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“The one where he saved Marissa’s life?” Chloe’s brown eyes nearly pop off her face.
“No. I totally forgot about that one!” I say, getting all excited as I open my paperback. “That one was just as epic. I’m talking about the one where the enemy nearly sliced his arm off!”
“Ooh, that was intense,” Lily says.
We delve deep into a discussion about the book, gushing over the parts we loved, complaining about the parts we didn’t like, and swooning over the romantic parts. Well, they’re the ones who are doing the swooning, since I don’t really swoon. I mean, sure I love a good romance just as much as the next person, but I’m not as obsessed as my friends.
The time flies by, and then we have no choice but to end the meeting.
“So what will you do with all the free time you have?” Ava asks me as we shrug into our jackets. It’s the end of February, so it’s a little chilly outside.
“I’ll still check on the app every so often to make sure it’s functioning properly,” I tell my friends as we make our way out of the classroom. “There’s always maintenance to do. And of course I’ll need to keep tabs on the successes and failures of matches. If anyone even downloads it,” I mutter.
Lily rubs my arm. “They will.”
“And I have a date with Mia after she’s done her homework,” I continue. “I promised I’d help her create a character in a video game. An ashy-skinned elf with red eyes who is immune to fire.” I shrug. “Sounds cool.”
“The poor kid has been waiting for this moment for months,” Ava says. “You know your little sister thinks the world of you.”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m going to do whatever it takes to make it up to her. Ashy-skinned red-eyed elves and all.”
Lily and Chloe wish us goodbye and head to the gym where the basketball team should be done with practice. Xavier and Lily are going to spend time with Xavier’s grandpa, Spencer. He, unfortunately, has been diagnosed with cancer and the doctors say he only has a few years to live. Xavier and Lily love bringing sunshine into his life. Chloe and Liam are heading over to her house to work on a new recipe. Liam’s going to intern at a famous chef’s restaurant over the summer and is trying to get in as much practice as he can, specifically working on his knife skills.
Ava and Aidan are attending a dinner tonight hosted by some snotty rich person who always turns up her nose at Aidan. Ava tells him countless times that he doesn’t have to endure such torture, but he wants to be there for her.
Ava and I exchange hugs and goodbyes before she sprints down the stairs, making her way to where Peter parked the car. I’m about to follow suit and head to Dad’s car, when I remember that I left my physics textbook in my locker. Turning around, I head back inside, slipping out my phone and checking if anyone else has downloaded my app. No new users.
I puff out my cheeks and grab my textbook, trying not to lose hope. There’s still time for people to download it. But just to make sure, I check if there’ssomethingpreventing people from doing so. But everything is functioning flawlessly.
“Oh look at that,” a familiar voice sneers. “Macintosh with her humongous backpack blocking the way.”
I turn around and find cheerleader Paisley Abberton standing there with a few of her cheerleader friends. She constantly picks on me and my friends because her mom, Teagyn Myers, had it in for our moms when they were in high school. I think it all started when Chloe’s Dad, Brayden, chose to be with her mom, Kara, and not Teagyn. I don’t get how someone could hold a grudge for over twenty years, and for her to pass that hatred onto her kid. But Chloe swears that the only reason Paisley continues to mess with us is because she wants to make her mom proud of her. What person would be proud of her daughter for picking on other people?
“Where are your loser friends?” Paisley asks with exaggerated wide eyes as she glances from right to left, backward and forward. “Are they…invisible?” She and her friends giggle like she made the funniest joke on the planet.
I seriously have no time or patience for this BS. Ignoring her, I continue checking the app.Something’swrong. I know it is.
“What are you so busy with?” She steps forward to look over my shoulder, and I quickly twist away from her. But not before she manages to get a glimpse at my phone. “Oh, is that your stupid app?” She and her friends guffaw like she said an even funnier joke than before.
I glare at her. “Did you just call my app stupid?”
“And what if I did?”
I step closer to her until my face is only inches away from hers. “My app is not stupid. It’s far, far from stupid. If you think for a second that you can even come close to building something as advanced and sophisticated as it...” I start going into detail about what it takes to build an app like this from scratch, incorporating all the features. Her eyes glaze over like whatever words tumble out of my mouth have flown over her head. “And that is why my app is anythingbutstupid,” I conclude.
She snickers to her friends. “You saw that, girls? This nerd thinks she can throw all this geek talk at me to impress me. I didn’t know shedesperatelyneeds my approval.”
My brows shoot to the ceiling. “Only in your dreams, Paisley Abberton.”
She scoffs. “You mean, only inyourdreams. Because that’s the only place your app will be successful. Come, girls,” she says as she leads them away. “She really thinks people will downloadherapp? With no experience, what the heck does she know? What a joke!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I call after her.
She stops and turns around. “Did you say something, loser?”
With my eyes narrowed again, I storm over to her and cross my arms over my chest. “What did you say about me having no experience? I’ve been coding for years and sure as heck know what I’m doing—”
“Oh my gosh,” she says with a giggle. “And you’re supposedly the smartest kid at school. No, you daft moron, I’m not talking about that kind of experience. Any nerd can make an app. I mean, you guys have no lives, so of course you do nerdy things like that. I’m talking about what really matters. Experience with dating.”
