I make a mental note to make the status check button more obvious. After all, if people don’t know where they stand, they won’t be driven to change it. Maybe we should move it to the main page—or, uh, Sara and Robbie should move it to the main page.

“I mean, you probably don’t have one yet.” Girl One laughs. “But here, I’ll show you,” she says with pride, taking Purple Dress’s phone. She swipes and clicks a few times confidently.

And then the smug look falls from her face. “That can’t be right.”

“What?” The other girl leans forward, worry in her eyes. “Am I in the totally ugly one or something? Oh my god, am I not in one at all?”

“No.” Girl One sets the phone down on the table. “You’re in Gold. How the hell are you already above me? You just got the app.”

“Really?” Her eyes light up, and she reaches for the phone. “I’m gold!”

“Yeah whatever, it’s just a stupid app.” Girl One puts her phone in her backpack and zips it closed with purpose.

Although stupid app seem like terrible words to hear about the thing I have dedicated the last few months of my life to, this is actually the best possible conversation I could have overheard.

Excitement is one thing. I know people are excited by the app from all the press we’re getting. But people read an article or see a commercial about a product, get excited about it, mean to check it out later and then forget to buy it all the time.

But this girl is frustrated. From her slouched shoulders to the frown on her face, she is visibly shattered that she hasn’t gotten a higher rating on the app.

She’s right where we want her. Once she’s done crying about it, she’ll become obsessed with getting a higher rating, always online, driving up our numbers. She might even pay to check her numerical score and how close she is to gold, multiple times a day.

I finish my smoothie and close my laptop. I’ve done enough work for today.

“The best thing just happened,” I say as I push open the door to Sara’s room.

“What?” two voices ask at the same time.

“Oh, hey Robbie.” I wave to him and he waves back from his perch on the couch. “Damn, are you guys always here coding?” I set my bag on the empty chair next to Sara’s.

“Well, it would help if there weren’t just two of us,” she says, but with less bite in her voice than usual. She looks at me with soft concern, rather than her usual contempt. I’m not quite sure if I like it.

I squirm and avert my eyes, pushing away all thoughts of that day in the rain.

“So what was it?” Robbie asks.

“Huh?”