“Don’t get me wrong. Earthquakes, root canals, zombie apocalypse—plans have their place. But happy accidents? Why, they’ve given us everything from Corn Flakes to pacemakers to Post-it Notes. To me.”

That got Lucy’s attention.

Nishi folded her hands together, the long sleeves of her tunic, red with a small black teardrop pattern, resting against the desk. “I was an engineer. That’s what I came here to do and to be. But when I got sick of crashing on my cousin Sanjay’s couch and eating a diet of ramen, I took the only job I could get, which was in marketing. But it was planning three product launches, four focus groups, and my boss’s daughter’s wedding all in one year with inferior software that led to me creating my own.”

“Your first company.”

“Listen, Lucy, I just think when life hands you lemons and all you can think to do is make lemonade, you’re not trying hard enough. And you’ve never had my mom’s lemon chicken biryani.”

Lucy drew in a breath.

“Sound familiar?”

“My mom. Except hers was lemon cake.”

“Never had much of a sweet tooth. But the sentiment stuck. Heard your mom say it in a talk when I first moved here. You know she was one of the first women in tech to reach a C level?”

“But she’s stayed there. Under three different CEOs.”

“Exactly,” Nishi said. “She’s stayed. Under three different CEOs. All voted out and yet the business is more profitable each year. Why do you think that is?”

Lucy had never thought of it that way before.

“Women like your mom, they give hope to the rest of us that we can be firsts too, be it the first with brown skin or a name that’s hard to pronounce or whatever isn’t what people expect to see on a founder’s profile page. You might say she’s the reason I never quit.”

A hardness pressed against the sides of Lucy’s throat, and she stared at the new scuff on her formerly pristine sneaker. But inside she thought, Me too.

“So,” Lucy started, “if we needed to change Lit, could we? Could we present something else?”

“A happy accident? Sure, why not? The mentoring and beta tests are all to help teams put together the best presentation that they can. If a team wants to forgo all of it, that’s their choice.”

And Lucy knew, she had to find Maddie and Delia.

TWENTY–SIX

SYNERGY • Working together so the combined effect is greater than the sum of the parts

IT WAS THE THUNK that finally roused Maddie from bed. She climbed down from her bunk, smelling a bit like Danny’s favorite socks. She opened the door, and a hefty overnight package fell into the room. The return address wasn’t one she recognized. Unlike the handwriting on the note inside.

Maddie!