“Simulation starts in five,” Mom told me, moving to sit beside Treebaun. “Good luck.” I nodded as everything went black, and I opened my eyes in seat 10B for the sixth time.

Five minutes later I opened my eyes in the icy simulation room again, a wide grin spread across my face as I looked at my mom for confirmation of what I already knew. I’d nailed it. She grinned back, but only for a second as Treebaun cleared his throat and stood up without even glancing at the screen over his head that showed me successfully cuffing the Butterfly I’d discovered hiding behind the curtains of the Lincolns’ theater box.

“Nicely done, cadet,” he said, tapping the screen on his tablet. “Now if you’ll excuse me, this morning is going to require more than one cup of coffee.” When the door slid shut behind him, my mom wasted no time in unhooking my simulation probes so she could give me a tight hug.

“I’m not sure what put a fire under you, but I’m proud of you,” she said in my ear before releasing me.

“Thanks, Mom,” I said, feeling a tug of guilt because I knew exactly what had put that fire under me. I craned my head to get a look at her watch, and she followed my gaze.

“You have ten minutes,” she said. “Head over there now. I need to stop by my office to meet with a professor before I go. Besides, it’s probably best we arrive separately.”

I nodded and hurried out of the room. Mom wouldn’t be personally evaluating my test, but I knew she wouldn’t miss the opportunity to watch me compete in my first one. I couldn’t stop the wide smile from spreading across my face as I hurried down the hall toward the testing room. I’d finally done it. Finally beaten the Lincoln simulation, and I didn’t even care that it had been about 90 percent dumb luck that I’d looked up at the Lincoln booth just as the Butterfly peeped their head out from behind the curtain to look at the stage. I stopped cold in the middle of the hall as goose bumps ran up my arms, prickling like needles along my neck, because it hadn’t been dumb luck. The letter had practically told me where I was supposed to look for the Butterfly. That first bullet point had said behind the curtain.