The Code for Love and Heartbreak - Jillian Cantor Page 0,36
lab coat sleeves down and turns and runs off to her own car before I can say another word.
Chapter 13
At lunch the next day, Sam and I are eating and talking about music. He’s telling me about Laura’s solo in their upcoming choir concert. And I’m telling him about the piano piece Mrs. Howard has me working on for the New Jersey state competition in May that I also plan to perform today for the elderly residents of the Villages when I volunteer after school: Rachmaninoff’s Prelude #6.
“My left hand is my weakness,” I tell him. “And this piece really highlights that.”
“I’m sure you’ll get it, though, E. I don’t picture you ever failing at anything.” He says this between bites of carrot and hummus. His mom must’ve been working all weekend again.
It sounds like a compliment, but he’s not wrong, either. I work and I work and I work until I can do whatever I set out to. At least when it comes to schoolwork and piano. And still, I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to respond to Sam, or anyone, who says something like that to me, so all I say back is, “Yeah.” Which makes Sam smile at me in that infectious way he has, so suddenly I’m smiling back.
“Besides,” he adds, “I heard you play a little through the door that one day and you sounded awesome to me.”
We’re so into our conversation that we don’t notice anyone has walked up to our table at first, until she sits down next to Sam. “Hey,” she says, and we both stop talking and look at her.
She’s tall with dark curly hair and deep brown eyes—and she’s vaguely familiar, a senior like me, I think, but I don’t remember ever having any classes together and I don’t remember her from middle school, either. I’ve just seen her around the halls.
“You’re Emma Woodhouse, right?” she says, staring at me. I nod, but not before wondering if I should lie in this situation and say that I’m not. “I’m Mara Maloney. I’m the co-captain of the girls’ cross-country team.”
At the words cross-country, I suddenly know this is going to be about Phillip, and I push my tray away, done with my lunch, feeling a little nauseous.
“We heard about what happened with the guys’ team at the dance and your coding club project.”
Yep. For once, I’ve read a social situation right, though I wish I hadn’t. “Look, I honestly had no idea about their bet,” I say.
“Yeah, yeah, I know that.” Mara smiles, revealing a row of pearl-white teeth. “We were all talking at practice this morning, and we feel really bad about what happened. We don’t want your project to be messed up because of them.”
“It’s not,” Sam interjects. “We’re...reconfiguring things.”
“Well,” Mara says. “I want to help you, if I can. We all do. The whole girls’ team—we all agreed this morning. You can match us up or whatever.” She pulls out her phone, and puts it on the table, pushes it toward me. “Put your app on my phone and we’ll all use it.”
“We’re not exactly there yet,” I say, gently pushing her phone back toward her. “We’re working on a survey now and then we have to repopulate the database and reconfigure our algorithm.”
Mara’s eyes glaze over, and she squints, looking confused. I’m losing her, and she actually wants to help. I need to say something else.
“What I mean...is...” I stammer. “Is that we’d love your help, we just don’t have an app up and running to put on your phone quite yet.”
Mara nods, understanding now.
“Hey, why don’t you exchange numbers,” Sam suggests. “And Emma can text you as soon as the app is ready. The club would love your help.”
Mara smiles brightly. I get her number and promise her she and the other girls on cross-country can be our first test subjects when we’re back up and running again.
“See,” Sam says, smiling, after she walks away, “I told you this was all going to work out.”
* * *
I drop George off after school, and then I head over to Highbury Retirement Villages. On most Tuesdays, I volunteer to go in and play piano for the residents after school. I’ve been doing it since the beginning of junior year when I first needed something to fulfill the volunteer requirement for NHS. But now it’s become something I actually kind of enjoy doing, and I think I’d still come even if I didn’t need the volunteer hours.