Kayla laughed out loud, then yelled in a sing-songy voice, “Tick had tooty-buns! Tick had tooty-buns!”

That broke everyone up, and dinner continued like normal.

“Anything happen lately with your Pen Pal account?” Mom asked.

Tick almost choked on his potatoes, for a split second worried that somehow his mom had logged into his account and seen the e-mail from Sofia. But then he realized he was just being a worrywart, her question totally innocent. He’d been doing the Pen Pal thing for a couple of years, still having never really connected with anyone for more than a few letters here and there. No one had ever seemed interesting enough for him to want to stay in touch—or maybe it was the other way around.

“Not really. I got an e-mail from some girl in Italy, but she seems kind of psycho.”

“Psycho?” Dad asked. “Why, what did she say?”

“She called me an Americanese boy and asked me a million dumb questions.”

Mom tsked. “Last time I checked, not speaking English well and being curious did not make someone a psycho. Give her a chance. Maybe she likes chess.”

“Maybe she’s cute,” Lisa added. “You could marry her and join the mafia.”

“Sweetheart,” Dad said. “I don’t think everyone from Italy is in the mob.”

“Yeah, it’s probably only like half,” Tick said. He expected Lisa to laugh at his joke, but was disappointed to see she thought he’d been serious.

“Really?” she asked.

“It was a joke, sis.”

“Oh. Yeah, I knew that.”

“Well, anyway,” Dad said, moving on. “I think this weekend we should all go see a movie, go bowling or something. Who’s in?”

By habit, everyone around the table raised their hand. Kayla shrieked as she waved both arms in the air.

“All right, plan on it. Everyone meet right here at noon on Saturday.”

For some reason, right at that moment, the thought hit Tick that he should tell his dad about everything. Keeping the secret was eating away at his insides and now with nothing but silence from Sofia, the feeling was getting worse, not better. Just thinking about telling someone seemed to take a thirty-pound dumbbell off his shoulders.

Next time Mom’s out shopping, he thought. I’ll tell him. Maybe he can help me figure everything out. If he believes me.

Tick put his dishes away, then watched some ridiculous game show on TV with his family. The whole time, he thought of one thing and one thing only.

Midnight.

~

It was time for bed, but Tick wanted to check his e-mail one more time. He felt obsessed, checking it constantly in hopes that Sofia would finally write him back.

He sipped a cup of hot chocolate as he logged into the computer in the living room, almost spilling his drink when he saw Sofia’s name in the INBOX. He put his cup down and leaned forward, clicking on her e-mail.