it.” She jiggled her phone. “What’s your cell number? I’ll send you an invite.”

  Peo
ple closed in around her, calling out their phone numbers, and Allie and Zoe typed them in as quickly as they could.

  Allie had pictured her best friends playing with Click’d. She’d even pictured it moving around her other circles of friends, to girls in her classes, and people she’d known since elementary school. But this was different. She’d never pictured anything like this. Not in a million years.

  Zoe looked down at her phone. “They’re coming in like crazy now. Look: it’s up to fifty-eight.”

  When the bus stopped at the curb in front of Allie’s house, she stood and threw her backpack over her shoulder. “See you tomorrow,” she said to Zoe.

  As she walked down the aisle, she couldn’t help but notice that the whole bus seemed to be taking the quiz. She felt like she was on top of the world. And that must have made her feel braver than usual, too, because when she passed Marcus, she slowed her steps. “See ya, Six,” she said.

  He tipped his chin up and said, “See ya, Three.”

  As Allie fished her key out of her backpack, she could hear her dog scratching excitedly on the other side of the front door.

  “Hold on, Bo!” Allie turned the key and heard the dead bolt click open. She barely had one foot in the door when her dog was jumping up on her, begging for his usual greeting.

  “Hi! Aw…I missed you, too, buddy!” Allie rubbed his head as she let her backpack slip from her shoulder and drop onto the floor next to the entryway table. She sat on the tile with her legs folded in front of her, laughing as Bo jumped into her lap and started licking her cheeks. She buried her fingers in his curly brown fur. “Did you have a good day?” She took his face in her hands, looked him in the eyes and said, “Dude, I had the craziest day! I’ll tell you all about it, but I swear, you’re not going to believe me.”

  She kissed his wet nose and stood up. “I’m starving. How about you? Do you want a cookie?” She rubbed his head again. “Let’s get you a cookie!”

  She walked to the kitchen with Bo on her heels and took a dog biscuit from the ceramic container on the counter. He gobbled his treat and then followed Allie around the kitchen as she made a toasted cheese sandwich and poured a glass of milk.

  She brought her plate over to the couch and turned on the TV. Bo snuggled into her side with his chin resting on her leg as she ate and flipped through the channels, looking for a good soccer match. She was glad none of her teachers had been mean enough to assign homework on the first day of school.

  Allie pulled her phone from her pocket and launched Click’d for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, but instead of opening her Mercer Middle School group, she went back to the main screen and selected the CodeGirls group instead.

  She opened the chat window and typed a message to everyone.

  Allie

  I miss you guys!

  Seconds later, the messages started flooding in.

  Skylar

  I miss you too!

  Zaina

  How was everyone’s first day?

  Kaiya

  Fine, but missing the fishbowl!

  Morgan

  the fishbowl…

  Courtney

  Did you show your friends Click’d?

  Allie smiled at the screen as she typed her reply.

  Allie

  Yep. And they LOVED it. And shared it. Get this:

  Allie took a screenshot of her profile and sent it to the group.

  Courtney

  68 users!

  Zaina

  what? already?

  Allie

  YEP. Crazy, right?!?

  Allie told them all about her strategy to collect more data and real-life success stories, so she’d have even more to show the judges on Saturday.

  Kaiya

  you have nothing to worry about

  Morgan

  Yeah! G4G is in the bag, baby!

  Allie wasn’t so sure about that. She thought about Nathan’s game. She pictured all those little people marching from house to house, building something important together and making a real difference in the world. That’s the kind of stuff the judges would want to see. Built was so obviously a game for good. Was Click’d?

  She put her phone on the coffee table. “We need to get out of here,” she said. Bo had been dozing happily, but as soon as he heard her voice, his head snapped up. “I have no idea how I’m going to make it through soccer practice tomorrow. Wanna go for a run?”

  Bo knew that word well. He jumped off the couch, ran straight for the door, and sat there with his tail wagging while Allie grabbed his leash off the hook in the laundry room.

  At dinner that night, Allie told her parents all about her day. “I’d only planned to share it with Zoe, Maddie, and Emma, but then in fifth period Ms. Slade asked me to present it to the whole class, and they looked so excited about it. So I shared it with all of them, too. And now look!” Allie turned her phone so her parents could see the screen. “Ninety-four users! As soon as we all get within range tomorrow, our phones are going to go crazy! Our leaderboards are going to start changing and everyone’s going be running around, looking for clicks.”

  “Are you allowed to use phones during school?” her dad asked.

  “Not technically. But we can use them before the first bell and after the last one.” As soon as she said the words, her phone chirped in her pocket and she reached for it.

  Zoe

  Check the user stats!!!

  “Speaking of rules…” her mom said as she pointed at Allie’s phone. “Not at the table.”

  “Hold on. Just this one thing,” Allie said as she tapped on the Click’d icon. “No. Way.”

  “What’s wrong?” her dad asked.

  Allie turned the screen and showed them her profile. “One hundred!” Allie squiggled in her chair, giggling and waving her phone above her head. “One hundred!” she repeated. “That’s huge! That’s like a real user base!”

  Her mom and dad smiled at each other and her mom shook her head. “Congratulations, sweetie. Now put the phone down, please.” Allie set her phone facedown on the table and reached for her fork.

  Bo crawled under Allie’s chair and she started petting him with her bare foot. As they ate, her mom filled them in on the company she’d been investigating all summer for the newspaper where she worked. And then her dad told them all about a new client he just took on in his law office. Allie listened, but all through dinner, she couldn’t stop picturing all those people from school sitting in their bedrooms, taking the quiz she wrote. She’d watched it spread across her CodeGirls class, but that was different—those girls had practically helped her build it. The whole idea of other people—some of them total strangers—creating a profile, taking the quiz, made her feel oddly powerful. And also a little freaked-out.

  But later that night, when she went up to her room and logged into the server, she realized she had nothing to be worried about. She could see everyone’s profiles. She could see the Instagram shots the system pulled for clues, and the gallery of ClickPics everyone had taken so far. They all looked so happy—cheeks pressed together, arms around each other, all wearing huge smiles.

  She flopped down on her bed and Bo cuddled up next to her, and then she opened her group text to Maddie, Zoe, and Emma. She felt like she was on top of the world as she typed:

  Allie

  Best. Street. Team. EVER!

  The bus doors slapped open and Allie climbed the stairs.

  “Hey, Three,” Marcus said from his spot in the third row.

  “Hi, Six,” she said. She was about to ask him about his leaderboard, but when she looked up and saw what was happening on the bus, she found herself at a loss for words.

  Every single person seemed to be talking, laughing, twisting around in their seat, and passing phones across aisles. Blue, yellow, and red lights flashed, and bloops ricocheted off the windows, one after another.

  Allie walked to her seat wide-eyed. She’d expected a little excitement once all those new users got
within range of one another, but this wasn’t even close to what she had in mind!

  “Everyone—and by that, I mean ev-er-y-one—is talking about your game,” Zoe said. “You’re famous.”

  A voice behind them yelled, “Anyone know who this is?” Allie turned around. A guy in the back row wearing a Warriors cap held his phone up high.

  “That’s Ana Hirono,” someone else yelled.

  A girl a few rows in front of him twisted around in her seat and waved. “Hey! I’m Ana,” she said. He waved back and passed his phone to her. Everyone watched as it made its way to Ana, and then she tapped their phones together and yelled “Six and seven!” She held the phone up in front of her to take a selfie, angling it so she could see him waving his arms around in the background.

  “This is…” Allie was at a complete loss for words. She finally settled on, “Unbelievable.”

  Zoe laughed. “It was like this when I got on the bus three stops back,” she said as she tipped her phone in Allie’s direction. “I filled that last open spot on my leaderboard as soon as I stepped on the bus, and within minutes, people who were there yesterday fell off and new ones swapped in. I gotta tell you, I think I’m a little bit addicted.”

  “Uh-oh. Is this going to be like your Snapchat obsession?” Allie joked.

  “Maybe,” she said proudly.

  Zoe tapped the shoulder of a girl in front of her with thick red braids, and she turned around. “This is Lauren. She’s a sixth grader. She’s my number seven.”

  Lauren gave them an awkward wave and a shy smile. She had blue braces and wore shiny lip gloss. Then she turned around again and the girl next to her elbowed her, like having Zoe for a friend was a big deal or something.

  “How is it that I have more in common with her than I do with Maddie and Emma?” Zoe whispered.

  She showed Allie her leaderboard. Maddie had moved down to #8 and Emma was #10.

  Allie’s phone blooped three times and her screen started flashing red. “That was fast.” The picture clue was someone’s volleyball team, so it wasn’t any help. Then Penny’s phone blooped three times and started flashing red.