Apocalypse Before Finals by Julie Steimle (electric book reader txt) 📕

And Agent Sicamore had said it was a bad idea.

The government listened to him.

Near the end of the month of May there was no sign of either army returning to Earth. The fighting between the Martian military forces could only be detected by powerful telescopes and satellites. Astronomers unexpectedly became painfully valuable. And the news broadcasts put out regular updates on the war's progress.

Eventually schools started up again.

Not everyone returned, though. Just a few at first. Then more came as the weeks went on. Most were still glued to their TVs and computers in their homes, watching and listening for any sign of the 'Morlocks' return.

Brian and his friends showed up on Jennifer's doorstep, asking for her.

Mr. and Mrs. McLenna stared out at them. A week previous, the Hendersons had shown up to replace the front window which had been smashed by a group of people in hoodies and facemasks. This mob had been threatening to burn the house down with the family in it had Jennifer not called Brian in panic. He and his brothers nearly ran over the motley crowd on the street in his truck, and his father followed close after, shouting at them to leave the McLennas alone. They hadn't been enough to drive off the small gang until the neighbors next door hosed the mob down, screaming he would call the cops. Since then, somebody regularly checked in on their family, just in case.

"Can Jennifer come to school?" Brian asked.

The parents almost cried.

"Keep her safe," Mr. McLenna said, nodding appreciatively.

Once they were walking to school Brian asked, mostly to break the ice, "So... your parents had thrown Zormna out of the house because...?"

Jennifer scratched her head. She glanced around, feeling uneasy as she had not left home since Anzer Dzhon had brought her there. And though Dzhon was curt with her parents, he did speak with them in their language expressing messages from Zormna which, when done, left them introspective in a hopeful way. Dzhon also promised to return to check in on them to make sure they were safe. He had done it only twice, as the war on his world soon took him away. But the last time he had visited, he left Jennifer a handwritten note from Zormna which was more like a document stating that if anyone laid a finger on Jennifer, Zormna would come back and kill them. As much as her parent gasped with exasperation at the note, Jennifer could tell it calmed them down even more.

"It was just a family feud," Jennifer muttered, coming back to present.

The boys raised their eyebrows.

Seeing them, Jennifer added, "Trust me. My parents throwing her out was good for everyone involved. Zormna wanted her freedom, and my parents can only do so much to resist ten thousand years of hate."

They nodded, though they really did not understand. Jennifer had explained as they continued on that she really didn't know the half of what went on with the people of Mars. Zormna had made it a rule not to talk about her Home. And her reason had always been the same: It was against the law to talk about it.

That first day of school, most tried to go back to their old classroom schedules. They tried to open books and pick up where they had left off. The teachers attempted to reconnect with their students. Though, most of them stared listlessly at what had been done to their school. Classes were soon dismissed and everyone there teamed up to clean their campus instead. Others documented the damage for YouTube, telling their stories.

Jennifer joined the clean-up crew. She didn't want to tell her story. She was tired of her story. She just wanted to be a regular person.

"What are you doing here?" snarled Tammy Davis, one of her old classmates from Miss Bianchi's second hour History class (with a group of friends), the second she saw Jennifer dragging around one of the hallway cans and picking up trash.

"Yeah, I thought all you 'elite's don't get your white hands dirty," said her friend Tara chimed in. Yet Tara was just as physically white as Jennifer.

"Morlock," spat out another of their gal pals.

Jennifer stiffened. She looked around for Joy who had gone somewhere to get trash bags with one of her younger brothers - she didn't know which one. Up until then, Jennifer hadn't been alone. Sometimes the Hendersons were too trusting of others, expecting a return normal civility as before the invasion.

Tammy shoved her. "Go back to Mars where you come from."

"I'm not from Mars!" Jennifer snapped back. "I grew up in Pennington."

But Tammy shoved her again. "Stick it, you Nazi."

"Nazi isn't a race," Jennifer countered. "It's an archaic, fascist political party of which I am NOT a member, you twit."

But Tammy only shoved her again. Jennifer fell over. She landed hard on the concrete as the trash can she had been holding rolled. Tammy then kicked her.

"Hey!" one of the Henderson twins shouted, charging at them.

The girls with Tammy staggered back, but none of them fled. Tammy kicked Jennifer again in the side.

"Traitor," one of the girls shot at the Henderson boy.

"Dog face!" the boy shouted back then shoved off Tammy, putting himself in the way.

"You're protecting a Martian," Tammy snapped. "What's wrong with you!"

"What's wrong with you?" the Henderson twin said. "Normal people don't go around kicking others!"

"Bug off!" And Tammy shoved him back, clawing at his face. "You're choosing the wrong side."

But Joy ran up, and so did the other twin. They got Jennifer to her feet and pulled her back.

"Alien lovers!" screamed one of Tammy's friends, but they backed off.

"Better than being a brutal witch who doesn't know the difference between a human being and a caveman," Joy shouted at her.

"What did you say to me?" Tammy held her ground, hate making her lips thin.

"She's saying you're a Neolithic, hatemongering sleezeoid from the arm pits of the Bugblatter Beast of Traal," Darren said, sauntering up on his long legs.

 Tammy blanched, recoiling from him. They were being outnumbered now.

"Freak," one of the girls said.

But Joy snorted. "No. You can't call him a freak. He's the only one who knew everything about Zormna and Jeff."

"Because he's a freaky..." yet the girl stumbled over her words, knowing her arguments about Darren being obsessed with aliens was now silly -  especially after all that had happened. "...space nut."

"What's going on?" Brian walked up next, not quite taking in the entire scene.

Tammy and group immediately fled. Whatever they might have felt about Jennifer, Brian's gang of boys had been immortalized on campus as heroes, though they were not quite aware of it yet.

"Are you ok?" Brian asked Jennifer.

Jennifer rubber her side where she had been kicked and nodded.

"Liar." But Brian smirked at her. He waved her to a bench so he could check out the damage.

Joy shoved him off with a "Decent boys don't look under girl's shirts."

Then Joy saw the damage. Jennifer was definitely bruised, but not broken.

"Alright," Brian murmured. "We need to set up a guard system for Jennifer."

"What about her boyfriend?" muttered one of the twins.

Brian cringed, peeking at Jennifer. "Have you seen Kevin yet?"

Staring at the ground, Jennifer shook her head, standing up. "I don't think he wants to see me."

"I always thought that guy was a moron," one of the twins said.

"Ammon!" Joy stood up, staring at her younger brother.

He shrugged backing up. "What?"

"If you can't say something nice..." Joy said, advancing on him.

"Then Joy is going to pound your face in," Brian finished.

Joy shot Brian a dark look. "No. But Kevin was really shocked when he found out what Zormna really was. Give him a break."

"We were all shocked," the other twin, Moroni, retorted. "He just couldn't handle it."

"I mean it's kinda' cool," Ammon said. "A Martian princess had been hanging around our house."

"It kind of makes it ironic Ruth and Makayla always wanted to play princesses with her." Moroni nodded.

Brian laughed. He shook his head thinking about it. His brothers really did have a different perspective on things. He wondered what they thought about Jeff being some kind of criminal. Or rebel.

"Oh, my gosh, you are so gutsy!" Jessica ran up to Jennifer from across the lawn and wrapped her arms around her with a tight hug. "What are you doing here? Are you crazy?"

Being hugged by Jessica made Jennifer's head swim. She had to sit down again. Jessica helped her back to the bench. Jennifer gazed out at the senior lawn, at the redtop, and at all the damage from the invasion. Through it all, even at the huge circular mark where 'the heap' had one been, there were already signs of healing. She could see the pirate mascot was being re-painted by Sparkey Jones and another friend. Others were coating the redtop in a fresh layer of crimson paint. And the blackened grass where 'the heap' had once been had young plants poking out in spots.

"Are you ok?" Jessica asked.

"I don't think anything will ever be ok," muttered someone else who had drifted nearby their group.

"Pessimist," Joy shot back. Then she propped her hands on her hips and declared, "We're going to make it ok."

Jennifer wished that were true. But in her gut she was not so optimistic. She could feel the loathing stares from her other classmates despite her help during clean up.

And that was just the first day back.

It really didn't get any easier the next day. Or the next. After a few days of clean up, the teachers finally were able to return them to the swing of classes while hiring new custodians to clean up the worst of the damage. And though this was a good thing, Jennifer was one of the few of the 'high-blood' kids who had returned to school. And like her, all of them had been bombarded with epithets and hate the moment they had stepped on to campus as if the invasion had been their fault. She still got attacked whenever her hostile classmates caught her alone in the hall, though Brian's family and friends (including Darren) usually escorted her around campus. And the 'high-blood' kids - or whelps as some jerk started calling them - did not dare stand together at first. It made them more of a target. However, when he saw them, Brian encouraged each second generation Martian to sit with their group at lunch, holding no grudges while shooting threatening looks at those who did.

Meanwhile, in the larger world, because of the rising persecution of second generation Martians, there began to be a small movement of them coming onto YouTube to tell their stories, attempting to explain that they also had been victims of the invasion. And then mainstream media took hold of this trend, creating talk shows on TV that discussed Martian things with more bias and attitude. These ended up being filled with ex-Arrassians who that spilled their guts as to why they had left their home world...most of them desperately trying to prove they were also not part of the 'Morlock invasion plan'.

Then Reality TV put its foot into this stream of 'Martian' stories, creating shows like: I Found Out I Was Married to an Alien and I Didn't Know I Was a Martian, Honest. It was an awful low point in TV history. Things only improved when the mainstream news agencies took advantage of their ability to interview famous people, getting those connected with inside knowledge on the alien scene, such as Agent Sicamore. He had been interviewed several times on 60 Minutes, CNN, and Fox News, clarifying many confusing points and hushing some fears. As an Earth-born 'whelp', he was also the public assurance that those born on Earth were not part of the invasion plan.

Truthfully, the man was not fond of the limelight,