Crack that Code

[Richard Stone]

Richard Stone walked into his classroom, and got to work setting the laptop up on his desk so that he would be ready for the power point display he wanted to show the students once class started. Happy with the way that the pictures showed up on the whiteboard, he closed the lid of the laptop down and grabbed a marker from the top drawer of the desk and walked over to the whiteboard. Taking the lid from the pen, he wrote Crack the Code across the board.

Next he opened the box that was sitting on his desk chair and took a pile of books out and began to distribute them onto each of the desks in the room. He had more desks then he did students, but one everyone had arrived, he would go around and pick up the extra books. He was going to start the year by getting his students to read and dissect Dan Brown's mystery thriller, The Da Vinci Code, and then they would finish the topic by them watching the film. He knew that not everyone in here would enjoy the book as much as he had, but he was sure that they would enjoy cracking the codes in the book and learning more about the reasons behind it.

He sat down at his desk and greeted the students as they arrived.

Calling:
Gretchen Holmes
@lukamason
Rose Hoff

Athena Achilles
@running7
Danielle Green
@don
@rhythm
Miranda Florin
Tyler Reynolds

You can find an online copy of the book here if you feel inclined to read bits of it as we go along. The Prologue alone is well worth reading (in my opinion).

[Athena Achilles]

Athena brushed her hair out of her face as she walked down the hall toward her English class. Pausing her stride, she pulled her chocolate coloured hair out of the ponytail that currently kept it out of her face and tied it back up again.

She smiled as she entered the room, she had always liked Mr Stone, even back when she wasn't too sure of any adult, and now that she was coming out of her shell, she couldn't help but notice that the young teacher was ever so slightly attractive, not that she would ever let anyone else know that, because going after a teacher was just eww.

She sat down at one of the tables in the middle of the room and looked at the book on the table. She'd seen parts of the movie, but never read the book. Though she liked the idea behind the book. She picked the book up and thumbed through it quickly before she started reading through the prologue. She curled her nose as she finished the prologue, maybe this book wasn't going to be as bad as she thought it would be - though what else did she really expect when only seeing bits of the movie.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda walked into the English classroom, smiling at the teacher, “Hey Mr. Stone!” Glancing around the room, she nodded to the single girl that was already present before picking a seat in the second row of the class. Picking up the book that sat on her desk, she turned it over and over in her hands, before flipping it to read the back. Of course she'd heard of it, but she'd never read it, although she had enjoyed the author's Digital Fortress when Kent had pushed her into reading it.

After finishing reading the cover, and deciding that she would probably like this one just as much as the other, Miranda dug through her backpack until she pulled out her English notebook, opening it to the first page and writing “Crack the Code” and the date across the top. Digital Fortress had held plenty of codes in it, and she had found them interesting, so hopefully this book would hold something similar, although she would guess that Digital Fortress had the better set-up for codes, dealing with a cryptographer's office and work, after all. But then, Dan Brown appeared to just like puzzles in general, and she didn't doubt that this professor would encounter plenty.

[Deleted]

Cambridge English was, undoubtedly, Jason's most challenging class. However, it was a challenge that he enjoyed, for the lessons often prodded his brain to think in new and different ways. He paused by the water fountain on the way to Mr. Stone's classrom, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his red shirt. He entered the classroom and returned the greeting that the man gave. There were plenty of desks to choose from, and Jason settled for one towards the right side of the classroom, as he didn't know the other two students.

He thumbed through the book on the desk, reading a few lines at a time. It didn't make sense, of course, but Jason liked to try to get a feel for the writing style of whatever author they would be reading. Only when he had 'gone through' the whole book did he turn to the back cover to read the blurb. It seemed to be an interesting and fast-paced novel, hopefully one that the senior would be inclined to read regardless of what had been assigned to them that day.

Jason took out a blank notebook and quickly labeled it 'English'. He turned to the first page and waited for class to begin by absently doodling words and music notes in the margin of the paper.

[Deleted]

Donalbain approached his English class with trepidation. Sure, he considered himself an intellectual, but Cambridge English? From the course description, he had thought that the class was aimed at upperclassmen who could use a challenge. He would have been fine with English Literature, but when did his preferences make a difference to his parents anyway? He heaved a sigh and walked in anyway. There were two older looking students, but there was one girl who didn't seem quite so old. Thank goodness for that. He thought to himself and took the first desk he could reach.

The title of the book on his desk more than piqued his interest, and he immediately flipped it over to read the summary. While he had not read the book itself, he had heard it referenced many times before. It seemed to be a fast-paced novel and Donalbain certainly hoped that it would live up to its name. His eyebrows flew up as he read the prologue. Yes, this would be an interesting read. If this type of book was the kind they read in Cambridge English, then perhaps it wouldn't be too bad.

Donalbain was glad that he had arrived relatively early. He took a fleeting glance at the clock before diving back into the book.

[Deleted]

Cambridge English; the class that Caroline dreaded the most, she knew almost for a fact, or at least she was pretty positive, that they would have to read a book that would just drone on and kill brain cells. Though she made her way to the classroom anyways, people gave her looks as she was in her cheerleading uniform but she shrugged it off and was proud of the uniform.

Unfortunately she was almost never in any of the other cheerleader’s classes, which left her alone to her own devices. Entering the room there were four other students there, which was good as Caroline didn’t like to be the first or last into a classroom. She found a seat and there of course was a book, though she read the cover and furrowed her brow, she knew the title from somewhere but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

Caroline wasn’t a bit reader, but she had read a few books in her years of schooling. She waited for the class to grow and then for the bell to ring. The girl just wanted to get this class done and over with so she could go to her equine classes.

[Danielle Green]

Almost as a little schoolgirl, Danielle skipped down the hallway, but not really. English was her favorite subject next to art of course. This year she decided to come out take an art class even though she still wasn’t sure she wanted people to know that she had such abilities.

Cambridge English with Mr. Stone, Danny had the man as a teacher since she got here and she quite liked his teaching methods. She was always looking forward to what was next in the class. Reading was one of her favorite pass times other than riding.

Entering the room she saw that there were already five students in the room. Danny took a seat and looked at the book on her desk. She knew the book and had read it before, but loved it and would have no problem rereading it. She had both watched the movie and read the book, though she read it before she watched it.

She sat there and waited for the class to fill up and then for the bell to ring, Danielle wanted to get started right away, even though she might have been the only one who wanted to do so. Her eyes scanned the room just to look so she could take up time before class started.

[Richard Stone]

Richard stood up from his desk as the tardy bell sounded and walked over to close the door, no better way to make sure students arrived on time for the next class was making them feel as uncomfortable as possible about arriving late - and an opening door always drew attention. He then walked to stand in front of the white board and faced his students. "Welcome to Cambridge English. If you haven't been in my classes before, I am Mr Stone." He held up a copy of the book. "As you are all intelligent individuals, you have by now worked out that we are going to be reading and working through The Da Vinci Code. Just to pull your attention away from the books ever so quickly, I'm going to play some slide shows." He flicked the light switch so that the lights at the very front of the room - the ones above the white board - turned off to remove any glare from the board and walked back to his desk where he opened the laptop and started powerpoint. "The first slide show is a little information about Leonardo Da Vinci himself, the second is an introduction to codes and symbols and the thirds are Images of places mentioned in the book." He fell silent as the slideshows were projected to the white board and then he closed the laptop once more.

"I'm going to write your homework up on the board while you read, which means that between now and leaving the room, you will need to copy it down. We'll go over it at the start of the next class." Picking up a marker, he began to write on the board, under the header he had put up before the students had arrived:

I.	The beginning of eternity, The end of time and space, The beginning of every end, And the end of every place. -The Guess Book (c. 1820)
II.	There is one that has a head without an eye, And there’s one that has an eye without a head. You may find the answer if you try; And when all is said, Half the answer hangs upon a thread. -Christina Rossetti
III.	We are little airy Creatures, All of diff’rent Voice and Features, One of us in Glass is set, One of us you’ll find in Jet, T’other you may see in Tin, And the fourth a Box within, If the fifth you should pursue It can never fly from you. -Jonathan Swift
IV.	At the back of every Igloo, And the middle of the Moon, Always running around in Loops you’ll find me, If you look inside the Room. What am I?
V.	Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters. -J.R.R. Tolkien
VI.	Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail, never clinking. -J.R.R. Tolkien
VII.	He has no feet, yet travels far; literate, but no scholar he; no mouth, yet he clearly speaks. If you know him, you are wise. -Subhasitaratnabhandagara (Sanskrit riddle poem)

[Athena Achilles]

Athena lifted her attention from the book as Mr Stone addressed the class. She listened with a smile as he called them intelligent, though after being a student of his for a year, she knew that he didn't just throw compliments out to those who didn't deserve them. The thought or reading and working through the book made an eyebrow rise, as it started to sound a little like a book report and that didn't sound like a lot of fun.

She watched the slideshows with interest as different information came up, which she quickly copied down into her notebook, after all any information could be included to a quiz at some point and she would hate to be caught out from not paying attention to the smallest bit of information. She could quickly see how the Fibonacci sequence fitted together and thought it quite clever. Her attention shifted back to the book.

She heard the teacher saying something about homework, but didn't lift her head from the book - as she hated stopping in the middle of reading a chapter, especially when it was in the middle of something of importance. Chapter finished, she tore a strip off the last page in the notebook and used it as a bookmark and then she wrote down what Mr Stone had written on the board, putting three riddles per page so that she would have room between them to play around with ideas as she tried to work out the answers.

She then picked the book up again and went back to reading, allowing herself to slip into the book

[Tyler Reynolds]

He was the last one out of his previous class and of course he had to go to the bathroom and so he did. There were a lot of boys in the bathroom but not enough urinals and the two stalls that were in there were also occupied and so Tyler had no choice but to wait. So he waited until something opened up he quickly used it and then made his way to the next class. Just his luck the bell rang.

Although he wasn’t going to make a habit of being late he walked at a normal pace to English. He entered the room and luckily it was dark but took a seat among his classmates and quickly got ready by pulling a notebook and pencil out of his backpack and turned his complete attention to Mr. Stone’s PowerPoint.

Tyler took notes; he didn’t want to get on Mr. Stone’s bad side by being late and then not participating in class. So he did his best to act like he had been there the whole time. He watched all the slide shows completely and then inwardly groaned as the man said about homework. The boy copied down the riddles, giving each a page of its own so just because that’s the way he wanted it.

[Deleted]

She sat back and crossed her arms in front of her chest when class started. The class was small and that didn’t surprise her as she knew many people just were here for the riding not academics though her parents would have pushed her to take more challenging classes anyway so she just did, she really didn’t need to be in this class.

She listened to Mr. Stone as he introduced what they were going to be doing during the class. She smiled slightly when he said that slide shows were going to be shown, Caroline learned better with pictures and so she was glad.

Once the slide shows were done the redhead pressed her lips into a line when Mr. Stone announced that they had homework. She copied the words in her notebook, she doubled checked that she had everything in correctly. The girl wasn’t a genius and knew that it would take her a while to even begin to understand what she was looking at. She knew that they were riddles and that was pretty much all she knew.

Caroline read over the first riddle and thought for a few seconds and nothing came to her and so she just let it go. She would do it when she got back to her room so she would have less distractions, which was just something she told herself, there weren’t really any distractions.

[Danielle Green]

Fortunately she knew what the man’s name was and it sort of gave her a sense of relaxation and it also helped that she was comfortable in general about reading and writing, it was her strong suit. Danielle had read the book before but never had any background information on it.

She sat back and watched the slides move through. She was typically a good student and this time was no exception, she took notes, just so the information would be more absorbed than if she had just read the words. Though Danielle really didn’t like homework she was excited to see what it was.

When Mr. Stone began to write words on the board, she smiled as the first three riddles were up; she knew exactly what they were going to do. Danny copied them down into her notebook putting two on a page as her hand writing was pretty small. Her brain went to work trying to solve the first one.

Danielle knew a lot of these word riddles had something to do with the word itself and not what it said. Looking at the first one she read it to herself.

The beginning of eternity,
The end of time and space,
The beginning of every end,
And the end of every place.

She tried to pick out the similarities with all the words. They all had a lot of E’s and so she read it again and everything clicked. The answer is “E” she thought.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda looked up at the sound of the door closing, putting the book down onto the ground so that she would have space on her desk for her notebook. As the teacher went through the slides, she jotted down some notes, although she focused mainly on the second presentation, which seemed to have the most relevant information that might be useful when reading and examining the book.

After they had finished, Miranda glanced at the clock, judging her time, then shrugged and reached down to pick the book back up. She could copy the homework at the end of class, or at least, once Mr. Stone had had a chance to write it up completely, rather than having to wait for him to finish, or to move his arm, as the case was with boards in the front of the room.

After setting herself a time when she would start writing down the homework, she flipped the book open to its first page and leaned back in her chair, relaxing before she began to read. Every once in a while, she looked up at the clock, and when Mr. Stone had finished, she stuck a bookmark into her position in the pages and turned back to her notebook, and the riddles written on the board.