Chapter 1“So how’d your summer go?” Eric was organizing the tutor sign-up forms and a motley collection of beat-up pencils on a bright Monday morning, the first day of fall session. Steve shrugged. Two more semesters at Vermillion College, and he’d be out of there, degree in hand. Even now he was applying for a few internships that might transfer into a real job, with any luck one writing for a Silicon Valley giant with lots of fun perks. Maybe not the Google bus, but as close as he could get. He definitely wanted to stay in Northern California. As Eric explained the new filing system—and there was always a new filing system at the beginning of each semester—Steve listened with one ear while watching a guy who could only be his nine o’clock amble across the library toward the tutoring ce

