This Diary I Found

11 :: Raccoon Eyes

"And who do you think I am?" she shot back.

"The girl whose brothers broke into the school. The girl who pulled the alarms."

Her mouth twitched into a smirk and she continued walking. I gave up running after her, but I called out, "Well, are you?"

"If you tell the principal, I'm gonna cut your toes off," she answered back. Well, it wasn't a direct answer but it'll do.

I was smiling to myself, watching the platinum blonde-haired girl walk away. Suddenly, Louie was by my side, asking, "Did you find her?"

"I think I did."

×××××

Louie and I got detention for starting the food fight. Can you believe that? We got detention for an innocent fun at the cafeteria while the potential suspect for the fire alarm prank got off scot-free. You call that justice?

"Are you sure it's Emma?" Louie asked.

"Not entirely. But I think she pulled the alarm so that her brothers could make a break. It makes sense, right?"

"Yeah," he replied. "But even if Emma pulled the alarms today, who's to say she also did it back in September? You can prove that she's the mastermind of today's crime but that doesn't guarantee that she's your mystery writer."

"Who else could the mystery writer be?" I questioned. "The only girls left are Kaye and her, and I doubt Kaye would have the guts to do things like this."

"Are you ruling Kaye Montgomery out? I thought you were rooting for her."

"Yes, I'm rooting for Kaye," I said and I meant it. "I want it to be Kaye, not Emma. But now, the arrows are pointing at Emma's direction."

"That's just because we haven't really paid much investigation on Kaye herself," Louie reasoned.

"She's unavailable," I said. "We can't just go barging in her hospital room, asking if she lost her virginity and diary to me."

"Well, there's something else we could do to settle who the girl is," Louie said.

I nodded. I already knew what I had to do. "I have to talk to Emma."

"Exactly," he agreed. "But you have to be really subtle this time."

I nodded.

"You can't just go asking Emma Grange questions like you did to Melissa."

I nodded again.

"You have to come up with a game plan," Louie said. "Find out if she's the mystery writer without making it seem like you're sticking your nose in her business, metaphorically. But how?"

I mulled it over for a while, propping a hand under my chin. "I got it!" I stated. "I found out that the diary writer's an artist, too!"

"She is?"

"Yeah, I found her sketches in the notebook. She actually drew me once. Also, she has this signature thing on the bottom of her artworks."

I grabbed a pen and doodled the mark on my palm. A diagonal, curved arrow with a vertical line cutting through its middle. I showed it to Louie.

"What does it mean?" he asked.

"I don't know. It looks like a cut off male symbol, though."

"That's the symbol for Sagittarius," another voice butted in our conversation.

Both Louie and I craned our heads to look behind us, where the school know-it-all was seated. Sage Dewirth.

"Didn't your momma tell you not to eavesdrop on people?" Louie glared at her. I guess he's still holding grudges about that $12 he lost to Sage. That reminded me, I still had to pay him back. I had to... but I probably wouldn't.

"Didn't your momma tell you to be more appreciative? I just told you what that symbol meant," she answered casually with a pinch of sarcasm added to her tone.

"What are you even doing here?" my best friend questioned. "This is detention. You must be lost. The school theater's on the other side of campus."

"Detention?" she laughed. "Nah, this ain't detention. This is hell with fluorescent lighting and air-conditioning. That would make you Satan."

"Oh, butt out, Dewirth! We're trying to have a conversation" Louie said.

"Butt out?"

"Yes, please," he replied. "With both cheeks."

Sage rolled her eyes and I stepped in. "Reign it in, Lou," I instructed my best friend and turned to her. "Sagittarius, huh?"

"Yeah," she answered, leaning back on her seat.

I nodded making a mental note of it. The diary writer must be a Sagittarius.

I turned to Louie. "Sagittarius. I guess that's another clue, huh?"

"I guess but what are you gonna do about it?" he asked.

I smirked. "I'm gonna let Emma draw me."

"Draw you?"

I nodded. "Like one of her French boys."