She doubted any of her ValleyStart competitors needed the beta test reminder. Though it wouldn’t arrive until the fourth week of the program, it loomed over every class and lecture, every brainstorming session, every mentor meeting. And every program deadline—like the one coming at the end of the week: submitting their in-progress apps for review. They’d only have a few days to implement the feedback before the beta test, and they had to do it right. The team with the most successful beta test had an eighty-five percent chance of winning on Demo Day. Eighty-five.

The beta test was the domino that would set off all the rest and end with Lucy strolling under the palm trees at Stanford. It would be here before Emma Santos mastered the song she was singing—singing again. The same one she’d been practicing since the day they all arrived. Her voice spilled through the door, and Lucy once again wondered how she had the time.

Then again, she’d been straightening Delia’s hair for the past hour. All the while looking at the necklace Delia always wore, same as Maddie and her four-leaf clover—gifts from their parents. Lucy had one too.

She opened the desk drawer and reached for her jewelry case. Inside was the silver Star of David her mother had given her for her bat mitzvah when she was thirteen. It had originally been her mom’s, given to her for her own ceremony. Lucy hadn’t worn it in years.

She left it where it was and instead hooked a black choker around her neck. She then stroked the felt of her red pennant for luck, picked up her phone, and logged in to Stanford’s online applicant portal, checking on her request for a second interview. Now that she’d actually met Ryan Thompson, if she happened to get the chance to slip his name into the convo, all the better.

No response, still.

Lucy entered the date and time of the check-in into her notebook right below the last one, two days ago, the same day Lucy had heard from her mom.

Any news from Stanford?

That was the only text her mom had sent since Lucy first arrived at ValleyStart. That maybe there’d have been more had Lucy responded was irrelevant.

“Still analog, huh, li’l Lucy?”

Her spine stiffened. Freaking Gavin Cox.

She closed her notebook. “Studies show writing things down increases our memory and allows us to process information on a deeper level.”

“Huh, you don’t say. Wait, sorry. What was that again?”

“I said, studies show—”

He grinned, and Lucy hated that some part of her actually still thought he was cute.

“So this is the home of the dream team behind Lit.” His big feet clomped into the room, leaving a trail of dirt behind him. “Surprised it’s not covered in rainbows and boy band posters.”