Margaret, Leigh Ann, and I shout out simultaneously. Becca just looks bewildered. “Man, you guys are geeks. How do you know that?” “Oh, come on, Becca,” I say. “You’ve never heard ‘Beware the Ides of March’ before? March fifteenth? The day Julius Caesar was assassinated? My dad even makes me a special breakfast on that day. It’s a giant stack of pancakes with a knife stuck in the middle, and strawberry syrup oozing out of the wound. Because, you know, Julius Caesar was—” “I get it, I get it,” says Becca. “I know how he was killed, I just didn’t know exactly when.” “So is it the same message on the other side?” Leigh Ann asks. Margaret looks at her, puzzled. “Other side?” And then it hits her. “The other side of the ribbon! I almost forgot. We have to check the letters on that side, too. But, first, we have to write this message down.” She jots it down in a notebook, double-checking every letter of every word, and then unwinds the ribbon from the broomstick.
