The Mars Project by Julie Steimle (i can read with my eyes shut TXT) 📕

nerves, but she could not vent at them. Staring at her dirty grass-stained fingers and nails, Zormna wondered what other chores they had in store for her and if they would be nastier, like cleaning out something foul.

Standing up, Zormna gathered a pile of dandelion weeds in her two hands and walked across the lawn to the driveway. She intended to head to the back to where they kept the garbage cans, but blaring loud in two bright honks, a dull green Pinto parked hastily at the curb. The driver rolled down the window. “Hey, Zormna!”

Zormna squinted to look into the shadow inside the car. The moment she could see who it was, a smile spread across her face. Her eyes immediately flickered to the sedan parked across the street where within the two regular, sweaty FBI agents were watching her.

“What? Sam? What are you—?”

“You wanna work on our project? I’m going to the mall. There’s an Internet café there we can use. We don’t have a computer at my place, and I heard Jennifer’s parents really strict.” He leaned over the passenger side and smiled.

Grinning, Zormna shook her head with another peek to the FBI car. The agents were stirring, watching carefully the interchange between her and Sam. “Yeah. Mr. McLenna only uses his computer for work, and they’d freak if I touched it.”

“Hop in.” He opened the door. “No, wait. Get Jennifer. We should do this as a group.”

Zormna smiled then dumped the dandelions under a bush at the end of the yard. She wiped her hands off on her pants. Practically skipping over to the car, Zormna said, “Jennifer is at Kevin’s.”

She climbed inside and quickly closed the door, reaching for the seat belt, while peeking once more at the FBI car to see what the agents would do.

Sam grinned at her, oblivious to what she was noticing. “So, it’s just you and me.”

Zormna smirked as she shook her head. “No. We’re just going to pick her up.”

Sam coughed but then nodded.

Roaring up the engine again, he turned the steering wheel, veered into the street and stopped. He pulled the gear into reverse then backed up, looking with his arm over the back seat. When he shifted gears again and started forward, his arm was still over the back of the seat. And he did not remove it.

“Head northeast,” she said with another peek at the FBI car, which she guessed was either calling ahead to another team to follow or were starting their own car to do the same. “He lives on Greenwood Road. I’ll show you.”

Sam smiled as he continued to drive.

They went down several streets before Zormna noticed that he still had his arm around the back of the seat, and consequently around her.

“Don’t you need two hands to drive?” Zormna mildly remarked, glancing at him.

Sam only smiled. “Nah. I’m in control.”

She coughed on a laugh then pointed the way down towards Kevin’s neighborhood. “Turn right here.”

They traveled quickly down very familiar streets until they reached the neighborhood that housed one foreboding insane asylum. The FBI car had followed at a distance. Sam looked up at the ominous structure and then actually slowed.

“What is that?” he said, gazing at the building.

“A hospital for the mentally disturbed. Stop here,” Zormna replied, pointing to the right.

Sam nodded and parked at the curb, though his eyes flickered back to the building. Once the car stopped, Zormna quickly climbed out. She walked over to the front door almost in a march. Sam exited slowly out of the door as he continued to gaze at the asylum.

“Creepy,” he muttered. Sam followed her to the door a little quicker. 

Ringing the doorbell, Zormna stood back on the stoop. She peeked once to the distant FBI car trailing them with a tiny smirk.

A tall woman with caramel colored hair and dressed in a nice powder blue business suit opened the door, standing slightly to the side as she peered down on the blonde. “Yes?”

Zormna’s pert chin went up as she answered. “Is Jennifer McLenna here?”

The woman smiled a little wider, and she opened the screen door. “You must be Zormna.” Then glancing out the door towards Sam, she shook her head. “No, I’m afraid not. She drove up a while ago. I thought she and Kevin were going to study, but apparently they left to somewhere more private.”

Zormna rolled her eyes with a tired sigh. “Probably my house. Thank you, Mrs. Jacobson.”

Kevin’s mother nodded, a kinder smile reaching her eye. “When you see them, will you remind Kevin that we have guests coming over for dinner, and he’s expected to be present?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Zormna nodded. “I’ll tell them if we find them.”

Sam with Zormna walked off the porch back to the car, glancing at each other. He seemed secretly content that they did not find the couple after all. But then Sam never seemed to share more than two casual words with Kevin without Kevin bristling. But then Kevin was the kind of guy who took offense easily.

Zormna shrugged her shoulders then looked down the street. The FBI car was far enough not to be obvious to the casual onlooker. She then glanced up at the big building with a shudder.

Opening the passenger door, with a nod to her, “After you,” Sam said.

Zormna smirked then shrugged as she stepped in. He closed the door, then walked around the front to the driver’s side. Once inside, Sam grinned and started the engine to the car. It rumbled. He let off the emergency brake.

“So it is off to the mall? Or your place?” he asked.

Zormna thought for only moment before she said, “They’re probably at the movies. We can bump into them at the mall.”

“But you told his mother they’re probably at your house,” he said, smirking deviously at her as he managed a three-point turn, leaning once again with one arm over the back seat. This time Zormna peeked at him then his arm, pressing her lips together.

“Are you kidding? They don’t have a key. I only said that because his mother suspected it.” Zormna then leaned forward, looking out the front windshield to gaze at the sky. “You know, I think it might rain.”

Sam looked up, taking his arm from off the seat so he could see through the top of the front windshield also. He shrugged. “Doesn’t look it to me.”

However, Zormna leaned back with the hint of a smug grin. But he had no opportunity to casually put his arm back after that.

And the FBI car followed them.

*

“How was your trip to the mall?” Jennifer asked. She stood in Zormna’s doorway that evening, arms folded in a justified posture.  

Zormna scowled, turning her head from the printout she was reading. “Your father needn’t be sour. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

She had been silently glowering on her bed after she had endured another lecture about skipping off without informing them of her whereabouts—though it was more about not dumping dandelions into the flowerbeds as a prank. She hadn’t done it intentionally. It just came out that way.

“Well, that’s not how he saw it,” Jennifer said plainly, lingering there.

“I do not really care how he saw it,” Zormna said, returning her eyes to the paper.

Jennifer’s mouth dropped open a little. “Well, you’re going to have to care. Your work also called. You’re lucky I answered the phone instead of Dad. He would have been livid if he knew you ditched work, even if he doesn’t care about you working.”

Zormna rolled her eyes. “First of all, I didn’t ditch work. I was three minutes late. Sam’s car stalled in the mall parking lot, and we had to get it jumped. Second of all, we thought you and Kevin were there, and we were looking for you.”

That’s when Jennifer smiled. She walked in further and closed the door. “You and Sam, huh? You and he have been getting a little tight, haven’t you?”

Zormna rolled her eyes again as she made a face. “Oh, please. I’m not interested in that sort of thing.”

However, Jennifer cast her a dry look. “Don’t give me that. I have been watching. He’s your first pick as partner in History. He eats lunch with us now. You haven’t clobbered him when he has hit on you.” Jennifer smiled wider. “Admit it. You think he’s cute.”

“He’s not cute,” Zormna replied in her defense, though her ears were turning slightly pink.

“You’re attracted to him,” Jennifer clarified, knowing Zormna well enough to know she avoided things just by definition.

Zormna closed her mouth and looked away. Then with a reluctant cringe, she lifted her guilty face with a nod. “Maybe a little. He’s more…mature than most boys.” Yet refusing to allow Jennifer run away with this idea, she added, “But that isn’t why I just took off with him. I left because I was sick of weeding, and I wanted to get away for a while. And that is the complete truth.”

Jennifer smiled wisely. “And it doesn’t hurt to be with a cute guy.”

Zormna rolled her eyes. “Beyond the point.”

“You were blushing when you were walking into History with him this morning,” Jennifer countered with a sharp nod. “I think you have a crush on him, and you don’t even know it.”

This time Zormna looked up with a blink, staring. She shook her head firmly. “I don’t have a crush on him, and I wasn’t blushing when we went into History.”

Jennifer snorted, shaking her head.

“You were red, and not the same red you get when you are mad either.” Jennifer sat down next to her on the bed. “What happened in English, Zormna?”

“That,” Zormna sat back and sighed. “I don’t want to talk about.”

Relishing this, Jennifer’s lips curled up at the ends more, though kept in a thin, closed line. “What did Sam do?”

Shaking her head, Zormna turned away. “It wasn’t Sam.”

Realizing Zormna was being honest and not just avoiding the topic, Jennifer stared. She leaned over to see what Zormna was looking at, but she was just staring at the wall and sighing.

“Then what was it?” Jennifer asked, as this was more of Zormna’s old moodiness.

Rolling back over, Zormna delivered an intense fixed glare. “This discussion is over.”

Taking the hint, Jennifer climbed off of Zormna’s bed. She nodded again to herself as she walked back out the door. Not Sam? Then what else could it have been? Because with Zormna, it was always the unusual thing.

 

Chapter Six: Bad News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart

—A non—

 

 

Zormna yawned with a stretch as she sat in her chair in English. Their teacher was late, and everyone else was still recovering from the weekend. Jeff also wasn’t there, leaving a very conspicuous seat empty—especially since their Romeo had to read that day. Joy Henderson glanced over at her brother, though she was laughing at something the girl next to her was telling in her ear, almost ignoring Zormna. Joy had gotten a little distant since the start of the school year. Though they had been good friends during the summer, something had changed. And though normally such things were below Zormna’s notice, it had begun to bother her a little.

“Class, please get situated!” the teacher announced the moment he walked through the doorway. “We have