Cupid Computer (1981)

Margie Milcsik

Archway Paperbacks

When the principal announces the next school dance will match couples through the "cupid computer" (actually, surveys on likes/dislikes completed by the students), Toni decides she will do everything she can to get matched with the dreamy Kevin.  Her scheme involves modeling her behavior after famous movie stars, consulting astrology tables, and praying to St. Anthony.  When the big "match" announcements are made, however, dreamy Kevin is paired with Toni's supposed "best friend" Kate.  Worse yet, Toni must go to the big dance with some guy nicknamed "Soup."  But by the end of the dance, Soup proves so compatible that she forgets all about Kevin.  More evidence of how young girls of the 70s were encouraged to erase their own identities in order to attract boys all the while considering every friend to be a potential rival.  Incredibly, as part of the "computer survey," each student is asked to evaluate their physical appearance on a scale of 1 to 10.  Promises to be a tie-in with emerging period interest in computer dating, but the only "computer" in the story is a paper-mache prop built for the school assembly.