Max Jones is a seventh grader at Karl G Maeser Prep Academy. Max’s short story won a gold key for humor in the 2014 Scholastic writing competition.

Even though the peephole was duct-taped over while he waited for the delivery of his Automated Solicitor Detector, Karl knew exactly who was rapping on the other side of his apartment door. Kevin, his first cousin and closest friend since boyhood, had arrived with the massive order of cheap dumplings from Bamboo Hut Authentic Chinese Food Since 1999, which tasted just like the ones their Nai Nai used to steam in her own kitchen. The smell of the dumplings wafted through the keyhole.

Karl sighed. He took out his smartphone and pushed the photograph of his giant orange goldfish. This triggered the mechanism that counted out three drab fishfood pellets and rolled them down a chute into the lighted bowl with a plastic castle shaped like a computer. “Mr. Gilbert,” Karl said to the fish, “I’m guessing Kevin is going to be about as helpful as you would be on matters of girls. Neither of you have a girlfriend of your own, after all.”

The evening’s task was a massive one. Karl felt hopeless. After months of watching Rachel type at her desk, daydreaming of ways he could be with her, and failing to work up the courage to ask her on a date, he had given in to Kevin’s pestering. Karl had agreed that the two of them would spend the evening devising a plan to conquer his problem once and for all.

Reluctantly fiddling with the deadbolt, Karl opened the door to his cousin, seeing what could have been a mirror, except the suit and tie were replaced with a vintage Star Wars T-shirt and a NASA ballcap. The door heaved itself closed on the world of humans outside. As they had done every Friday night of their adult lives, Kevin and Karl each scrambled to hoard a box of dumplings and some chopsticks, and then flipped open their laptops at tables on opposite ends of the apartment.

“OK, bro! It’s time to crack this code,” Kevin hollered, making double pistols with his thumbs and pointer fingers and shooting them at Karl’s face, which had appeared on the Facechat screen of the laptop. Karl wished he could send him home, but knew in his heart that Kevin was the only person he trusted in the world. “Alright then,” he exhaled.

“Idea numero uno,” Kevin called into the screen, clicking madly into the document he had titled “How Karl Will Win Rachel.doc.” “Send her a Facebook friend request.”

“I think we are going for something more than ‘like,'” Karl huffed.

“Hack into her computer at work and flash a romantic message as her screensaver?”

“Absolutely not,” Karl replied. “What would I write? Wouldn’t she think I was a huge creeper if I did? Mr. Starkly might fire me.”

“Fine. A robot that walks to her desk and is programmed to ask her for a date,” Kevin offered. “Genius moment!” he proclaimed. “Our work is done.”

Karl got up from his computer, marched to where Kevin was celebrating his success with an awkward prance, and like an unleashed lion, roared, “Can you please calm down? No robots. No computer hacking. No intelligent design. Tonight is not the night.”

“Look,” Karl went on, pleadingly. “I really like this girl. I’ve been working on some possible emails I could send to her. Can we just try to make that work?”

Dozens of email drafts followed. They tried everything. “You are my modem.” “You are the ‘P’ to my ‘C.’ “Roses are #FF0000. Violets are #0000FF.” “I have fallen for you like Newton’s Apple.” “You charm me at a subatomic level.”

Karl slapped his head onto the table and struck every key on the keyboard at once, like a frustrated pianist. Feeling his heart crack under the weight of their predictable but devastating failure, he elbowed the laptop shut, lumbered over to the wall, and standing straight up, pressed his forehead into it in somber silence.

A rap at the door broke the stillness. With no peephole, no repairs ordered, and his only real friend sitting in front of him, Karl couldn’t imagine who it could possibly be.

He pivoted away from the cold, white wall. The paint texture had left almost a perfect “L” imprinted upon his forehead. Karl slogged to answer the door.

Shock. Joy. Excitement. Panic. More panic. More joy.

“Rachel?”

She was a luminous lightbulb, casting a soft glow over the dim room behind. She was a sweet lemon lollipop, swirling with color and tang. She was a warm guardian angel and in her aura, Karl felt safe. She was a soft, luscious peach. She was …. standing on his doorstep?

“Rachel?” he coughed out.

“Hi, Karl.” Her words were a river of silk. “Mr. Starkly demanded that I hand-deliver this memo to everyone in the office. I didn’t catch you, so I thought I’d drop it by on my way home.”

“Oh, uh, thank you. It’s … it’s just really nice to see you,” he spluttered robotically.

Kevin peered over Karl’s shoulder, and Karl swatted him back like a fly.

“I was just, uh, finishing up dinner with my cousin Kevin.” Kevin snorted in the background.

“Well, then, I bet you’re ready for dessert,” Rachel said. “There’s a great ice cream shop on the corner, Jack’s Giant Gelato. Do you know it? Their servings are huge, but we could get one to share, if you’re interested.”

Karl had known Kevin his whole life. He loved him like a brother and would have done anything for him. But never did he love him more than he did when Kevin stepped forward and said, “You two have fun. I have work to do.”

As he walked to the elevator with Rachel, beaming inside, Karl felt his smartphone buzz with a text message from Kevin: “You cracked the code.”