“THIS IS AMAZING,” Roman said, staring at her iPad. We were sitting at a table in the library, waiting for school to end.

“What now?” I asked.

“In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote?” Roman said. “It’s one of the best true crime stories I’ve ever read.”

“Coming from you, that’s saying a lot.”

“And it was written in the nineteen sixties,” she stressed.

“Oh, you mean, like before the invention of the modern alphabet?”

Roman gave me a droll “You’re so funny, Shels.”

My BlackBerry vibrated, and I slid it into my lap to read. It was an e-mail, which was odd, since none of my friends ever e-mailed anyone. Stranger still, it was from someone calling themselves vengeance13773288@gmail.com. This is weird, I thought, then opened the e-mail:

Ur such a sweet nice girl with Ur perfect house and riding around in daddys Ferrari. 2 bad U dont no what hes really up 2

Roman hooked her black hair behind her ear and looked at me curiously. She must have seen the perplexed expression on my face. “What is it?”

I handed the BlackBerry to her under the table.

“Creep show,” she said, handing it back. “Who sends e-mails? And what does he mean by what your dad’s really up to?”

“How do you know it’s a he?” I asked.

“The ‘sweet nice girl’ part. A girl wouldn’t write that.” Roman was my best friend and really smart, but sometimes the stuff that came out of her mouth was off-the-charts bizarre.

“Why not?”

“She just wouldn’t.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Says you,” Roman replied with a dismissive shrug.

“What should I do?” I nodded at the BlackBerry.

“Write back,” Roman said.

“And say what? Who are you, and why did you write this? If he wanted me to know who he was, he wouldn’t have used this creepy vengeance at gmail address.”

“Say that you already know what your dad does and that you’re dealing with it, thank you very much.”

“Good idea.” I thumbed in the message and pressed Send.

Roman looked past me. “Guess who just came in.”

I turned to see Chris Clarke, the tall and broad-shouldered all-state tight end with a 3.9 GPA, signing onto a computer. When he saw me, he smiled and waved. I did the same.

“He’s interested,” Roman whispered.

“I know.” Chris and I had been exchanging looks and smiles for the past week.

“You’d be such a perfect couple,” Roman whispered. “Has he said anything?”

I shook my head. “So far it’s been all smiles and nods.”

“Maybe he’s waiting for you to make the first move.”

Before I could respond, my BlackBerry vibrated again. It was another message from vengeance13773288@gmail.com. I quickly opened it and found one word: Liar.