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

then looked to her brother. She knew all the foul things Ted could and would say, but ‘Irish bug’ was what bothered her?

“Well, Zormna is like, ‘What did you call me?’ And Ted is like, ‘What? Retard?’ And she’s like looking at him like he’s so dumb, and she sits back down again. But then he says, ‘Or was it Irish bug face?’ Well…” Tristy nodded sagely, “Zormna popped out of her desk again and shouted (get this), ‘No one calls me bug face!’”

For real? Jennifer choked, not sure she heard right.

“Bug face?” Todd looked equally incredulous.

Brian rubbed his forehead, confused. “And that is what bothered her?”

Tristy shrugged. “What can I say? But that really didn’t start the fight. Zormna still was going to be the good girl. She was grinding her teeth and trying hard to keep her temper. I could tell. But then Ted did this stupid thing where he said, ‘What? Are you chicken?’ and he then goes into his whole butt-out chicken dance with the ‘bawk-bawk’ thing going on, saying ‘Why don’t you make me, bug face.’ And she’s like, ‘You would not want me to make you.’ And—”

Todd burst out laughing. Jennifer could tell he imagined the same thing happening to Ted as what happened to Darren Asher. Apparently Brian was also envisioning it, but he shook his head in a daze at the idea of a girl that small taking down someone as large as Ted.

“And…” Tristy shook her head at the two boys. “Let me finish. And then…well, Ted just gets more belligerent. He’s slapping his chest now and puffing it up saying, ‘Try it. I dare you.’ He—”

“But she’s like, only swearing at him in her Irish language and stuff,” Stephen busted in, nodding to both Todd and Brian. “And he’s all—”

“Shut up!” Tristy shoved him back, “I’m telling it.”

“And, ya know, really…” Stephen continued to mock her. “Toats McGoats, ya know.”

She pushed him back farther as other people hushed Stephen. “Well, anyway, Mrs. Carr tried to put a stop to it. But by this time Ted was completely ignoring her. Mrs. Carr threatened him with detention twice, but he’s like strutting in the middle of the room—”

“In the middle of the room?” Todd asked.

Brian nudged him. “It’s one of those classrooms with chairs on one half and chairs on the other, like a V so the teacher can do demonstrations and stuff. Mr. Child’s class is like that.”

“Well, anyway,” Tristy said, “Ted ended up strutting in his chicken dance into the center of the room like a dork, and he starts saying Zormna is nothing but a piece of chicken liver—”

“He said,” another classmate clarified, “and I quote, ‘You are nothing more than a piece of chicken liver, you little flea.’ And that is when she cracked.”

Tristy frowned, folding her arms. Her thunder had been taken.

“She went all psycho,” her other classmate said. “I mean she got up and walked on the tops of the desks.”

“How can you do that?” Jennifer was completely dumbfounded now. “The desks are like, flimsy particle-board, right?”

“Not in Mrs. Carr’s class,” Tristy said. “She has the old metal desks with the cubby inside. You can stand on them if you want.”

“So Zormna walked on the desks in class?” Brian asked.

Tristy nodded. “Right across them to Ted. The most direct way. And then she—”

“Then she jumps off like super ninja” a classmate cut in, “attacks Ted and—”

“It didn’t happen that way!” Tristy snapped back. “I’m telling the story! She—”

The office door burst open again. “I thought I told you kids to go home!”

Everyone scattered.

 

Todd and Brian dragged Tristy with them outside to the front steps to finish the account with as much detail as possible. Jennifer followed, listening intently as Tristy described everything.

Tristy explained, “Ted was just trying to bully her, you know. But it was when he made some remark about her family that she lost it. The Irish bug thing may have gotten her mad, but Zormna was really set off when he called her mother a chicken-livered flea. You could see her just crack.”

Jennifer went pale. She shared a look with Todd. “That is bad.”

Brian frowned. “It is really rude, but why would…” Yet he stared at Todd and Jennifer, reading the change in their faces. “…that make Zormna crack?”

Todd murmured, “Because, her mother is dead.”

“Because her entire family was murdered,” Jennifer explained better.

Tristy and all those listening in stared at her, including Todd.

“What?” Seeing their looks, Jennifer blinked at Todd. “Didn’t Zormna tell you?”

Todd shook his head. “She never said a thing. I just thought it was her great aunt who…you know, was killed.”

Brian drew in a breath. Setting a hand over his mouth, he looked back to Tristy. “So Zormna snapped and did what?”

“Jumped on him,” Tristy said, but she was pale. Her mind was obviously rewinding the events, adding up everything that had happened in a different perspective. Jennifer could imagine exactly how Zormna must have looked in that moment.

“It was so weird too,” Tristy murmured. “I mean, she’s like this porcelain doll, you know. She looks like she could break with one nudge. But I swear I saw her pounce on Ted, who’s this lummox of a giant, and she pinned him to the ground in like three seconds.”

“She’s military trained,” Jennifer murmured.

Several of their lingering classmates nodded, thinking on that.

“You should have seen Ted beg,” one of them said in admiration.

The others snickered.

Tristy nodded, chuckling. “Yeah. He was whimpering, not even able to move. She had, like, one of his arms twisted back, and Zormna was, like, leaning on his neck in a way that, I dunno… it was surreal.”

“It got her a round of applause,” one of her other classmates said.

“But Mrs. Carr stepped in to break it up,” another said.

“So that’s why Zormna’s in trouble?” Jennifer asked.

Tristy shook her head.

“Not just that. She got up. You know, like a soldier, and bowed to the teacher all obedient-like. She was even going back to her seat when—”

“Lead Weight jumped after her,” Stephen said. “He charged like a bull.”

“Ole!” someone called out.

“Zormna certainly was the matador!” another classmate chimed in, laughing.

“Anyway…” Tristy rolled her eyes. “Ted goes after her, and Zormna does this whole king fu thing where she’s dodging him and, like, doing all these gymnastic flipping things…”

“No! Don’t tell it like that!” Stephen protested. In earnest, and dramatic admiration, he said to Todd and Jennifer, “She did this awesome thing where she sets her feet out like this,” and he posed for them the stance Jennifer had seen Zormna do twice now. “Then he comes at her, and she pushes off his own shoulders and does this midair flip where I swear her feet barely missed the hanging lights, and she lands without any sound at all. And Ted, of course, is freaking out. And he swings around to grab her. But she dodges him all kung-fuey. And the next thing you know, Ted is flat on the floor again with Zormna holding him there, tying his legs and arms into a knot.”

Tristy slapped him on the shoulder. “Not a knot. But she moved way too psycho fast for any of us to follow. And then she says to Ted, ‘You are such a dork. I have taken down bigger men than you.’—”

“‘Do you actually think you are the first man I have fought? I went to military school, idiot,’” Her classmates chimed in.

“You memorized it…” Brian murmured.

Tristy shrugged.

“It was classic,” Stephen said.

“But then Mrs. Carr interfered again, and it was all over,” Tristy said.

“Not quite,” Stephen added, shooting her a look. “Remember, Zormna first said to the teacher that if she got off, Ted would just go after her again. And Mrs. Carr threatened her with detention?”

“She waited that long?” Jennifer asked. It was exasperatingly ridiculous.

They shrugged.

“But Zormna got up a second time. And Ted did exactly what she predicted,” Tristy said.

 “Ted grabbed one of her ankles,” Stephen said. “And yanked her off her feet. By that time Mrs. Carr had sent Omri to Mr. Vicklser’s.”

“But what did Zormna do?” Jennifer gasped.

Tristy said with a shrug, “She beat Ted a third time.”

Todd, Brian, and Jennifer stared.

Tristy explained, “Zormna kicked his wrist and made him let go. Then she got back onto her feet while he was moaning about his broken hand. He then dived at her, grabbing her by the waist.”

Brian and Todd drew in a breath. Ted certainly would have broken her then. He was great at tackle-and-pin when he got a good waist-hold. Yet… Tristy had said Zormna had beaten Ted. How could Zormna have beaten one of the better wrestlers on their team? They were state champions.

“But you should have seen Zormna,” Tristy said. “She used his own weight against him, swiped his legs out from under him and knocked him off balance. The next thing we knew she was holding him down. And this time she refused to get off. And she didn’t get off him until Mr. Vicksler and the school security arrived.”

Both Todd and Brian were speechless. Their hands covered their mouths entirely.

Jennifer asked, “So…Mr. Vicksler came, and she now is suspended for fighting?”

“For the rest of the week.” Tristy nodded.

“It could have been worse,” Stephen said.

They looked to him.

Stephen nodded. “Mr. Vicksler said Lead Weight is off the wrestling team.”

“No!” Brian and Todd gasped.

Stephen shrugged. “Sorry. But that is what he said.”

“Coach Baker won’t like that at all,” Brian murmured.

“He’ll have a cow.” Todd nodded with grief.

Jennifer didn’t care about any of that. Her mind kept going back to Zormna. She was suspended from school—undoubtedly it would be in-school suspension. Mr. Vicksler believed that dumping troublemakers to the street rather than trying to reform them was a bad idea. His in-school suspension usually motivated people to behave themselves, because it was mostly boring sitting in a room with the school security watching you for eight hours. You were allowed no books, no writing materials, and of course no electronics of any kind. Most kids were clawing the walls by the end of their suspensions.

“We’d better go tell Mom and let her know what happened,” Todd murmured in a light daze. He tugged on Jennifer’s elbow to get her attention.

She nodded. They definitely had to. But what a can of worms would that unearth?

*

When their parents returned home with Zormna that afternoon, Jennifer could hear their voices project through the roof. “…They do not pounce on classmates!”

Their voices echoed with all kinds of emotion. Their anger was obvious, but Jennifer detected a degree of horror. And worry.

“Do you have any idea the kind of harm you could have caused? Don’t you realize you are jeopardizing your stay here?”

“I apologize. I was not thinking,” Zormna said as contrite as she could be, considering how brisk her voice got when she was under criticism.

“Obviously! If you were thinking you would have remembered that you were risking unwanted attention, let alone damaging your education.”

“His parents could sue,” their mother said.

“That’s right! Did you think at all about us? About the financial repercussions that could come to us if his family sued for—”

“I will pay whatever damages I may have caused,” Zormna said, militarily responsible as ever.

Jennifer rolled her eyes. She mildly glanced over to Mindy who was staring wide-eyed up from her homework, listening.

“You will! And you will apologize to that boy also!” their father shouted.

Silence.

“Did you hear me?” he demanded.

“I heard you,” Zormna said with razor sharp clarity. “But he is the one who insulted me. Not the other way around.”

“You attacked him!”

She did not respond.

“There were witnesses.”

No answer.

“You will apologize.”

 “No. I will not,” she said.

“GO TO YOUR ROOM!”

Jennifer and Mindy braced for stomping and door slamming. 

But they heard none. After a silent passage up the stairs and down the hall, the attic door catch clicked shut.

“You know,” their mother’s voice still carried enough to be heard on the second floor, “she could have broken his neck.”

“She wouldn’t have,” their father said. “She’s not that out-of-control. But she has to curb