Lights, Music, Code!

by Jo Whittemore

“Bye, Nicole,” I called without looking back.

  Hurried footsteps rushed up behind me, and I whirled around, ready to continue our argument. Instead, I found myself looking up, up, up at a tall girl who was frowning down at me.

  “Let me see that bracelet.”

  I blinked up at her. “Excuse me?”

  The girl grabbed my wrist. “Let me see it!”

  I struggled to get free. “Let go!”

  “This is mine,” said the girl, tugging at the chain. “You stole it!”

  “What?” I wriggled out of her grasp and stepped back. “You’re crazy.”

  Lucy, who was passing by, ran over.

  “Jill, what are you doing?” she asked the tall girl.

  “She stole my bracelet!” Jill pointed at me.

  The crowd who’d been watching me and Nicole was now watching me and Jill.

  “I did not!” I said. “It was a gift from . . . someone.” I hesitated to call Nicole my friend after the way she’d been acting.

  “Yeah, it was a gift. From my grandma to me,” said Jill, jabbing herself with a thumb.

  “I didn’t take it,” I reiterated. “I would never do that.”

  Jill scoffed. “I literally just heard a girl say you used to steal stuff. Anyone else hear it?” Jill raised a hand and glanced at the crowd.

  “Used to,” I emphasized. “And it was a bottle of nail polish. One time!”

  My mom says: If you want people to wonder, start a rumor. If you want people to gossip, add details. I could already see a couple kids texting on their phones.

  “Are you sure it’s your bracelet?” Lucy asked Jill. “Maybe it just looks like yours.”

  “There’s a tag near the clasp with my initials on it,” said Jill. “J.A. And one of the links near the middle is bent.”

  Lucy helped me take the bracelet off, and we all inspected it.

  There was a bent link in the middle and initials on the tag.

  My heart dropped into my stomach.

  “I’m so sorry,” I told Jill, offering her the bracelet. She snatched it up. “Someone gave it to me, and I thought they bought it.”

  “Yeah, right,” said Jill.

  “It’s true,” Lucy piped up. “Maya wouldn’t take something that wasn’t hers.”

  I could’ve hugged her. She didn’t even know the truth of what happened, but she was still on my side.

  Jill grunted. “So who took it out of my locker, then?”

  I could’ve said Nicole.

  I should’ve said Nicole.

  But the last thing the school needed was more gossip. Also, I had a feeling Jill might turn Nicole into a smudge on the carpet.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ll handle it,” I told her.

  Jill stared me down. “You’d better. Because if anything else goes missing from my locker, I’m coming after you.”

  * * *

  “So that was mildly terrifying,” said Lucy as we entered the library.

  “What was mildly terrifying?” asked Leila. She was unboxing a tiny blue LED bulb with steel pins poking out. Erin, who was unboxing an orange one, laughed.

  “They’re probably talking about Mr. Garcia shaving off his goatee,” she said.

  Sophia made a face. “That man has a lot of moles.”

  “No, not that. A girl from my math class threatened Maya just now,” said Lucy.

  Leila and Erin both froze.

  “What?” asked Leila.

  “Did you tell the principal?” asked Erin.

  “I can’t,” I said. “Because I kind of deserved it.”

  I told them about Jill’s stolen bracelet and added, “So now I have to talk to the person who gave me the bracelet.”

  “Nicole. Just say Nicole,” Sophia told me. “We all know it was her.”

  My other friends nodded, and I sighed.

  “Fine. Nicole, then.”

  “How did she get into Jill’s locker to begin with?” asked Leila.

  I rubbed my forehead. “Nicole works as an office aide. She told me she can get any locker combo, but I didn’t think she’d use that power to steal something.”

  “You need to let the principal deal with her,” said Erin.

  I shook my head. “I want to try talking with her first.” I pointed to Sophia. “Besides, we need to see if our lighting system works. Did you bring the setup?”

  “I did, but we’re gonna talk more about Nicole later.” Sophia reached into her bag and fished out her phone. While she pulled up her music playlist, Leila and Erin plugged the LED bulbs into pin slots on the Arduino.

  “I thought we were using Christmas lights,” I said.

  “We are for the real display,” said Leila, “but they need special wiring since they use so much power, and Mrs. Clark said she didn’t want us messing with the electrical system.”

  “So for this demo we’re using these single LEDs that we can hook up directly to the Arduino. They’ll flash like the Christmas lights, but on a smaller scale,” said Erin.

  Lucy powered up her laptop and uploaded the code to the Arduino. “Okay! Code’s ready!”

  “Sensor’s ready,” said Sophia, switching it on.

  “Lights are ready,” Leila said.

  “Here we go!” I said as Erin did a drumroll on the table.

  Sophia pressed the PLAY button for a song, and music filled the room with a fast beat. We leaned forward in anticipation.

  But the lights did nothing.

  “Shoot,” said Lucy.

  Leila checked all the connections while the music continued to play. The lights didn’t so much as flicker.

  “Is there something wrong with the code?” asked Sophia.

  Lucy pulled up the coding window on her laptop. “I didn’t get any errors.”

  We all gathered around the laptop.

  “Start at the beginning,” I said.

  “No way there’s anything wrong with my code,” said Erin. “My dad helped me write it.”

  “But it’s also where we labeled all our light colors and pins,” said Sophia. “If we don’t have the variables matched to the right pins . . .”

  “White is pin three, blue is pin five, and orange is pin seven,” Lucy read while Leila checked the Arduino. “And the ground pins to return their electrical currents are four, six, and eight.”

  “Yes to all of the above,” Leila said.

  Erin scanned the laptop screen and leaned in closer. “Wait a minute. Did one of you guys change my code?”

  “No,” said Leila. “Why?”

  Erin scrolled through our program until she got to Lucy’s output section. “That’s why!” She pointed to the screen. “W, B, O.”

  “You’re gonna have to give us a little more,” said Sophia with a confused look.

  “I wrote my code with the initials W, B, and O and told Lucy to do the same,” said Erin.

  “Which I did,” said Lucy.

  “Right! But . . .” Erin scrolled back to the top of the page. “Someone changed my code and spelled out the colors. Lucy asked it to send output to W, B, and O when the pins are now labeled White, Blue, and Orange.”

  Leila snapped her fingers. “The variables don’t match. It can’t find W, B, or O.”

  “Exactly!” Erin said.

  “Ohhh,” Lucy and Sophia said.

  “Oops,” I said.

  Everyone looked at me.

  “You did this?” asked Erin.

  I grabbed her arm. “I’m so sorry! I thought it’d be easier to read. I shouldn’t have touched your code.”

  Erin laughed. “Maya, it’s a quick fix. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Really?” I asked. When Erin had done my part of the coding, I’d freaked out. Why was she being so understanding?

 
She nodded. “I’m just glad we figured it out before Mrs. Clark noticed.”

  “Well, we think we figured it out,” said Sophia. “Let’s make sure it actually works.”

  “On it,” said Lucy, who was changing Erin’s colors back to their abbreviations.

  While she uploaded the changes to the Arduino, we all did a drumroll.

  The lights started flashing to the different volume levels, and a moment later the music was punctuated with our cheers of joy.

  “We did it!” cried Erin.

  “We’re brilliant!” I declared, high-fiving Sophia.

  “And now you have the code for my dress!” she said with a broad smile.

  I bit my lip. Since I’d been honest with Erin . . .

  “I’m actually not as far along on the dress as I said,” I told her, shrinking back a little.

  Sophia’s smile dipped. “Can you still have it done tomorrow?”

  “Absolutely!”

  Sophia shrugged. “Then, no problem.”

  Every muscle I’d been tensing relaxed. How was nobody upset with me?

  “You’re not mad?” I asked.

  Sophia tilted her head to one side. “I can’t really be, can I? You’re doing me a huge favor.”

  Lucy, who happened to be standing nearby, added, “This is seriously cool of you to do for her, Maya.”

  I blushed and ducked my head, feeling a little embarrassed.

  Nicole and I had been wrong. My friends did appreciate me.

  Leila had listened and not said anything to Erin after I complained about her doing my code; Erin had been totally understanding when I messed with her code; Lucy had defended me; and now Sophia was being cool about her dress.

  Maybe I had been the unappreciative one. And maybe Erin wasn’t the only one who deserved to know what a good friend she was.

  I threw my arms around Sophia. “You’re so great!”

  Sophia patted my back. “Um . . . thank you?”

  I moved on to Lucy and did the same thing. Then on to Leila. When I got to Erin, she squeezed me tight.

  “What’s with all the love?” she asked when she finally let go.

  “I just wanted you guys to know how much I value our friendship,” I said.

  “Awww,” said Lucy, placing a hand to her heart.

  Sophia smirked and asked, “Can you value our advice, too?”

  I knew what she meant, and I knew she was right. They all were.

  I had to tell Principal Stephens the truth about Nicole.

  Chapter Ten

  I really did have great friends. Lucy volunteered to talk to the principal with me since she’d witnessed the bracelet argument. I felt guilty betraying Nicole, but I also remembered how I’d felt when Nicole had broken into my locker. I couldn’t let her do that to other kids.

  Principal Stephens was kind, but concerned about the situation and assured me she’d talk to Nicole. That was one problem out of the way. Now I just had to finish Sophia’s dress.

  At the end of the school day, I practically vaulted down the bus steps when it stopped in front of my house. There was so much to do.

  But as soon as I reached my driveway, I froze. There was a car parked there that didn’t belong to either of my parents. It did, however, belong to Nicole’s aunt.

  I crept up the driveway and opened our front door a crack. Three distinct voices. My mom was talking to Liz and Ash in the kitchen. I slipped into the house and as close to the kitchen as possible. Liz and Ash had their backs to me, and Mom was out of my line of sight.

  “She shouldn’t take all the blame for stealing it,” said Liz.

  “She shouldn’t take any of it,” said Mom.

  I sucked in my breath. They were talking about the bracelet!

  I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that the principal would call Nicole’s aunts. But I was surprised that Mom was defending Nicole.

  “I think we can agree she’s not the best influence,” said Ash. “If she could admit her part in this—”

  “No,” said Mom in a flat voice. “My daughter had nothing to do with it.”

  My mouth fell open. Mom wasn’t defending Nicole; she was defending me. And Nicole’s aunts were trying to say I was the reason Nicole was a troublemaker!

  I prepared to storm into the kitchen, but as I walked into Mom’s eye line, her eyes flitted to me for a second, and she gave a subtle shake of her head. I retreated into the living room where I could still hear everything but wouldn’t be seen.

  “Nicole hasn’t gotten into any trouble until she started at this school,” said Liz. “And the other day Nicole told me Maya suggested she put photocopied pictures of their faces in all the school windows.”

  That was a joke! I wanted to yell.

  “I’m sure Maya was joking,” said Mom.

  If she’d been standing right next to me, I would’ve hugged her.

  “I also found a candy wrapper in Nicole’s pocket, and she said Maya made her steal it,” said Ash.

  I grabbed a pillow off the couch and squeezed it. Four M&M’s. I had four M&M’s out of the bag that Nicole chose to steal. I listened close for Mom’s response.

  “How convenient that Maya’s always there when Nicole needs someone to blame.”

  If Mom had been holding a microphone, it would’ve been the perfect time to drop it and walk away.

  Nicole’s aunts didn’t say anything for a moment. Finally there was a sound of chairs scraping across the kitchen floor.

  “Clearly, we’re not going to get through to you,” said Liz. “Maybe it’s best if the girls don’t spend time together.”

  “I one hundred percent agree,” said Mom.

  I heard them coming and ducked behind the couch until Mom said goodbye to Liz and Ash and closed the door behind them.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Mom sang.

  I popped up and said, “I didn’t steal that bracelet or tell Nicole to steal it.”

  Mom smiled. “I know.”

  I approached her with my hands behind my back. “I want to say something, but I don’t want you to gloat.”

  “Oh, sweetheart.” She put her arms around me. “I can’t promise that.”

  I laughed. “Fine. You were right about Nicole. I should’ve listened.”

  Mom squeezed me and, thankfully, didn’t gloat. “I know you wanted to believe she was a better person.”

  “I did,” I agreed.

  “But as long as she doesn’t think she’s doing anything wrong, that can’t happen.” Mom held me at arm’s length. “Which is why I know you didn’t have anything to do with the bracelet. After you got caught stealing the nail polish, you knew you were wrong.”

  “So maybe I helped Nicole by turning her in,” I said with a hopeful smile.

  Mom sighed. “Maybe. But if her aunts won’t believe she’s guilty, maybe not.” She made a face. “And I’m sorry, but now I really have to forbid you from hanging out with Nicole. I think Oliver will agree.”

  “I do, too,” I said, leaning into Mom for another hug. “But thanks for giving her a chance. And for believing in me.”

  “You’re welcome.” Mom released me. “Other than that bit of drama, how was school?”

  “Good! My friends and I got the lights to blink in time to music.” I showed her a video I’d taken.

  “Wow! Good job!” She gave me a high five. “How about we celebrate with dinner on the town?”

  I gasped. “Really? That would be—”

  I thought of a video of Sophia saying, “I can’t wait to see my dress do this!”

  I groaned and slumped. “Can we do it another night?” I pointed to the video. “I have to finish Sophia’s dress.”

  Mom stroked her chin and asked, “How about I bake your favorite cake instead?”
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br />   I popped onto my tiptoes and kissed her cheek. “You’re the best!”

  She stepped aside so I could get past her. “I’ll let you know when dinner and dessert are ready.”

  Now that I was back in performance mode, I hurried to my room and tossed my backpack in the corner. Picking up Sophia’s dress and my sewing stuff, I found a comfy spot on my bed and some fast music on my phone. Then I got to work reinforcing the holes I’d cut in the dress.

  An hour and five position changes later, I realized I wasn’t even halfway done. I’d reinforced twenty holes—at this rate, I wouldn’t be done with the basic stitches for four hours. Then I still had to poke the lights through and stitch them into place. And after that, I still had to put together the elements to make the lights blink.

  I glanced at my clock, which was a little blurry since I’d been staring so closely at the stitches. If I stopped to eat dinner, I wouldn’t be done with this dress until after midnight.

  I needed to sew faster.

  But doing something faster with a sharp object is never smart, and in a matter of seconds, I’d stabbed the needle into one of my knuckles.

  “Ow!” I shrieked, dropping the dress and grabbing my hand.

  Footsteps pounded up the stairs, and Mom threw open my door. The smell of chocolate wafted into the room.

  “What? What happened?”

  “I stabbed myself with a needle,” I said, sucking on my knuckle.

  “Let me see.” Mom took my hand and watched the blood pool. “It’s not bad, but we need to bandage this so you don’t bleed on Sophia’s dress.”

  “I don’t have time to stop,” I said. “Can you patch it up while I keep sewing?”

  I picked up the needle between my thumb and index finger and forced it through the fabric. Mom called to Oliver to bring the first aid kit while she held my injured finger above my head to slow the bleeding.

  “Why don’t you take a break?” she asked. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

  I shook my head. “No time. There’s so much to do, and food will just slow me down.”

  “It’ll also give you energy,” said Mom, taking the first aid kit from Oliver, who stood in the doorway.

  “Ouch,” he said. “Were you trying to sew yourself into the dress?”