the lab coat, and I shoot her an apologetic smile. She smiles back before turning and saying to Ms. Taylor, “I think George and Emma and I should work on getting the app up to speed, and the new members should work on tracking the data.”
“But, Jane,” Ms. Taylor says. “We have to teach them to code, too, or where will you be next year when George and Emma are off at college?” George looks at me, and I wonder if he’s thinking the same thing I am, that college feels so far away still, and I haven’t finished my applications yet, and how can they all already be thinking about a time when we’re gone? It feels so far away, and so frighteningly close, too.
“We can do both,” Sam volunteers, and Hannah agrees.
We all look to Robert, and he’s so quiet and barely speaks up at these meetings, but then he surprises us all when he says, “I’ll track data. And...also, I still really want a match, too.”
* * *
I wait to start on the matches until later that night, once I’m home, by myself. At the meeting we started designing app screens and figuring out where the animations will go. But now, all alone in my bed with my laptop, I can enter names in my app simulator and get people’s matches.
I work on the girls’ cross-country team first. Maybe unsurprisingly, given our new higher weight on common interests, Mara matches with Liz, the other senior co-captain of the team. Helen Brimley, who sits across from me in calc, matches to Dave Redstone, who is also in our calc class, and when I look, I see they’re both also in their church choirs. The other six girls are underclassman who I don’t know, but I put their matches in, feeling confident this is working now. I type all the matches into a spreadsheet where we can keep track of their progress, and then send the information in a text to Mara.
Omg, she quickly texts back. I match Liz?
I’m not sure if she’s confused or upset or surprised, so I clarify and text back, Yes, 98%.
This is so cool! she texts back. So, she’s definitely not upset.
I do Robert’s match next, and he matches Ben Parker, a sophomore. They are both in chess club and in marching band together, and in a tidbit picked up from Jane’s social media skim, they are both huge Star Wars fans. I don’t know Ben, but I look him up in the yearbook, and he has a sort of nice lopsided smile, and dark curly hair.
I decide I’ll do Hannah next, and save Sam for last. I don’t want a match of my own, or a boyfriend as Izzy suggested before she left me in August, what feels like so long ago now. My senior year is supposed to be all about numbers, and coding, and getting into Stanford. I don’t have time for anything else.
But what if Sam and I do match? I couldn’t ignore the algorithm in that case, could I?
I think about that morning when Sam sat on my old blue couch, close enough to me that I could almost feel his lips on mine. Sam is kind and smart, and if I had to date someone, say, to set an example with our app, maybe I’d want it to be him? But I push the thought away, and type Hannah in first to see her match.
George Knightley flashes up on my screen.
Wait...George?
I delete it and try again. Maybe I hit the wrong key? But nope, it comes back the same way the second time. Hannah Smith and George Knightley. I look in the database—they have coding club in common, of course. Hannah swims on the school team, and George swims on a club team in the summer. George’s favorite book is The Hobbit, and...so is Hannah’s. And they both love baseball and anime.
I pick up my phone and text George. You want to hear something funny? I ran Hannah’s match and you match her.
What?
You and Hannah are a 96.3% match.
Red-haired Hannah...in coding club?
Yeah...what other Hannah would I mean?
...
The three dots come up, then disappear. Then come and disappear again.
Do you want me to take you out of the database and rerun her match? I finally type. I’m thinking he will. George doesn’t want a girlfriend. He doesn’t have time to date. And anyway, George is so...George. How could he possibly date Hannah?
No, he types back quickly.
No?
What kind of example