Spotlight on Coding Club! by Michelle Schusterman

Author:Michelle Schusterman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2018-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

I spent Sunday afternoon running more tests for bugs on our feature of the talent show app, writing an essay for English class, and worrying about seeing Maya at school. I thought I’d done a pretty good job convincing Mom that backing out of the talent show was a responsible decision based on all my other commitments, not a spontaneous freak-out due to picking a song that made me think of Dad.

Maya had been a witness to the freak-out, though. She’d promised not to say anything to Mom, but would she tell the others? I couldn’t stop imagining a secret group text going on behind my back. I must have picked up my phone and started typing in our chat at least a hundred times by Sunday night, but I didn’t actually want to talk about this over text. And while I didn’t want to talk about it at school, either, that was my only other option. So by the time I got to lunch Monday, I’d made up my mind: If Maya hadn’t already said anything, I was going to tell my friends everything.

Probably.

My stomach twinged with nerves as I spotted Maya, Lucy, Sophia, and Leila at our usual table in the middle of the cafeteria. What if I started talking about my dad and had a panic attack right there in front of half the school? I pushed that image from my mind and slid onto the bench next to Leila.

“Erin, check it out!” she said excitedly, holding her phone where I could see it. On the screen, a boxy little robot on wheels rolled up to a toy xylophone. A mallet was attached to the center of the robot, and as I watched, it started to hammer out a familiar melody.

“Mary had a li-ttle lamb . . . ,” I sang along, scrunching up my face and headbanging like a rock star, and Leila cracked up. “Seriously, that’s so awesome!”

“Thanks,” Leila said. “I think I’m going to keep working on it after the talent show. Maybe program it to play a more complicated song. I know it’s probably not as cool as a lot of the videos film club is getting.”

“Do you know how many more videos came in?” Lucy asked me.

“So many, we literally broke the entire Internet,” I deadpanned, and she giggled. “But the good news is, I think our voting part of the All the Talents app is ready to go. I tested it a bunch all weekend. And your sister helped!” I added, nudging Leila’s elbow.

“Yeah, she told me,” Leila replied. “Thanks so much for doing that, Erin. I know you were busy making your video, too.”

Sophia stifled a yawn. “Oh, that’s right!” she said, looking from me to Maya. “How’d it go? Can we see it?”

Maya and I glanced at each other, and she bit her lip and looked down at her sandwich. Okay, so she hadn’t told them what happened at all. Which meant it was up to me. My heart started pounding, and a fresh wave of anxiety flooded through me.

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