“Attention!” said a firm voice behind me, and I turned and saluted with everyone else as my mom entered the room. She’d changed since my Lincoln simulation and looked every inch the commander in chief in her fitted black uniform. The Glitching medals across her left shoulder and chest flashed impressively in the fluorescent lights, and every eye followed her as she walked across the room to take her seat. She didn’t even glance in my direction, which didn’t surprise me. In here I was just another cadet. Elliot took a half second longer than everyone else to salute, since he was still staring at me like I had four heads.

“Better get it together, Cadet Mason,” I said under my breath as Mom took a seat behind the control panel. He scowled at me, and I smiled back my most winning watch me screw this up for you smile. Professor Brown began explaining the logistics of the test, and we turned our attention back to her. We would be entering the same simulation, but there would be only one Butterfly. The first cadet to find and remove them would be the winner and receive the advancement point.

Elliot moved to stand next to me, his arms crossed over his chest. “What are you doing here?” he whispered.

“I thought that was obvious,” I breathed.

“But why?” he asked.

“You know why,” I said, and I saw him stiffen.

“You don’t stand a chance,” he hissed, and I rolled my eyes.

“Then why do you look like you just swallowed a goldfish?” I asked, fighting the urge to laugh at the sour, pinched look on his face. Even if I did lose, irritating Elliot to this degree would almost make it all worth it. But while I smirked back at Elliot, a small part of me, the part that always shriveled when a teacher realized that the mediocre student sitting in front of them was the commander’s daughter, felt a pang of doubt. Why in the world did I think I could beat Elliot?

I squared my shoulders and pushed those thoughts away. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, I reminded myself. Especially, I remembered as my insides squirmed uncomfortably, when that squirrel has some help from the future. Future me had ensured that I’d made it this far with the curtain tip, and I could only hope that meant that today was my day to find the nut. I mentally ran through the bullet points that I could remember. If they were in order, then I needed to keep an eye out for something under a deck. Whatever that meant.

“Cadet Fitz?” Professor Brown asked, and I glanced up to see everyone staring at me expectantly. I’d apparently been asked a question.

“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling my face flush with embarrassment. “Could you repeat that, please?”