Click Here (to find out how i survived seventh grade) (8 page)

“Lucky you,” he said. “Do you know HTML?”

“Some. My mom has showed me some basic stuff. But she uses Dreamweaver to design, which is totally over my head,” I said. “I use FrontPage.”

“Cool. I took a camp this summer and learned a bunch of codes, but I probably won’t remember any of them.”

I smiled, hoping it wasn’t a goofy, lovey-dovey smile. I just wanted it to be a hey-we’re-cool smile. I was having a normal conversation with Mark Sacks, with Cute Boy, and I hadn’t done anything clumsy or stupid since my first webbed-foot question. And I wasn’t worried about my feet. Then I wished I hadn’t thought that because now I probably jinxed it.

“I’m sure you’ll remember all of them and make the rest of us look stupid,” I said.

“Doubtful.” He stopped at the drinking fountain. Oh, dear. What should I do? Should I wait? Or was this his way of ending the conversation? I took a few steps forward. “Hold up,” he said. Moments later he was back at my side. We talked a little more about computers until we got to class. I caught Serena staring at us as we entered, and I turned to Mark and laughed. Eat your heart out, Poopendena.

Tuesday, September 3

Questions to Ponder

• Would I be friends with Rosie if Jilly and I were on the same track?
No.

• Do I like this answer?
No.

• What will I do about this?
Be Rosie’s friend for real. Cuz that’s what I want.

• Why haven’t I asked Jilly if she has a plan for switching tracks?
2 words: Mark Sacks.

• Why haven’t I even THOUGHT about asking Jilly if she has a plan for switching tracks?
See above.

• Am I ok with not switching tracks?
Yes. (Omigosh)

chapter 7

Ace of Clubs

I stood outside Ms. Moreno’s computer lab, tapping my left Chuck nervously as I stared down the hallway. I wasn’t quite ready to go in. This was the first time I’d signed up for something without Jilly. And even though I didn’t want her to be here because of the MF (Mark Factor), it had been strange writing my name on a list without Jilly’s name right before it. Besides, there were a bunch of eighth graders in the Club, too. They probably knew way more than I did and would make me feel stupid.

“Don’t tell me Hennessey’s coming. She doesn’t know anything about computers.” My head jerked up at the voice. Ah. Serena Worthington’s familiar scowl.

I shook my head.

Serena’s eyes widened in mock surprise. “You signed up for this all by yourself? Without Geppetto? Wow. Maybe you will be a real boy.”

“Shut up.”

“Why are standing out here? Afraid to go in by yourself?” She shook her head. “Poor Baby Ewin.” She said it in a baby voice, with “Ewin” instead of “Erin.” I scowled.

“Can’t you just be quiet?” Rosie walked up behind Serena, hitching up her backpack. Mark was with her.

“Well, she’s standing out here like a loser, Velarde.”

Rosie harrumphed. “She was waiting for us. Not that it’s any of your business.”

Serena looked at Mark, whose eyes shifted to Rosie. Then she turned to me. “Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked. “Or do you still need someone to speak for you? Like those ventriloquists … with their dummies.” She leaned toward me as she said the word “dummies,” just begging me to punch her in the nose again. I could feel the heat rise in my cheeks. Why was Mark here? Why did he have to see Serena being so mean to me?

“Serena!” One of her friends called to her from down the hall. Serena rolled her eyes at us and looked back. I had that weird twinge again as the girl walked by, her eyes on Serena, waiting to hear what Serena would say. My throat closed up and I couldn’t breathe, like when I was in Jilly’s room that first day after school.

“What a snot,” Mark said when Serena had gone into the lab. “Hey, Swift, are you okay?”

I nodded, unable to speak.

“I’m going to get a seat,” Mark said, and he stepped inside the lab. “I owe you one,” I said to Rosie. Sighing, I shook my head. “I was a little scared to go in by myself.”

“So what?” Rosie said. “It’s no big deal.”

I smiled, gathering my courage. “I thought about what you said.” Rosie waited. “And here’s my answer. Honestly? I probably would not be friends with you if Jilly were on this track. Honestly Number Two? I’m actually glad she isn’t because I never would have gotten to know you or Mark.” I knew it was true the moment I said it. I was actually glad we were on different tracks. I was.

“That’s cool.” Rosie nodded. “Okay, you go in first.”

I looked at her, took a breath, and stepped through the doorway. “Erin, good to see you.” Ms. Moreno greeted me with a smile. “Sit wherever you want for now. I’ll be having experienced kids, like you, lead groups for those who are new at this.”

That got my attention. Me? Lead a group?

“You can do it,” Ms. Moreno said, as if reading my mind. Rosie squeezed my shoulder as she swept past me to snag a chair next to Mark.

I made a face as if to say “I don’t think so,” then turned my attention to the room. Looking at the five clusters of five computers each, monitors shining, mice and trackballs waiting for eager fingers, I couldn’t help smiling a little. I supposed having computers in a circle was going to “promote connectedness,” too, though in this case it might work. Being able to look over the monitor at someone’s face, rather than at the back of a head the way we did in word processing class, seemed like a good thing.

The back wall had a low row of shelves beneath the windows where computer manuals, paper, and games were shoved in at different angles. I cringed at the sight of a game disc without its case. You can’t treat discs like that; they can scratch and get ruined. On the left wall hung a poster detailing the rules for safe surfing and another explained how to earn points to play different games.

“Ms. Moreno?” Serena, sitting in a cluster near the windows, had her hand in the air.

“Yes?”

“Are we going to have a gossip column? Or an advice column? I could do that.”

Ms. Moreno stopped in front of her desk. “We’ll talk about content in a few weeks. First we need to get everyone up to speed on how to create web pages.” She picked up a stack of handouts and held them out to me. “Could you pass these out, please?”

“Sure.” I pulled off my backpack and set it on an empty chair. Jilly’s pin shifted in my pocket as I leaned over. Pulling it out, I looked at it briefly. I rubbed my fingers across the tape, which had rolled back to reveal part of the tragedy face. I put the pin halfway back in my pocket. Then I saw Rosie. She smiled at me and gave me the thumbs-up before looking down at her computer screen. I stuffed Jilly’s pin into an outside pocket of my backpack, out of sight, out of touch, and delivered the handouts.

“This handout has some of the most common HTML commands,” Ms. Moreno said as I returned to my seat. “We’re going to start there. I want you to learn the commands and how they work before using software that does the work for you.”

A few kids groaned, but I was excited. I figured I knew enough to tell people about it. Even though I used FrontPage, I often worked on the coding page so I could practice HTML.

“— will be with Erin Swift.” My eyes shot up. I hadn’t been listening. She must have been assigning groups. “Erin, will you raise your hand so people know where to go?” I lifted my hand slowly in the air, my eyes darting from kid to kid to see who was coming over. So far, no one I knew. Good. Maybe they wouldn’t —

“I’m supposed to learn web design from Big Foot?” A boy sat down right next to me and crossed his arms over his chest. He had spiky hair and dark brown eyes. I saw part of a chain coming out from the collar of his T-shirt. He obviously thought he had the cool look down, but he was way too skinny and his voice cracked at the end of his question.

I turned and glared at him. “You can p align your butt to a different group,” I said. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Huh?”

“P align is an HTML code for aligning something on a page.” I looked up to see Mark Sacks standing in the cluster to our right, looking at the boy beside me. “Positioning it. You know, like left, center, right.” He moved his hands to demonstrate each position. “She knows her stuff,” he said, nodding at me. Then he turned and waved his group over, and they all sat down.

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning like a crazy girl. Cute Boy had said I knew my stuff! It felt like I grew two feet taller in two seconds. I looked down at my Chucks. Were they smaller and farther away now? Wahoo! Confidence surged through me as I turned to Mr. Spiky Hair.

“So?” I asked. “Are you staying or going?”

He looked at me for a moment. His eyes shifted to Mark’s back, then returned to me. He sighed and picked up the handout. “What does HTML mean, anyway?”

“Hypertext Markup Language,” I said. “Let me show you how it works.”

Thursday, September 12