The Circle

happened.
     Finally, not quite exhausted but knowing she needed rest, she tucked herself in and
     turned off the lights.
    In the morning, Mae looked through the closets and dressers, knowing that the dorms
     were stocked with an array of clothes, all new, available to be borrowed or kept.
     She chose a cotton T-shirt and a pair of capri pants, both pristine. On the sink there
     were new bottles of moisturizer and mouthwash, both organic and local, and she sampled
     each. She showered, dressed, and was back at her desk by 8:20.
    And immediately the fruits of her labors were evident. There was a river of congratulatory
     messages on her third screen, from Dan, Jared, Josiah, Denise, five or so messages
     from each of them, and at least a dozen from Annie, who seemed so proud and excited
     she might burst. Word spread through the InnerCircle, and Mae was sent 7,716 smiles
     by noon. Everyone had known she could do it. Everyone saw great things for her at
     the Circle, everyone was certain she would graduate from CE in no time, as soon as
     September, because rarely had anyone risen so quickly through the PartiRank and with
     such laser-like focus.
    Mae’s new feeling of competence and confidence carried her through the week, and given
     how close she was to the top 2,000, she stayed at her desk late through the weekend
     and early the next week, determined to crack through, sleeping in the same dorm room
     every night. She knew the upper 2,000, nicknamed T2K, was a group of Circlers almost
     maniacal in their social activity and elite in their corresponding followers. The
     members of the T2K had been more or less locked in place, with few additions or movements
     within their ranks, for almost eighteen months.
    But Mae knew she needed to try. By Thursday night, she’d gotten to 2,219, and knew
     she was among a group of similar strivers who were, like her, working feverishly to
     rise. She worked for an hour and saw herself climb only two spots, to 2,217. This
     would be difficult, she knew, but the challenge was delicious. And every time she’d
     risen to a new thousand, she received so many accolades, and felt she was repaying
     Annie in particular, that it drove her on.
    By ten o’clock, just when she was tiring, and when she’d gotten as high as 2,188,
     she had the revelation that she was young, and she was strong, and if she worked through
     the night, one night withoutsleep, she could crack the T2K while everyone else was unconscious. She fortified
     herself with an energy drink and gummy worms, and when the caffeine and sugar kicked
     in, she felt invincible. The third screen’s InnerCircle wasn’t enough. She turned
     on her OuterCircle feed, and was handling that without difficulty. She pushed forward,
     signing up for a few hundred more Zing feeds, starting with a comment on each. She
     was soon at 2,012, and now she was really getting resistance. She posted 33 comments
     on a product-test site and rose to 2,009. She looked at her left wrist to see how
     her body was responding, and thrilled at the sight of her pulse-rate increasing. She
     was in command of all this and needed more. The total number of stats she was tracking
     was only 41. There was her aggregate customer service score, which was at 97. There
     was her last score, which was 99. There was the average of her pod, which was at 96.
     There was the number of queries handled that day thus far, 221, and the number of
     queries handled by that time yesterday, 219, and the number handled by her on average,
     220, and by the pod’s other members: 198. On her second screen, there were the number
     of messages sent by other staffers that day, 1,192, and the number of those messages
     that she’d read, 239, and the number to which she’d responded, 88. There was the number
     of recent invitations to Circle company events, 41, and the number she’d responded
     to, 28. There was the number of overall visitors to the Circle’s sites that day, 3.2
     billion, and the number of pageviews, 88.7 billion. There was the number of friends
     in Mae’s OuterCircle, 762, and outstanding requests by those wanting to be her friend,
     27. There were the number of zingers she was following, 10,343, and the number following
     her, 18,198. There was the number of unread zings, 887. There was the number of zingers
     suggested to her, 12,862.There was the number of songs in her digital library, 6,877, number of artists represented,
     921, and based on her tastes,