“Or even sooner!” Allie yelled. “I got a job, too. Tutoring Spanish. Right now, I only have two students, Marcus and Kelsey, and well, technically, I’m not making any money on Kelsey right away, but still, I’ll have money.”
They propped their phones next to their keyboards, and each opened a browser to one of the online ticketing services. Allie typed in the dates and entered the data into the empty fields:
From: Phoenix
To: San Francisco Departure date: March 15
She hit the ENTER button, and then waited while the icon spun in place and the system searched for the lowest fare. Times, flight numbers, and prices appeared, and soon, they heard the celebratory sound as the “fabulous fare” landed at the top of the screen.
Allie angled her phone so Courtney could see what she was seeing.
“Two hundred dollars? That’s it?”
“That’s it,” Allie said.
The two of them silently stared at the number, taking it in.
But it wasn’t why Allie had called. She’d let go of her first secret at school that day. Now it was time to come clean on the second one.
Allie shifted nervously in her chair. “I have something to tell you,” she blurted out.
“What’s that?” Courtney asked, still staring at her own monitor.
“Have you heard about Spyglass Games’ new teen hackathon program?”
“No, but I love hackathons. My dad and I did one about a year ago. It was a blast.”
“They’re creating a series of summer hackathons exclusively for teens, and they need participants to help build and shape the program. I’ve been trying to decide if I’m going to apply. . . .”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“Because it’s a summer program. I can’t do that and go to CodeGirls Camp.”
Courtney’s face fell. “Oh.”
“And . . . there’s something else.”
Courtney didn’t look too eager to hear it.
“The Game On passes include a meet-and-greet with Naomi Ryan.”
Courtney’s eyes grew wider. “Naomi Ryan? The CEO of Spyglass Games? How could you not tell me that part?”
Allie sucked in a breath. “I always planned to . . . I just wasn’t sure how to tell you about the meet-and-greet without also telling you I was applying to Hackathon. They want me to demo my latest game . . .” She trailed off.
“And you want to demo Swap’d?”
Hearing Courtney say it made Allie feel a hundred times worse. “Yeah . . . ironic, right? If the selection committee loves the game you and I built together, and I got into Hackathon, it would keep me away from you this summer. But don’t worry, it’s super competitive. The chances of me getting in are, like, next to nothing.”
“But if you did get in . . . you’d go?”
Allie hesitated. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell Courtney. She was hesitating because she honestly didn’t know the answer. She thought about how fun it would be to spend the summer at the Spyglass campus—eating lunches in the fancy cafeteria, attending brainstorming sessions with the developers, creating something totally new. And then she thought about the Fuller University campus—spending late nights in the Fishbowl and taking breaks to kick around a soccer ball with Courtney, and Kaiya, and Shonna, and Rachel, and all the others. She couldn’t imagine her summer without them.
“Allie.” Courtney waved her hand in front of the screen, interrupting her thoughts.
“Yeah.”
“If you got in, you’d go! You’d have to go. You can’t pass up a chance to spend the summer at Spyglass. I won’t let you!”
“You wouldn’t be mad?”
Courtney didn’t even hesitate. “Mad? Of course not. We’d still talk all the time. We’d still do good day/bad day every night. And Fuller University isn’t that far away from San Francisco. You could come visit us on the weekends. I’d miss you like crazy, but this is a chance of a lifetime, Allie. If you don’t get in, that’s one thing, but you have to try!”
“Really?” Allie could barely believe what Courtney was saying. But as it all hit her, she began to feel different . . . lighter.
“Of course!”
Allie had been wondering if she should apply for months, but now, she couldn’t wait to open the application and press that SEND button. There was no longer a doubt in her mind. Except for one thing.
“I don’t have anything new to demo.”
“Sure you do; you have Swap’d. They’ll love it. It’s an awesome game with an even better backstory. Built in less than twenty-four hours using existing code from five kick-butt girls. Allie, you’re in, no question!”
“I can’t show them our failed game!”
“Failed game?” Courtney said. “Hey, Swap’d may have failed to get me to San Francisco, but it did not fail. We can’t play it on a school campus, but it’s an awesome app. Timed auctions? A leaderboard? People will love it! We just need to switch a few things up.”
Allie started to see where Courtney was going with this. She began to picture it in her mind. “We’d need a payment engine,” she said.
“And users will have to deal with shipping on their own,” Courtney added.
“But we could snap all that in,” Allie said. “I bet Spyglass could even help us get partners.”
“Exactly,” Courtney said. “Naomi Ryan doesn’t need to know about the things that went wrong. She only needs to know what went right.”
Courtney had a point. The two of them had killed the assignment. They hadn’t just created a working game, they’d created a game people loved, one that kept them coming back, and one that was profitable. And they’d built it in less than twenty-four hours, working collaboratively, using chunks of code from girls who live all across the country.
Allie pictured Ms. Slade and her bucket of Legos. It was just the kind of thing Naomi Ryan would love.
“You’re right. We have an amazing game and an even more amazing story.” Allie took a big swig from her water bottle, and that’s when the idea hit her. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t thought of it earlier. “Courtney, you should apply, too! Maybe we’ll both get in.”
Courtney looked at her sideways. “Where would I stay?”
“You can spend the summer here at our house, with my family and me. We’ll take the train to the campus every day together. It’ll be just like camp, but even better!”
Allie could tell Courtney was thinking seriously about it. “I might apply, but right now, we have more important things to focus on.”
“We do?”
“Yep. We need to build your demo for Saturday. You’re going to have to present Swap’d for both of us.”
Allie rested her lunch tray against her hip, and checked the basketball courts, looking for Nathan. She spotted Cory, Mark, and the rest of their friends, but he wasn’t there. Normally, she’d march off to the lab and drag him back to the sunshine and fresh air, but today she knew he was exactly where he needed to be.
Zoe saw her standing there and waved her over to their table under the big oak tree. Allie started walking toward them. But then she stopped. She pictured Nathan, alone in the lab, and wondered if he’d even stopped to grab lunch after fourth period. Knowing him, he hadn’t. She held up a finger to Zoe, and then ditched the tray, gathered up her sandwich, chips, and her chocolate chip cookie, and started walking toward the lab instead.
Nathan was right where she expected he’d be, headphones on, fingers flying across his keyboard, eyes glued to his monitor. He didn’t even notice her walk in.
She went straight to Ms. Slade’s desk. “How long has he been here?”
“All through lunch yesterday. Well into last night. All through lunch today. I’ve tried to help, but he keeps saying he has all the help he needs.”
Allie smiled to herself. Ms. Slade didn’t know what that meant, but Allie did. He’d been chatting with Rachel, Kaiya, and Alexa ever since he left Allie’s house on Tuesday night.
“I’
m going to the teacher’s lounge.” Ms. Slade stood and gathered up her things. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
When she was gone, Allie walked to her workstation and sat down. She carefully ripped her ham and cheese sub down the middle and placed half on the desk between her keyboard and Nathan’s.
He took his headphones off and draped them around the back of his neck. “What’s this?”
“Crazy invention called food. Gives you energy. Keeps you sharp,” she said, tapping her fingertip against her temple.
“Thanks.” He reached for the sandwich and started unwrapping his half. Allie did the same with hers. He took a bite and washed it down with a big swig of water. “You shouldn’t be here. You should be outside with all your friends. You’re done.”
“Finished.”
“Whatever.”
“I don’t want to be outside with my friends. I want to be inside with you.” She pointed at his monitor. “How’s it going?”
Nathan shrugged. “It keeps glitching on this one part of the track, but Rachel had an idea this morning, so I tweaked the code a little bit and I’m hoping it will work. It passed the last test. I’m running one more to be sure.” The two of them finished their sandwiches while they watched the progress bar move across the screen.
Allie ripped her bag of chips open and set them in front of him. “I usually give my chips to Emma—I’m not big on salty snacks—so you can have these, but I’m not giving you my whole cookie,” Allie said as she unwrapped it and broke it in half.
“You can keep your cookie,” he said.
“Nah, it’s cool.”
She handed it to him. As he reached for it, his fingers brushed hers. And then he looked up at her, and she met his eyes. He didn’t move. Neither did Allie.
She thought back to those long days and late nights in the lab four months ago, when the two of them sat next to each other working on Click’d and Built, stuffing popcorn into their mouths, listening to music, working together to solve the problems with their apps that they weren’t able to solve on their own. Somewhere along the way, while neither one of them had been paying attention, they’d gone from archenemies to friends. Allie looked down at their hands now, wondering if, this time, while they weren’t paying attention, they’d gone from friends to something else entirely.
And then the door opened, and Ms. Slade breezed in, yelling, “Who wants popcorn?”
The two of them dropped their hands and the cookie fell to the floor. Allie giggled. Nathan chuckled under his breath.
“It’s okay,” Nathan said. “We didn’t have any milk anyway.”
Allie laughed even harder.
Ms. Slade set a bag of microwave popcorn down between them, just like she had countless times before. “How’s it going over here?”
“Good,” Nathan said.
“Fine,” Allie said at the same time.
Ms. Slade patted them both on the shoulders. “Well, you’re obviously busy here, so I’ll leave you to it.”
When she walked away, his computer let out a loud beep, telling him his game had passed the test. “I’m glad you’re here. I wanted you to be the first to play it.”
He picked up his phone and pressed a few buttons, and a second later, Allie’s phone chirped with a new alert.
She launched his new game, and the familiar-looking neighborhood he’d created for Built came to life on her screen.
It looked a lot like his original—same streets, same houses, same billboards—but it was different somehow; larger, more animated-looking, not quite so detailed. The graphics were rounder, more colorful, and a lot friendlier. It was perfect.
The camera zoomed in close on two cars, a green one and a yellow one, waiting at the starting line.
“What color do you want to be?”
“Um. Yellow, of course,” Allie said.
“Why yellow?”
“Because I’m fast as lightning.”
She rested her elbows on her knees and held her phone in both hands, focusing on his game with everything she had. “I’m gonna win, you know?” Allie said without taking her eyes off the screen.
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am. I’m great at racing games. Ask Courtney.”
“I built this game,” Nathan said. “I’ve been playing it for the last ten hours.”
“So?”
“So, I know it backward and forward.”
“Well, last time I checked, you were in the number one spot on my Swap’d leaderboard.”
“What’s your point?”
“If you can beat me at my own game, I can beat you at yours.”
“Let’s see you do it, Gator.”
“Watch your screen, Nate.”
A huge number three appeared on their phones. And then a two. Then a one. And then the word GO!
“Allie! Dinner!” her dad yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
Bo raced out the door. Allie closed her laptop, slid off her bed, and followed him downstairs and into the kitchen.
Her dad was standing at the counter, spooning some cheesy-looking casserole thing onto a plate. Allie inhaled. It smelled delicious. Her stomach growled, and she realized she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch.
Lunch.
In the lab.
With Nathan.
She pushed the thought from her mind for what seemed like the one hundredth time.
“Where’s Mom?” she asked.
“She just called to say she was stuck in traffic and told us not to wait.” He set a plateful of food in front of her. “How’s everything going with Swap’d?” he asked.
Allie jabbed her fork into the casserole. “Better than expected,” she said before she took a big bite.
She and Courtney had spent the last day creating a special version of Swap’d, and now Allie was putting on the finishing touches. It wasn’t as interesting as the original, but it looked the same, and it gave her something to demo to the class the next day and something to show Naomi Ryan during her meet-and-greet at Game On. They had even put together a short video with pictures of all the CodeGirls who had helped her create it.
“It looks pretty slick,” she continued. “It’s a lot better than I expected.”
“It sounds like you’re feeling pretty good about it.”
“I am.” She was certain Ms. Slade and Naomi Ryan would both be impressed. And she was certain she was going to get an A on the assignment. She might even beat Nathan. Not that it really mattered to her anymore.
Her dad reached across the table and patted her hand. “You never cease to amaze me, you know. Then again, as your biggest fan, I might be a little biased.”
“You think?” she asked sarcastically.
And then she heard the front door open. “I’m home!” her mom yelled. Bo jumped up from his spot under Allie’s feet and took off to greet her.
“This is going to be good.” Her dad had a huge grin on his face.
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Turn around,” he said, still beaming.
Allie looked over her shoulder.
Courtney was standing there with a duffel bag by her side.
Allie blinked hard. But when she opened her eyes, Courtney was still there.
She jumped from her chair, took three big strides, and threw her arms around her shoulders. “You’re here!” She squeezed so hard, she lifted Courtney’s feet off the floor.
“I’m here!”
Allie stepped backward and looked at her. “I can’t believe you’re here!”
“I can’t believe it, either!”
“How long have you known?”
“Only, like, three hours! My mom surprised me. She picked me up from school and wouldn’t tell me where we were going until we arrived at the airport. She even packed for me! She made me promise not to call you, but it was so hard not to! Our parents wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Oh, it’s definitely a surprise! The best surprise.” Allie hugged
her mom as hard as she could.
“We couldn’t stand it,” her mom said. “After all you two went through.”
“As far as we’re concerned, you two did exactly what we asked you to do,” her dad said. “You figured out a way to get her here on your own.”
“Thank you so much! I’ll pay you back, I promise!” Allie said.
“You don’t have to,” her mom said. “We split the cost with Courtney’s parents.”
“You two can cover the next trip. This one’s on us,” her dad added. And then he changed the subject. “You must be starving. Sit. Let’s eat and talk about what you want to do while you’re here.”
Courtney sat. “Allie keeps telling me how much fun it is to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.”
“That’s easy.” Allie’s mom grabbed a notepad and a pen before she took her seat at the table. She started making a list. “The Game On conference is right downtown. The show floor opens at ten, and your meet-and-greet with Naomi Ryan is at eleven.”
“And Nathan’s presenting at the keynote at one o’clock,” Allie added. “We don’t want to miss that.”
“Of course,” her mom said. “You’ll still have plenty of time to walk around afterward, and when you’re finished, we’ll head over to the bridge. What else?”
As the four of them ate, they planned the weekend. Coit Tower. Allie’s favorite hot-chocolate place in North Beach. Lombard Street. Pier 39. By the time they finished dinner, they had a plan to fill every spare second until they had to take Courtney back to the airport on Sunday night.
Sunday. The thought made her sad, but she pushed it out of her mind. Allie couldn’t think about the end when the two of them had a whole middle to look forward to.
Later that night, neither one of them could sleep. There was too much to talk about. Too much energy in the room. Too much adrenaline.
“Good day/bad day?” Courtney asked, staring up at the ceiling.
“You start,” Allie said.
Courtney let out a sigh. “Bad day: I told my teacher about Swap’d.”
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