“Um, excuse me?” Delia hovered in the doorway. “Lucy, do you want me to wait in the common room? I owe my parents a call anyway.”

“No, absolutely not.” She backed away from Gavin and told him, “Sorry, I forgot my notebook this morning, so in fact, I didn’t take any notes.”

Delia looked like she was about to offer up her own, and Lucy said, “Neither did Delia. None of us did.”

“Considering what I heard, you might think about starting.”

“Heard? What? From who?” Lucy said. People were talking? About them?

Gavin ran his fingers along his mouth, zipping it shut.

Fine, whatever. Underestimate us. We’ll show you. The Stanford portal was still up on her phone. She clicked it shut. We better.

Maddie came up behind Delia. She leaned against the doorjamb, and her brow creased. “Why is there crap on our rug?”

The turquoise-and-white diamond shag rug Lucy had ordered after the first time her bare feet hit the linoleum.

Gavin pursed his lips. “It’s not crap, it’s dirt. They ran the sprinklers too early on the golf course.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Maddie slid off her sneakers and added them to the pink canvas basket Lucy had also ordered and set by the door for their shoes.

Lucy’s jaw clenched both at the clumps now on her rug and at Gavin. “Some nerve, Gavin. Coming to me for notes because you were golfing.”

His shoulders rounded, not much, but enough for Lucy to tell. “I thought you’d understand. My dad called at the last minute. Needed a fourth.”

Maddie snorted, but Lucy stayed silent, searching Gavin’s eyes for a truth she was surprised to see was actually there.

She said in a soft voice, “You tell him about the hackathon win?”

Gavin nodded. “Got a whole chin lift out of him. But if I ‘stay the course’ . . .” Gavin used air quotes. “Well, then he might put Demo Day on his calendar.”

Lucy bit down on her lower lip, chewing, until she realized she was doing it and stopped. “Fine. I’ll take a photo of my notes and send it, okay?”

Maddie tossed her tablet and stylus on her bunk with a huff.

“Thanks, Luce.” Gavin winked at her.

Maddie stared at him. “What’s your team’s app, anyway?”

“It tracks the development of new apps.”

“How meta of you.”

“Can’t hurt to have a little self-awareness in our lives, now can it?” On his way out the door, he nodded to Delia’s half-curly head. “Way to rock the asymmetry.”

“Goodbye, Gavin,” Lucy said in a voice more high-pitched than she liked. We will show everyone. “Now, Delia, sit, before this thing overloads the fuse box.”

Delia grabbed her laptop and reclaimed her seat. “I’ve just got to figure out what’s breaking this line of code.”