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

Zormna beamed, going around the front to the passenger side.

Sam gaped at Jeff and Zormna as he approached the truck at a jog. “It isn’t what it looks like.”

Jeff smirked, nodded and said, “I know.”

Zormna already climbed into the truck and sat beside Jeff, closing the door.

“You’re not really Sam Perkins, a seventeen-year-old senior that wants to take advantage of a naïve Homecoming date.” Jeff grinned with knowledge behind his eyes. “You’re actually Agent Steve Keane with the FBI—an undercover agent sent to get exclusive information on some very mysterious individuals. You just got caught up in your job.”

Sam went white. “You think I’m—?”

Jeff smirked. “It doesn’t matter what I think. It’s what I know. Tell your friends to lay off and leave us alone.”

He revved up his engine then performed a screechy U turn. Looking out of her window now, Zormna glanced at Sam with an offish gaze.

“The only information you are getting from us is what you guys stole from me, and you don’t even deserve that,” she said.

Sam watched as they rumbled away in Jeff’s truck, leaving him on the side of the road.

Dazed and confused, Sam shook his head and walked back up his street to his car. He climbed inside, closing the door he had left open. Brushing broken glass off of his dash, he shook his head again. Dateless, Sam started his engine. He pulled out of the shoulder back into the small cliff-side highway that led away from Harvest Town to Pennington.

He drove down the hill and veered, taking the exit to the city. The wind whipped, blowing the shattered glass to the floor and the seat. It also made his eyes tear. It was late. Midnight. Halloween morning.

Sam drove down the less crowded streets of the downtown then parked across a large office building that was advertised as closed that time of night. However, he knew it would be open. He stepped out of his car and crossed the street, glancing around for cars—or trucks, in this case. With another heavy sigh, he walked into the building, using the security card he kept in his wallet. Swiping it through the machine, he let himself in. He walked directly to the elevators, staring down at the floor though he waved to the passing night guard who knew him. The guard continued to patrol the halls.

Sam stepped onto the elevator. The doors closed then took him up. When they opened again, he emerged on a dimly lit floor of a quiet office space. Yet he knew one office would still be open, as it had been these past few weeks. Sam knocked on the door.

“Enter,” a voice called from within.

He did, turning the doorknob with a gentle push.

Agent Sicamore smiled once he saw him. “Ah! Agent Keane! How was your date?”

Sam shook his head and sat down in the chair across from him. “A disaster. They know.”

Agent Sicamore’s smile evaporated as he grimly nodded. “As you predicted, I guess.”

“What now?” asked Sam, or Agent Steve Keane as Jeff had rightly ascertained.

Sicamore’s smile returned. “Don’t worry. We have good news on our side.”

Agent Keane’s face brightened. “Good. What is it?”

Mr. James Sicamore grinned as he handed the undercover agent the written report from the surveillance room. “Have a gander at this.”

Agent Keane examined what had come up. His expression fixed resolvedly at the convincing evidence they had found. He lifted his eyes toward Agent Sicamore. “So, you’re ready to go?”

Sicamore nodded. “Friday. And all of this secrecy will be over. You don’t have to go back anymore. You can leave the surveillance to the others on duty now.”

Agent Keane smiled. And yet he sighed. To be honest, he had kind of hoped to have gotten a kiss in before their targets figured out who he was and what he was really doing. Alien or not. That Zormna had the most luscious lips he had ever seen. And to be frank, that night she looked like a goddess. Now, he wondered who was leading on whom.

“They that know no evil will suspect none.”—Ben Johnson—

Halloween morning. Zormna had slept at Jeff’s house Homecoming night. With one exposed FBI agent on the loose, Jeff didn’t want to take any chances. He knew that bad things tended to happen when he left things alone to fate, and this day was one of those he had to time just right.

Zormna walked unsteadily into the living room from the back bedroom, scratching her head. She was wearing one of Jeff’s tee shirts with her biker shorts. Her hair was sticking out, still frozen with hairspray crinkling in her curls.

“Jafarr?” she said, calling for him through an exhausted moan. Her eyes were barely open, mascara smudged.

Jeff rolled over from off the couch in the living room. His mop of hair stuck damply against his face where his skin had pressed against the pillow. He brushed it out of his eyes. “What?”

She walked over to where she could see all of him and sat next to his feet on the couch. “I don’t think I’m awake enough to do this.”

He nodded and rolled back into his original sleeping position. “Then go back to bed. We don’t need you for several hours anyway.”

Zormna gazed tiredly at him. She then looked around and leaned against the couch back, too tired to move.

Alex walked from his bedroom to the kitchen, passing her while rubbing his eyes. He didn’t even see Zormna when he stepped into the other room to get breakfast.

Jeff leaned up and glanced back at Zormna who was nodding off again at the end of the couch. Sitting up, he gazed at her tired face. Vulnerable, and wrinkled in red and white lines where she had pressed her face into the blankets, it was kind of cute.

“Do you want the couch?” he asked, though still groggy.

She shook her head. “No. I think I just need to wake up. I can’t sleep in a strange house.”

He looked more steadily at her, clearing up his eyes. “Nightmares?”

Zormna nodded. “Every time.”

Jeff glanced down the hall with a large yawn. “You could take a shower. That will probably wake you.”

He glanced back and saw Alex staring down at them from the kitchen, open-mouthed with a bowl of cereal and his spoon already halfway there. Alex just gaped at them. Both Zormna and Jeff gazed back from the couch, still groggy-eyed and confused.

Alex closed his mouth and rushed back into the kitchen.

Jeff shook his head tiredly, blinking that away as he said, “Go take a shower. You’ll feel more ready for today if you do.”

Zormna nodded and got back on her feet. She dragged her feet over the carpet into the hall, finding the bathroom very easily.

Alex peeked out of the kitchen, listening to the air. Once he was sure Zormna was in the shower, he came out completely, leaving his cereal bowl this time.

“What is she doing here?” he asked, shooting one look at the bathroom door. “You were only supposed to guard her.”

Jeff sighed and stood up, stretching long. “Oh please, Al. Come on, you know me. Nothing happened.” He then walked into the kitchen where he searched for the same cereal box.

“Nothing happened! She’s wearing your tee shirt!” Alex exclaimed in whispers, following him.

Shaking his head, Jeff pulled milk out of the fridge. “She’s wearing my tee shirt because we didn’t stop by the McLennas’ to pick up her own clothes. She had to wear something besides that dress.” Understanding Alex’s looks, he explained, “Al, she had to hide here for the night. I didn’t think it was safe leaving her alone after the FBI agent nearly manhandled her. Besides, we’re in silent running today. This is day two. They know we know about the undercover agent now. I just thought we’d better not risk losing Zormna in the meantime.”

Alex shook his head, plucking up his bowl of cereal again from the counter. “Jafarr, be careful. You’re dealing with a girl’s sensibilities here.”

Jeff laughed. “We’re dealing with Zormna here. And if you haven’t forgotten, she and I are still just barely friends.”

But then Eric walked into the kitchen from the hall, gazing behind him with open eyes and his jaw dropped.

“Jafarr!” Zormna called from the bathroom right after.

Jeff and Alex peeked out from the kitchen. Zormna was standing in the bathroom door with a towel wrapped around her head. She was holding a larger one around her body. Jeff felt his body get all hot.

“What?” He nearly tripped over Alex’s legs as he stepped out of the kitchen.

“What am I supposed to wear? I didn’t bring anything here.” Zormna cocked her head as she looked at him, her green eyes regaining some of their brightness.

Jeff swallowed. “Uh, I, uh…I’ll get something.”

He ran right by her to his room.

Alex and Eric glanced at each other and then gazed with smirks at Zormna.

Her eyes narrowed at them, her cheeks turning pink before she averted her gaze, guessing quite well what was running through their heads.

“…I’ll just get the paper and then go to pick her up as we…” Jeff’s ‘Aunt Mary’ turned around and stopped once she saw Zormna. “Wha…what are you doing here?”

“Malia, what is it?” the voice of Uncle Orren came from their room.

Zormna blushed darker. Immediately she pulled back into the bathroom and closed the door.

Aaron came down from the stairs that led to the room above the garage. He took one look at Aunt Mary as he strolled by to the kitchen where he saw Eric and Alex watchfully standing. He glanced at them then peered down the hall back from where he had come from.

“What are we looking at?” he asked.

Jeff walked out of his room, carrying another one of his tee shirts and an extra pair of shorts that had a drawstring waist, his face already cooled down to a faint pink. “Zormna, I think these might—”

He stopped once he saw Aunt Mary’s disapproving stare. She had her arms folded, and she was tapping her foot. Keeping his distance, he averted his eyes from her and continued to the bathroom door where he knocked.

“Zormna, here are some clothes,” Jeff said, his blush returning. He was nearly all red now.

Aaron started to laugh.

“Malia, have you seen my—?” Uncle Orren stopped when he saw the gathering in the hall.

The bathroom door opened, and a ghost white hand stuck out for the clothes. Jeff handed them to her, closing his eyes. Zormna took them without a word and shut the door quickly, locking it. They could hear a thump on the other side of the door soon after. Jeff turned without another word and walked directly back into his bedroom where he went in and shut his door.

Uncle Orren looked at Aunt Mary. He walked directly to Jeff’s door and knocked. He could hear a moan on the other side. Silence answered him for a few seconds before Jeff finally opened the door.

“Before you lecture me on appropriate behavior, I have to say this.  Nothing happened. I slept on the couch. She took my bed. It was the best thing I could come up with last night, and I think that after dealing with an agent as abruptly as we