Page 18 of The Statistically Unlikely Reunion

“Money.”

Brody rolls his eyes, and I pause him with one hand held up. “It’s easy to say fun when you already have money, but a big enough allowance gets you all the adventures you want and the security Lucas asked for. I wouldn’t have to schedule our sessions around Pizza Palace if I was a trust fund baby.”

“Since my parents are alive, I’m more like a trust fund wannabe.” As usual, Brody’s face is more smirk than not. This is a man who’d be hard to offend.

“And what is your position on girlfriends?”

I’m surprised that Lucas asks this, that we’re one practice in and he’s already fishing. “No time at the present for girlfriends or boyfriends. Which is fine, since I don’t believe in relationships. Or love.”

“Respect.” Brody puts up a closed fist, and even though I hate myself for communicating in bro-speak, it’s important Lucas doesn’t get any ideas about the possibility of an us.

It’s Lucas’s gaze I meet when I ask, “Can we get started now?”

Lucas has printed a mock contest, and it’s almost immediately clear there’s something about our team dynamic that just clicks.

Lucas is pedantic as fuck about the actual coding; he’s a rule-follower who has to leave comments because he wants everything to be re-creatable. But he’s also shockingly purposeful and articulate when explaining his thought processes, meaning he’s the type of problem solver who’s open about sharing his logic: Not only does this mean it’s faster to find and correct any potential errors, it also means he’s an easy man to inherit a problem from, when it’s half solved. Considering this is a five-hour contest that relies as much on innovation as collaboration, Lucas is the ideal teammate. There will be problems we’re each faster at, individually, but for the problems complex enough to need multiple sets of eyes, being able to communicate freely, to shore up one another’s weaknesses, is an undeniable advantage.

And Brody, for all his bro/dude talk, not only helps keep the mood light in a way that moves things along, he’s actually kind of brilliant.

More than that, there is something inarticulable about the way Lucas and I work together. When Lucas explains his logic, I grasp it right away and am (somehow, even though I’ve never been a team player) able to deduce what the next steps ought to be. And when I have a half-formed idea that I blurt out, half composed, Lucas picks up on my direction almost immediately. Neither of us gets to complete our thoughts, and we’re often speaking over each other only because our minds are leapfrogging in a way that’s shockingly productive.

There’s a synergy between me and Lucas.

“Get a room,” Brody jokes, before picking up one of the problems Lucas and I had gotten stuck on . . . and finishing it. Oddly, Brody doesn’t seem bothered by whatever mind meld Lucas and I have—he seems to feed off it.

Five hours of programming and problem solving.

But it feels effortless.

We finish our first contest having solved ten out of twelve problems; comparing against actual contest data shows we would have placed third. It’s an astoundingly high placement for a Team B that’s just been thrown together.

I don’t bother hiding my surprise as I ask, “Why are your Codeforces rankings so low?”

Brody answers first, because of course he does. He’s the guy who talks just to hear his voice sometimes, whereas Lucas speaks as if each word is about to be documented for prosperity. “You asking me? Or him?”

“Both.”

Brody lifts a huge, careless shoulder. “Coding is boring. Solving a new problem is fun. Implementation and debugging . . .” He’s whining, having already accepted a proffered beer from some unnamed classmate who was passing by.

“And you?”

Lucas shrugs, his attention still directed at his laptop, trying to figure out why one of our solutions exceeded the time limit. “I didn’t have time for clubs in community college.”

Because I don’t want anyone to get too excited, all I say is, “Okay.”

But what I’m thinking is: We have a chance. My online rating is probably the most accurate, and because I’m the most experienced competitor, it will be on me to manage the workflow, to fill in the holes—algebraic geometry is a huge blind spot, even though those problems aren’t common, and Brody, with his visualization skills, might come in handy—and combinatorics, we’ll need to buff up there, but . . .

Our odds aren’t great, only because the rules dictate that we have to defeat Arjun’s group to even advance to nationals.

But they’re not zero.

We get through another partial contest before Brody allows himself to be pulled away. He’s actually taking off his shirt when he tells us, “We should do this again sometime.”

“I feel like that’s exactly what he’d say to a one-night stand he never calls again.”

“Wouldn’t know,” Lucas confirms in that deep, steady voice of his.

My mouth quirks, and I notice the way Lucas’s gaze drifts down to my lips for just a moment before I tell him, “You could have a second career as a radio DJ with that voice.”