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

Jennifer and Jessica were not 'sitting together', something they insisted to tell others whenever people asked - because they had once been best friends back in Jr. High. But they were both friends of Zormna's and happened to have ended up in the same class, they said. Jennifer thought Jessica was a backstabbing jerk, and frequently said so, while Jessica said Jennifer was a preppy, freckle-faced snob with a 'stick up her butt'. Both girls refrained from such remarks when Zormna came around as they both wanted to keep their friendship with her, mostly because Zormna didn't put up with bickering.

Wearing one of her black heavy metal tee shirts but none of her old goth makeup, Jessica gestured with her head to the front of the room, urging Zormna to look at what their teacher was thinking up for their class to do next. Jennifer cringed, also staring at it. So, Zormna looked. A general murmur of curiosity was in the room. Miss Bianchi was hanging up a rough banner for the next dance, Sadie Hawkins - though this banner was from the last year. Their teacher often saved old posters as 'visual aids'

Tacky clothes and frizzy hair aside, Miss Bianchi was an enthusiastic busybody. She was currently covering the subject of World War II in class with patriotic vigor. Of course that teacher did everything with vigor - especially party planning. She was the teacher advisor in charge of most of the school dances and fairs. In fact, she tended to take them over like a frizzy-headed Napoleon. And she got upset with people who did not play things her way. Earlier that year, she had manipulated Zormna into dressing as a German barmaid at Oktoberfest and an elf at 'Holiday Spectacular' - which everyone else called the Christmas Party. But Zormna had ditched the Valentine's Day dance that February, so Miss Bianchi was unable to dress her up in the cute fluffy pink outfit she had selected for the Irish girl when serving refreshments. Zormna was happily in Arizona at the time. Unfortunately, Miss Bianchi had been cranky with her little Irish immigrant ever since.

The teacher turned around and grinned from ear to ear.

"Good morning!" Miss Bianchi greeted them. She was unusually chipper, wearing yet another one of her silly outfits - this one being a plaid shirt, a cowboy hat and a pair of jeans. She was tacky enough to put an orange and green bandana around her neck and wear some cheap boots on her feet to finish the outfit. Costume on the cheap.

Michelle snickered with Stacey in their corner. Zormna smirked herself, though she wasn't a fashion aficionado like Michelle was.

"As you can see, we will be hosting the Saint Patrick's Day Sadie Hawkins dance," Miss Bianchi declared, waiting for her enthusiasm to catch on. It didn't always.

Zormna moaned in herself. If she knew Miss Bianchi, her teacher was devising some way to make her look foolish again in some ridiculous outfit.

"Now I need volunteers for decoration set up," her teacher said.

Several arms shot up, including Zormna's, who felt she would do anything to get out of wearing a costume. Miss Bianchi somehow anticipated this. She picked five students, including Michelle and Stacey but 'conveniently' excluded Zormna. Sketching their names with pleasure on the clipboard in her hands, the teacher grinned to herself.

Zormna sulkily lowered her hand.

Jessica shared a commiserating look. Jennifer smirked. Both knew how much Zormna detested all that dress-up stuff. Zormna was not a girly-girl. She loved pants - specifically functional pants with useful pockets or straight up leggings.

"Now I need someone to organize the music," her teacher continued.

Adam Arbor raised his hand among others, including Jessica. Adam was picked, as usual. Miss Bianchi had learned early that he had decent taste in music and ran that part easily.

"And attendants for refreshments?" she continued. That was the sign for Zormna to volunteer, but she didn't raise her hand. Zormna had crossed her arms. She glowered at the table top as she slid down in her seat, hoping not to be seen.

"I think our two authentic Irish ladies should put a hand in that," Zormna heard Miss Bianchi say.

Jennifer groaned. Jessica snickered, shooting her ex-friend looks.

Of course. If she didn't volunteer herself, her teacher would volunteer her for her. Zormna sulked more. She didn't dare ask what ridiculous outfit her teacher had planned for her this time.

The first half of the class was spent planning the event. As they discussed decorations, Jennifer leaned toward Zormna while chuckling to herself, peeking at Jessica to make sure she wasn't listening. "How ironic, considering we're the least Irish out of the entire class."

Normally Jennifer did not talk with Zormna about her non-Irish status, as the FBI were still watching. Yet like Agent Sicamore, Jennifer McLenna was also a second-generation Martian. Fact was, Zormna used to live with Jennifer's family - until the parents threw her out Christmas morning that last year. Jennifer had been Zormna's first friend in Pennington. And Jennifer was the only other kid at school besides Darren who knew about Zormna's and Jeff's true origins.

Hearing Jennifer, Zormna chuckled, nodding. That remark amused Zormna a little and continued to amuse her through the rest of the class as her teacher started them into the section of their texts about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

"Honestly, that woman has it in for me," Zormna said while walking with Jennifer to their lockers before going to Biology. Jessica tagged along, as it was on her way, but she kept to Zormna's other side.

"Has it in to play dress-up, you mean. Come on, Zormna. You look cute in those outfits," Jennifer said, snickering to herself. Jessica was also trying not to laugh, though she thought the same as Jennifer. Zormna often looked like this porcelain doll. Those people who did not envy her definitely wanted to dress her up in all sorts of outfits. And Jessica loved drawing Zormna for her art class, as Zormna had one of those faces that needed to be captured in art. And she tried hard to get Zormna to pose for her as often she could.

"I don't want to look cute," Zormna snapped back.

"Too bad," interrupted Michelle Clay, who was following them with Stacey in tow. "But I guess that means Jeff is free to take to the dance then, isn't he?"

Zormna blinked at her, growing annoyed. "Jeff has always been free to go to the dance. I wasn't going to take him."

Jessica's eyes widened, honestly surprised. She looked to Jennifer who didn't seem surprised at all, but was rolling her eyes with a 'Duh' expression. And though Jessica was one of the few who had not believed that Jeff and Zormna were sleeping together, she had started to think that maybe Zormna would have asked him to the dance as a friend. They seemed inseparable recently.

Michelle's expression brightened. "Really? Who were you going to take then?"

But Jennifer shook her head, rolling her eyes more.

Stepping back from the group, as this was around the time she went off to her own class, Jessica slipped off, shooting Jennifer a funny look when she did. Jessica was unusually pensive.

Shrugging, Zormna didn't even need to think about it, weakly waving to Jessica as she escaped the scene. "I don't know. I was thinking maybe Darren. He never gets to go to dances much, so I thought - "

"That weirdo?" Michelle recoiled, paying no attention to Zormna's offended reaction. "Who would take him? With the way he talks about aliens, I'm surprised the Pennington Sanitarium doesn't send someone to lock him up."

Zormna's eyes fixed acidly on Michelle. The very mention of the Pennington Sanitarium made her blood curdle, as she had been there when she had been kidnapped last year and it had been a horrific experience.

Yet Jennifer smirked back as she said, "Well, Michelle, if you want to ask Jeff out, I think you'd better do it soon. It looks to me like Jessica snuck off to get to Jeff first." Jennifer pointed in the direction that Jessica had gone. "You should know she has a major crush on him." Which was true.

Michelle blinked, looking around at where Jessica had been. She yipped and ran into the crowd to go after her.

Stacey hung her shoulders, waving to Zormna as she dragged her feet off to class. She seemed put out that she had no opportunity to insert in any snarky remarks that could make Zormna blush.

When both girls were gone Jennifer muttered, "Good riddance to the lot of them."

But Zormna watched the usually smug head cheerleader sprinting desperately down the hall, feeling completely annoyed. "He's going to blame me for the sudden flood of girls after him now."

Laughing, Jennifer shook her head. "Jeff can handle it. But I wonder if he'll say yes to Jessica."

Zormna lifted her eyebrows. She knew Jessica pretty well. And though Jessica had on occasion tried to get in closer quarters with Jeff whenever she could, Jeff had not shown any interest. And he was not likely to. Despite how he played around as an 'average' teenager, he refused to create any romantic attachment with anybody. If he had wanted one, Joy would have been the first one he would have seriously dated, as she really liked him and he showed no objections to her.

"Jeff wouldn't go with Michelle anyway," Jennifer murmured, misreading Zormna's silence as worry on Jessica's behalf. "I get the feeling that he'd rather eat a toad than date Michelle Clay."

Zormna smirked. That part was true.

Though Jeff had half expected the FBI to come in to school that morning and have Zormna and him arrested, the day went rather smoothly. That broken feeling from that morning had come and gone, but he still felt like he was standing in the middle of a tornado's eye. And he could not shake the premonition.

At lunchtime, Brian informed the group that he was going to Sadie Hawkins with one of the cheerleaders on the junior varsity squad, an Amanda Tilton. Adam admitted that he was attending the dance with a senior on the flag team, a virtual unknown in their group. After that Jonathan brightly added that Stacey Price had asked him before school - showing she was smarter than she looked. Michelle Clay had found Jeff after the third hour, but she was too late. Jeff had already accepted the offer from an eager and adventurous freshman - not Jessica, who had already asked someone else out before that morning when the subject had come up. When Jeff 'politely' turned Michelle down, he grinned bemusedly at the head cheerleader's expression of horror, and then at the shocked stares of her tittering clique who watched behind her. Mark was the only one without a date. He kept glancing at Zormna to drop hints that she could ask him - but all his looks and hints were lost on her. Zormna had already decided to take Darren and she had asked him that lunch hour, much to Mark's (and the rest of the group's) shock.  

"Are you serious?" Darren asked, peeking over her shoulder at the gang of wrestlers who swayed on their feet like they had the floor pulled out from under them. Even Jeff stared like he had not seen this coming. "Why me?"

Zormna shrugged. "Why not? You're not going to be romantic, and I just want to have fun at this dance."

Darren laughed as if the truth of it was appallingly fresh. He nodded, continuing to laugh while he thought about it. Every other guy, excluding Jeff of course, would be after more than just fun at a dance. They'd want to hold hands. Kiss. Whatever. Zormna was not into that. At all.

"Yeah, I'd love to go with you," he said.

Jeff shook his head, a grin spreading. He understood. She, like he, just wanted to play around a bit before life got serious again. They only had a short time left, after all.

Unfortunately that inward dread, that deep foreboding,