A Parthan Summer by Julie Steimle (intellectual books to read TXT) 📕

“There may be a million worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy alone

which are at this moment inhabited by other intelligent beings.”—Carl Sagan—

Zormna Clendar was an unusual person. It was easy to tell, just by looking at her. Besides being drop dead, out-of-this-world gorgeous, she usually stood like she was on guard duty, her chin level and her almond-shaped eyes intently serious. There were reasons for that, of course. For starters, everyone knew the FBI was watching her.

A fourteen-year-old with the darkest green eyes anyone had ever seen, just finished with her sophomore year in high school, Zormna was also an illegal immigrant who had been raised in a military school somewhere far away. Hair like fire, as in all the colors of fire whipping around together, some people called her ‘Irish-ninja’ to her face and ‘super-ninja’ behind her back. She spoke with an Irish accent, claimed to be Irish, but knew very little about her homeland. She was also pale as porcelain, yet she was brilliant in almost all sports, as well as Math and Science. And she loved to study History, which everyone though was weird. And the strangest thing of all about her…her last living relative—who had been murdered two years previously—was the neighborhood lunatic who for decades declared to everyone that she was from Mars. And all of this drew Zormna a lot of unwanted attention.

Zormna hated attention.

But she could not avoid it. Her reputation had become huge around Pennington High after her move-in. After all, she was kick-butt gorgeous and everyone stared when she walked by. Also, her haircut was odd. Two long wavy locks hung thinly in front of both of her ears while the rest was cut to her chin. Most people on sight would have written her off as a pretty-yet-vapid blonde, if it were not for her behavior when she had first arrived.

Like when she tackled and pinned a boy from the wrestling team in her History class for calling her a ‘bug.’ Or how on her first day of classes, she threw Darren Asher—the ultra-geek—over her shoulder when he would not leave her alone when she told him to. Or when she squashed the state champ wrestler in a mud wrestle during the school Olympics. To name only a few…

So, with all this ‘baggage’, Zormna awoke early Monday morning that summer with her bag for cheer camp already packed and sitting by her bedroom door. She dressed as quietly as possible, taking care not to make the floor boards of her attic room creak, which as a feat was almost impossible. Just opening a door made the air pressure in the entire house change. Then everyone would get out of bed to see what had opened. And she didn’t need anyone waking up as she snuck out of the house that morning—especially the parents.

It had only been a few weeks into June. The McLenna parents had already blamed her for ingratitude a number of times that summer—even after their eldest son Todd had made them promise before he went off to Spring Semester at college to be a little nicer to her as a graduation present to him. But then promises like that could not last forever.  

Besides, how could Zormna respond to their anger and blame? The McLennas had taken her in when she had nobody. They had fed her. They had housed her. They made sure she wore the right clothing so she wouldn’t look weird. They even made sure she went to school and had an education. She should be grateful, right? She shouldn’t be skulking around like she wanted to flee the place. She shouldn’t be dropping hints that she ought to become an emancipated minor. Or, that was how they saw it.

Truth was, slumping against her mattress in the dark, the only gratitude Zormna felt towards Jennifer’s parents was for them not trying to kill her when they found out who her family really was. Her big secret.

Honestly, Zormna hadn’t known the real secret until recently. The only thing she had known for years was that her family was hunted, and all her relatives were dead. Her last living relative, whom she had intended to move in with when she had come to Pennington Heights almost four months ago, was her great aunt. But when Zormna had arrived, she learned the old woman was a famous lunatic and more than two years dead. That meant she was alone.

So, yes. She ought to be grateful.

However, the tension around the McLenna household had become so heavy that Zormna was impatient to get away, even if it was just for a month long camp.

Besides, she was paying her own way. In fact, she had been paying her own way for while—though Zormna never mentioned to Jennifer McLenna that her parents were now making her pay for room and board.

Zormna gently pushed the door to her room open and peeked out.

The hallway was clear. It was also dark.

Carefully ducking through the small cupboard-sized entry-way, as the attic was an impromptu guest room (which the McLenna parents also frequently reminded her she ought to be grateful for), Zormna entered the hallway and crept light-footed over the carpet. She safely reached the top landing to the stairs and peered over the banister.

Still no one.

Zormna gently went down the stairs, keeping close to the wall to reduce creaking noises. When she reached the ground floor, she peered around the banister to the front room then through the kitchen to the side door. Both had screen doors, of which the kitchen’s made the most noise. So Zormna soft-footed her way around the stairs through the family room, passing the wall of photographs of the McLenna children and family together. All redheads. All fair skinned. Two boys. Two girls. Boy, girl, boy, girl in succession. Only three were still living at home. Todd had recently graduated and was off at spring semester of college.

She passed into the living room. This room was pristine with white carpet, curio cabinets and ethnic decorations set about to look fashionable but did not say much about the family at all. In a way, it was like the public face the McLenna presented the world—all for show and entirely untrue.

Zormna passed the study door. She reached for the screen door latch to the front door, just an inch to freedom.

“I knew you’d try to sneak out,” Mr. McLenna said.

Zormna turned with a jerk. Jennifer’s father sat in a far seat in a dark corner on the other side of the family room—a first. They only ever used that room to meet guests.

“I’m just going early,” she said, swallowing the dryness in her mouth.

But Mr. McLenna shook his head. “No, you’re not. You’re staying here until after the sun rises and Mrs. McLenna and I have had a word with you. Besides, you have to have an escort.”

Reflexively groaning, Zormna then caught herself. She didn’t want to upset this man any more than she already had.

“Are you sassing me?” he said.

Too late… Zormna thought. However, she replied with a stiffer chin, “No, sir.”

“You do realize that we are letting you stay with us at great expense,” he said for the thousandth time. “Even though you don’t deserve it after all the trouble you have brought here.”

Zormna averted her eyes.

“Hey! Look at me when I am talking to you, young lady!”

Without moving her head, she heaved a breath, clenching her jaw with a peek to his face.

“You put our family in the sights of the FBI—”

“Which you could get out of if you just let me become an emancipated minor,” Zormna retorted under her breath.

He growled. “That is not happening! We are not going to reward your disrespectful behavior with emancipation. Besides, you are only fourteen! And fourteen-year-old girls do not live by themselves!”

“But I have a house, for pity’s sake!” Zormna gestured out to the street, meaning the home her great aunt had left her. “Let me use it!”

“You don’t deserve it!” he shouted, undoubtedly waking everyone in the house. Everyone would be able to hear him. The walls were so thin after all.

Zormna did not respond. Deserve. Not deserve. His argument wasn’t grounded in logic really. It was grounded in centuries of learned hate. Fact was, she had done nothing to deserve the bitter treatment from the McLenna adults either. And more, she had actually been protecting them this entire time. But she wasn’t going to mention it to him. He knew, though he may have purposely forgotten.

Mr. McLenna walked Zormna back into the family room with a hand on the nape of her neck, where he sat her down. And they both waited until his wife came downstairs to make breakfast. Very few words were spoken. And since it was a summer morning, the kids got up even later. Though they had heard the shouting, most had rolled over and gone back to sleep. Some took comfort in that it meant they would get a chance to say good-bye before Zormna disappeared for a month.

Mindy and Andrew (elementary school and Jr. High age respectively) were the first down, going to breakfast while their father was finally leaving to work. Mrs. McLenna had Zormna cleaning the oven around that time, elbow-grease style with baking soda and vinegar. When Jennifer (who was sixteen and in the same grade as Zormna) arrived, rubbing her eyes, she shot her mother a dirty look when she found Zormna on her knees with her head inside the oven.

“Don’t let her push you in,” Jennifer muttered, walking by to the breakfast bar.

Her mother set her hands onto her hips. “Honestly!”

Zormna pulled out from the oven, delivering Jennifer one of her million that-reference-went-completely-over-my-head looks. If Jennifer hadn’t know that Zormna wasn’t a dumb blonde, she would have taken the girl’s blank stare as that. But knowing where Zormna was from, it was clear the girl had never heard the story of Hansel and Gretel.

“Why are you making her scrub the oven?” Jennifer asked in exasperation. “She doesn’t even use it.”

Her mother’s lips thinned into a line. “She eats at our table.”

“Barely.” Jennifer rolled her eyes and went to the kitchen counter where cereal was waiting.

“Ok, I’m done,” Zormna said, rising. “Can I go now?”

Mrs. McLenna fixed a stern look at her. “It is not done. Rinse it out. And when Jennifer is dressed, she can walk you there.”

Inclined to moan in protest, Zormna thought twice about it and went to the sink to get water. Jennifer could tell Zormna was less upset about cleaning the oven and more upset about needing an escort. Zormna was—or had been—one of the most independent individuals Jennifer had ever met. And Zormna hated waiting on people when she could accomplish something alone.

But Jennifer jogged back upstairs to her room to quickly get changed. She knew Zormna was looking forward to this camp, and for that matter, so was she. It meant that her parents would quit shooting dirty looks daily across the dinner table at the blonde. It also meant that she could spend uninterrupted time with her boyfriend Kevin, without any worry of a crisis happening at home, such as the FBI breaking in to search for aliens. It also meant that Zormna would be happier, and therefore more pleasant in a month’s time.

Jennifer had endeavored to get her parents to let Zormna move out of the house as an emancipated minor as Zormna wished. But her parents really did see emancipation as a reward to Zormna rather than a solution for their problems. Besides, they hated the girl way too much to ever want to give her anything good again.

So, after throwing on a tee shirt and some shorts along with some flip-flops, Jennifer hopped down the stairs and announced she was ready to