The Thyme Travelers

Chapter Fourteen: The Text Messages

Since I returned to school, I should probably state what happened in band. Well, here it is:

I sat down at my chair, put together my clarinet, and played a few notes, just to make sure none of the keys were sticky. Then Allison-Overachiever-First-Chair-Marie came next to me, her perfect blonde hair bouncing with just the right amount of volume and sat down.

"Dude. Tell me what the deal is with you and that Zachariah guy," she whispered next to me. Frankly, I didn't know what the deal was either. And I was surprised at the fact that she didn't ask about why I had missed the first four hours of school.

"Um, what do you mean?" I asked. She leaned in closer.

"There are rumors that you and him made out in the woods during lunch."

I froze, but then unfroze.

"I can honestly tell you that nothing like that happened. He just brought me lunch because I forgot mine," I replied casually. Well, it was the truth.

"And where did you go? I didn't see you in the first four hours. I mean, I know you were in science for the first half of it, but then where did you go?"

This wasn't any of her business. I closed up.

"Why does it matter to you?" I asked. She shrugged, ignoring my rudeness, and turned to the music in front of us.

"But if you and Zachariah are going out, I totally called it." Uh huh.

* * *

I sat down at home after I finished my homework (Zach had somehow broken into my locker and gotten my books and assignments for me), anticipating the text messages that Zach would send me. I kept my phone near me, eyeing it every few minutes. If Eliza were here, she'd probably be asking if I was waiting for a call from my boyfriend. Surprisingly, this thought didn't bring on the tears. It made me chuckle to myself. And the answer to that would be yes and no. I wasn't waiting for a call; I was waiting for a text. Whether or not it was from my "boyfriend", per se, is debatable. Finally at about 6:10 I felt a light vibration coming from my phone. I opened the screen and became puzzled at what I saw.

"Teethmttaewudeetusa.

hbstyeorvlolbnxTedy"

The text was from Zach. What? I studied the text. How long had it taken him to write that? Wow. Jumbled letters. Great. This was most likely a code. I looked at the screen. Let's divide the message. I scrutinized the top line, looking for words that I could see.

Teeth. That was the first word I could see. After that, it was "mttae, wud, eet, usa." Okay....

"Teeth, matt (?) wud=would, eet=eat, usa...= U.S.A.?" With teeth, Matt would eat the U.S.A.? Uhhhh, no.

"Zach? What does it mean?" I texted him back. A few seconds later, I got a reply.

"You figure it out. You're a smart girl." Thanks, Zach, for the help.

"Thanks."

I stared at that text for what felt like half an hour. I did manage to notice that there was a period at the top line but not at the bottom, and that there was a capital letter T in the bottom line. I know what to do. I ran upstairs to my room and did a search on the computer.

Types of codes.

It's important to narrow your search, because if not you won't get anything useful. And here's what I got:

How Codes are Useful to the CIA

The Use of Codes Throughout the World

Game Cheats and Codes