“Perfectly. I’ve heard people talking about Built in every one of my classes today, and when I saw Nathan before school started this morning, he said his user base skyrocketed overnight.”
“Is he out here?” Emma asked, scanning the quad. “I’m dying to show him my neighborhood. I’ve already built twelve houses and my karma points are going through the roof!” She laughed loudly. “No pun intended.”
Allie scanned the quad. Nathan wasn’t sitting at any of the tables. He wasn’t over on the grass near the parking lot. She glanced behind her. She could see Cory and Mark sitting at one of the tables next to the basketball court, but he wasn’t with them, either.
“Oh, there’s Ajay,” Zoe said. “I’m going to go say hi.”
Allie watched her walk away, still trying to figure out why Nathan wasn’t out in the quad. He had no reason to be in the lab. But she had a sinking feeling he was. “I’ll be right back,” she said as she stood, leaving her lunch on the table.
She turned on her heel and started walking through the quad. A bunch of people stopped her along the way.
“It’s better than ever,” one guy said.
“I’m so glad it’s fixed,” a girl at another table told her.
“That was the longest weekend ever!” another girl said. “Please don’t let that happen again.” She laughed and gave Allie a high five.
“I won’t,” Allie said.
Then Allie felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and found Claire Friedman standing there, bouncing in place. “I’m so glad you’re my seven again! And I love the new groups feature. Very cool.”
“Thanks,” Allie said.
“Do you want to sit with us?” she asked as she pointed over at her table. “My friends are dying to meet you.”
But Allie gestured in the opposite direction. “Maybe another time. I need to find someone.”
Claire took off, and Allie continued on. As grateful as she was to have so many happy users, she knew there were plenty of unhappy former users, too. Tucked into her backpack, she had a printed list of everyone who had downloaded and deleted Click’d, and she was on a personal mission to find each one and apologize before the week was over.
Allie opened the door to the computer lab. She hoped she wouldn’t see Nathan there, but she spotted him right away, hanging out with Agnes. He had his headphones over his ears, head-bobbing in time with the music.
She fell into the seat next to him, and he wrapped his headphones around the back of his neck.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked.
“Watching,” he said as he pointed at his monitor. Allie scooted her chair closer. He had a bird’s-eye view of the whole game. He could see all the players running around the neighborhood with their avatar names in little bubbles above their heads. There were hundreds of them.
“These aren’t test characters.” He tapped his finger on the glass. “Real, actual people are making them move and build and buy things.” He turned to her. “There are real people playing my game. Can you believe that?”
“Yeah, I can totally believe that.”
“And look at this.” Nathan switched screens and his browser filled with news stories he’d collected from a Google search. She read the headlines.
Playing for Good
Teens Change the Game
What a Difference a Game Makes
“These articles have been coming in all day, and every single one includes screenshots and the download link for Built.”
He opened an article that included a photo of the developers onstage, side by side, and Allie felt another pang of sadness. She wished so badly that she could have been up there with them. If she’d only let Nathan help her back in the lab on Friday, he might have noticed her mistake. The two of them might have had it fixed by lunchtime. She might have been in that picture.
But there was no sense thinking about it now.
Nathan seemed to read her mind, or maybe he caught the expression on her face, because he closed the window quickly and said, “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Allie shook it off. “It’s okay. Really.” She tipped her chin toward the monitor. “How many downloads?”
Nathan switched back to his game and pointed to the number in the corner. “Seven hundred sixty-four.”
The two of them sat there for a few minutes, watching his screen, completely mesmerized by a group of players gathered around one house, working together to paint it bright blue.
“Hey,” Allie said. “I know you’re thrilled that real people are playing Built, but do you know where else there are real people?” She tipped her head toward the door. “Outside. In the quad. There’s also this thing called sun.” She formed a circle with her hands. “Big yellow thing. Hangs out in the sky during the day. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?”
Nathan kicked his heels up on the desk, crossed one ankle over the other, and leaned back against the wall. “Eh…sun, shmun. I like it in here. It’s quiet. And we have snacks.” He reached for his bag of microwave popcorn and stuffed a handful into his mouth.
Allie took the bag away and set it on her side of the table, out of his reach.
“You need to get out of here, Nathan. Go to the quad. Find your friends. Trust me on this.” She gestured toward the door again.
He shook his head. “No thanks.”
Allie leaned in closer. “Why not?”
He didn’t say anything for almost a full minute. And then he shrugged. “I don’t even know where I’d go.”
Allie felt like her heart might break into a million little pieces.
“I saw Cory and Mark on my way here. They’re down on the blacktop, sitting at a table next to the basketball courts.”
He forced a laugh. “And what am I supposed to do, sit down and join them?”
“Yeah. Why not?”
“Because I’ve barely talked to them in over a year. We say hi in the halls and stuff, but it’s not like I can sit down and start chatting like we’re all old friends.”
“But you are old friends. You’ve known them all your life. You’ll see. Once you sit down it will be easy. Maybe you’ll bloop and Click’d will break the ice. And if you don’t, just ask them about their weekends. Tell them about yours. Show them your game, tell them about the competition, and talk about all your new users and the news coverage you’re getting today. You’re famous! You’re like Zayn, but better. You’re Naaaate.” She drew out the name and he turned toward her and smiled.
“You make it sound easy,” he said.
“It will be. I promise.” Allie rested her elbows on her knees and leaned in closer to him. “Come on. I’ll help you.”
Nathan sighed as he took off his headphones and dropped them on his desk. “Fine.”
He followed Allie out of the lab and into the hallway. They walked in silence until they reached the quad, and then they stood under the awning in the shade, scanning the scene. Allie spotted Cory and Mark, still at the same table on the blacktop.
“See, they’re right down there,” she said, but when she looked over at Nathan, all the color seemed to have drained from his face, making him look like he had twice as many freckles as usual.