Lights, Music, Code!

by Jo Whittemore

  I watched Leila’s character inspect a mining cart. “Why?”

  “I need the gold to buy a magic dagger to kill the Troll King.” Leila clicked on a pile of gold. “Almost there! I just need five more gold pieces.” She clicked on a pickax, and her character started hacking away at a cave wall.

  Then she minimized the screen and returned to her code.

  “What happens when you get five more gold pieces?” I asked.

  Leila frowned at her coding screen. “I use the gold to buy an Unwielding Dagger. Then I go under the Bridge of Broken Promises and kill the Troll King. Hopefully.”

  She crossed off one of the possible syntax errors from the list. “This line’s not missing semicolons.”

  I reached for my own laptop and settled on the floor next to Leila, glancing at my half of the list. “Looks like I’m checking for parentheses.”

  I found one that was missing, but when I added it, I received an error message for another line. “Shoot! I think we made more than one mistake.” I shared my discovery with Leila, who updated her version of the code before pulling up her gaming screen again.

  “Finally! Enough gold!” she said, and closed the screen. The flashy graphics and music went away.

  “But don’t you have to buy the dagger now?” I asked. To be honest, I kind of wanted to see more of the game.

  “Oh, I can do that after we debug this code,” said Leila. “But first we have to find what else is wrong and fix it. This line doesn’t need semicolons or parentheses, so . . .” She consulted her list. “I’ll check for spelling errors.”

  As I was glancing at my own list, my phone vibrated on my desk.

  “Maybe Erin’s finally calling to apologize,” I said. “Did you say anything to her?”

  “Of course not,” said Leila. “You told me in private.”

  When I picked up my phone, the screen said Nicole.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I asked when I answered.

  “Hi!” she said. “I was just wondering how the coding was going.”

  “Good, but slow,” I said. I heard faint music through the speaker. “Are you playing Wands and Weapons?”

  “Yeah!” Nicole’s voice sounded surprised. “How did you know?”

  “My friend Leila’s playing, too!” I said. “She’s going to kill the Troll King soon.”

  “Hopefully,” chimed in Leila.

  “Ooh, he’s tough,” Nicole said. “I still haven’t beaten him.” Then in a more excited voice, she added, “Does Leila want to fight him with me? I can meet her at the bridge!”

  I looked at Leila. “Do you want to fight the Troll King with Nicole?”

  “Yes!” Leila sat up straighter but then quickly dropped her shoulders. “Wait, we have to finish this code first.”

  Nicole, who must have heard her, said, “Oh, come on. You can take a break for a couple minutes.”

  I held up two fingers to Leila. “It’ll only take a couple minutes.”

  “I don’t know . . . ,” said Leila.

  “Tell Leila if someone else kills the Troll King before her, he won’t re-spawn for hours,” said Nicole.

  I relayed the message to Leila, who finally nodded emphatically.

  “Okay! Let me buy my dagger real quick.”

  Nicole spoke in my ear. “Tell her—”

  “Why don’t I just put you on speaker?” I asked with a laugh. I pressed a button on my phone, and Nicole’s voice carried across the room.

  “Hello?” asked Nicole.

  “Hi!” said Leila and I.

  After Leila bought her dagger and found Nicole’s character, I watched them battle a scary-looking troll. Just as Leila’s assassin and Nicole’s knight were about to die, Leila pulled a stealth move and vanished. She reappeared behind the troll and brought him to his knees with the Unwielding Dagger. Then Nicole sliced his head off.

  We all cheered.

  “That was so cool!” I said. “And sort of gross.”

  Mom opened the door and smiled down at Leila and me. “I take it you solved . . .” Her voice trailed off when she saw Leila’s laptop screen. “What’s this?”

  Shoot. This required a craftily worded explanation.

  “You see—”

  “We killed the Troll King!” Nicole cheered from over the speaker.

  Mom cocked her head to one side and pointed to my phone. “Who’s that?”

  “Oh, just Nicole,” I said, trying to play it down.

  “Hi, Mrs. Chung!” Nicole shouted.

  Mom pressed her lips together and breathed air through her nostrils. Leila tried to make herself as small as possible.

  “You’re supposed to be working on your coding project but instead you’re playing video games?” Mom blustered.

  “Uh . . . Nicole, I have to let you go,” I said.

  “Okay, b—”

  I hung up before she could say anything else that might get me grounded for life.

  “We were just taking a little break,” I said.

  “I’ve heard noise coming from this room for the last thirty minutes,” Mom informed me. Both Leila and I glanced at the clock.

  Whoops.

  “We’re sorry, Mrs. Chung,” said Leila. “It’s my fault for pulling up the game.”

  Mom shook her head. “I have a feeling Nicole was behind this somehow. Did she talk you girls into playing?”

  I didn’t say anything, but Leila nodded.

  “I thought so.” Mom held out a hand. “Phone.”

  I sighed and handed it over.

  “I’m also disconnecting the router,” said Mom. “No games. Do your project.”

  “This isn’t for a grade,” I reminded her. “It isn’t even for any of my classes.”

  “It doesn’t have to be,” she said. “You committed to something, and you should stick to it. And not let anyone keep you from it.”

  Of course. This wasn’t about the project; this was about Nicole.

  Mom closed the door without another word, and I made a face at it.

  “Well, at least I killed the Troll King,” said Leila.

  “I’m sorry about that,” I said, pointing toward the door. “She can be a little mean sometimes.”

  Leila shrugged. “She has a point. We were supposed to be working on this project.”

  I rubbed my hands together. “Okay, then let’s debug this code, so I can show my mom we had time for work and play.”

  Twenty minutes later, our code was finally error free (we’d forgotten a parenthesis, misspelled source, and put in an extra curly brace).

  “Well, it compiles, but we won’t know if it truly works until we hook up the lights,” said Leila.

  “Hopefully Lucy and Sophia will have their code finished tomorrow so we can put all the pieces together,” I said.

  I walked with Leila to the front door, and she made sure to stop and talk to my parents, who were in the living room.

  “Sorry again for earlier,” she told them.

  Mom smiled at Leila. “It’s not your fault. But thank you for apologizing.”

  After I walked Leila out, I swaggered back to the living room and sat on the end of the couch.

  “Well, we had time to play and debug our code,” I said. “I think somebody owes somebody an apology.” I pointed from Mom to me.

  Mom snorted. “Forget it! If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be playing.”

  “No, we wouldn’t,” I said. “Nicole was just helping Leila with that one quest.”

  Mom pointed to Oliver. “My husband, a former gamer, will now respond.”

  Oliver clicked his tongue. “You think it’s only one quest, Maya. Then that turns into two. Before you know it, you’ve been playing all night.”

  “Maybe for you,” I said, “but not for me and my frie
nds.”

  Mom raised an eyebrow. “When I came to check on you, you had no idea how much time had passed.”

  My victory speech wasn’t going at all how I’d planned. “My point is that you were mean, and you should apologize.”

  “And my point,” said Mom, “is that you were doing your work just fine until Nicole called. She’s a bad influence.”

  “Ugh!” I got to my feet and stomped off. “I am so sick of everyone thinking that.”

  “If everyone thinks it, that should tell you something!” Mom called after me.

  I shut my bedroom door to block out her nonsense. Then I picked up Sophia’s dress and a pair of scissors, cutting holes in the places she’d marked. When I finished, I needed to sew the edges of the holes so they wouldn’t fray, so I dug through my closet for my sewing kit.

  During my search I found a book of Mad Libs that Erin and I had filled in on our morning bus rides. I smiled as I read them, and when I reached the last page, I closed the book with a sigh.

  I didn’t like fighting with Erin. But I also didn’t like that she’d done my part of the project.

  I looked over the code she’d sent Leila and me to attach to our portion. I had to admit, it was pretty impressive. Except I wouldn’t have abbreviated the variables for the light colors. It was easier to search for white, blue, and orange than the letters W, B, and O. Leaning over my keyboard, I clicked a few keys and edited the code so the words were spelled out. Now I’d worked on the first part like I was supposed to!

  Feeling much better, I left my room and approached Mom with my most apologetic expression.

  “Can I please use my phone?” I asked. “I want to call Erin. I’ll even do it where you can see me.”

  Mom studied me for a moment and then pointed to my room. “It’s in your desk drawer.”

  I glanced behind me. “It was with me the whole time?”

  Mom smirked. “Since you never use your desk, I figured you wouldn’t look there.”

  Oliver turned away from the show he was watching. “Hey! It took me five hours to build that thing.”

  “I’ll use it right now,” I promised, hurrying away.

  When I found my phone, there were several texts from Nicole, but I ignored them. Taking a deep breath, I dialed Erin’s number. She answered on the first ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey,” I said. “Can we talk?”

  Chapter Nine

  Erin and I talked until bedtime. I apologized for getting so upset, and she apologized for not checking with me before she wrote my code. After I read a few of our old Mad Libs for a good laugh, Erin filled me in on her day.

  “I finally found an outfit for the dance, and I’m trying out for another play!” she said. “Most of the roles are for guys—it’s so frustrating! But I’m up for anything. I’ll wear a beard if I have to.”

  “Good luck!” I told her. “They’d be crazy to turn you down.”

  “Thanks! I agree,” she said with a laugh. “How was coding with Leila?”

  “Great! Our section is done.” I waited as Erin applauded, “I also watched her and Nicole play Wands and Weapons.”

  “Ooh! I love that game.” Erin paused. “Wait. Nicole came to your house, and your mom didn’t throw her in the dungeon?”

  I giggled. “Nicole didn’t come over. She and Leila played over the phone.”

  “Gotcha. By the way, I like how you didn’t deny having a dungeon,” Erin said in a sly voice.

  “I’ll never tell,” I said mysteriously.

  When I finally hung up with Erin, I realized I hadn’t gotten further on Sophia’s dress than poking it full of holes. But at least I had Thursday and Friday to finish it.

  * * *

  The next morning, Erin produced a fresh book of Mad Libs for us to fill in on the bus.

  “I asked my mom to pick it up last night,” she said, flipping to the first page. “Give me a noun.”

  The entire trip to school we snickered and snorted, and we were still giddy when we got off the bus.

  “I never thought the word pineapple could be so funny,” I said, wiping my eyes.

  Erin nodded. “I laughed so hard I almost pineappled my pants!”

  At that, we both doubled over with laughter.

  “Can’t . . . breathe!” Erin fanned her face.

  “Wow, I wish my bus rides were that fun,” someone nearby commented.

  I glanced over to see Lucy and Sophia watching us and grinning.

  Erin thrust the book of Mad Libs at them. “You have to read these.”

  Lucy took the book but didn’t open it. “Actually, first I need the code Maya and Leila worked on last night.” She turned to me. “Can you email it to me?”

  I reached into my backpack. “Even better, I can give you a flash drive. Erin’s code is already attached to ours.”

  “Perfect! I’ll add mine to the bottom, and we can test it in homeroom.” She slipped the drive into her pocket. “And now for some pineapple-related humor.”

  Erin showed Lucy the spot in the book, and Sophia nudged me.

  “How’s my dress coming?” she asked with a giddy smile.

  The dress I’d cut a hundred holes in and left draped over a chair?

  “Great!” I lied. “It’s almost done.”

  She clapped her hands. “Awesome! Do you think I could get it tomorrow?”

  Lucy, who was reading the Mad Libs story, let out a very loud ha, which was exactly the sound I wanted to make . . . for a different reason.

  “Tomorrow?” I repeated. “But the dance isn’t until Saturday.”

  “I know,” said Sophia, twisting her hands together. “But since it’s my first dance, my cousin agreed to do my hair and makeup, and she wants to see the dress early for style ideas.”

  I shrugged. “It’s just your blue dress. With lights.”

  “Yeah, but describing it isn’t the same as seeing it, you know?”

  I scratched my head. “But I don’t have the code set up.” To myself, I added, Also, the dress looks like moths ate it.

  Sophia chewed her lip. “Okay, so just plug the dress into the wall and take a picture of it.” She scrunched her nose. “Weirdest thing I’ve ever said.”

  Lucy and Erin giggled.

  “Sure,” I said with a nonchalant smile. “I’ll do it when I get home.”

  But first I was going to have to sew the dress like mad. There was no way I’d be able to meet Nicole after school. She was going to kill me.

  “I’ll see you guys in homeroom,” I told them, heading into the building.

  Nicole was by her locker when I reached the seventh-grade hall, and she waved tentatively when she saw me. When I waved back, she smiled and hurried over, a pink, beribboned gift bag swinging at her side.

  “I wasn’t sure if you’d be mad at me for getting you in trouble,” she said.

  “So you thought you’d win me over with a gift?” I teased.

  “Of course not!” Nicole held the bag out. “This is just a thank-you for being my friend. I haven’t really made any others at this school.”

  I took the bag and peeked inside. “Ooh. Is it jewelry?” I lifted out a little white box and opened it. “It is!”

  Coiled into a circle was a silver bracelet with a ladybug charm.

  “Cute!” I said, taking it out of the box. “Why a ladybug?”

  Nicole took the empty box and bag from me and put them in her locker. “Why?” Her forehead tensed for a moment and then relaxed. “Because they’re the best dressed of all the bugs. Like you!”

  “Aw, thanks!” I reached over and hugged her. “Will you help me put it on?”

  “Of course! I’m glad you like it.” Nicole hooked the bracelet on my wrist. “But if you don’t, we can exchange it after school.”

  I wince
d. “About that. I can’t hang out today after all.”

  Nicole’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “You’d better be joking.”

  “I’m sorry, but—”

  “What happened this time?” Nicole scowled. “Did your mom ground you? She’s such a witch!”

  Whoa.

  Mom and I had our disagreements, but that was going a little far.

  I stepped back and frowned. “That’s not why I can’t hang out, and don’t ever call her that.”

  Instead of apologizing, Nicole quipped. “Please. I’m just saying what you’re thinking.”

  “I would never think that about my mom,” I said in a bristly tone. “And even if I did, it’s not your place to say it.”

  Nicole held up her hands. “Fine. Then let me guess. You have to meet with coding club.” She said the last two words in a snarky tone.

  At first I’d felt bad for canceling plans, but now Nicole was making me glad I had.

  “No, it’s not coding club, either,” I said. “But if it was, so what? I told you this project was going to take up my time. It’s important to me.”

  Nicole’s hands went to her hips. “Oh, and I’m not? I’m a way better friend to you than the girls in that club.”

  “Why?” I crossed my arms. “Because you bought me a bracelet?”

  “No! Because I support you and tell you all your dumb ideas are good.”

  My jaw dropped. “My dumb ideas?”

  By this point we’d started to gather a crowd of onlookers.

  “Yeah, a light-up dance floor?” Nicole gave a derisive snort. “Are you trying to make disco cool again?”

  “You didn’t seem to think it was such a dumb idea when I told you about it.” I couldn’t believe this was happening. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get to the library to work on my project for coding club.” I imitated her snarky voice.

  “You’ve changed, Maya!” Nicole shouted after me as I walked away. “You were a lot more fun when you used to steal stuff!”

  I froze in my footsteps for a second, and people started to whisper. Then I kept going, raising my arm and waving so the ladybug charm jangled on the bracelet.