Delia sat at the desk, a mix of fear and excitement bubbling inside her. “You really think we could do this? In a week?”

“The games are already there,” Lucy said. “And, really, we only need one to be fully functional for Demo Day. Which means you can mostly focus on Pulse.”

“Maybe . . . but . . .” Delia faced Maddie. “It’ll mean a lot of work on your end to make it look remotely professional.”

“Excellent. I’ve been bored out of my gourd.”

“And you’ll have to redo the presentation,” Delia said to Lucy. “Without a beta test.”

“Heard it right from the ass’s mouth: all I need to do is own the room.” She smiled her most confident smile. “Got it covered.”

Delia thought of how much she’d have loved games like these as a kid—after all, that’s who she’d always been designing this for: her younger self. “You really want to do this? Because if you do, I’d like us to try. And not just so we don’t have to leave the program.”

“Because this is important,” Maddie said. “Like Eric’s app.”

“It could be. I wish I’d said something sooner.”

Lucy waved her off. “I probably wouldn’t have listened. But I’m listening now. And, actually, there’s so much potential—”

“Lucy,” Maddie warned.

“No, I’m serious, because this would be perfect for an underserved market.” She got out of the bunk and spun around, like she was already on the Demo Day stage. “Girls.”

“I like that,” Delia said.

“Sadie would love that,” Maddie said, a spark in her eye that had never been there when they talked about Lit.

Lucy’s excitement matched hers. She swung the printed quotation in her hand and then faced the door, still covered in old Lit logos. She tore them all down and pressed Ada’s words dead center. “And that’s just the beginning, ladies.”

Maddie sat on the corner of the desk, Delia stayed in the chair, and Lucy paced the room, her ideas flying even faster than they did when she’d proposed Lit. And this time, she paused to hear everyone’s suggestions.

Maddie: Offering bite-sized daily games and larger ones to attract all types of users from the casual to the more dedicated.

Delia: Committing to free intro-level games, the rest at a low price with discounts for coding groups, schools, libraries, to encourage girls to work as teams.

Lucy: Including free and paid tutorials run by women in tech, from high school students to C levels like Nishi and her mom.

Maddie: And not just women in tech; talks about working hard by successful women like Esmé Theot.

“Right,” Lucy said. “Like we can just call up Esmé Theot and ask.”