By lunch the next day, Mrs. Clark had helped Bradley’s group get the All the Talents web app up online. It was just a home page—no actual videos or features yet—but the whole school was buzzing about it. Maya and I passed by Bradley in the hot-lunch line as we headed to our table.
“Nice job getting the site up so fast!” Maya said. “Although it looks kinda plain . . .”
Bradley took a plate heaped with mashed potatoes and set it on his tray. “Oh, just you wait,” he said with a grin. “We’re working on a super-cool design. We just wanted to get something up online with the rules for entering so everyone can start making their videos.”
I nodded. “Good call, since the first round’s due Monday.” My stomach did a flip as I said it. After our group text last night, it was pretty obvious the voting part was going to be really complicated to code. And while it was going to be fun, it probably wouldn’t leave me with much time to film my audition.
“Why don’t I come over Saturday afternoon?” Maya asked. “I can help you get set up and film.”
“That’d be great!” I answered. Apparently best friends also had mind-reading powers.
In front of Bradley, a tall girl in a cute blue-plaid romper turned around. “Hey, Maya!” she said eagerly.
Maya smiled. “Hi, Hannah. Love your headband.”
Hannah touched the wide purple cloth wrapped around her cropped black curls. It complemented her dark skin perfectly. “Thanks! Hey, I heard you’re doing a fashion show for All the Talents, and—”
“What?!” I whirled around, staring at Maya. “Are you really? That’s so cool!”
“Yeah,” Maya said, toying with her long beaded necklace. “Designing is a talent, too. My video will be a fashion runway, with girls modeling my outfits.”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you about,” said Hannah. “If you’re looking for models, I’d love to do it! Your dresses are amazing.”
“Sure!” Maya exclaimed, surprising me when her voice shot up an octave. “You’d be a great model. I mean, because . . . um . . .”
I stared at her. Was Maya blushing? I’d never seen her so flustered.
“Because you’re so tall,” I finished for her, smiling at Hannah. “And because you’ve clearly mastered walking.”
Hannah laughed. “Cool! I’ll text you later about it, okay?”
Maya nodded, still pink faced. “Yeah, okay!”
We headed to our table, and I nudged her elbow. “What was that about?”
“What? Nothing,” Maya said quickly. “Oh hey, don’t let me forget to ask Sophia if I can use that dress I made her for the dance.”
My heart warmed at the memory of Sophia walking into the winter school dance, all eyes on her. Maya had sewn all these lights into the fabric of Sophia’s dress, and then programmed them to blink and flash to the music. It was amazing.
“So a fashion runway, huh?” I asked. “That’s going to be so cool!”
Maya beamed. “Thanks! I’m really excited.”
Lucy, Leila, and Sophia were already deep in conversation when Maya and I sat down.
“I ran into Mrs. Clark right after third period,” Lucy told us immediately. “She said a ton of students already signed up for the talent show. And enrollment is open until tomorrow!”
“Wow,” I said, unwrapping my sandwich. “Film club’s gonna be busy. We have to screen all the videos and approve them before they go up on the site.”
Maya bit into a carrot stick with a loud crunch. “You know, most reality shows have a few rounds,” she said thoughtfully. “Maybe we should consider that, since so many people are entering.”
“I like that,” Sophia said. “We could narrow down the contestants to a small group. It would make things more exciting, too!”
“Not to mention more work for everyone in coding club,” I added.
Lucy tilted her head. “You don’t think we should do it?”
“No, I think we should!” I exclaimed. “It definitely makes sense for the talent show.” Then I stuck my arms straight out. “Work . . . need work . . . ,” I droned in my best zombie voice.
Everyone laughed. Then Lucy leaned forward and grabbed my arm.
“If you really want more work, I have an idea.”
“You want me to do your homework?” I pretended to consider it. “Okay. Twenty bucks per page.”
“Ha ha.” Smiling, Lucy sat up straighter. “That’s not what I meant. I’m still bummed about Mrs. Clark leaving coding club, and this morning I asked Principal Stephens who was going to replace her. He said he’s still working on it, but he has several teachers who are interested.”
“Oh cool!” said Leila, and the rest of us nodded.
“Yeah, it is,” Lucy responded. “But I started thinking, how is he going to choose the best one? They all have different qualities, kind of like the talent show contestants . . .”
She stirred her yogurt and looked at us, eyebrows raised. After a few seconds, Maya cleared her throat.
“And?”
Lucy sighed. “And, we’re already working on a voting feature that narrows down contestants based on qualities, right? I bet once we finish, we could modify it to help pick the best coding club teacher!”
Sophia looked confused. “So everyone in coding club would vote for a new teacher? Couldn’t we just do a headcount instead of using an app?”
“No, I mean we could use it to gather data,” Lucy explained, gesturing with her spoon like she was gathering data out of the air. “For the talent show, everyone will give contestants thumbs-ups based on creativity, presentation, and all of those qualities, right? So we can choose qualities for an ideal coding club teacher, enter all the teachers Principal Stephens is considering, and then get as many students as possible to vote, so we’ll have lots of data to help him choose the best one. I was going to ask him about it right after school today, as long as you’re all in. You are, right?”
Her eyes were sparkling, but I could tell the other girls weren’t nearly as excited. And I had to admit, while it was definitely a cool idea, it did seem like another big commitment on top of our already intense deadlines.
But until I heard from Dad, I was determined to keep myself distracted. Plus, I didn’t want to disappoint Lucy. If theater was my one true love, coding was definitely hers—she’d been so passionate about it right from our very first meeting. Mrs. Clark leaving was probably harder on Lucy than it was on the rest of us. No wonder she was so eager to find a good replacement.
“Dahling, what an absolutely brilliant idea!” I exclaimed in a pompous British accent, pushing my glasses to the tip of my nose and peering over the frames. “Top drawer. Absolutely corking.”
“It is a good idea,” Sophia said, laughing along with the others. “But honestly, softball tryouts start next week, so between that and working on this voting feature for the app, I’m going to be pretty busy.”
Maya nodded. “Same here. I’m entering the talent show, and—”
“You are?” Leila interjected, beaming. “Me too! I’m trying to program a robot to play a song on a toy xylophone. What are you doing?”
Maya told everyone about her fashion-runway idea, and soon the conversation had turned to Sophia’s dress and all the other cool stuff Maya might design. I glanced over at Lucy. She had a funny, tight expression on her face.
“Erin, you’re entering, too, right?” she asked me, and I nodded. “But you can still help me with this? I just want to make sure we get the best possible replacement for Mrs. Clark.”
An awkward silence descended over the table. Maya and Sophia glanced at each other, and Leila stared down at the apple in her hand. My stomach tightened a little.
“I know!” I told Lucy, keeping my voice as upbeat as possible. “We all do.”
“So you’re in?”
“Of course, dahling,” I answered, hoping to lighten the mood. But this time, no one laughed.
“Are you sure, Erin?” Maya asked, eyebrows arched. “You just said film club is going to be really busy, too.”
“It’s no biggie,” I said airily, opening a carton of milk. “Actually, I figured out the trick to keeping up with everything—no sleep! It totally works, I swear. All you have to do is stay up all night and . . .” Trailing off, I thunked my head down onto the table and let out a loud snore. The sound of my friends’ laughter sent a wave of relief through me, and my shoulders relaxed. “Just kidding,” I continued, sitting up. “I’m giving up my favorite TV shows for the next few weeks to make time for this stuff, that’s all.”
Leila gasped. “So you didn’t watch Spyland last night? The ending was amazing, they—”
“I can’t hear you, lalala!” I plugged my ears with my fingers, and my friends started giggling.
The awkwardness finally seemed to be gone, thank goodness. But as the conversation turned to our favorite shows, I felt a familiar and unwelcome flutter of anxiety in my chest. Maya was right—I had a lot of commitments over the next few weeks. Could I really keep up with them all?
That’s the point, I told myself firmly. Every minute I spent working on something was a minute I wasn’t worrying about Dad. All the Distractions was a stellar plan.