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

Zormna was planning the camping trip. Jeff had to let her because she wasn't pleased at all with the last trip they took which left them achy and dirty and exhausted, all from riding Jeff's motorcycle from Pennington to Orlando, Florida. Jeff came a little earlier than usual Friday morning before school to help her with it. It had become routine for him to pick her up and take her home, so this visit wasn't strange.

"Will it be cold in Arizona?" Zormna asked, stuffing her duffle bag with a pair of red sweat pants. The skull and crossbones from the Jolly Rodger was on one side while the words Pennington Pirates ran down in bold Helvetica font down the other leg.

They were at her house. Jeff had been with her in her new bedroom, sitting on the edge of the frilly chair that was positioned in front of an even frillier pink, green, and white rosebud-decorated vanity - all of it inherited from her great aunt who seemed obsessed with lace and flounces. Zormna moved around like a dynamo in it, so out of place as she was a tomboy.  

"It's a desert," he said, picking up a filigree-carved mirror and matching hairbrush. "But it is also February. I couldn't tell you." He couldn't imagine Zormna sitting there at the vanity combing her hair and primping like a lot of other girls he knew. She had more of an 'I awoke and was accidentally beautiful' thing about her - which was so different from the deliberate kind of fanciness of the room. Bottles of dusty perfume lined the mirror at the end of the vanity. Several photos of men were stuck to the edge of the mirror. For a so-called crazy lady, she had many beaus, or at least thought she did. Peering at them, he didn't recognize any of the men as famous for anything.

Zormna shrugged. She shoved a sweatshirt and a pair of warm socks inside the bag then put in a pair of pants and another pair of shorts in case it was hot. Zormna turned and stared at Jeff, lifting her eyebrows. "Have you packed?"

Jeff smirked confidently, taking his eyes from the pictures. "All packed. I just need a couple of jeans and a few shirts."

Nodding, Zormna stuffed in two more T-shirts and zipped her bag up. "It's a shame I can't use my uniforms. They pack better."

Jeff nodded, his eyes going back to the vanity. He tugged on a drawer. In it were wiring bits and pieces of old electronics. That was more like her. Apparently Zormna had been taking something apart at the desk and had quickly pushed all the rest into the drawer in haste. He smiled as he closed it.

"Ready," she said, lifting her bag.

He stood up. "Ok, let's go get a trash bag and take this out with the trash."

Zormna gave him one of those your-ideas-really-stink looks, but nodded. Hiking the bag strap onto her shoulder, she carried it out of her room, going with Jeff downstairs to the main floor. Since secrecy was so important, and the FBI were watching her most specifically almost all the time, there was no way they could just walk out of the house with a bag without them getting suspicious. Before they just grabbed their bags and jumped onto a motorcycle. But that was not possible now. In fact, they were sure the FBI were prepared to arrest them if they left town. They'd probably invent a charge. So Jeff had concocted a plan that would get them and their things to the airport and then to Arizona without the FBI even knowing they were gone.

But since it was it wasn't Saturday yet, both of them had to take care of things such as school and homework and working up an alibi so when they ditched school together they would not make waves. Unfortunately the last part of that was almost impossible. Both of them were already under probation for ditching school together on two separate occasions, which had ruined their clean reputations and upset a lot of people.

Jeff foraged Zormna's kitchen drawers for a fresh kitchen bag and stuffed Zormna's duffle bag in it. As Zormna pulled out the kitchen trash and twisted it tight so that nothing oozed out, Jeff grabbed a handful of newspapers they had been saving for this project and crinkled them to fill space. Zormna stuffed the kitchen trash into the space next to the paper and her duffle bag

Once full, Jeff grabbed the bag and took it out back to the snow-filled trashcan alley behind the houses. It wasn't uncommon that they did this. Jeff was almost always going through Zormna's refrigerator, taking out things that had gone bad and snapping at her to not buy more fresh fruit and things than she could eat. He was an annoying stickler for cleanliness, Zormna thought. Yet, Zormna found it frequently amusing that he insisted to take out her trash. Of course, now it was useful.

"Leave the rest to Darren," he said, coming back inside where the FBI could not hear.

Locking the back door from inside, Jeff went out through the house to the front door where Zormna waited. Her book bag in her mittened hands, she watched him with a chuckle. He briskly trotted back, opening the front door. She let him do that for her too - not because she wasn't able, but because he used that time to make sure she was safe. As her self-proclaimed bodyguard, he was going to do the job right.

"Trash day," the one agent murmured, watching them.

The other nodded. "Look at how she uses him. That guy bends over backwards for her now."

The one agent laughed. "He only takes out her trash."

"And shovels her walks and cleans out the storm drains and roof gutters. If it were summer, I bet he'd mow her lawn," the other said, chuckling.

"He didn't before..." one muttered.

The two teenagers exited through the front door. They watched Zormna activate her house alarm and lock the front door. Jeff walked down the steps, newly swept and shoveled from snow and salted - all his work the afternoon before. Zormna had wanted to do it, but she had to work at the burger place. When she had come home it was already done. They watched Jeff tell her there was no point in her breaking her neck over an icy walk, which she pertly retorted that it was her walk to shovel. He had only shrugged and handed her a cup of cocoa.

As Jeff climbed onto his motorcycle and gunned the engine, Zormna was just barely done with locking the door. She shot the FBI car a sharp glare from across the street when she joined him, skipping down her steps to the sidewalk. When she hopped onto his motorcycle behind him, she put her book bag in between them, wrapping her arms around Jeff's waist to hold on. Jeff straightened up a little like something had shivered through him. But then he relaxed and started off into the street.

"Hold tight," one of the FBI agents murmured.

The other chuckled.

Their motorcycle rolled off toward the school. One agent picked up his phone. "Ok, they're on their way."

Jeff and Zormna had done nothing out of the ordinary. And as they arrived to their school on time (even early) the agents who had watched Zormna's house waited for another five minutes before giving up their shift and taking a break. Their beat-up mustang, once a nice car in the past, left the neighborhood near eight o'clock.

The school bells all across the neighborhood would soon strike and class would soon start - but Darren Asher was not out of his home on time. He was taking the trash to the alley.

Watching him, his mother shook her head and sighed.

"Darren," she said. "Why did you put it off 'til this morning? You could have done this last night. But now you are late for school."

Sighing, Darren tried to politely ignore her. "I forgot."

Shaking her head more, she went into the house. "I'll get my coat and drive you. But only this once."

Darren wheeled out the large can on wheels behind their house to the trashcan alley and stuffed in their kitchen trash also. Stopping where his yard met Zormna's, he lifted up the newspaper-filled bag opened it in his yard with one eye out for the FBI, just in case. He pulled out Zormna's duffle bag. Quickly taking it back into his house, he carried it up to his bedroom before his mother could see. There, he left it on the floor. Grabbing his own backpack, he ran to the front door where his mother was pulling on snow boots and a coat. He blushed sheepishly at her, cringing.  

Jeff and Zormna settled in their seats earlier that morning. The classroom occupants were rather sparse, which gave both Zormna and Jeff ample time without distraction to catch up on their homework.

Zormna pulled out her copy of War of the Worlds and stuck her face into the pages, poring over the reading she hadn't finished. Though she loathed the reading, she still felt bound to follow the assignment her teacher had given her. Jeff was also scanning over the chapters they had to read, reviewing them so he could get ready for the quiz Mr. Humphries said he might give them.

The room began to fill at around eight twenty. The class actually started at eight thirty, but most people didn't come until ten to five minutes before class. Adam Arbor strolled in with his girl of the week. Zormna had glanced up once she heard his voice. He was laughing with the girl as if he hadn't been acting serious with a different girl the week before. Adam as an incurable flirt, she decided. Joy and Brian didn't come in until three minutes to the start of class, rather late for them. In fact, it was so late that Adam leaned over his new gal pal and asked, "Where've you been? You two are usually the first to class. Even Zormna and Jeff got here before you."

Brian peeked over at the two, who were overhearing the conversation but too busy with homework to lift up their heads from it. Usually he met them on the redtop near the donut breakfast window for an early cup of cocoa and a cinnamon twist. Brian shrugged. "Seminary let out late, that's all."

Jeff peered up and placed his book down on his desk. The room was going to get too noisy to focus anyway.

"Seminary?" Adam repeated with revulsion, cringing at the thought.

Jeff smirked as he also closed his notebook. "Church class."

Groaning, Adam shook his head to say knew Brian was religiously 'fanatical'. Their group of friends generally avoided the topic of religion because Brian was so passionate about his beliefs and they didn't want a debate.

Brian glanced at Jeff, lifting his eyebrows. Joy smiled. They had always liked the way Jeff respected the religious beliefs of others. It was uncommon.

Zormna glanced up from her reading and turned around to face Brian. "You go to a church class before school?"

Adam also looked at Brian with a smirk, waiting for what she might say.

Brian nodded, with a glance to Joy, "Yeah, but you knew that. I told you about it last year when we were picking you up for school."

"I forgot. It's been a while." Zormna blushed, peeking once to Jeff. Then she said, "What do you learn there?"

Brother and sister shared a look. It was almost hopeful. Up until then Zormna stayed out of religious discussions. She always seemed to get annoyed and weary when they came up, so they never included her in them.

Joy shrugged. "We study scriptures - the Bible and the Book of Mormon and stuff, and we also talk about life and stuff."

Zormna furrowed her brow, peeking once more at Jeff. "Is it...is it