Lauren Myracle

Through "instant messages," chronicles the struggles best friends Maddie, Angela, and Zoe face during their freshman year in college, each of them in a different state, two wondering if their romantic relationships will last, and one determining that roller derby is the key to keeping the trio close.

Paul Walden is not an alpha lobster, the hypermasculine crustacean king who intimidates the other male lobsters, beds all the lady lobsters, and "wins" at life. At least not according to the ego-bursting feedback he's given in his freshman seminar. But Paul finds a funny, faithful friend in Roby Smalls, and maybe - oh god, please - he's beginning to catch the interest of smart, beautiful Natalia Gutierrez. Cruising through high school as a sauced-out,...

Now high school juniors, Zoe, Maddie, and Angela continue to share "instant messages" with one another as one of them experiments with marijuana, another gets her first boyfriend, and the third moves three thousand miles away.

As high school graduation nears, Wren Gray is surprised to connect with gentle Charlie Parker, a boy with a troubled past who has loved her for years, while she considers displeasing her parents for the first time and changing the plans for her future.