Bones in the Sand by Julie Steimle (books to read to get smarter txt) 📕

and handing it to her, he said, "This is yours. No doubt you have been wanting it for some time."

Zormna set her armful of gifts on the table and opened up the folder. Gazing for a moment at the contents, she found her throat constricting. Her mouth went dry. She looked back up at them, blinking back the stinging that was forming behind her eyes.

"Now you can take your stuff and go. We are no longer responsible for you," Mrs. McLenna said in a sour tone Zormna could taste.

It was true. Zormna looked back at the papers inside the folder. It was true. They really were doing it. They were kicking her out.

"But what about the legal matters? You said I had to be eighteen...?" Zormna managed to ask.

Mr. McLenna kept with his stiff business-like manner, pointing at the papers and reading them aloud. "You are now an emancipated minor. You can move in with that boy now if you want. We won't be responsible for you and what he does to you anymore."

Zormna felt her face burn. It was that again. When Zormna had first snuck off with Jeff to Florida, they had initially reacted with concern for her health and safety as 'a naïve girl manipulated by a rogue', as they had seen it. But when Mr. McLenna's computer crashed from a virus he had contracted from one of his favorite websites, Zormna knew he figured out that she and Jeff had been the cause. Of course his computer crashing had been entirely unintentional. Yet Zormna supposed that the guilt of the act had shown on her face when it happened. And for that, they would never forgive her. But, Zormna looked at the papers again. It was true. She was free. She didn't have to live under their roof anymore or by their rules.

Tears burned in the corner of her eyes. Zormna didn't know if she was crying from the shock of freedom, of pure joy, or from fear. It was clear, though, she was no longer welcome in the McLenna home.

"What's going on?" Todd asked, stepping up to the table. He had seen Zormna's face and could only guess what had happened. Todd knew full well that his parents disliked Zormna, but to what extent he could never figure out.

Zormna attempted to smile at him. She picked up the folder and collected her few gifts tightly in her arms, fighting the tears that burned in the cracks and the back of her eyes. "I get to move into my own house now," she said, trying to make her voice not stick where it had gone dry.

Carrying her things, Zormna ran up the stairs. She dropped her gifts onto her bed

No, their bed. It was no longer her room. Looking around herself, she knew from the McLennas' faces that they wanted her out that day. It was obvious. Pulling open the near-empty chest of drawers next to her bed, Zormna took out all the pairs of jeans and pants. A slight wonder crossed her mind as she placed them on the bed. Were the clothes hers? Was she was the one who paid for them or had Mrs. McLenna bought them? It had been so long ago... last spring when she first moved in their home.

Echoes of unhappy non-Christmas like sounds rumbled from down below. Todd was arguing with his parents again, this time barking about their gift. Zormna could hear faint echoes of some words through her door.

"...What kind of.... It's Christmas! How can you...? I can't believe you!"

Zormna moved to close it, but Jennifer was already standing in the doorway, watching her pack. She didn't say anything. She knew her parents' edicts were final - especially when it came to Zormna.

A thumping up the stairs to the hall made the back window tremble. Zormna half expected to hear Todd's bedroom door slam, but instead his feet tromped to her door. He came into the room and stopped.

Zormna went back to her task, taking out all the clothes from the drawers, wondering if she would be allowed to keep them at all. She just placed them on the bed until the drawers were empty. Zormna didn't even attempt to take the dresses off the pole. Instead she sighed and opened the cedar chest at the end of her bed and pulled out the three original suits she had brought with her when she first arrived to Pennington.

She stuffed them in her matching peach duffle bag and then tucked in the presents she got. At least she would be able to keep those.

"Do you..." Todd said, but choked on the words. "Are you going to stay alone at the crazy lady's place?"

Zormna almost laughed. "Well, it is my house...." It had been a long time since she was reminded that her deceased great aunt was known as crazy. Zormna had inherited the old woman's house, and it really did seem to be the only option, even though Jeff had offered for her to move into his home on a number of occasions. No. She couldn't live with Jeff and that mixture of strangers that pretended to be his family. She would have to live...could she even think it?  - alone.

A year ago the idea did not sound so frightening, but that was before the FBI had stolen three days out of her life with a brief kidnapping. That was also before Jeff and she had threatened the leader of the FBI into keeping his project at a standstill. And that was even longer before she and Jeff had broken into a building of their enemy in the High Class caste and exposed themselves to those murderers. Being alone no longer felt safe at all. But what choice did she really have?

He frowned.

After stashing her gifts into her duffel bag, Zormna crammed her cheerleading outfit and gymnastics outfit into the bag. Everything else really wasn't hers, she figured

"Have you called Jeff?" Jennifer asked, swallowing and shifting to her other foot.

Zormna blinked into space then almost laughed again. She really had been in shock. Normally she would have told Jeff right away, but somehow her mind skipped it. Picking up the cell phone that rested on the end of her nightstand, Zormna pressed the speed dial.

<<Hello?>> the familiar voice answered after two rings, sounding groggy. Zormna peeked at the window. It was still dark.

"Jafarr? This is Zormna. I have to move out of the McLennas' today. They granted me emancipation," she said. A slight quiver broke out of her voice halfway through. She tried to recover it before he noticed. "Hooray."

<<I'm coming right away.>> He hung up.

Jennifer looked at Zormna expectantly.

"He's coming over," Zormna said.

Jennifer sighed. She turned out of the doorway. That was enough for her. Jennifer knew that things would work out fine once Jeff handled everything. Jeff was the fiercest friend, Jennifer had found. And he would not let a soul harm Zormna - or anyone else he cared about.

Zormna stared again at the clothes the McLennas had given her. She picked the photograph of her self when she was five with parents off the nightstand. That was it. That was everything.

Todd looked at her and stared at the floor. He sighed and turned to walk out of the room. Zormna heard him march to his room and jerk open the door. She figured he would be brooding there for the remainder of the day.

She picked up her stuffed full duffle bag to leave. Once she stepped out into the hall, she saw Todd march back out of his room carrying an empty box with his name on it. He brought it into her room, brushing past her. Zormna watched him stuff the box full with all the clothes on her bed and pull off the dresses on the pole that hung between the dresser and the wall. He jammed them all into the box and looked down at Zormna who was still watching him with a half open mouth.

"Mom would want you to take these," he said, carrying the box down the steps to Zormna.

"But - " Zormna gaped in dismay.

"No buts," Todd said. "Jen won't be able to fit them, and Mindy is still too much of a kid for them. They're yours, so you should have them."

The tears that were threatening to come out earlier reemerged and burned her eyes under her lashes. Zormna tried to smile gratefully, but she was caught between a cry and a grimace of pain. Instead, she turned and walked down the stairs to the bottom floor where Mrs. McLenna was preparing breakfast. His mother gaped at Todd when she saw him, but Todd glared back at her, almost daring her to say something so that he could start another fight and tell her exactly what he was thinking.

They heard a hasty rumble with screech of tires outside on the street that they could only guess was Jeff. Todd had opened the door just as Jeff was reaching for the doorbell. Open eyed and expecting to help, Jeff was still wearing his pajamas but covered up and warmed by his black jacket and a scarf.

Breathless, Jeff pulled the duffle bag out of Zormna's trembling fingers, glancing once into her red eyes. He marched right back to his truck to place it in the front seat. Todd and Zormna followed him outside to the street. The roads were covered in snow and ice and all the lawns glittered with it, so cold it could be sifted through like powdered sugar. Their street had many bright red and green decorations, speckled with colored lights and garlanded doorways and archways. It looked like a fairytale land - except Zormna felt it was the wrong fairy tale for her and she must have been thrown in there by accident.

Jeff took Todd's box and stuffed it onto the front seat of the truck in the middle then turned expectantly to the two, becoming red from the cold.

"Is there anything else?" Jeff asked, rubbing his thin, mittened hands.

Zormna shook her head. "That's all."

Jeff nodded and gestured for Zormna to hop in for a ride. She shook her head again. Blinking back the tears, Zormna looked around at the snow and the quiet street. She let out a tired sigh.

"I think I just want to walk," she said. "To my house. Not yours."

Jeff nodded, bit his lip and looked at her again. His brow furrowed, but he had known better than to ask what was bothering her, especially with Todd around.

"Ok. Just give me the keys, and I'll warm up the house for you." Jeff stuck out his hand.

Zormna managed a smile and handed him the keys to her house. She watched him hastily take them and then jump into the front seat, steering his truck on the ice out of the neighborhood. She and Todd gazed after him as he went off.

"Hold on a second," Todd, said, holding Zormna back by the arm. He was still wearing his pajamas. Todd had rushed back into the house to change.

Zormna stood out in the snow, looking up at the flakes that fell like dandruff upon her shoulders. The cold bit her cheeks, but at least the winds of fall had calmed and the air was silent.

So there it was. She was out. She was out of the McLennas' house for good. Zormna never expected it to bother her so much as it did just then, but the thought that no one wanted her tightened on her heart and strangled out every bit of happiness she had ever felt.

But when she heard the front door to the McLenna house slam that despairing feeling dropped away. Todd came running up to her, breathless and wearing a half strewn scarf and partly buttoned up coat. There were people who did want her around. 

Zormna smiled.

He grinned at her and said, "For a minute, I thought you were going to leave without me."

She blinked back her tears and took him by