With a gasp, Leila jumped up, too. “We totally could! It’s perfect!”
She and I squealed and hugged each other, but Sophia stayed where she was.
“Could one of you please explain?” she asked in a loud voice.
I pulled away from Leila. “We’ll take the same stuff we’re using for the lights at the dance,” I explained, “and we’ll make your dress light up to the music.”
“I bet my sister even has all the materials, so we won’t have to buy anything,” Leila said.
I high-fived her. “Perfect!”
Sophia rose slowly from the couch, her eyes shining. “Can you really do that?”
“You’ll have to wear a small battery pack,” said Leila, grinning. “But yes.”
I gestured to Sophia. “Sophia Torres, on Saturday, you are going to sparkle—literally.”
Finally, Sophia joined in our excitement. With a shriek, she launched herself at us, and we caught her, laughing.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she exclaimed, jumping up and down.
Leila and I joined in.
The three of us were so busy hopping around and hollering that we didn’t realize Lucy had come back inside, until she was hopping along with us.
“Is this what’s been taking so long?” she asked. “Also, why are we doing it?”
“I’m getting a light-up dress for the dance!” crowed Sophia.
“Awesome!” Lucy cheered. “Not to spoil the moment, but Maya, we have to go!”
“Right!” I said, bouncing toward the door.
Lucy giggled and bounced after me.
“See you guys tomorrow!” I waved to Leila and Sophia.
Lucy opened the door, and we hurried down the steps to Erin’s mom’s car.
“What took so long?” asked Erin when we got in.
“Sorry,” I said, buckling my seat belt. “Leila, Sophia, and I were talking.”
“And bouncing,” added Lucy.
“Aww, I missed bouncing?” Erin asked.
“The mall has a trampoline store if you’re that torn up,” said her mom, pulling away from the curb.
Lucy leaned forward. “Erin just ate a ton of onion soup mix on her popcorn. You may not want that coming back up.”
Erin’s mom wrinkled her nose at her daughter. “Onion mix with popcorn?”
“Thank you!” I said.
“It was yummy,” said Erin. “And I’m going to suggest they serve it at the dance.”
“Well, at least that’ll keep anyone from wanting to kiss you,” her mom mused.
Lucy and I laughed, and Erin buried her face in her hands.
“Mom, you’re not supposed to talk about that stuff!” she said in a muffled voice.
Her mom leaned toward Erin and started making smooching sounds. “Oh, Jeremiah, you’re so dreamy!”
“Dreamy? Nobody says that, Mom,” Erin informed her.
I glanced at Lucy for a reaction to Jeremiah’s name, but she was giggling at the conversation between Erin and her mom.
I settled back in my seat and smiled.
Lucy was happy, Leila was happy, Erin was happy, and now, thanks to me, Sophia was happy. Plus, I was getting to use a form of my light-up bracelet idea, and that made me happy. Not bad for an afternoon of coding!
* * *
The next morning when I walked into school with Erin, Nicole was waiting for me.
“Good morning!” she greeted us. “Maya, can I talk to you alone?”
I glanced at Erin, and she waved to us both.
“Catch up with you in homeroom!” she told me.
As Erin disappeared into the hall traffic, I faced Nicole. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
“Oh yeah!” Nicole gave an airy laugh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound serious. I just thought I’d make plans with you for tonight before anyone else could.”
I sucked in my breath. “Actually I do have plans. I’m meeting some of the girls from coding club—”
“Again?” Nicole’s eyes widened. “You have to meet them after school, then during homeroom, then at lunch, and then in the evening . . .”
“It’s a lot,” I agreed. I’d actually had to let go of my dance-committee duties to make it happen. “But I don’t mind. And tonight’s meeting was my choice.”
“Your choice?” She narrowed her eyes. “As in, normally they make you go?”
I laughed and nudged her to start walking with me. “They don’t make me do anything. It’s not like that.”
“Sounds that way to me.” Nicole tugged my backpack strap so I’d stop walking. “Maya, they’re treating you like you don’t matter. You need to put yourself first.”
“I will once the dance is over,” I said. “For now, I need to do what’s best for the team.”
The hackathon had definitely shown me how much smoother things went when everyone worked toward the same goal.
Nicole parked a hand on her hip. “Fine. Then how about tomorrow after school? Are you free for an hour or two?”
I thought for a moment. “Tomorrow should work,” I said.
“I’m putting it on my calendar,” Nicole said, pulling out her phone.
“And I’m heading to the library,” I told her.
“Okay.” She glanced up from her phone. “But remember that your feelings matter, and they should appreciate you.”
I grinned at her. “Yes, Mom.”
Nicole went back to typing. “I like your mother. I’ll take that as a compliment.”
If only my mom felt the same way about her.
When the bell rang to start homeroom, my friends from coding club and I were waiting for Mrs. Clark, who wanted to check on our progress.
“We came up with a backup plan since we couldn’t use the school lights,” Erin told her. “We’ve decided to do a light display on one of the gym walls.”
“Creative coding,” said Mrs. Clark with a nod of approval. “Do you have all the components you need?”
“I took some measurements of the gym this morning,” Leila told her. She handed Mrs. Clark a sheet of paper. “I’ve written down the number of light strings we’ll need and the colors. All together, the lights shouldn’t cost more than fifty dollars. I also wrote down an audio sensor and relay board that we need.”
Mrs. Clark glanced at the note. “You know that I, or another adult, will have to handle any electrical wiring.” She looked around at us all, and we nodded. Satisfied, she pocketed Leila’s paper. “Then I don’t think any of that should be a problem. How’s the code coming?”
I was about to tell her I’d been researching how to get the Arduino to find the sensor input when Erin said, “We’re done with the sensor input. Now we’re working on the next step.”
I shot her a quick glance. “We are? Because I’m working on it, and that’s news to me.”
“Uh-oh,” Lucy said under her breath.
Mrs. Clark rubbed her chin. “Are we not communicating, ladies?”
Erin sucked air through her teeth. “Maya, I meant to tell you on the bus. My dad called last night and talked me through some of the coding stuff. The first part was pretty easy, so I went ahead and wrote it.”
“You what?” This was exactly what Nicole had been talking about. Erin was treating me like I didn’t matter. “But that was my part. Why didn’t you just work on your own stuff?”
The words came out a little sharper than I intended, and Erin slid back in her chair.
“Sorry, I thought you’d be cool with it since you’re busy with other projects.” Erin glanced in Sophia’s direction. “Clearly I was wrong.”
“It’s fine,” I said in a voice that indicated it wasn’t. “And I could’ve done both things.”
Erin was turning the color of bubble gum. “I know that. Look, i
f it’s a big deal, you can take the part I was going to work on with Leila.”
The process to turn the music into light colors? Wasn’t that supposed to be the hardest part?
I jutted out my chin. “Fine. I’m meeting her this afternoon, anyway.” I nodded at Leila, who was watching Erin and me with fascination.
Mrs. Clark cleared her throat. “Well, now that we’ve cleared that up, how about the code to trigger the different lights?”
“I’m getting Sophia to help me with that,” said Lucy. “And Erin, if you have any spare time, I could really use your help, too.”
The color in Erin’s cheeks lightened a little, and she flashed her best smile at Lucy. “Of course. I’d be happy to help.”
Mrs. Clark clapped her hands together. “All right, then. I’d like this by Friday morning so we can do a test run.”
I almost fell out of my chair.
“This Friday?” I asked.
Mrs. Clark smiled. “The dance is the following day, so next Friday might be too late.”
The other girls giggled.
I forced a smile and nodded. “Of course.”
“We can totally do it, no problem!” Leila bumped my shoulder and held up a hand for me to high-five.
Easy for her to say. She hadn’t also promised someone a light-up dress. But since I’d made a huge deal about Erin doing my coding, I couldn’t admit I was in over my head. So I smacked Leila’s hand and said, “Absolutely!”
“I can’t wait to see what you ladies come up with,” said Mrs. Clark. “And remember, we’re all on the same team.” Her pointed look landed on Erin and me.
“Yes, Mrs. Clark,” said Erin.
“Of course,” I said again.
“And have fun with this,” Mrs. Clark reminded us all. “It’s coding club, for crying out loud!”
We all cheered, but I did feel like crying out loud. If Mrs. Clark wanted to test run the project Friday morning, we’d have to have everything assembled, including the code, by tomorrow night. I really hoped Leila was as good at coding as Erin.
And I hoped I was, too.
Chapter Eight
Erin never apologized.
I kept waiting for her to blurt it out, but all morning she stayed quiet. At lunch I didn’t see her because Leila and I ducked into the computer lab and worked on our code. In the afternoon, Erin passed me two different times in the hall and just smiled politely.
I must have looked as annoyed as I felt, because when I got in Mom’s car that afternoon, she asked, “Bad day?”
“Erin did my part of the project, and now I have to do a harder part, and she won’t apologize, and I do so much for that group, and nobody appreciates me!” I said in one long breath.
Mom blinked at me while I inhaled all the oxygen in the car. “Wow. How long have you been holding that in?” she asked.
“Six hours,” I told her, buckling my seat belt. “I tried to let a little of it out at lunch, but Leila took Erin’s side.”
“You bad-mouthed Erin to other people?” asked Mom with wide eyes. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“Nicole said I should get it off my chest, and if my friends don’t like it, oh well,” I told Mom. Nicole had then tricked the snack machine into vending a free bag of M&M’s and shared a handful with me. Sadly, it was the best part of my day.
Mom’s lips curled. “Now I’m starting to understand.” She put the car in gear. “Sweetheart, do you ever think Nicole might be trying to turn you against your friends?”
I shook my head. “No way. She knows they’re important to me.”
Mom held out a hand. “Which is why she’s trying to separate you. She’s jealous.”
I crossed my arms. “Wrong. When I asked her to stay out of my coding club stuff, she apologized. Apologized! That’s more than I can say for Erin.”
Mom snorted. “Erin apologizes all the time. When she had dinner with us last week, she apologized twice during the salad course alone.”
I threw my hands in the air. “So why won’t she apologize for this?”
Mom imitated me. “Because she thinks you should!”
“Okay, you are driving. That is not a safe gesture.” I pointed to the steering wheel. “And why should I apologize? I didn’t ask Erin to write my code.”
“No, but she did, anyway, because she’s your friend. She just wants a little thanks,” said Mom. “Trust me.”
“Well, I’ll tell her ‘thank you’ after she apologizes,” I muttered.
Mom pulled onto our street. “That might be a long wait, my dear.”
“Wanna bet?” I glanced at my phone. No new messages. “Shoot. I was hoping to prove you wrong,” I muttered.
Mom chuckled. “When we get home, you can take your mind off things with some homework.”
I rolled my eyes. “Very subtle, Mom.”
But I only got through a few math problems before the doorbell rang and Sophia appeared.
“Sorry I’m early! I just got so excited,” she said when Mom showed her to my room. “And I brought the dress!” She reached into a bag and pulled out a blue dress with a poufy skirt.
I took it from her. “This is perfect! White lights will look great on this.”
“You’re lighting a dress?” asked Mom. “I thought you said you were lighting the gym.”
“We are, but I’m also doing a side project for Sophia,” I told Mom. “Leila’s going to bring over the other pieces, and I’m going to sew the lights, Arduino, and battery supply into the dress.”
Mom nodded her understanding. “Sophia, are your parents okay with you altering this dress?”
“My mom says I’m outgrowing it, anyway,” said Sophia. “And Maya offered to loan me dresses any time I need them, right?” She turned to me, and I gave her a thumbs-up.
“My closet is your shopping mall,” I said.
Mom’s expression softened, and she kissed the top of my head. “Such a good, smart kid.”
“Remember that at allowance time,” I said.
Sophia took her dress back from me and held it up. “You’re sure you can get this done by Saturday?”
I nodded. “It’ll use a code similar to our light display.”
“How’s the process for music to lights coming?” she asked.
I made a face. “Pretty tough,” I admitted. “Leila and I found some usable code online, but when we tried to put in our variables and compile it, we got an error on one of our lines.”
“Compile the code?” asked Mom.
“Change it into a language the Arduino can understand,” I explained.
“Well, you still have today and tomorrow to figure it out,” Sophia reminded me. “And if you’re stuck, you can always ask Erin. Thanks to her, we already have the first part done.”
I didn’t respond until Mom bumped me. “Yes, that was good of her,” I said mechanically.
Mom sighed and walked away. “It’s a start.”
Sophia watched my mom leave. “What was that about?”
“Long story,” I said. “Why don’t we get to work on your dress?”
She pulled it on over her gym clothes, and I handed her a packet of red dot stickers.
“Let’s pretend these are lights,” I said. “You have a hundred dots to work with, so arrange them however you want.”
Even without actual lights, Sophia glowed as she happily applied the stickers. While she worked, I stepped back and observed.
“Diagonal stripes? I like it!”
“Thanks!” said Sophia. “I thought a pattern would stand out more.”
“Spoken like a true fashion designer,” I said.
Just as she was finishing up, the doorbell rang again.
“Awesome!” said Leila when she saw our progress. “And it should make wiring the dress easy.” She pla
ced a bag on the floor. “Here are the lights and other pieces.”
“Great!” I dug through the bag. “Tell your sister I said thanks.”
Sophia pounced on the lights and plugged them into the wall. Then she held a section of the shining bulbs up to her dress. “This is going to look so cool.” She turned to Leila and me. “Hurry with the code!”
We laughed.
“Are you ready to start?” I asked Leila.
“Yep. And I talked to my sister about the line error we got.” Leila removed a notebook from her backpack. “Since that code we found online was working, it’s got to be something we added that maybe has bad punctuation or spelling or something. And there could be more than one error, since the compiler will usually stop at the first problem.”
I made a face. “Great. Well, I guess we should get started and look through our code. Sophia, you want to stay and hang out?”
“I wish I could,” she said, “but I have to get home.” She pulled the dress over her head and placed it on my dresser. “Take good care of it.”
“I will.” I walked her to the front door. “And when I’m done, you won’t mind that it’s your only dress.”
She hugged me. “Thanks again, Maya.”
The door closed, and I turned around, almost crashing into Mom.
“Is this your favorite hangout spot?” I asked.
“That’s her only dress?” Mom responded.
I put a finger to my lips and pulled Mom down the hall. “Yes, but she doesn’t want anyone to know,” I whispered. “So never bring it up.”
Mom mimed zipping her lips and hugged me. “I’m so proud of you.”
“You just zipped your lips. You shouldn’t be able to talk,” I pointed out but returned the hug.
On the way back to my room, I heard strange music coming through my door. Leila had two applications up on her laptop screen. One was for coding and the other was some sort of video game.
“What are you playing?” I asked as I walked in.
Leila jumped at the sound of my voice and turned around with a guilty expression.
“It’s an online game called Wands and Weapons,” she said. “And I wasn’t playing; I was checking to see if my character had finished mining for gold.”
Lights, Music, Code! Page 6