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“You’ll be okay.” She squeezes me to her body again and leads me toward the auditorium.
She continues giving me words of comfort and support as we follow the throng of students to the auditorium. She leads me to the middle row where our friends have saved us seats, but Principal Nakamura calls, “Willow Park?”
I turn around. She motions for me to come over.
“Good luck!” Lily squeezes me in another hug. “I know you’ll do amazing. If you get nervous talking in front of everyone, just focus on us Musketeers. Pretend you’re only talking to us.”
“Thanks.”
She waves before sitting down between Xavier and Liam.
I take a deep breath and let it out before making my way to the principal, who stands with VP Rivera. Principal Nakamura smiles. “Are you ready for your presentation?”
My heart races even faster. I can only manage a nod.
“Great. Just try to keep your presentation brief. Vice Principal Rivera and I would like to make announcements as well.”
“Sure. No problem.”
I follow the principal and the VP onto the stage, where three chairs are placed. Rivera and I sit down while Nakamura walks up to the podium.
“Settle down, everyone!” she calls. “Settle down!”
Feels like forever until the auditorium grows quiet. I press my hands to my jeans, trying to once again placate my speeding heart. But I fail miserably.
“I know it’s been a while since we’ve had an assembly. And I’m sure a lot of you are happy to get out of class. But we have a few important announcements, so let’s get them underway. Before we begin, I want to commend the kitchen staff on the amazing meals they provide for us. I know I speak for everyone when I say the food is delicious.”
The students cheer and clap.
“I would also like to wish good luck to our basketball team. The Edenbury Lions have made it to the state championships!”
Everyone cheers, whistles, and whoops. I cheer as well, grinning at Liam and Xavier. They and the team have worked really hard for this.
“I would also like to thank Willow Park for maintaining the school app. I know there are constantly problems, but she tries her best to keep it running smoothly. Until we can hire someone to build us a new app, I’m afraid we’re stuck with it.”
Some of the kids clap, but mostly everyone just frowns or rolls their eyes.
“And speaking of Willow, there’s something she would like to share with you. So please, everyone, give her your undivided attention.”
My friends cheer super loudly. Perhaps a bit too loudly. But it makes me smile and fills me with the confidence I need. And it lessens some of my nerves, too.
I walk to the podium and stare at the students. Sheesh, there are so many of them. Edenbury High isn’t that big because we live in a small town, but I swear it feels like there are hundreds and hundreds of kids in the audience.
“Um, hi everyone,” I say. “My name is Willow Park. Like Principal Nakamura said, I’m the one who maintains the school app. I can’t take credit for it, though. There’s no way I would build that crappy thing.” I laugh nervously.
Some of the other kids laugh, including my friends, but most of the kids stare at me like they have no idea who I am.
I clear my throat. “Anyway. The reason I’m here is because I need your help. I’ve been working on an app for the past few months and I would like you guys to be my beta testers.” I press a button on the podium, and my app appears on the screen behind me. “It’s called Your Perfect Match. Now at first glance it looks like a regular dating app, but it’s so much more than that. I built it to be more like a matchmaking app, and the way my app differs from the hundreds of others out there is that it will get to know you on a very deep and personal level.”
I click to the next slide. “When a user downloads the app on their phone, it runs in the background and gathers information from user activity and gets to know their behaviors and habits. For example, the kind of places they like to hang out at, what restaurants they love to eat at, how many hours they spend on social media, the kind of games they play on their phone. What kind of articles they read online, what interests are they searching for on their search engines. The idea is for the app to get to know the user inside out. And once it learns all it can about the user, the app will start matching them with someone who it feels is most compatible with them.”
I start the next section of the presentation. “When the user first uses the app, they have the option to tell the app whether they want to be matched with someone similar to them or different from them. Let’s say someone has been dating people who are different from them and they want to try to date someone similar. They can tell the app to look for someone like that. Or the user can ask the app to match them to whoever they think is best. Or the user can even try to be matched with people who are either similar to them or different. It may take a bit of trial and error before the user will know what’s best for them, but at least all the information will already be gathered and it wouldn’t take long for the app to find their preferences. It’s imperative that the user does all their activity on their phone so Your Perfect Match can find you…well, your perfect match. So try to use your phone for homework so the app can see the kind of student you are. Oh, and you should also try to input any information the app might not pick up on, like what TV shows or movies you’re currently watching, or what you’re eating for dinner if you’re at home. And what snacks you like, etc.”
I turn to the next section. “Okay, let’s talk about safety and privacy. Now, I’m all about the safety and privacy of users, which is why I incorporated many safety protocols in the app. I know most of you are probably freaking out about the app spying on you and gathering all your information. You don’t want anyone keeping tabs on how much time you spend on social media or the kind of content you search for on search engines. Which is why Your Perfect Match does not—and I repeat, it does NOT—report any of that information back to me. Your information is stored on your phone, where only you can access it. The only information that will come back to me is how many users have been paired up, and the reason why they were paired. For example, I might see that Person A was matched with Person B because they both enjoy Italian food and horror films, and they both have rescue dogs and volunteer at a food bank. But I won’t see what restaurants you eat at or where you volunteer. And of course, I will see whether a user accepts or rejects a match, and the app will try to figure out why the user rejected the match. So you guys should feel perfectly safe using it.”
Onto the next part. “The app can be completely customizable. Let’s say you want to be matched with someone but you don’t want it to be based on how much social media you consume. Or maybe you love school and don’t want to be matched with someone who doesn’t love it as much as you. Heck, maybe you’re a dog person and can’t imagine seeing yourself with a cat person. You can essentially tell that appexactlywhat you’re looking for. But I suggest you only play around with it once you’re familiar with the app and have been matched already. Because you never know what kind of person you might hit it off with. I invite everyone to play around with the settings and figure out what works best for you. And since you will be beta testers, the app might ask you to fill out some surveys to help make it better. The app can be downloaded from the school app. I hope you guys will download it and help me make it better. Because I really want to win the coding competition. Thank you.”
When I can finally breathe normally and look out at the audience, I find them all staring at me in stunned silence. Then Principal Nakamura claps and walks over to the podium. “Thank you, Willow! That sounds very exciting. I hope you all download the app and help Willow win the coding competition.”
