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really—”
    But then, abruptly, she stopped herself. Why should she always decline?
    Sundeep had a girlfriend; Patty was in her sorority; Adam was living in a frat house now and, apparently, had a girlfriend. And all she had was two thousand lines of code that weren’t working.
    “Sure, George. I’d love to hang out some time.”
    “Really?” George tried to contain his excitement. “That’s great!” He scrambled for an idea, afraid that if he didn’t get a plan made now it might never actually happen. “What are you doing tonight?” Amelia looked at the jumbled code on her screen. It was a lost cause.
    “Nothing. I’m not doing anything.”
    “I was going to head over to the Lair to play ZOSTRA . We have a group that gets together every Wednesday. Do you play?” George was referring to the virtual reality game that had developed a cult following in the computer science community.
    “I’ve never played,” Amelia said, watching his face drop. “But I’d love to learn.”
    “Excellent!”
    Who was she kidding? Guys like Sundeep didn’t go for her. She was a computer science geek. She might as well act the part.

Chapter XIX
Meet me at ZOSTRA
    A melia had heard of the Lair, but she had never actually been there.
    Situated across campus from the Gates Building, it was technically a twenty-four-hour study room. Stanford was always updating the equipment in the Gates building and, whenever they did, they put all the old (meaning six to twelve months outdated) equipment in the Lair and left the space largely unmonitored.
    It had become an upper-class computer science hang, where engineers who wanted to socialize more than code came to “study.” They’d start filtering in after dinner and open a problem set. Then they would log-on to Instant Messenger and flirt with people across the room. By ten o’clock at night, everyone was usually huddled around a few monitors watching YouTube clips or two people battling against each other in Angry Birds or Scrabble.
    Wednesdays had officially become ZOSTRA nights, starting promptly at midnight.
    Amelia followed George through a painted red door and up two flights of concrete stairs to the Lair, where two guys she recognized as Computer Science TAs sat at a table collecting money and handing out player numbers.
    “Hey, guys!” George said to the two. “Do you know Amelia? Amelia, meet Tom and T-Bag.”
    T-Bag, a lean, good-looking blond guy wearing a sport coat with a pocket square, stood up and took Amelia’s hand, bowing his head to her in mock formality. “Forgive these imbeciles. Everyone calls me T-Bag, but as you seem rather sophisticated, feel free to refer to me by my Christian name, Theodore.”
    Amelia smiled with surprise. Who was this guy, with his strange European accent and ornate speech? “Very nice to meet you, Mr. T-Bag,” she said, taking his hand and playing along.
    Tom, a chubby Asian boy wearing a tie over his t-shirt, khaki shorts, and no shoes, also stood up and shook her hand. “You’re not
the
Amelia, are you? The one doing that device linking thing with Tom Fenway?” George swept his arms up, as though he were a magician presenting his finest act. With these guys, he had an air of confidence and charm she had never witnessed in Gates. “Indeed, she is. Gentlemen, you are in the presence of greatness.”
    “Tickets comped!” T-Bag exclaimed. “May I have the honor of getting you a drink, Madame?”
    Amelia wasn’t sure if they were mocking her or if they were seriously impressed, but it didn’t matter; there was something utterly loveable about these three. T-Bag handed her a plastic cup filled with cheap vodka and cranberry juice. “Our very finest, for the lady,” he said, and she felt her heart flutter a little as she happily took it from him.
    She and George played ZOSTRA as a team so she could figure out the rules. The game was based on avatars, which each player created and kept from week to week. The avatars