The power of imagination.

Maybe for Ada.

Delia wished she could channel Ada’s brilliance now as she listened to Lucy talk about the problems with Lit. She’d followed every protocol she knew and more she’d had to learn. And still she couldn’t break through. The problem wasn’t in the user interface or the code layer but had something to do with the database. It was responding slower and slower with each request, even when the requests were the same. She was missing something. She just had no idea what or how to find it.

Which was what kept her up at night—worrying and reading. She’d been poring over tutorials online and reading books she’d borrowed from the library, her photographic memory cataloging it all. Because she needed to stand out as a developer. And mastering the database side was how she’d do it. Being able to troubleshoot server issues and laggy SQL without a data admin’s help-that would make Delia the unicorn Lucy already thought she was.

“Once we have our data from the beta test, we’ll be able to finalize this slide,” Lucy said, clicking through the Demo Day presentation she’d been putting together. “And you’ll narrate along with the others that really dig into the code.” She tapped the screen on her laptop.

“What? You mean me? Onstage?” Hives prickled beneath Delia’s skin just at the thought. No one ever said anything about her having a speaking role. “Isn’t Demo Day your thing?”

“Nothing about this is just my thing—”

Maddie snorted.

“We boom or bust together, ladies,” Lucy continued, ignoring Maddie and what seemed to Delia the ever-present tension between the two. “And I for one need a big, bad . . .” She mimed an explosion with her hands. “An earth-shattering one.”

Delia nodded, her pulse still in overdrive. “Me too.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Maddie said, her stylus sweeping against her tablet as she doodled what looked like horns coming off a close resemblance to Ryan Thompson. “You both want this, so I’m in. Even though Pulse is a complete and utter crock.”

“Don’t start,” Lucy said. “We know how you feel about Pulse.”

“It’s not just Pulse, it’s Emma. Sadie said she was supposed to play at that stupid Pulse-a-palooza, and I checked and she’s not on the lineup anymore. Even the entertainment needs to be Crushing It.”

“So? Since when is Emma your BFF?”

Delia cut in. “And what about Eric? He’s the one who lost a third of his team. And he needs this.”

Lucy eyed her. “Not more than us, Delia. I know you guys are a thing—”

“We’re not.” Because Delia didn’t date. (And because Eric hadn’t asked her out on one.)

“But we have to come first.”