Chapter 1

I met her when I was only 20 – She's 12 years old.

Before you leave, thinking I'm some sort of pedophile, we met playing Words With Friends.

I had gotten tired of playing with Cutehunny99, awesome1492, ladybug4red and PrincessKim24.

I selected 'Random Opponent' and I met BossofU99.

Now, I'm pretty good at word games, like Boggle and Scrabble, and my first word was 'MORE' for seven points. BossofU99 used my 'E' and came back with 'ME.' I next played 'TAME' and my random opponent had extended it to 'TAMED.'

I sent her a chat saying, 'Hello, my name is George, I'm 20 and live in Bakersfield.'

BossofU99 played 'Toxic' and replied, 'Hi – I'm Emily, 12 ... I live in San Diego, only three hours to the south.'

We started playing and chatting from that point on, sometimes three games a day.

It's harmless and I'm not chatting things like, 'What are you wearing?' or 'I've got something in my pants for you.'

More along the lines of 'What did you do in school today' or 'Nice word choice.' I gave her some strategy clues in the game and recommended she play with a Scrabble Dictionary, which she said she did and her words got better and more complex, now using words like 'Fete, ' 'Cited, ' and 'Amused.'

I was watching this 12-year-old get smarter right before my eyes. About three weeks after we had started all of this, we started another chat.

BossofU99: 'Are you playing your best, or what?'

George20: 'Why do you ask?'

BossofU99: 'You are – aren't you? I'm only 12, and a girl. You're helping me and playing easy on me. Don't deny it?'

George20: 'Sorry, Emily – I thought you needed some encouragement, so I held back. No More – prepare for Armageddon.'

BossofU99: 'I will if you will, OK? You know my real name; is George your real name?'

George20: 'No!'

BossofU99: 'Why not?'

George20: 'There are a lot of people on the Internet just looking to cause trouble, so I picked a random name to play with a random person. Is everything I know about you real or made up?'

BossofU99: 'Mostly real!'

George20: 'Here's the deal, I tell you one real thing, and then you, OK?'

BossofU99: 'Sounds fair. Go ahead?'

George20: 'My real name is Steven.'

BossofU99: 'OK, I'm really 16 years old.'

George20: 'Why would you lie about that?'

BossofU99: 'People are nicer to a 12-year-old?'

George20: 'Do you have an email so I can communicate that way with you?'

BossofU99: 'Sure, it's EmilyRH@globaline.com – what's yours?'

George20: 'StevenVanderbilt@metricsystem.com'

BossofU99: 'My sister went to school with a Steven Vanderbilt'

George20: 'What's her name?'

BossofU99: 'Susan Bradshaw-Simpson. She got married.'

George20: 'Yeah, I remember Susan – really tall and red-headed?'

BossofU99: 'That's her'

George20: 'OH, I remember you now; you were only about 13 when Susan and I dated for just over a year. Email me a picture of you please?'

BossofU99: 'Why?'

George20: 'I remember just how cute you were at 13, with your pigtails. I'd love to see how pretty you must be by now.'

BossofU99: 'Did you use a line like that on my sister?'

George20: 'No, actually she hit on me when we first met. I didn't think I was her type, but she asked me out.'

BossofU99: 'OK, I sent you a picture – don't laugh, I just took it with my smartphone.'

George20: 'I'll log out and we can email chat instead, all right?'