Mr. Speed creates a website on which his students can anonymously type their worries and get feedback from their classmates, which helps them sort out everything from pimples to stepfamily problems.
Ellie, a normal, ordinary girl, starts ninth grade with high hopes of keeping her best friends, staying on a diet, becoming more glamorous, and getting a boyfriend.
Kate likes nearly everything about school except for her big, bullying classmate Mark, but when their brothers Robbie and Andrew become friends, Mark ends up at Kate's house for Robbie's birthday party during which Kate learns some very useful information.
Ten-year-old Dolphin is determined to stay with her family, no matter what, but when her sister goes to live with her newly-discovered father, sending their mother further into manic-depression, Dolphin's life takes a turn for the better.
In the midst of trouble at home, with her best friends, and with her love life, thirteen-year-old Ellie receives an encouraging letter from her favorite illustrator.
Ellie is starting ninth grade and she's dead set on finding herself a boyfriend. Her two best friends seem to have all the luck in the love department, but our heroine will stop at nothing to join the ranks.
