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

Sam nodded with a hopeful grin, digging in to his pocket for his car keys.

Taking her leave of him, Zormna crossed the floor to the bathroom, going inside. At the mirrors, Michelle Clay was fixing her makeup and grumbling about how she should have been Homecoming Queen. She hardly noticed Zormna’s entrance. With a smirk, Zormna pushed open a stall then closed the door, pulling out a roll of toilet paper. Taking a pen from the small purse that came with the outfit, she wrote a message—or tried to. The toilet paper tore three times. She swore under her breath in Arrassian. In the end, she threw the damaged note in the toilet and flushed it down, opening the stall door.

There was Joy, standing next to Michelle. Though, she was smothering her laughs while washing her hands. Thinking quickly, Zormna stepped up to her.

“Joy, if Jeff asks, could you tell him I’ve gone driving with Sam?”

Michelle glanced at Zormna sourly. “What is he, your keeper?”

However, Joy blushed and nodded. In fact, she looked a little confused by the request.

Thanking her, Zormna hurried out of the bathroom.

Michelle made a face. “She didn’t even wash her hands.”

“Let’s go,” Zormna said to Sam, though she was thinking how funny it was that she never really managed to make it a double date.

Joy came out of the bathroom soon after, still confused, though she smiled once Jeff made eye contact with her.

“Wanna dance some more?” he asked with a grin.

She nodded.

*

It was eleven-thirty. The dance was starting to close. Jeff glanced around the room, as most of Joy’s and his energy for dancing had ceased. Joy kept waiting expectantly for Jeff to take them somewhere a little more romantic. It was what everyone was doing, after all. Sighing a little as she listened and gabbed with the girls at their table, she waited. The boys were telling jokes as usual when Jeff’s cell phone started to ring.

He picked it up immediately. “Hello?”

The other end spoke in a hush. <<All ready Big Z. How are things on your end?>>

Jeff looked around. For the first time realized that Zormna and Sam were gone. He stood abruptly from his chair. It toppled back, clattering to the wood. All eyes whipped to him with surprise.

“Where is Zormna?” He panted feverishly, still looking around.

Brian and the rest shrugged. Joy stared at him. Her eyes then averted to the floor as she visibly struggled with disappointment.

“Did any one see Sam and Zormna leave?” he asked again.

Everyone shook their heads except Joy. She stood up.

“She told me to tell you they went driving,” Joy said forlornly.

Jeff nodded then picked up his jacket. He walked to Joy, his gaze turning remorseful as he delivered a polite smile. “I have to go. Can you catch a ride with Brian?”

Brian’s mouth dropped open.

Joy tried to fight back the tears behind her eyes, but she smiled kindly and nodded.

Blushing apologetically, Jeff kissed her on the forehead. “Thanks.”

He ran out of the gym, throwing on his jacket and fishing out his car keys.

Mark and Jonathan stood up. They watched him go. Then they glanced at each other. Brian sat down, frowning.

Joy tried to smile for his benefit. Yet her tears forced their way out from her eyes.

“Well, the dance was over anyway,” she said with a painful shrug.

Jeff ran to his truck and jerked the door open. But then the awful realization that he didn’t know where Sam had taken Zormna swept over him. Freezing, panic gripped his chest. Why had he been so lax? He had one job. Why didn’t he keep a better eye on her?

Searching about the parking lot for any clue of their destination, Jeff almost ran back to the gym. Yet his eyes set on Adam’s car. He was still there. If anyone knew where Sam was, Adam would know.

Jeff hurried quickly up to the car to see if perhaps Adam was inside. But he wasn’t. In a way, he was relieved. He wanted to think the best of Adam after all. Jeff looked over to the gym and started into a march back that way.

“Jeff, what are you doing?” Adam’s voice called out.

Jeff squinted in the dark toward the shadows near the gym. Stepping with his date from the side of the building, Adam peered at him. Both he and his date looked a little ruffled and breathless.

Sighing, Jeff marched over to him, squelching the panic in his voice. “Have you seen Sam and Zormna?”

Adam nodded, still confused. “Yeah. Sam is taking her to Harvest Ridge. You know, the lookout point.”

The lookout point? With Zormna? Jeff wondered if it was an excuse or the truth. Wryly, Jeff knew Zormna would not be into any activities that took place in any kind of ‘lookout point’, even if she liked the guy. Nodding, he waved to Adam and ran back to his truck. “Thanks!”

Adam waved back weakly, watching him as Jeff jumped back into his truck and peeled out of the parking lot. “There is definitely something going on between those two.”

*

Zormna leaned forward against her seatbelt, peering out the front windshield at her surroundings. They were on one of those winding switchback roads that lifted into Pennington Forest, one which led toward Harvest Town. The outlook off the roadside drop off was like staring down at a grid of stars. The colors flashed tiny below, though it also gave them ample view of the sky above. Yet, despite all this, Zormna was frowning. She had honestly hoped Sam had intended to take her bowling like so many of their other classmates. This place was too romantic.

“Sam,” she murmured after huffing in personal disappointment, “Why did you take me here? We’re clear out of town.”

Nodding while scooting closer, Sam sheepishly gazed at her. “This is the most romantic place in the area. Don’t you think?”

Zormna sighed and closed her eyes with a faint moan. Shaking her head, she said, “I’m not into romance, Sam. Now, you take me back to Pennington. It is getting late.”

Despite the obvious hint, Sam merely shrugged and scooted closer. “You don’t even see the stars as romantic?”

Zormna looked at the stars for only a second then shook her head with a terse frown. “What is so romantic about stars? They’re just other suns burning in space like ours.”

Putting his arm around her, his grin permanently forming, he said almost breathily, “But it reflects the burning of our hearts.”

He then leaned in for a kiss.

Groaning loud, Zormna put her hand on his face and shoved him away. She turned directly to the door and pulled on the handle to get out. She was done with stalling.

The door stuck.

Zormna pulled on it again.

Nothing.

Her eyes widened, fixing on it as she pulled again.

Nothing happened.

Sam leaned closer to her, his hot breath on the back of her neck. His arms wrapped around her again to steer her towards him once more. “Sometimes the door sticks.”

Whipping back around to face him, she scowled like she would bite out his jugular. “You used the child locks.”

Pulling back just a bit, blushing with would-be innocence. Sam’s eyes revealed no such blamelessness. They were fixed on her too intently. So intently that Zormna wondered it maybe it as best to just break his neck and cut their losses. Because, for a spy, he was not acting like a professional. He was getting way too hormonal.

“Come on Zormna.” He leaned in closer, his hand on her leg. “You know there is an attraction between us. I felt it day one when I saw you.”

“No, there isn’t!” Exasperated, she pressed against the door away from him, shoving his hand off.

He got even closer, his arm across both sides of the seat as if to pull her in.  “Then why did you go out with me?”

Rolling her eyes, Zormna then pressed the window button. It also wouldn’t roll down. This time, real panic filled her. Killing the guy was not an option, though she knew a number of ways to do it. And that tight space, he would be a lot stronger than her. She had to get out of the car now. 

“I went out with you as a friend,” she retorted with agitation. “I thought we were only friends,”

He touched her leg again, massaging it. “I thought we could be more than just friends.”

Zormna fought the urge to scream. Instead, she pounded on the dash with her fist. Like a kid’s toy, the glove compartment immediately popped open. Out fell several maps, some sunglasses, and one gun.

Zormna grabbed it.

Sam jumped back, hands immediately went up. “Whoa, whoa, hold on!”

“You have a gun in your car!” Zormna shouted at him. But she cocked it, pointing it right at him.

He pressed his back against the driver’s side door, his eyes going wider.

But instead of shooting at him, Zormna turned the gun to the front windshield. She shot three times.

The entire front windshield shattered into tiny pieces, falling all over them and the front seat. Midst the shower of glass, Zormna climbed head-first out onto the car hood, snatching up her small bag while carrying the gun with her.

She slid off the hood to the ground outside, casting one glare at Sam and his car before trotting to the cliff edge. As he was gathering his senses, Sam watched Zormna pull the clip out of the gun, then empty the chamber of bullets. She threw both clip and gun off the cliff.

This act woke him up. Sam immediately scrambled to open the car door to get out. Zormna was already walking down the gritty side of the road back to Pennington.

“What’d you do that for?” he yelled once he caught up with her. “That gun was for self-defense.”

She just glared at him and continued walking.

He grabbed her arm.

Angrily, Zormna whipped back around, seized his hand, and flipped him over flat onto the earth, pressing one of her spiky heels to his throat.

“Don’t. Touch. Me,” she said through her teeth, her green eyes fixed acidly on his face.

She let him go immediately and continued walking down the road in long strides.

Sam lay there for a second, barely comprehending that he was not dead. Then he sat up. Heaving a disappointed sigh, he called after her. “Zormna…. Can’t I at least drive you home?”

“No!” she called back, still scowling at him.

“I’m sorry,” Sam whined again, getting onto his feet to follow her. “I crossed the line. I get it.”

She growled but she stopped.

“How sorry?” she yelled back at him, turning around.

Dusting off his backside, gazing back at her plaintively, he said, “I am so sorry, I will never ever do that again. I won’t even flirt with you if that’s what you want.”

Rolling her eyes, Zormna continued walking.

“Well, what do you want?” He yelled, looking more pitiful as they went.

Zormna turned around, though still walking down the hill. “Do you really want to know what I want? I want you to stop following me. I want you to leave me alone. That’s what I want.”

Sam drooped. “But…but…but I like you. I mean, yeah, you destroyed my car, but—”

She stopped, shooting another dry look his way.

“Well at least you didn’t call it love,” Zormna said and then continued walking.

As Sam walked after her in pursuit, they heard a truck drive up the hill towards them, coming rather fast. Sam ran to cover her. But just as quickly as he ran, she shoved him off into the gravel. The truck nearly passed them when it came screeching to a halt.

“Zormna,” Jeff called out of the window. “What are you doing on the side of the road?”

Seeing him, relief washed over her. Zormna marched up to his truck, grabbing the handle as if she would get in then and climb over Jeff to the other seat. “He hit on me.”

Jeff glanced out the window past her toward Sam who was coming closer and nodded. “But he’s been doing that all semester.”

She scowled. “Not like this.”

Nodding once again, mostly to himself, Jeff motioned