The Popularity Code by Stephanie Faris

Author:Stephanie Faris [Faris, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2020-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Friday nights were for pizza. Veggie gluten-free for Hope, and pepperoni and sausage for the rest of us. Hope had decided a year before that she was going to be super healthy. I always enjoyed the pepperoni on my slices a little more when Hope glanced my way. Not that she envied me or anything, but it made me feel a little better.

“What’s going on in your world, Faith?” Dad asked. He’d been working so much, we hadn’t had time to catch up lately. The problem was, I couldn’t really tell the full truth. So I told the part of the truth I could.

“Just working on my project,” I said with a shrug.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“Sort of good,” I said. “I’m stuck on this one thing.”

When I wasn’t going after everyone who had written something mean on SlamBook, I’d spent every waking non-school hour plugging away at my app. I’d barely gotten enough done to justify even having a meeting with Ms. Wang. I had to catch up.

“Can Google help?” Dad asked.

“It’s… complicated,” I said with a frown.

I glanced at Hope and Mom. They both were focused on their pizza. In other words, bored senseless by this convo. Which meant I needed to change the subject ASAP.

“Janelle’s mom got a new car,” I blurted.

Of course, nobody cared about Janelle’s mom’s new car, even if it was a sports car and supercool. But my mom at least stopped staring at her pizza.

“What kind?” she asked.

“Red.”

“Make? Model?”

That came from Dad. Oh right. I’d forgotten he was way into cars and stuff. I just shrugged.

“It’s a sports car,” I said.

“Can I spend the night at Amber’s house tomorrow night?” Hope suddenly blurted out.

Annnnd… I’d lost them. Just like that. The conversation switched away from me and right onto Hope, who would spend the next five minutes answering questions about whether Amber’s parents would be home and if they’d be leaving the house during this proposed sleepover.

“May I be excused?” I asked.

Nobody answered. They were mid-interrogation. I couldn’t expect more. I had too much to do to sit there and watch an argument like it was a bad reality show.

I quietly shut my bedroom door, just in case someone cared that I’d left, and plopped down onto the bed with my laptop. I’d been in a great pattern lately of forcing myself to do an hour of coding work before I could even think about checking SlamBook. But it was Friday night and I’d finished my work. I deserved this little break.

I started with my own page. Nothing new. My page had stalled at the initial comments people had left for me. Once there were other pages, people had lost interest in slamming me. No surprise. I was just glad people had known who I was.

I scrolled through Adria’s page. The nasty comments burned me up, but they’d been left far behind. Suddenly I didn’t see those, noticing only the comments that she was sweet, so beautiful, a great friend to Janelle.

Yes, someone had posted that.

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