Caught by Julie Steimle (read my book .txt) 📕

“I haven’t a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatever”—Mark Twain—

Aver Tellovii laughed with the rest of them when nine-year-old Cadet Zormna Clendar was caught sneaking from the pronuk hall during her History class. She hadn’t shown up, and Alea Her’nann stormed out of the classroom with the entire class following like a mob out to murder her. When the teacher noticed the students following him, he ordered them to wait as he marched down the athletic hall and retrieved the girl, just as they saw her cross to the showers. Alea Her’nann dragged her out by her ear all the way down to the Kevin’s office.

“Lemee go!” The little blond prankster screeched as the Alea yanked her over to the Kevin’s door. Cadet Zormna glared at Aver Tellovii, who was the teacher’s aide at the cadet training school, even as they dragged her to the office doors.

The Aver only smiled back. “You’re gonna get it now.”

Alea Her’nann pressed the com button. “Alea Her’nann reporting, Kevin. I have Cadet Zormna Clendar here to see you.”

The com buzzed. <<Which one, Alea Her’nann? You know there are hundreds of Zormna Clendars in the Patrol.>>

“Your Zormna, sir.” The Alea gave the small green-eyed girl a dirty look.

Zormna went bright red and turned her head to the floor—as much as she could anyway since the Alea still had a hold of her ear.

<<Enter.>>

Both the Alea and Zormna walked into the room. Aver Tellovii waited to see what the result was, standing patiently outside the door. It was mere minutes before both Zormna and the instructor came out of the room again. Cadet Zormna was hanging her head even lower, and the Alea was beaming. Alea Her’nann turned to Aver Tellovii immediately.

“Aver, I want you to take this cadet here to the showers. She is to scrub them by hand until dinner time.”

Aver Tellovii smirked with satisfaction and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

The teacher’s aide immediately led the way down the hall, and Cadet Zormna followed sulking as she dragged her feet. They passed the class of cadets that was still waiting in the hall, somewhat like a gauntlet as her classmates cast jeers at her. And why not? She got better marks than they did, and she hardly did the work. She deserved it.

“Hey, Zormna, wanna play a game of pronuk?” One boy made grotesque faces at her.

“Got caught?” Another boy brayed with a nasal snort to punctuate his mirth.

“Scrubba, scrubba!” A girl jeered, motioning like she was scrubbing the floor.

“Smarty pants, did a dance. She got caught in her underpants!” A group of girls chanted together, their faces in sneers. About three of them were also called Zormna; two were Clendars, though all were viciously jealous of the favoritism the Kevin showed that one Zormna.

The Kevin’s Zormna turned redder and redder as she walked through the gauntlet classmates. Only Salvar did not jeer. He stood against the wall watching the floor. The both of them had ditched class together, but he was the one that didn’t get caught. She Averted her eyes and continued on.

“Zormna Clendar didn’t get far. Ran around like a dizzy flight car. When she got there her brain wasn’t there. The brainless Zormna Clendar!” Cadet Lenn, a cadet Zormna particularly disliked, chanted along with his mob of flunkies cackling.

She gritted her teeth with every attempt to ignore them. It was something she had to regularly do since the Kevin’s favoritism had singled her out over all the other recruits. Over half the recruits were jealous. It almost worked until Aver Tellovii said with a jeer, “Did you actually think you’re above rules, Zormna? You deserve this.”

Zormna scowled at him. “I don’t deserve being picked on.”

The Aver just shrugged. “I think you do.”

He led her through the shower room to the maintenance closet where he pointed her to a bucket and scrub brush. Luckily for her, her teacher directed the crowds of cadets back to class so the two were left alone, much to Zormna’s relief.

“You can start with the walls and then do the floor,” Aver Tellovii said.

Zormna nodded obediently, heaving up the bucket to the spigot where she filled the bucket with the syrupy chemical wash then dipped the brush inside.

Aver Tellovii, slapped the brush out of her hand. “Are you stupid? You need to wear gloves with this stuff.”

Zormna looked at the cleaning solution then her hands and shrugged. “What? Is it toxic?”

The Aver shook his head. “No, but it’ll turn your hair green. You’ll come out looking like a green demon if you get it on you. They’ll have to shave your head.”

“Oh.” She peered at the solution and screwed up her mouth in thought. “But it’s not toxic?”

The Aver laughed. “Not unless you drink it or get it in your eyes. Even you aren’t that stupid.”

Zormna scowled at him with a stomp, clenching her fist. “I’m not stupid.”

Aver Tellovii snickered, peering down at her. “You maybe able to fly and fight and do all those sports, but you keep doing stupid things.”

“I don’t do stupid things,” she snapped back.

“You do too.” The Aver snorted with a turn toward the door, heading out. “You fly upside down in the flight tunnels right in front of Alea Sholda.”

“Flying upside down isn’t stupid. You can’t do it.” She set her hand on her hip.

The Aver flushed almost red enough to match his hair. “Yeah, but you always get caught. You’re on record now, Zormna. It isn’t smart to put yourself into the council records.”

“Smart?” Zormna laughed back, gaining courage with some swagger as she took a step after him. “You’re just saying I’m not careful. Yeah, so I get caught. So what? I do a little work, and I make up for it. I’m still at the top of my class, Aver Tellovii, and not just in fighting or flying either, and you know it.”

Aver Tellovii rolled his eyes.

With a smirk at him she continued.

“I already have that history text memorized. I don’t need to go to that class.” Her grin was smug. “Why can’t I just spend the time in the pronuk hall? It is a lot better than just sitting in class dying of boredom.”

He just glared at her in the doorway. “You think you are so smart don’t you, you little flymite.”

“You’re a flymite too!” Zormna snapped back, slamming down the scrub brush and marching over to him.

“Stupid,” he said again.

She shoved her face up at him with glare, standing a foot below his face. “Take it back.”

Giving a snort, Aver Tellovii backed up. “No. You’re stupid to get caught. You deserve this.”

He then stepped into the corridor.

“You’re just jealous!” She followed him out.

Aver Tellovii just shook his head, continuing on. “You have scrub job.”

She continued to cast him dirty looks as he walked off, but he was her superior and she did have a duty to do. She turned to go back inside. But just before the Aver marched completely own the hall, he called back to her with a devious smile on his face. “Oh, Zormna, by-the-way. I was the one who told Alea Her’nann that you were gone. He didn’t even notice that you were missing.”

Zormna clenched her fists. Her mouth gaped open. “You roach!”

“Have fun cleaning the showers!” He cackled as he walked away.

“You roach!” She shouted after him, her voice echoing in the hall. Watching the Aver saunter off, she threw herself against the doorjamb, kicking the wall.

Stalking back to the bucket of chemical, cleaner, she picked up the scrub brush from the floor and sighed. Dropping it into the bucket, she reached over to the cleaning dispenser for some plastic gloves. Pulling them on and letting her thoughts wander as she stared at the plastic, something occurred to her. She blinked. Zormna peered back down at the bucket. Squatting down, she ran her gloved hand through the syrupy chemical, stroking the liquid with her fingers. A grin spread across her lips. The corners of her mouth curled and made her smile wider.

She laughed.

Taking up the scrub brush from the bucket, Zormna went right to scrubbing the walls, laughing to herself as she worked. Down the hall people could hear her laughs come from the shower room. Several cadets peered in from time to time, peeking at the small, orphaned cadet who seemed to have a mad tinge in her eyes as she scoured those walls clean. Most of them just rolled their eyes at her, or shook their heads and walked away. It wasn’t until dinner that the laughter stopped. By then Zormna had finished, trotting off to dinner while admiring her wrinkled hands.

Everyone stared after her, knowing her reputation as a little eccentric if not rather mischievous, though no one could truly figure out what was going on in her little head. Once the formally shy girl had found her strengths she had never been the same since.

“Shhhhh!” She hissed to Salvar, setting a finger to her mouth.

Salvar ducked down below the lighted computer com panel and peered through the dim midnight lighting in the halls. The floors were barely lit up with the blue-white running strips.

“I really don’t think we should be doing this, Zormna.” He whispered.

The hall nearly echoed with his words.

Zormna clamped a hand over his mouth. “Then go back. I just need to get in the male sector. Lend me your card.”

She crawled on her hands and knees, reaching up to the door code pad with one hand and for Salvar’s card with the other.

“I shouldn’t be doing this,” Salvar said, handing her the card. “We’re going to get into trouble.”

Zormna shook her head, taking the card from his fingers. “If anyone gets in trouble it will be me.”

She immediately ran the card into the machine. Then Salvar punched in the code, taking care not to make the machine click loud. It didn’t make any difference. He winced with each sound the machine made. The door slid open.

“I’ll go on alone from here,” Zormna said, crawling through the open door.

“What about the night watch?” Salvar asked, but Zormna ignored the rest of his words, crawling quickly down the hall with a small bag in one hand and a comb in the other.

Salvar waited near the door as he watched her go. He sat down in exasperation, just shaking his head to himself. 

“My dad us going to kill me,” he muttered before crawling back down the hall.

Zormna continued her journey through the corridor. Creeping carefully, she counted the doors and halls under her breath. Not a sound except her quiet shuffling could be heard, and even that barely made a sound in the hall. She stopped. Looking up, Zormna read the room number. 5763. With a wicked grin, she pressed the door button, listening to it slide open into the wall with a light whirr.

Keeping low near the floor, she peered into the room to make sure no one was awake. The inside space was narrow between the six beds that lined the left wall—three sets of bunk beds on one side of