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

peeked back once at the coach, yet lingered for Alex’s reaction which he knew would be big.

Alex drew in a breath, almost collapsing against the fence. “No way.”

Jeff laid his arm around Alex’s shoulder. “No kidding.”

Both brothers snuck a quick glance at the coach who was now ten yards away. They broke into a run.

“McLenna!” the coach bellowed.

Todd sprinted after them.

“Don’t think I didn’t see what you were doing! You owe me two hundred push-ups!” coach shouted.

Alex and Jeff cackled, running faster.

“That includes you two! Streigle! Both of you!”

But the brothers laughed even harder.

Jeff broke into the lead, overtaking Mark. Alex halted at the station where Brian and Jonathan were pretending to be doing their repetitions. But Jeff continued on, skipping the exercise.

Todd stopped, breathing hard as he watched him go.

But the coach passed, going after Jeff.

“Crazy guy,” Todd murmured.

The coach increased his speed, but there was no way he would be able to catch Jeff. Jeff had an amazing lead.

The four friends watched.

“Why does he always do that?” Alex murmured.

“What?” Mark asked.

“Diversion.” Alex turned towards the parallel bars, beginning his repetitions.

*

Class over. In the sweltering rank of body odor and stinky gym socks, everyone changed back into their street clothes except Jeff. He was stuck in the coaches’ office enduring a severe chewing-out. The coach’s shouts echoed into the main locker room. The man’s words rattled more than the glass partition. Jeff stared at the ground, cringing with each castrating word. Yet, Coach Baker stood by, only mildly concerned. He was even a little amused. After all, skipping a few exercises on the circuit wasn’t the worst thing Jeff had ever done.

“You can’t be lackadaisical in your training, Streigle! If you want to stay state wrestling champ, you have to work hard!”

Two rows over, Darren Asher threw on his lime-green-on-black aliens-are-among-us shirt like he was about to win a million dollars. Then the lanky, dark-haired geek scrambled through the locker room to the door amidst jeers from his classmates.

“She’s not gonna listen to you, dork!”

“She’s out of your league!”

“Loser!”

Darren jogged backwards, smirking in that ridiculous crooked way of his, his wide mouth stretching much like the Joker from Batman. “She’s out of everyone’s league. She’s an alien from Mars.”

The entire group moaned, throwing their shoes at him. Darren ducked through the volley of projectiles, still grinning.

Brian peered after him. He nudged Todd with his elbow. “Hey. You don’t think he’s going out to mess with the girl that’s staying with you, do you?”

“Zormna?” Todd blinked at that thought then chuckled. “He’s an idiot if he thinks he can. She’s not likely to suffer fools.”

Alex nodded, clearly agreeing. She seemed that type. But then with open regret, Alex changed the subject. “I’ve got bad news guys. I can’t go with you for lunch. There’s this project in Auto Shop I completely forgot about. I might even have to steal Jeff for a few days.”

“If he doesn’t end up in detention first,” Mark muttered, looking that way.

“But you’re gonna miss Zormna,” Todd protested.

“That’s the breaks,” Alex replied with a shrug, and he walked toward the office door.

Jeff strode out the same time, casting his brother a warning look. Alex swung around, taking the back exit instead. The coach was right on Jeff’s heels, still growling at him. “That’s it! Detention. Right now!”

“I knew it,” Mark murmured.

“During lunch?” Jeff turned around. His shoulders sagged. “Come on, coach!”

But their coach firmly shook his head. “You’re going to clean the weight room and put things back in order. Just because you were champ this year does not mean you will make it next year. Remember, Damon Pikes from Monroe will be training hard to get back the title. You need to take your training just as seriously.”

Jeff emitted another defeated moan. But they knew he wouldn’t be able to get out of it. The more you put up a fuss with the coach, the deeper the coach dug in his heels. Jeff should have known better.

“Man up, Streigle,” the coach said, then pushed him along to make sure Jeff actually served his detention. No time for changing.

And that was that. Two down, three left. Todd looked to Brian, Jonathan, and Mark. “You guys aren’t going to bail, are you?”

“Are you kidding?” Brian laughed.

They changed faster.

They weren’t the only ones jogging out in the hopes to get acquainted with the new girl in town. Several others rushed out the locker room. They snuck surreptitious looks at Todd as they escaped ahead of him. By the time Todd came out with his friends, they found a cluster of boys gathered near the girls’ entrance. But they stood back a pace.

Zormna was there waiting for Todd as she promised. But she wasn’t alone. Darren Asher was towering over her, fanatically grinning. Darren was almost drooling with excitement. Girls were pushing past him as they left their locker room. But Darren paid them no mind. His eyes were wide, ecstatic as he rattled off question after unanswered question at a girl who obviously was trying to ignore his existence. Zormna’s eyes were anywhere but on him.

“So when did you get here?” Darren asked it with almost manic excitement. “I mean, it is amazing that you arrived. Your aunt talked about family coming to this planet, but I never in a billion years actually thought you would, because she said it would be near impossible as your cousins haven’t—”

“I do not have any cousins,” Zormna growled, her eyes searing onto him, finally. “That woman was my great aunt, she was insane, and you are an imbecile.”

Those watching snickered.

But Darren rambled ahead. “You have to say that to keep your cover. But I know the truth. Tell me, did you fly down here in a transport shuttle or did you have your own spacecraft?”

Rolling her eyes wider, so exasperated her head might explode, Zormna looked likely to bang her forehead against the wall. But then she saw Todd.

“At last!”

Zormna looked so relieved. She pushed past Darren, or tried to. He grabbed her shoulder.

“Wait a minute! You haven’t an—”

Automatically seizing his arm, Zormna slipped underneath and twisted it back. It whipped him off his feet. She forced Darren’s face down into the concrete and held his arm behind him in a lock.

“Do not grab me.”

“Uh huh.” Darren whimpered, tasting shoe-dirt.

Everyone else had stepped back. Wide-eyes absorbed the tiny girl over the giant geek with disbelief.

Then someone in the boys’ cluster started to clap. And from there it escalated into an all-out cheer from everyone, which resonated against the brick wall.

Todd decided to intervene before Zormna actually would break Darren’s arm. “Uh, Zormna?”

She immediately let go.

Stepping over Darren’s prone body, she said, “Todd. Sorry about that. We were going to lunch?”

Todd nodded, peeking down once at Darren.

Darren got up to his knees, rubbing his shoulder.

“Way to go, dork.” Mark slapped Darren on the back of his head, shoving past him. He then grinned at Zormna, extending his hand. “Mark Wheley. Friend of Todd’s.”

“Jonathan Baker.” Jonathan pushed in, blocking Darren from getting near her again.

The lanky space-crazed boy was already on his feet, dusting off his front while shooting scowls at them all.

“I’m Brian.” But Brian waved, uncertain it would be a good idea to touch the girl that had just thrown a boy almost twice her size.

Zormna stared at Mark’s hand briefly then gingerly shook it. “Zormna Clendar. I saw you three yesterday.”

They blushed sheepishly, stuffing their hands into pockets. Yet her thick Irish accent, especially the light trill, made her sound like a faerie from another realm—and they wanted to hear more.

She turned towards Todd. “So where is this famous friend Jeff that your mom said was trouble?”

Todd choked on a laugh. Famous friend Jeff. And famous for trouble. Of course his mother would say that. “Do you want to meet him that bad?”

Zormna shrugged apathetically and turned her eyes to the schoolyard. “Not really.”

Mark leaned in. “He’s in detention.” 

She chuckled indifferently. “Of course.”

“Shall we get going?” Todd said, leading the way out.

She nodded.

Within those few seconds, followed by a crowd of onlookers, Zormna took the time to inform Todd that she had to get her lunch from her locker first. And so the crowd followed her there. She did her best to only pay attention to Todd and his immediate friends despite the expanding throng of interested fans eager to make her acquaintance. Zormna humored them all the way in to the school and out to the Red Top where his group regularly had lunch. The onlookers around them dispersed far enough to give them space, but near enough to listen in. Most of them were boys from her gym class.

“So, Todd says you’re related to the crazy lady of Hayes Street,” Mark said. “Is that true?”

Zormna groaned, putting her head in hands. Half her lunch bag was clenched in her fist while the rest had been spread neatly the table.

Jonathan elbowed Mark in the side with a dirty look. “Hey, everybody’s got crazy family. My Aunt Esther is like this obsessive cat lady who thinks the only meat anyone should ever eat is fish. She has, like, a billion cans of tuna fish in her basement.”

Zormna peeked up her head. “Seriously?”

“I’ve got a daredevil uncle who thinks he’s the lovechild of Evel Knievel,” Brian offered.

“Who?” Zormna stared.

“He’s big into motorcycle jumping and stunts,” Brian said, watching her almond-shaped green eyes blink attentively at him.  

Zormna shrugged.

“So, was that woman really your aunt?” Mark asked.

Sighing heavily, Zormna nodded. “Though I never met her.”

Todd’s pals shared looks. Todd knew they were all relieved. The idea that Zormna could also be insane had made them more than a little nervous.

“So…” Brian led up to another question on their list. “What part of Ireland are you from? Dublin? Limerick?” He chuckled sheepishly. “Those are the only two places I know, actually.”

“Honestly…” Zormna peeked once at Todd, “It was rather, uh, remote.”

“Like the Mountains of Mourne?” Todd asked, intrigued. He never really got the facts from Jennifer, and his parents had remained mum on the subject.

She gently laughed. Todd liked how her cheeks dimpled when she was amused. Her green eyes sparkled.

“Actually—”

“Zormna grew up in a military school, and didn’t spend much time outside the campus,” Jennifer cut in. “Isn’t that right?”

She strolled up to their table with her boyfriend, Kevin Jacobson, on her arm. Kevin stood there with his usual cheesy grin on his stupid face, with that stupid boy-scout haircut and his posh I’m going to tennis with Bitsy and her poodle Fi-fi, clothes. Todd tolerated the tall, preppy-dressed junior on good days. On other days Todd cast him the evil eye and wished him gone.

Zormna gazed dryly at the couple. She barely looked at Kevin.

“So,” Jennifer said, perking up with all the eagerness of a kid at show-and-tell, “I wanted you to meet my boyfriend Kevin.”

Formally, Zormna nodded to him. “Hello.”

And of course Kevin grinned wider. His face colored, eager to please, yet masked that he obviously thought Zormna was incredibly hot, considering that Jennifer was standing right there. “Nice to meet you finally.”

Zormna nodded quietly again, then looked back to her lunch as if it was more interesting.

“I hear you’ve inherited the old house on Hayes Street,” Kevin continued, trying to make small talk. Jennifer waited expectantly—but for what, Todd wasn’t sure.

“No way! You inherited it?” Mark jumped out of his seat.

Zormna groaned. “Yes.”

Jonathan’s and Brian’s eyes went wide. “No way.” They grabbed Todd, tackling him in a mock strangle. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Urg!” Todd choked, trying to fend them off.

“Are you kidding?” Jennifer laughed with that tone she used when she thought he and his friends were being stupid. “There’s legal stuff. And she’s not living there, besides.”

“Yet,” Zormna murmured.

Jennifer snorted skeptically. “It will be a cold day in Hell before my folks will agree to that. Anyway, you can eat with Kevin and me if you want. We’ve got a better place on the lawn, out of the hot sun. Your white skin will burn if