Screen Queens by Lori Goldstein

Author:Lori Goldstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2019-06-10T23:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

SNIFF TEST • A rapid evaluation of a product or circumstance to see if it’s legit

SHE SHOULDN’T HAVE DONE it.

But she did.

She clicked.

And then Maddie cursed under her breath—a string of Irish slang and Chinese she’d learned from her parents.

The site for the virtual reality game startup had gone live that morning. The site she should have built—the one she would have built if her “friend” hadn’t stolen the job right out from under her. Though the site looked as though she had built it, integrating every single one of her ideas. From the broken grid layout to the scrolling game animations, every facet of her proposal was alive on her screen.

Not as smooth as she’d have made them, but enough to satisfy the client.

Cheaters weren’t supposed to prosper.

Tell that to the ten grand weighing down her “friend’s” bank account instead of hers.

Maddie reached for her phone to text Lucy, who’d left while she and Delia were still sleeping. The conversation Lucy’s drunken state had staved off last night needed to happen. Maddie stroked her four-leaf clover, hoping for an explanation that didn’t make her regret staying on Lucy’s team.

Before she could send her text, her phone rang. Though the number was unfamiliar, the New Hampshire underneath made her scramble to answer, spitting out a hello even before the phone reached her ear.

“Maddie Li?” a woman’s voice said. “Danny Li’s sister?”

“Yes, is something wrong?” Panic gripped her. “Is he hurt?”

“I’m sorry to alarm you. No, he’s perfectly healthy.”

The woman identified herself as Kerin Labbott, the camp’s assistant director. “We called your mother first, and she directed us to you. Because Danny is, well, he’s refusing to leave his cabin. He won’t say why. It’s quite unusual for him—he’s such an active participant that his cabin counselor has to corral him back in at lights out.”

“Let me talk to him,” Maddie said, her pulse still quick, the tentacles of panic not yet released.

Maddie heard the creak of a door and then Kerin explaining who she had on the phone.

“Mads?” Danny said.

He sounded stuffed up. Like he had a cold. Or had been crying.

“Hey, kid, how those fireflies treating ya?” Maddie said breezily.

Silence and then a simple, nasal “I miss you.”

A vise squeezed Maddie’s heart. “I miss you too, Danny. So much.”

“I want to go home. When you go home. When will you be home?”

“Soon,” Maddie said, though she still had more than a couple of weeks left at ValleyStart. “But what’s wrong? Emojis don’t lie. From the ones you’ve been sending, you seemed the definition of a happy camper.”

“Nothing. I just don’t like it here anymore.”

“Why? Did someone say something? Or do something?”

Silence.

“Danny, you can tell me.” Maddie paused. “Please tell me . . .”

“They took my socks. They won’t give them back.”

His special socks—the ones he lived in until the smell made Maddie’s eyes water and she begged him to let her wash them. The socks Mom and Dad bought him, together, at the opening of the Gumberoo theme park.

“I’ll talk to Kerin.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.