“To be a 10! That’s why I’m here, so I can get some SEO tips and skyrocket to the top.” Maddie stared blankly, causing Sadie to explain, “Search engine optimization, you know, increase my Web traffic.”

“I know all about SEO. It’s just, you’re eleven. Shouldn’t you be hunting for pterodactyls or—”

“I’m eleven, not five. Future’s online for the taking, Maddie. Now, want to help me with this interface or not?”

Maddie sighed and hit the space bar on the keyboard in front of them, returning to the world she knew, the world she understood, the world that made sense.

She walked Sadie through the components of a graphical user interface and set her up to try implementing a drop-down menu on her own. As Sadie worked, Maddie sat back, searching for pterodactyls in the cereal box, listening to Delia quietly explaining the pros and cons of the different programming languages to a black boy two tables over—the most words Delia had spoken since she’d met her. She was showing him a coding game on her phone, guiding him through the basics of how to play. Even though she was talking to a middle schooler, Delia wasn’t talking down, and Maddie was impressed with her knowledge and enthusiasm. All the way on the other side of the room, Lucy rattled on about demographics and marketability, citing stats on the readership of her Teen Vogue articles as an example. Maddie turned to see her commanding a crowd of kids, getting a glimpse of what she’d bring to Demo Day.

By the time they’d finished their session, Sadie was prepared for the next step in the learning-to-code program: getting a pixelated mini porcupine tap dancing. She was about to toss herself over the table in despair, when Maddie stopped her.

“If you need help, you could just ask.”

“Then . . . ask, ask, ask.”

Maddie liked this kid. “You come every day?”

“So long as my annoying brother remembers he’s supposed to take me. He’s home from college and hasn’t played soccer or Minecraft with me once. All he does is stream Netflix and text his girlfriend. Mom’s a super-important employment lawyer at a big software marketing company. She’s busy. Still, she wants to be the one to take me, but I told her my brother could get off his duff.”

Maddie had spent her whole life making sure Danny knew he always came first. The bravado failing to cover the sadness in Sadie’s eyes was the reason why. “Then I’ll be back.”

“Sweet . . . and bring a list of the incubator teams. I want to keep tabs. See what it does for their Pulse.”

Seriously? But Maddie nodded.

As the counselors started collecting the campers and leading them to their parents’ cars, Sadie asked Maddie, “So you gonna win or what?”

“You care if I do?”