Solving Zoe by Barbara Dee

to her own apartment, worried.

15
    On Friday morning everyone was crowded around Leg’s locker, waiting for the next note.
    Leg arrived with Paloma just two minutes before the start of homeroom. Leg smiled grimly at everyone, and Zoe noticed that her delicate fingers trembled a little when she opened her locker.
    â€œNothing,” Leg announced, obviously relieved. “No note!”
    â€œAre you sure?” Paloma said. She looked inside Leg’s locker, and even felt around the back, just in case the note had slipped behind some books. But finally she was convinced that Ezra-or-whoever had messed up this morning.
    Then Paloma opened her own locker. “Omigod. Listen to this!” she shouted. She waited for everyone to gather around her, then read in an outraged voice:
    There is no greater bane to friendship than adulation, fawning, and flattery.
    â€”Marcus Tullius Cicero,
De Amicitia, XXV
    â€œWhat is he, insane?” Leg demanded.
    â€œLet me see that note,” Mackenzie said, taking it from Paloma. She studied it, frowning. “Same handwriting. Interesting that it’s not from The Art of War .”
    â€œWho cares where it’s from, Mackenzie,” Paloma snapped. “It just matters who .”
    â€œAlso why,” Leg said. Paloma nodded.
    Zoe noticed Dara quietly walk over to her own locker and open it. She saw Dara reach inside, pause, and then burst into tears.
    Immediately Leg and Paloma swarmed her, but Zoe pushed through. “Dara, what’s wrong?” she cried. “Did something—”
    â€œShe got a note,” Paloma said.
    â€œDara, you have to let us see it,” Leg pleaded. “It could be the same as ours.”
    â€œIt’s not,” Dara said shakily.
    She handed it to Leg, who read it aloud:
    Nothing can be more disgraceful than to be at war with him with whom you have lived on terms of friendship.
    â€”Marcus Tullius Cicero,
De Amicitia, XXI
    P.S. The eye of the gecko never blinks.
    As soon as Leg finished, Dara began to sniffle again. Zoe tried to hug her, but she could feel Dara’s body stiffen. So she took her arms back, letting them drop stupidly by her sides. Meanwhile her heart was banging in her chest. Eye of the gecko, she thought.
    â€œOkay, now this is getting scary,” Mackenzie declared. “I think it’s definitely time to tell Owen!”
    â€œNo,” Dara said, wiping her eyes. “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”
    â€œBut we aren’t. How can we? We don’t even know who’s doing this!”
    â€œJust forget about Owen. I’m serious, Mackenzie.”
    Leg and Paloma exchanged disbelieving looks.
    â€œDara, this could be a real psycho!” Paloma said. “He’s not even quoting the Chinese guy anymore. ‘Eye of the gecko’—what’s up with that ?”
    â€œI don’t want to talk about it, Paloma,” Dara said. She shut her locker.
    â€œSo what’s it doing there, then?” Mackenzie challenged her. “You think it’s like a code?”
    â€œA code?” Zoe repeated. “What sort of code?”
    â€œYou know. Like if you scramble the letters, or read it backward—”
    â€œWhy would you do that?” Zoe asked quickly.
    â€œI bet it’s Zoe,” Leg suddenly announced.
    Zoe gaped at her. “Are you crazy?”
    â€œNo, Zoe. Are you?”
    Zoe turned to Dara. “You really don’t think I’d write something like that, do you?”
    â€œI don’t know what I think,” Dara replied. “I’m just incredibly…upset right now. I’ll talk to you later, Zoe, all right?”
    â€œNo.” She said it much too loudly, but so what. And she didn’t care that everyone was staring at them, as if they were performing onstage under a giant spotlight. “We should talk now , Dara. In private. Please .”
    â€œI can’t,” Dara said, and then