The screen saver popped up on the ancient computer’s dusty screen. Collette’s eyes followed the vibrant design forming before her. She fought the urge to check her email by sitting on her hands. Collette was drowning in Pre-Calculus homework and truly couldn’t afford to fail that class, much less slide by with a pathetic C-, yet it was 7:24pm on a Tuesday night and all she could do was desperately wait for another email from her darling pen pal, Jameson. It was nearing the end of Collette’s dismal junior year of high school, and she had somehow managed not to reel in a boyfriend. Collette knew she wasn’t completely unattractive, and she certainly hadn’t invested her meager savings into boy repellent, but for some reason, Collette had never been asked out by a member of the male persuasion. Her best gal pal, Rene had insisted that Collette’s only problem was that she played hard to get. Collette always defended herself by saying that just because she wasn’t Miss Flirtatious like Rene, didn’t mean she was making the guys work for her. Collette was just shy and her confidence wavered whenever a guy was in her vicinity. Collette finally settled dejectedly on the fact that she’d have to wait until college to try her luck with the boys; at least then she’d be testing the waters of a completely new school of fish. For the time being, thanks to perfectpenpal.com, Collette had found the remedy that would tend to her woes. When surfing the web one day, Collette had an epiphany and decided that she’d get a pen pal, or more like e-pal, and with him, she would put her flirting skills to the test. This way, if Collette became a confident virtual flirter, she’d pick up the expertise and eventually master flirting with a guy face to face; right in time for college! Jameson was a senior in high school who lived in Liverpool. He was dreamy, according to his Facebook, which she of course searched, he was an amazing writer (Collette always got lost in his words), and, most importantly, he made Collette feel special. He wrote to her as if it was his sole purpose in life. Collette had spent a good fifteen minutes fantasizing about her dream boat of a pen pal. She had maintained her self-control for longer than her best record by far, seven minutes; so she rewarded herself by taking her fabric imprinted hands out from between her thighs and her computer chair and signed on to the internet to check her email. Collette quickly skipped right past her SAT reminder emails and scrolled right to what her heart was skipping a beat for. Without her newfound obsession, Collette had no idea how she would spend her time; well, aside from getting started on her mile high stack of math, that is. Collette felt absolutely content with herself.