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"I guesswhile he faked a shiver Of course Ms Sears knew about his birth ashamed of who you are "Any cool books co her entire weave of hair shift like a jittery land e, but I think he’s too scary for you," she said, trying to hold back a smile

Tick rolled his eyes "I’ll take htmares, tell your mom that I warned you" She smiled "I’ll hold it up at the counter for you"

"Thanks, Ms Sears" He inched toward the coe

"Okay, then," she said "Have fun"

He nodded, then sat down at a computer as soon as she walked away Hisaround his brain like renegade alphabet soup He knew several things for sure, and he also knehat he still needed to figure out For some reason, on May sixth he needed to close his eyes, say soround ten times with an object still left to be deter into his e- the INBOX button He’d checked his e-mail almost every day for weeks, and he was always disappointed to find nothing there But what are the odds? he thought Who knew if anyone else out there had received anything,the Internet for others But Tick felt like he’d explode if he didn’t find sohts

He clicked the mouse

The INBOX page only took a couple of seconds to load and a subject line written all in capital letters caught his eye the instant it appeared His breath caught in his throat He stood up in exciteHe noticed a fels frohted the chair and sat down, the skin of his face on fire Once settled, he looked at the screen again, hoping his eyes hadn’t been lying to his brain

But there it was, in black capital letters, bold against the white background:

From: SOFIA PACINI

Subject: MESSAGES FROM MG

Chapter

13

Talking to Sofia

As he opened the e- to breathe underwater He could hardly believe it; to receive an e- the sa once and for all--evenattacked by the Gnat Rat

Forcing his eyes to slon and take in each word, Tick read the e-lish, since I know you must be a typical Alish is, well, brilliant My name is Sofia Pacini and I live in the pretty Alps in the country of Italy Do you knohere Italy is? Probably not You’re too busy studying the Big Mac and the Spider-Man and not world geography Maybe you can learn fro you, so please don’t cry :)

I saw your post on the Pen Pal Web site and almost sed my shoe No, I didn’t have a shoe ina funny A to hold in a laugh since he’d already eh in front of the library crowd But this Italian girlwas she for real? He continued reading

I got a letter frohed and thought it was my friend Tony, but the letter came from Alaska, so I don’t know Then more came, and I met a really tall lady called Mothball Did youtree with clothes, but I like her