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

as this fair was nothing like she had ever done at Home. In front of the stage an open space was marked off with rainbow colored tape, designated as seating or possibly a dance floor. The rest of the gym was filled with rows of table divided by aisles, so that once the room was completely set up with its booths it would have three aisles of booths coming from the entrance and a set of booths that ran around the entire room.

Zormna decided it was best to claim a table quickly—one close to the wall—before they were all taken. They discovered one to the right of the stage that was just at the corner. It was where the aisles ended and the dance floor started but was still along the wall and near an electrical outlet. They placed their trays down straight away.

“I’m going back for the booth. Guard the table,” Jennifer said.

Nearly laughing, Zormna looked around the still empty room. Only five people were setting up their booths. There were plenty of spaces still open.

“Don’t be silly. I need to set up my map before someone takes that plug,” Zormna replied, following her.

They both walked back out to the parking lot. More cars were pulling up. Upon seeing them, Jennifer’s face went white. Almost a deluge of classmates flooded in to Miss Bianchi and the other teacher to get instructions as they entered. She hurried up her pace.

They opened the trunk. Zormna lifted out her two electrical gadgets and the cords. Jennifer grabbed the bundle then tried to manage the sheets also. It was a bit more than she could handle. In fact, she almost dropped the pipes and the weights.

“I gotcha, Jen,” Sam said, snatching the pipes from her hands. “Sorry I’m late.”

Jennifer smiled gratefully at him.

Sam wrapped his arms around the pipes, following Jennifer inside. As Zormna hefted her pieces, all three marched back to the gym.

Glancing over her shoulder at Sam, Zormna looked him up and down. The corners of her mouth turned down in an expressive frown of disgust. “Where’s your costume? We all agreed we’d wear it.”

He shrugged. “It’s in my car. I was going to change when I got here, but I saw that you needed a hand first so—”

“Blah, blah, blah. I had to wear mine up here. Do you know how embarrassing that was?” Zormna huffed, going quicker.

Sam smirked, imagining with a slight dreamy look. After all, in the green, her eyes shone and her fiery hair stood out.

They carried their things back into the room. Just as they crossed into their aisle, Jennifer ran across the floor, nearly dropping the sheets. “Hey! That’s ours! Get your hands off of that!”

Zormna laughed. Jennifer was right in thinking that someone would move their things, and it surprised her. The boy that held their pot pointed to the outlet then to their Christmas lights. He argued for their need of that spot.

“Our cord doesn’t reach. We need that table more than you,” he said staring down at her.

Zormna walked up then set her two projects on the table. She turned with a looked up at the boy who held their table hostage. Zormna didn’t know him at all, guessing he was from one of the other classes. And at this point, she instantly disliked him.

“Well, we need it too, and we got to it first.” Zormna stood next to Jennifer to offer solidarity.

The boy looked down at her then rudely laughed, as his eyes took in her green outfit, golden shamrocks, bloomers and all. 

“Well, too bad. You’re going to have to make us leave.” He puffed up his chest.

Entirely unimpressed, Zormna nodded and let out a hard sigh. “Alright.”

Jennifer’s eyes grew wide. “Zormna, I don’t think you should—” But she couldn’t stop the ‘Irish ninja’, though she had tried to get in her way.

And though she had expected Zormna to throw the guy, Zormna merely grabbed the boy’s hands which were holding the stew. With her thumbs, Zormna applied pressure on the backs of his hand.

“OW!”

He dropped the stew.

Zormna caught it in a snap. The contents sloshed against the lid, but stayed inside. She set it next to Jennifer then stepped back like Bruce Lee. The boy stared at her, massaging his wrists and up his arms, wincing.

“You want to fight?” Zormna said, motioning with her fingers for him to come forward.

“Me?” He looked around, still rubbing his arms though he flushed red. “Fight a girl?”

Zormna nodded, grinning wider as she goaded him on. “I’ll give you incentive. I was military trained. It won’t be easy to beat me.”

He flushed even redder, his throbbing hands balling into fists.

Sam stood by, looking shocked by the scene. But then he immediately placed the PVC pipes on the table and rushed in to interfere.

“Don’t do it, man. She’s only a girl.” Then more with a macho tone, he said, “Besides, if you want to fight, I’ll fight you. This is our booth, and we did get here first. You go find an extension cord.”

The guy looked at Sam. Then, thinking it over, the boy nodded. With a glare at Zormna as he passed by, he took his things and moved to a table closer to the entrance.

Sam shook his head, closing the distance between him and Zormna.  “He could have killed you. What were you thinking?”

“Killed me? That weakling?” Zormna coughed a laugh, rolling her eyes wanly at him. “I was thinking it would have been fun to kick his gluteus maximus.”

Then she picked up her electrical displays and set them on the floor.

Sam glanced at Jennifer. But Jennifer just let out the breath she had been holding and continued to set up the table.

 

They spread out two of the colored sheets over the table, crossing them decoratively. Then they placed one of the trays of tarts on one side, along with small paper cups holding scoops of the stew. On the other side Zormna placed her map, plugging it into the power strip with the extension cords she had brought. They erected the pipe frame then hung the sheet walls as they assembled the top. When hung, Zormna set up the electric sign so it rested above without swaying or sagging. From there, she draped the excess lights over the top so they dangled like a canopy of fireflies. When they were finished, Sam ran back out to his car to get his things to complete the booth. When he returned, he carried his suit over his arm, along with his poster along with plastic vines and flowers, including two daisy chain wreaths for Jennifer and Zormna to wear.

“I thought it would complete the outfit,” he said, explaining as he handed them the flower wreaths.

Jennifer smiled, gladly letting him place it over her braids. Zormna put it on top of her wavy curls, but squirmed as she tried to make it look decent.

“I can fix that,” Jennifer said, reaching up to help.

Making yet another face, Zormna knelt down. She never really did anything with her hair, so this whole thing was inconvenient. But as Zormna was allowing her to arrange things, Jennifer fixed her curls, twisted a few of them, and made them look astonishingly good.  

They could tell Sam was watching because he drew in a breath. Both girls turned, staring at him.

Hiding a blush, Sam immediately took off to the bathrooms to change into his vest and pants.

As soon as Jennifer was done messing with Zormna’s hair, they both hung the rest of the plastic flowers and ivy around the booth, twisting it around poles and pinning it and bending it around the frame and poster. Once all done, they set out the several hundred copies of a report they had to provide about the country. By the time they were finished, the last of the students had claimed their tables and were busy setting up.

“I’m going to move my car,” Jennifer said to Zormna. “Watch the booth.”

Rolling her eyes, Zormna replied, “It’s still my car, and yes, I’ll wait this time.”

Jennifer smirked as she left, gazing at Zormna in their booth with amazement. Despite her true origins as a resident of the red planet, Zormna really did look like she belonged in their created Ireland. Zormna’s green eyes practically glowed as she peered out from the gold and green curtains. Her hair now was up with twists and curls, as Jennifer had slightly braided parts of it for style, curling in wisps under the cloth daisy halo. It made her look like a sprightly elf. The perfect stereotype.

But Jennifer hurried on, passing by several booths on her way. She noticed Tammy, Maria, and Stephanie setting up their Eiffel tower on top of their booth frame, struggling to keep it balanced. They were busy working on adding weights, which were water-filled bottles when Maria waved at her. She also saw an interesting Chinese booth, the front made up like a Chinese temple drawn on cardboard. The inside was red and yellow. Farther still, was a Saudi Arabian booth made up like a nomad’s tent. It was run by a boy in a sheik’s outfit surrounded by three girls in genie suits. Everyone was gathering in.

But back at their booth, Zormna slumped in her chair and sighed, watching people pass by with things as she guarded their booth. She watched Adam Arbor walking around the stage with a clipboard, talking to Miss Bianchi and also to other people who were carrying instruments, though he winked at her as he walked by. She saw Jessica helping with the set up and arrangements for the booths on the far end of the room. She could also see early arriving attendees meandering around the hall. Some were old and shuffling with canes—mostly coming to admire grandchildren’s booths but also for the entertainment. Sam returned not long after, smiling in his green suit though not wearing the tie as Jennifer had hoped. Instead, he wore a pair of rainbow suspenders under the vest, grinning cheekily at her and tipping his bowler hat. It was difficult for her not to laugh. He was definitely impertinent, but in an amusing way.

“Glad you’re here. Now you can man the booth,” she said, rising from her seat.

He looked around then glanced back at Zormna. “There aren’t that many people here. You don’t need to go barker yet.”

“Barker?” Zormna repeated, having never heard that word before.

Sam smiled. “Um, call people to our booth.”

She chuckled. “Have we need to…eh, barker? I think the booth draws attention on its own.”

Nodding, he slipped behind the table next to her and sat down. “I know. I just don’t want you to leave yet. Can’t we just sit for a while?”

Zormna’s cheeks flushed. He really was a smooth customer, nothing like the awkward boys who usually blushed wordlessly or stuttered out their thoughts. And he wasn’t crass either. Ducking her eyes as she tried to hide her embarrassed grin, Zormna replied, “I think I need some air.”

She slipped sideways out of the booth with a glance back at the temporarily defeated boy. Sam sighed at his loss, but didn’t look crushed. For some reason, Zormna noticed, he set her off guard. She didn’t like being put at that disadvantage, and she certainly didn’t like the confused feeling she got when she looked at him. Jennifer was right, she was attracted to Sam. And now she found herself blushing at the prospect that she even found herself liking being with Sam in a closer environment. Which is why she had to get out.

Walking around the room, Zormna peered at the booths and listened to the music some students played from each of their countries. Some booths were not as elaborate as others. A few were just as Todd had done, things taken off the Internet and put into posters with a few toy novelties on the table. However, there were plenty of nice booths that made up for them. In fact, Zormna stopped at the France booth where