Lucy motioned for them to come center stage. As they did, Lucy continued, “Delia mentioned part of our business model, but we also want to foster girls working together, having Girl Empowered be the staple for coding clubs that already exist as well as encouraging girls to team up and form their own groups.” Lucy found Nishi in the audience and smiled. “Because collaboration yields excellent results. And Silicon Valley will continue to be a boys’ club only if we let it. Or don’t start one of our own—a girls’ club.”

Emma walked onstage and stood beside Lucy. Together, they looked at Ryan. His head rocked back, and he adjusted the collar of his button-down.

The Pulse logo appeared on the screen. Controlled by Sadie in the back, who’d done as Lucy had asked and attached her phone to the projector, the images flipped from Pulse 10 to Pulse 10.

“A generation of kids—my generation—has been obsessed with our ratings, posting more, trying harder and harder every day to be the funniest, hippest, strongest, smartest, est, est, est in a desperate attempt to be Crushing It. For all the perks that come with it. But who’s actually getting those perks? Is it these people?” Lucy gestured to the rotating faces on the screen. “These incredibly picture-perfect users, or are they, are we all, actually being used? Because who’s really benefitting? The people getting new barbecues and bicycles and tickets to Fungus . . .” Lucy checked out Ryan and his quickly paling face. “Or the ones paying for it—the advertisers? Paying Pulse for product placement. But that placement . . . it’s better if it’s with people who look like all these 10s, right? Thin, young, athletic. But how could it be possible that all of the most popular Pulse users look the same? How is it possible?”

Lucy nodded to Sadie, and Eric and Delia’s slide appeared on the screen. An animation of how 10s would appear in Ryan’s secret table beside Delia’s rendering of how it would work in the code.

“Something like this, perhaps?”

Murmurs spread through the audience as those who knew coding began to run through what they were seeing.

Ryan shot up out of his seat. “This is absurd!”

Nishi rose with him, Lucy’s mom just a second behind. The look on her face . . . she knew.

“Where did you even get—” Ryan cut himself off and balled his fists. But then his tone shifted, and he laughed with contempt. “Creative, I’ll give you that, girls. Though I doubt this is even your idea. Can’t trust a team who steals apps right off the Internet and tries to pass them off as their own. A competitor put you up to this? I hope they paid you enough to make it worth denigrating what all of these brilliant students have spent their time doing this summer. Now off my stage. You’re done.”