87 Chapter 85: Wordpress

As soon as Jeffrey had free time, he headed to the computer lab. Inside were a few kids already playing video games and surfing the internet.

"89 multiplier, Josh. Keep going", a kid with a shark hoodie said to his friend.

"I know, I know watch the right side. Stay alive!", his friend responded.

Jeffrey got seated away from them. Nearby he saw a kid working on a website. The WMS portal and main page layout was displayed.

Jeffrey saw the person clicking a few buttons and dragging various icons across the screen. A few snippets of HTML code and alignment. Jeffrey recognized him from the journalism club.

The kid working on the site was staring intensely at the screen. Jeffrey decided it'd be best to make friend and introduced himself. So Jeffrey tapped the kid on the shoulder.

"Hey you're from the journalism club", Jeffrey pointed out.

The kid looked at him blankly for a moment, "yeah?", he responded in a daze.

"Cool, I thought I recognized you. I'm Jeffrey and I'm planning on making a website of my own", Jeffrey introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Minato. I do some programming and website management for the club", the computer kid said returning to his work.

Jeffrey sat down and started on his site. Now he had a decision to make, "Wordpress or Wix?"

Wordpress was more easier and approachable, however it wasn't very professional especially if it was for a business platform that SK flowers wanted. Wix on the other hand, he wasn't sure of it's backend support, but hey that's just a risk he'd have to take.

Jeffrey quickly choose a default layout, sourcing a few open source images from the Wikimedia foundation and got to work. Adding a few elements and icons from other creative commons sites such as Flickr, Jeffrey spent a good amount of time just laying out templates and creating a framework.

Most of the time Jeffrey had no idea which buttons did what, so most of the work was just up in the air to see what he was able to do. Jeffrey crashed the computer a few times, losing much progress along the way and stumbled across numerous errors in the process. Eventually he had a site that could display the location, phone number, and take orders through a third party transaction software.

Inside the room were a handful of student gamers. A few sites like Poptropica, funbrain, Coolmath games, and club penguin were opened up on the screen.

Three or four students were doing research for science and math homework. On their screens were spreadsheets attempting to create graphs and display the line functions.

Then near the back corner were the two programmers, Jeffrey and Minato.

*clack* *clack* *click*

"haah", Minato took a deep breath. Evidently he was finished and had just turned off the computer.

Minato looked at his neighbor's screen. Jeffrey seemed to be struggling with a pop-up menu.

"You have to go to the advanced settings", Minato commented.

Jeffrey navigated to the screen and then scrolled through the list.

"Click on the website map", Minato continued to guide Jeffrey.

Jeffrey found the button and saw the "+" symbol appear. Jeffrey changed the eventListener button click type to a pop-out. Jeffrey saved the site afterward. Reaching down under the desk, he pushed the button on the computer tower. Jeffrey waited for the computer to shutdown.

"You finished?", Jeffrey asked his seatmate.

"Yep, that's it for the day. I can't take anymore layout management. The alignment code and UI fixes is killing me. Mr. Maunu does most of the mobile formatting anyway", Minato explained.

Slowly the pc started to turn off. Jeffrey's work saved to the usb drive below. Jeffrey unplugged the device and placed it in his backpack. Website stored.

"You're so good at it, and quick as well", Jeffrey complimented.

"Thanks", Minato responded shyly.

By this time, it was quite late in the afternoon and they were the remaining two in the classroom. Most of the students had already left, so the two of them walked the empty campus waiting to be picked up.

"So how long have you been working on the site?", Jeffrey asked.

Minato walking with Jeffrey for a moment, thought back to when he started.

"Umm... about 3 months now", Minato replied.

They waited in front of the pickup area for their parents to arrive.

"Wow that's a long time", Jeffrey remarked.

They talked a little while about their programming experience and the projects that they were currently working on. After a while, Minato asked an unexpected question.

"You watch anime too?", Jeffrey exclaimed in surprise.

Minato nodded his head. The two of them talked for a long time in the afternoon. Then the headlights of a vehicle could be seen in the distance.

"That's my ride", Minato pointed out.

Jeffrey gave him a nod and a smile, "It was nice meeting you Minato"

"Same, it was a pleasure", Minato said.

A Range Rover SUV pulled up to the curb, Minato opened the door and waved at Jeffrey goodbye.

Jeffrey on his own, reached into his bag and pulled out another book. After a couple of minutes, he was picked up as well.