A laugh floated up from Hudson’s side of the room. She glared in his general direction and turned back to the boy, forcing a smile. “Okay. I’ll slow down a bit.” Taking a deep breath, she said a little slower, “As I was saying, OLLI is basically a way for people in relationships to communicate better with each other. So, for instance, if you look at the screen…” She forwarded through the slides as quickly as she could without looking like a complete lunatic or getting called out by another teenager.

Hudson was swilling coffee from a plastic cup, which he raised to her, a mischievous grin on his face, as if he were at a particularly entertaining party.

“… and we hope to have the entire app up and running within a few months. We’re confident we can make it.” Annika beamed at the audience.

A boy who was slumped in his chair as if ready for a nap called out, in a laconic drawl, “Yo, your laptop died.”

Annika turned to see a blank screen. Dammit. She turned back to the audience, a bright smile on her face, her hand clamped in a death grip around the mic. “Uh … yes. Yeah. I know. I’m … finished. Let’s head into Q&A!”

The teens in the audience looked less than impressed. She heard a snicker from Hudson’s end of the room.

Another boy, this one wearing a backward baseball cap and a football jersey, raised his hand. “Yeah, uh, do you have a boyfriend?” he asked, a lazy smile on his face. The group of boys sitting around him immediately burst out into laughter.

Annika’s eyes unwittingly darted to Hudson, who was watching the exchange with a slight frown on his face. “No, I don’t,” Annika said into the mic, even though she could see Rita Davenport giving her the you don’t have to answer that signal. “But,” she continued, “I have a first date I’m really excited about soon. So.” She smiled a victorious, see-I’m-not-even-thinking-about-our-almost-kiss smile in Hudson’s direction, only to see him straighten, a muscle in his jaw jumping as he set his coffee cup down.

Feeling slightly off-kilter, Annika turned to the audience again. A Latina girl in the front row raised her hand. “Your tech sounds really cool,” she said, in a high, sweet voice. “And, um, you said your developer is also a … girl?”

Annika grinned. “Yeah. I have a kick-ass developer, June Stewart. She’s right back there, actually.” She pointed toward the back of the room. June smiled and waved.

The girl looked back up at Annika, her brown eyes wide. “I want to do that one day.”

“You totally can,” Annika said seriously. “Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t, okay?”

The girl nodded.