Sam and Laura are talking about their Christmas plans, not being super helpful. So everyone waiting is talking to me, asking me questions. It’s weird how I don’t know or recognize most of them, how you can go to a school for four years, walk its halls and almost be valedictorian of your class, and still not know so many people who surround you day in and day out. And also, even weirder? Now they all seem to know me.
“Hi, Emma!” There’s a blonde girl standing in front of me now, holding out her phone. I don’t know her name, and I’m not sure I’ve ever even seen her before.
Sam is supposed to be taking down emails while I help people download TestFlight, but he and Laura are deep in conversation. I glean bits and pieces of what they’re saying—Laura is going to be here over the break, and Sam is going to be skiing with his mom and aunt’s family. She’ll be lonely without him.
“Write down your name and email here.” I take the notebook from in front of Sam, who barely even notices, and pass it over to the blonde girl. I glance at her name as she writes: Riley. She passes the notebook back to me. “Okay, now you need to go to the App Store to download TestFlight. You’ll get an email invite later and you just need to follow the instructions to get the app on TestFlight from there.”
“This is so cool,” she squeals, sounding a lot like Izzy did this morning. “Thank you, Emma!”
She walks away, and then there’s a boy behind her, whom I do recognize. He’s in NHS with us. “Hey, Garrett,” I say, surprised to see him. He offers me a half wave. “You’re going to try our matching app?”
He shrugs. “Why not?” I arch my eyebrows, not able to hide my surprise at his interest. “It’ll help you and George out, right?” I nod. “And besides, I like the anonymity. I can see who I’m supposed to be dating without putting myself into any embarrassing social situations. You know what I mean?”
I nod. I actually do understand what he means, and I make a mental note that we can add this point to our presentation for states.
I finish helping Garrett and a line of ten others stretches behind him. My stomach rumbles and I glance at my watch. Only ten minutes left of lunch, and I haven’t even gotten to take a bite of my sandwich. “Sam.” I nudge him with my elbow, and he finally stops talking to Laura and turns to look at me. “I need help.”
He turns, notices the line of people. “Oh, sorry, E.” He shoots me an apologetic Sam smile, and I instantly forgive him.
“It’s okay,” I say. “Just help me with the rest of these.”
“I’ll help, too,” Laura interjects, putting her half-eaten sandwich down. “What can I do?”
I’m not sure how she can help, since she’s not even in coding club. But before I can figure out what to say, Sam turns and smiles at her. “That would be great,” he says. “Here, you take down emails. I’ll help people get TestFlight, and Emma can eat her lunch.”
Before I can say a word, Sam has taken over the next person in line, and Laura is carefully writing down her email. I take a bite of my sandwich and watch them. In between people in line, Sam leans over and whispers something to her, and she shakes her head a little and laughs.
“Emma.” She pushes the notebook toward me. “Can you read my writing okay for this email?” Her script is perfectly neat, and I nod. She smiles at me, and gets down the email of the next person in line.
I wonder if maybe I’ve misjudged Laura all along—if she really is a kind person and a good match for Sam. And if that’s all true, then maybe my algorithm really is working perfectly. And if we get user-driven data to back it up—maybe we can win at states. That thought makes me smile as I finish off the rest of my sandwich.
* * *
I have this weird feeling after coding club later as I’m driving George home, when I remember that Izzy is at my house again. I’m excited that she’s finally home, and I want to spend time with her. But also now I’m used to being home alone, doing what I want when I want to. I think of all the times last year I felt uncomfortable tagging along with Izzy and her friends, and I don’t want to be back in that place again. I hope Izzy won’t expect me to now that she’s back.
“Earth to Emma,” George says, tapping my shoulder.
“What?” I say, and I realize he must’ve been talking but I haven’t heard a word.
“I was saying my lunch was so busy today. Jane and I had probably twenty-five people waiting to talk to us. I have to send those emails out tonight.”
I nod, thinking about how Laura had to help so I could eat. “Yeah, mine, too.”
“People are really excited about this.” George’s voice almost sounds excited, too, and I’m tempted to say, I told you so. Except we only came in second in the region, so really, I haven’t proven anything yet, have I? I imagine saying this to him when we do win states, though, and the thought makes me smile.
“Hey,” I say as I turn into his driveway, remembering his comment about John this morning. “If you want to get out of the house, we could go to the diner tonight and send out those emails together. We could study for the calc midterm, too.”
He frowns. “I would, but I promised Hannah I’d take her to see the Christmas light show at the mall tonight.”
“Oh...” I feel weirdly disappointed. “Well, of course. Never mind, then.”
“Maybe we can study together later this week?” he says.
“Yeah,” I say softly as he gets out of the car. “Maybe.”
* * *
Izzy is waiting for me in the kitchen when I walk in. I imagine she slept all day. She’s recently taken a shower—her hair is still damp, and I can smell her strawberry shampoo strongly when I walk in. That and...cookies? She pulls a tray of tree-shaped cookies out of the oven.
“Wanna help me decorate them?” she says, putting the tray on the counter. I’d bought the ingredients for our yearly sugar cookies last weekend, anticipating we’d make them together, after my midterms, and now I swallow back disappointment that she made them without me and didn’t even think to wait for me.
She doesn’t wait for me to answer her now, either. She passes over a tube of icing and some green sprinkles. “We have to let them cool first,” I remind her. “Or the icing will run.”
She shrugs and flips her hair over her shoulder. Details are not her strong suit. And now she looks a little hurt, like I’ve rejected her. I reach for her hand. “We can decorate them after dinner, okay?” I say.
She sighs. “I guess it’ll have to be tomorrow, then. John and I are going to dinner and then to see the Christmas lights at the mall. That reminds me, can I take the car?”