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

"What's the difference between a man and E.T.?  E.T. phoned home."

A week, and then final exams went by. Last classes. The year was over. Everyone had their yearbooks in their hands now, and their teachers were giving their parting goodbyes. The seniors were preparing for graduation, and everyone felt the coming of summer with heightened anticipation. They all wanted a big rest.

It was three days until the commencement ceremony. Brian sat on the red top that Wednesday morning, drinking his cocoa and leaning against the brick wall near the cafeteria. Joy glanced at him and sighed, taking another bite of her morning doughnut while their twin brothers were running around having a sword fight with their cinnamon twists. They were early to school as usual.

Jennifer had gone off to the art room with Jessica, no doubt to get away from the mocking traffic of their classmates.

"Hey Bri!" Jonathan waved at his friend, walking across the senior lawn.

Brian nodded and waved back.

"Man, you're always so early. Don't you ever take a break?" his friend asked, looking at the breakfast menu at the cafeteria door. Then he said to the lady inside, "Can I have a twist?"

"Ninety cents," the cafeteria lady in the plastic hair net said, handing him the sugar-covered doughnut.

He paid her and looked to his friend, taking the doughnut from her plastic glove-covered hand.

Brian shook his head with a smirk. "I don't skip seminary."

Jonathan nodded. "That's right, church class. I forgot." He went silent for a moment. His friend then glanced over at him, putting one hand on his head, scratching it. "I don't mean to be rude but, why bother now? I mean aliens invaded us two months ago - why study that religious stuff now?"

Glancing at him with a pained look, Brian said, "Why shouldn't I? I don't see how being invaded changes things."

Jonathan winced. "But Brian, life on other worlds... Jeff and Zormna... They're aliens. They aren't from here. I think their existence from another planet disproves God. Doesn't it?"

Brian closed his eyes. "No. It doesn't."

Jonathan shook his head. "I think it does."

"How can you say that? Jon, you're Jewish," Brian replied.

Jonathan shrugged. "My parents don't actually believe it. It's cultural, and a good excuse to get a Saturday off from whatever. Why should I believe?"

Brian sighed. "You don't know much about my religion, do you?"

With a 'duh' look, Jonathan said, "Of course not. We don't really talk religion. It is sort of our unspoken rule."

"Well..." Brian shook his head again. "I am going to break the rule now. In my religion we believe God created worlds without number. And that these worlds have inhabitants."

Jonathan stared. Then he narrowed his eyes, "But you claim to be Christian, even if you are a Mormon."

Brian nodded, though rolled his eyes. "We are Christian. We just don't believe in medieval Christianity with that weird trinitarian God and a Heaven in the clouds with plucking harps and a Hell below with fire and brimstone and red demons with horns and tails and stuff. The God we believe in is more amazing than that. And more deserving of praise. Our God is the Father of all of us, and He actually loves every human being - even the nasty ones. But he allows us freedom of choice. And... I don't have time to explain the whole thing." He shook his head. "The point is, remember Jeff?"

A little affronted at how Brian was almost going at him, Jonathan bit into his doughnut with a standoffish angle of his head and replied, "Of course. He's hard to forget now."

"Yeah. That's true." Brian stepped back, realizing with a laugh that he was getting too riled up. "Well, remember what Jeff said when we talked about religion?"

"Nuh-uh." Jonathan shook his head and looked down.

Taking a breath, Brian leaned closer, almost wanting to grab and shake his friend. "Jeff is religious."

Jonathan looked up, thinking on that. It did slowly come back to him that Jeff had made mention of some kind of religious belief. Though, Jeff never really had been specific about anything he believed in seriousness. The guy had always just silently listened.

"Yeah. And if he - who is an alien - is religious, then I think religion is still something to hang on to, even if he is not a member of my faith." Brian then shook his head. "I'm not asking you to believe what I believe, Jonathan. I'm not a very good missionary."

Jonathan rolled his eyes, wishing Brian wouldn't even try to be one. 

"But don't tell me to give up on my faith because of the invasion," Brian said. He then looked down the hall. "We have to get to class."

With another nod, Jonathan sighed. "See you later? Even if I don't think the same as you?"

Brian laughed, raising his eyebrows. "Did we always think the same?"

Chuckling, Jonathan shook his head. "No. That was what's made it so fun."

Patting his friend on the shoulder, Brian grinned. "Then see you later."

And they parted.

Joy had not said a word. She didn't feel like it, merely listening to the conversation. Instead, she followed her brother to the building doors and down the nearly empty linoleum tiled hall to their classroom, feeling despondent and tired. Her friends at school had been savage towards her since she had befriended Jennifer McLenna and the other 'Martians'. Joy refused to call them the other names. But she was honestly worn out, asking herself why she couldn't have learned kung fu and become a super ninja like Zormna had been. Nobody dared mess with super ninja.

Brian halted abruptly in the doorway, freezing as if Medusa had turned him into stone, staring ahead. But Joy didn't stop in time. She bumped right into him. But then Brian broke loose, almost going weak.

"Jeff!" he exclaimed, dashing into the room. "Zormna! What are you doing here?"

Joy tumbled into the room after him and blinked her eyes. There, sitting in their regular seats wearing their usual clothes - t-shirts and jeans - were the two most notorious teenagers of their time, both ducking their heads bashfully as if they had merely skipped school on one of their infamous adventures.

Jeff stood out from his seat and bowed from his waist to them as if they were royalty themselves. "I am eternally sorry I ditched you and didn't take you to Prom," Jeff said, dipping even lower towards Joy. "I just got busy with things and - "

Brian marched straight to him.

Jeff fell back, possibly bracing against a punch. But Brian embraced him. He held on a full ten seconds before Brian pushed Jeff back at arm's length and shook him. "What are you doing here?" Brian was grinning, laughing, and crying all at the same time.

Blushing terribly and pulling farther still, Jeff stared at his friend as if he feared Brian might kiss him next.

Laughing, Zormna gazed up from her seat like a fairy imp enjoying some mischief. "We had to get some things. That, and we wanted to see if you were ok."

Brian let go of Jeff and grabbed Zormna, yanking her out of her seat in a hug. She leaned back like Jeff had, flushing furiously yet not quite daring to push away in case she offended her friend. And Brian held on, wishing more than believing this was real. The real Zormna, in his mind, would have thrown him over her shoulder to the ground and put her foot on his neck, like she had done to Darren the first day they had met. Yet she didn't. She endured the hug.

This time Jeff snickered.

"You crazy..." Brian exclaimed with a laugh when he let go. "You two are nuts. How did you get in here without anyone seeing you?"

Both Zormna and Jeff exchanged wicked looks. Brian realized that they had been sharing similar looks for a while. He had just never understood them before.

Zormna thumbed toward Jeff. "It's a knack he has."

Brian laughed out loud, dropping exasperatedly into his seat. Joy followed him more quietly, amazed at both friends. She sat down in her seat with a stare for the both of their alien friends. "You skipped school again," Joy laughed accusingly, shaking her head.

Jeff blushed with a chuckle, scratching at the scar on his nose. "Would you believe it if we told you we went to Mars to fight a war?"

Unable to hold in her laughter, Joy shook her head. She then looked to Zormna. "I am sorry I ever thought badly of you. Please forgive me."

"Well..." Zormna's face went pinker, her head ducking between her shoulders. "It did look bad.... But now you do see that we did nothing at all on those trips."

"To NASA...." Brian added, shaking his head.

Zormna nodded. "And Arizona... to look at crash of a distant," Jeff coughed and laughed, "relative." Finally, she said, "Ok, so we weren't exactly related, and it was a crashed spaceship. I did know who the pilot was. So we weren't entirely lying."

The classroom was starting to fill now. Just like with Brian and Joy, their classmates stopped and gaped at Jeff and Zormna as they each came in. Many crowded around their desks on that side of the room and excitedly asked questions, such as 'Was Zormna really a queen?', and 'Why did Jeff follow her everywhere?', and 'Who were the People's Military really?' They got other questions too, angrier ones that came from those students who usually sat on the opposite end of the room, from those classmates who never had gotten on well with Brian's group. When Deacon Wilks, a football player friend of Bradley Hershott's who in Brian's view had always been belligerent, came into the room, Deacon bitterly snapped, "What did you come back for? To be worshipped by your little fan club?"

Jeff stood up and regarded the boy in a second, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "No. Actually, I came to see if they were ok. You seem to be the same as ever."

The bulky senior glared at Jeff, towering over him, or trying to. Jeff had always felt like a dangerous person, but now he was doubly so - kind of like standing in the presence of an assassin. His skin was crawling, though Deacon tried to make himself give off the aura of a Navy Seal. He wasn't pulling it off.

"Well, I'm not. Have you seen my back? Have you even looked at your friends? Look at them! Because of you they got beat up, and so did I. I got hit for knowing you. It wasn't until I told them you weren't my friend that they left me alone."

Jeff blinked then turned to look back at Brian. "Are you ok? Dzhon said you got hurt, but not too bad. But he tends to understate things. Please tell me what happened exactly?"

Zormna turned to face Brian, listening closely.

Waving his hand dismissively, Brian shook his head and smiled. "I'm fine. Nothing is broken."

"Now you're talking like me." Jeff folded his arms. "What really happened?"

Deacon heartlessly laughed. "He won't tell you. He still likes you, the idiot. Mormon boy doesn't talk bad about his friends."

Veering around, Jeff's eyes narrowed on Deacon. But then he shook his head and said, "Then you tell me, if Brian won't. What happened?"

So smug, Deacon glared at him. "One of your old pals, what's-his-name, Dural Korad..." Zormna's mouth popped open. She glanced at Jeff. Jeff's face tightened. "...came looking for you. He kicked the tar out nearly anyone who knew you to find out where you were." He pointed at Zormna. "And then