Odessa's Practice Notes

A Caesar cipher was used to encrypt these notes. A Caesar cipher works by shifting all letters in a message by a set number of spaces in the alphabet based on the message's "key". For example, if the key is 1, all letters are shifted by 1. So, the word "cat" would become "dbu". To decrypt a Caesar cipher, you need to figure out the relevant key, which is a number.

There are two entries in Odessa's Practice Notes. Above each, there is a "Note to Self" — this note is important for figuring out the messages.

Notice what Odessa underlined in her "Notes to Self".

Odessa underlined a letter (f for the first message, j for the second message). Can you translate the letter into a number (i.e. a "key"?)

The key for each message is the underlined letter's place in the alphabet. For the first message, the key is 6 (f is the 6th letter in the alphabet). For the second message, the key is 10 (j is the 10th letter).

Decrypted, the first message reads: "I think somebody stole my angel wings necklace during rehearsal today."

Decrypted, the second message reads: "I felt really off today. I was tired at the start of practice, so I chugged my sports drink. A half hour later, I was so dizzy and drowsy I had to leave."