The Secret of Zormna Clendar by Julie Steimle (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

his hall. There really wasn’t anything else for him to do. “Go see Ms. Pitts. She’ll be in the office, probably. She’ll get you set up. And she can point you where you need to go.”

Zormna nodded again, looking more like she’s rather merge with the concrete.

“It’s going to be fun,” he said.

She just shrugged and went into the girl’s hall.

Sighing, Todd walked the other direction, into the boys’ locker room.

“There he is!” Jonathan Baker raised his arms, cheering once he entered the main room.

Mark Wheley clapped while Jeff Streigle’s fair-haired, older brother Alex beckoned him over. They were gathered in the wrestling team’s locker row, waiting for him. His other pals, Brian Henderson and Jeff were quickly changing into their new red tee shirts. They said Pennington Wrestling Swabs Up! on them. Both boys smirked. Todd caught a glimpse of the scars on Jeff’s back as the boy quickly pulled his new shirt over them. They didn’t talk much about them, but everyone knew Jeff’s father had beaten him. It was why the Streigle brothers were living with an uncle in town and why Jeff supposedly once been in a gang. It was why people said he was trouble. But Jeff was smiling.

“So?” Jeff peeked back at his older brother as he asked for all of them, “Tell us about this girl that moved in with you. Everyone says she’s hot.”

Todd laughed. “I guess the secret is out.”

“Details!” Jonathan latched one hand on the back of Todd’s neck and shaking him. “Who is she? Friend? Family? We saw her at the mall yesterday with your mother.”

Chuckling, Todd nodded. “Yeah. Mom took her shopping after enrolling her. And she is a fox.”

“What is she like?” Alex asked.

“Blonde…” Todd answered, tilting his head back, “Gymnastic…”

“Gymnastic?” the boys murmured, sharing approving glances.

Alex reached in to strangle him. “No. I heard all of that from them.”

“You weren’t at the mall?”

“I was at work.” Alex shook his head, glancing to Jeff. “So I didn’t get the sneak preview.”

The brothers shared yet another of their secret looks. Todd liked the Streigle brothers, but there were days they made him nervous. The fair-haired, lighter-tempered brother—Alex’s crystal blue eyes most of the time were filled with amusement. But Jeff’s abused, brooding, deep blue gaze remained mysterious and questioning. Salt and Pepper, some people called them.

“I was,” Jeff said, “But I didn’t get to see her in time.” He grinned almost deviously. “So, what is she like?”

Todd stepped back. “I think it is better if I introduce you, then you can decide.”

They all grinned.

Mark let out a whoop as everyone changed clothes quickly.

Outside, the air was pungent with damp lawn and manure, the odor mostly coming from the football field. They jogged straight to the track, took two laps per the coach’s usual instructions then gathered on the bleachers for roll call. In the distance, the other classes were still assembling. Zormna had to be in a class out on the asphalt, probably doing calisthenics by now.

“Asher! Keep up!” Coach Baker’s voice echoed from across the parking lot.

Todd’s class snickered. Darren Asher—that weird lanky sophomore who believed in aliens, Atlantis, and government conspiracies—was probably doing something stupid again. The crowd he was in echoed the same sentiment. Zormna was in that group somewhere. Todd was sure Coach Baker’s name was on her schedule. Sophomore/Junior PE.

Coach Baker’s shouts echoed frequently over the fields, but Todd stared that way, listening, hoping he would catch sight of her. Unfortunately, having adjacent classes was turning out to be a big flop. The school fields were just too large.

And then their coach showed up with his assistant, ending his free time to look.

The meaty wrestling instructor gazed up at them all sitting in the bleachers. “Just because the wrestling season is over does not mean you can slack off. If you want to make the team for next year, you had better keep in shape….”

The usual shtick. Todd tuned it out as Coach Baker’s class rose then stretched. The jog-by. Her class would take their two laps around the track. Then he could point her out to his friends.

“McLenna! Are you listening?”

“What?” Todd popped his attention back on the coach.

The boys around him snickered. 

Coach set his hands on his hips. “What are we all doing today?”

Todd cringed. He peeked to the others.

Alex made hand gestures that, frankly, made no sense. Jeff rolled his eyes and elbowed Brian in the side. Brian was making one of his ‘strong-man’ faces, flexing his biceps. Then it hit Todd.

“Strength training.”

The coach sighed. “Two points for McLenna for having friends who can bail him out.”

Todd hunched with a wince.

“Ok. On your feet. Up and down the bleachers five times then start the circuit. Go.”

All of them rose.

Up and down the bleachers, jogging as a team together. It was the Pennington way for wrestling, football, soccer…any sport that required strong legs. It also hurt. Because of it, Todd missed Coach Baker’s class jog-by. By the time his team had reached the end of the bleacher run and started their circuit training, he spotted Zormna in the distance. She was back on the black top. He could barely make out the large block letters on her back in permanent black marker that said CLENDAR. Amazingly, she was ahead of her class at the finish of their two laps around the track. Everyone in her class fought to keep up, especially the boys.

“Is that her?” Alex pointed, squinting to make her out. “She’s pretty short.”

“She’s really fast,” Brian murmured.

Todd nodded. “Yep. That’s her. She’s too far away to see. Maybe I can introduce you at lunch.”

“Promise?” Mark asked, grinning.

Todd only chuckled.

Strength training, in their coach’s mind, was not done in a room with weights, but had to be done in a circuit in all weather. They were required to run to each post in succession, perform a set of exercises, and complete as many laps as they could. Most of his friends jogged the circuit together, keeping a slow pace, but he pulled ahead, skipping a few of the tasks so he could get to the fence that divided the football field from the back fields. That was where Coach Baker’s class had gone. Zormna’s class was currently in the middle of an intense frisbee-football game, slogging over the damp lawn.

Zormna darted through the heart of the field, playing not at all how Todd expected for a girl with her kind of looks. She dived after a soaring frisbee. Tumbling into a slide across the muck, snatching the disk up before it could make contact with the earth, she rolled with a pop right onto her feet. Mud smeared across Zormna’s cheek and one ear. But she came up grinning, triumphantly lifting the red disk above her head.

“Holy cow!” Jonathan halted next to him. He lurched against the fence where Todd was watching. 

Then she sailed the disk to her teammate like an expert.

“Did you see that?” Jonathan gaped.

“Yeah…” Todd shook his head though. “That’s Zormna.”

“Zor—what?”

Brian and Mark jogged up next with Jeff following not far behind. Jeff paused at exercise the station to stretch, not quite going to the fence. He stayed back to keep watch in case the coach saw what they were doing.

“Is that her?” Brian leaned against the chain link.

“That’s the chick we saw at the mall, all right.” Mark nodded, clutching the fence railing. “So she really is staying with you?”

Todd laughed. “Yeah, she is staying with us. She’s sleeping in our attic.”

“What’s her name?” Brian asked, unable to take his eyes off her.

And Todd chuckled. He couldn’t wait to hear their reactions. “Zormna Clendar.”

“Zorma what?” Jonathan repeated again.

“Zorba the Car?” Mark stared. “That’s not a…. You’re joking.”

Jeff got up from a deep knee-bend and rushed to the fence. Breathing hard, he squinted at the small blonde running across the field. Her fiery blonde hair surged back from her face like smoke, settling in curls around her head to its chin length. The longer thin strands that hung in front of her ears fell against her chest in broad spirals. Jeff’s hand automatically covered his mouth. He drew in a breath.

The boys took in her pale, thin, toned legs, then the curvature upward—a hot image in a pair of running shorts. Her leg muscles flexed as she turned and walked back towards a teammate. Her bow-shaped mouth pressed together with a question, probably about the rules. Entrancing, how her stare was so solid, so exotic. And when she turned and blinked at them with her deep green eyes, they were left breathless. She waved at Todd.

 “Oh my g—” Mark turned immediately toward Todd, grabbing him by his shirt front. “Can I have her for my birthday?”

“No.” Todd shoved him off. “And my mom made me promise to treat her like a sister so…if I can’t date her, I don’t think it’s fair that you guys can.”

“Ah!” his collection of friends moaned in protest.

But Jeff said, “How come she moved here?”

“Hey!” Brian protested. “Here is a good place to be!”

Shrugging, Todd replied, “I’m not exactly sure why she moved here, but she said she came to live with her great aunt.”

“So then how come she is living with you?” Brian asked.

Jeff nodded, his dark eyes transfixed on her.

Todd chuckled, averting his gaze a little. “Well…that’s a funny story, really. I mean, my parents taking her in is pretty much impossible to believe—”

“Knowing your parents,” Jeff agreed, nodding wryly.

“—But it turns out her great aunt was—get this—the crazy lady of Hayes Street.” Todd nodded knowingly.

All his friends’ eyes went wide, except Jeff’s of course. Jeff remained puzzled.

“No way.” Brian was floored. All three boys looked back at her too see it they could make out the family resemblance.

“You don’t know about her,” Todd said to Jeff, “because the crazy woman died a year before you got here. I don’t even think Alex has seen her.”

“Before Alex’s time,” Brian murmured.

“I’ve heard rumors,” Jeff said, snorting. He then chuckled, looking back at Zormna. She was too involved in her game to pay attention to their group of gawkers. “A fat lady who believed she was from Mars. Some say she had lived here for forever. Is that really true?”

“As far as I know,” Brian said.

Jonathan nodded.

“I heard the FBI was all over the scene, and that’s why Darren the dork is so obsessed with aliens,” Jeff said.

“You hit the nail on the head.” Jonathan patted Jeff’s shoulder. “When the old woman died, the government was all over the neighborhood. Men in black.”

“I hope insanity isn’t hereditary,” Mark said, gazing back at Zormna. A yearning sigh escaped his chest.

Jeff smirked. “It is.”

“So why did your parents take her in?” Brian asked Todd, “They don’t even let us hang out at your place.”

Shrugging, Todd replied in a murmur, “I’m not sure. Maybe because she’s Irish? But I don’t know if that is a plus or minus with them. And they did occasionally talk to her aunt before, you know, the old woman croaked.”

All of them nodded.

Todd wondered on that a bit more.

“Is she related to you?” Jeff asked.

Todd shook his head. “Nope. Not at all. And Zormna has been talking about becoming an emancipated minor, which means she does not intend to stay with us long.”

Jeff snorted at that. The others murmured over the phrase emancipated minor.

“Hey!” Alex jogged up. “Coach is coming this way. You’d all better move on.”

They looked back.

The coach jogged towards them like he would stomp them into the track. His face contorted between something like a grouchy bull dog and a peeved Rottweiler.

“Alright,” Todd said, gesturing for Alex to come to the fence first. “But get your look at Zormna before we run off. You can see her right over there.”

“Zormna?” Alex rushed up, eyes wide. He snuck a look at his brother, who raised his eyebrows, nodding.

The coach was gaining.

Brian and Jonathan cringed, breaking into a run back onto the track. Mark lagged a little, peeking once at the coach before joining them back into the circuit.

Todd