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

And Mark choked.

Todd was overblown. His friend’s name was really Jafarr?

“It was on my records over there,” Jeff explained, casting Zormna a dirty look. “And she doesn’t believe in nicknames.”

“Jafarr is a perfectly decent name,” Zormna growled, but she rolled the R in his name. The way she said it did sound more elegant.

Jeff raised his eyebrows.

Yet his friends could not stop laughing. Todd could not help it either, though Jeff glanced dryly to his brother who merely shrugged.

Finally, Jeff said, “Anyway, after our parents’ European excursion, our folks picked us up and took us home. And I never expected to see her again—ever.”

The guys nodded, wiping their eyes.

“Small world,” Jonathan said, snorting.

“Too small,” Zormna’s razor thin voice cut back.

Their snickers subsided.

And Zormna added icily, “So what are you doing in this town?”

Jeff just shrugged. “I’m living with my aunt and uncle now. I was escaping abuse. What are you doing here?”

“I had family here,” Zormna snapped, though it sounded fragile. “I was joining…I had hoped…” Zormna averted her eyes to the grass, clenching her fists.

“No,” he said. “That’s not what I meant. You see, I could have sworn you were the type that would have never left your homeland. America did not have that allure for you.”

She responded with silence. Zormna did not meet his gaze, or anyone’s. Todd could tell she was struggling to maintain her composure, either from anger or tears. Zormna seemed so fragile these days.

She finally said, “I didn’t want to come. It wasn’t my choice.”

“How’s John?” Alex suddenly asked.

Zormna lifted her eyes to him, inspecting his face before replying. “Dzhon?” She said it with a strong zh sound, like saying treasure or azure.

Alex nodded.

Zormna peeked once at Jeff as she said, “Dzhon is good. Associating with you hasn’t ruined his future.”

Jeff huffed, rolling his eyes.

She scowled at him. “There are those who would have held it against him.”

“Like our mutual friend with the white hair?” Jeff asked wryly.

Zormna flinched. Yet she nodded. “Certainly. But I protected him.”

Alex looked relieved. However Jeff remained skeptical.  

Finally, Zormna shook her head. Stepping back from their group, her eyes had not gone off Jeff except to turn regretfully to Todd. “I am sorry. But while he is here, I cannot not be. Too much bad blood has passed between us.”

“No…no.” Todd hurried up to her. Already she was retreating into herself, like a recluse again. “Stay with us. We’ll keep Jeff in line.”

Jeff snorted, looking the other way without any inclination of being ‘kept in line’.

“No, Todd.” Zormna shook her head more kindly now. “And I am telling you this because I like you. Because if I had to stay within close proximity of that person for any length of time, I will end up killing him.”

And she marched away.  

Much of the crowd left when she did, including Darren—but then Darren would follow after her. But others stayed, listening in at a distance.

Zormna took her old position under the tree. Jennifer had followed, though Zormna ignored her and Kevin…which was a complete flip from this morning.

“Jeff,” Brian asked, heavy with exasperation, “What did you do to make her hate you so much?”

“Believe me, the feeling is mutual,” Jeff replied, digging into his lunch.

Alex sighed, nodding. “Which is a pity.”

Jeff scowled at him.

“Because?” Jonathan asked.

Alex shrugged with exasperation. “Because she is totally hot.”

Jeff groaned.

But Jonathan and Mark sighed, agreeing with Alex. And so did Todd. It was sad. Because Jeff and Zormna were two of the loneliest people he had ever known—and they were so much alike. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was true. Both seemed so broken, though Jeff had lately been getting better.

 “Hey, Todd.” Jeff leaned near. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll ditch off with Al if this is causing too much trouble. I just wanted you guys to know the truth about why we were avoiding her.”

Todd gazed back at the pallid face of his oft-abused friend and shook his head. Jeff’s eyes seemed darker, more brooding than usual—like a cloud-covered night. Todd’s eyes trailed the scar across Jeff’s face the most. “Nah. You don’t have to. Everybody’s got something they’re dealing with. And we’re buddies. Zormna will just have to get over it.”

Jeff leaned back, impressed. “What is this? ‘Bros before hos’?”

Chuckling painfully, Todd shook his head. “Nah. I just don’t believe in ditching a friend.”

“I said STOP IT!” Zormna’s voice echoed from across the grass.

Everyone looked. Zormna grabbed Darren’s wrist and put him in an arm-lock. He had followed her to the tree where Jennifer and Kevin regularly ate. Several schoolmates around her cheered. Jennifer and Kevin stared in mortification.

“Miss Clendar!” a campus monitor called out, charging up to them.

Zormna let go, tossing Darren off and raising her arms. “It was self-defense. He was harassing me!”

“But fighting is inexcusable!” The monitor went after, pulling out detention slips.

Jeff shook his head, murmuring low, “She’ll get out of it.”

Todd nodded. “Lots of witnesses. He’s been harassing her for forever. And that idiot won’t learn.”

“Never take on Zormna Clendar,” Alex said, almost like an axiom.

*

Jennifer had a lot to think about. Especially since the school’s rumor mill was now talking exclusively about the new drama between their top wrestler and their Irish celebrity. Jennifer’s classmates had immediately assaulted Jeff Streigle with questions after lunch, asking for details. Jeff answered all questions frankly, though with completely bored annoyance. And though they got a lot more than the info from the redtop, Jeff’s story, as far as Jennifer considered it, was full of holes.

What was the name of Zormna’s school?

He didn’t know. Their dad had unceremoniously dropped him and his brother there.

Where in Ireland was it?

He didn’t know. It wasn’t like he was keeping track with a map when his father unceremoniously dropped him and his bother there.

What was the school like?

High techy—he said. Rigid. With uniforms. Full of kids learning combat, while also using flight simulators and training in machine maintenance.

Why in the world did he not want to go to a school like that? He was totally into machines. He knew them better than his brother Alex.

Jeff had rolled his eyes and repeated it was because his father had unceremoniously dropped him and his brother there when they could have been touring Europe!!! And the school was all about control, with strict regulations. Also (he growled with contempt), one of the people there (this ‘mutual friend’ of Zormna’s, a guy with Nazi-white hair—a point that sent shivers up Jennifer’s arms) loved corporal punishment and had beaten him up when he had ended up in the brig.

Lots of people drew in breaths at that one.

And there was more.

Zormna had been a favorite there. Top student with lots of privileges. But he said she was totally ignorant about the real world. He felt a lot of contempt about that too.

But Jennifer didn’t quite buy his story.

That afternoon, on their way home from school, she asked Zormna about Jeff’s story, to verify it. But all Zormna did was sigh, murmuring, “How did I not see him here?”

“He was avoiding you,” Jennifer replied.

Zormna rolled her eyes over to Jennifer. “I’m not usually that oblivious. He stands out.”

Which was entirely true. Jeff was about as obvious as Zormna was. Especially his brooding dark eyes, vampiric-pale skin, and his scars. But his brother Alex wasn’t so conspicuous. In fact, Alex was so normal. Which blew the whole ‘they’re all aliens’ theory out the window. That was what Darren was ranting by the end of the day.

“You were too freaked out over the death of your great aunt?” Jennifer offered as another explanation, wondering if Darren was actually right or if it was totally lunatic.

But Zormna only moaned. “No. I’ve been more on guard because of that.”

Which was also true. It was why Zormna had spotted the FBI so easily.

“You weren’t looking for him?” Jennifer finally suggested.

Zormna paused in her walk. She angled her head to the side, thinking on that. Then nodded, continuing on.

“Ok.”

Jennifer pulled back. No fight. It was strange not to be fighting with the blonde. So much that Jennifer asked, “So…is what he said about meeting you at your school true? Be entirely honest.”

Clenching her teeth as if they pained her, Zormna finally turned a dark gaze on Jennifer. “Entirely true. At my school. I was with Salvar at the time. When I saw him, I did not think much of him. I was too busy. The next time I saw him he was trying to sneak off the compound—right in the middle of my district’s roll call.”

Shivers ran through Jennifer. It was the complete truth. The question was, where did this really happen? Ireland or some other place? Jennifer hoped more than ever now that it wasn’t some other place. Because if it was some other place, then Jeff had not gone to Europe.

Zormna marched on petulantly, her thoughts kept to herself. But as she went on, an idea came to Jennifer. She looked to Zormna, realizing it was something Zormna might be thinking about. So she whispered, “Do you think he is connected with your great aunt’s death?”

Zormna lurched to a halt—her breathing went hard, and she closed her eyes. Apparently she hadn’t been thinking of that at all. Jennifer watched as the blonde regained control. Eventually Zormna shook her head, and slowly said, “No…no. He couldn’t have.”

But it sounded more like Zormna was trying to convince herself.

Jennifer leaned nearer, feeling awkward as Zormna continued to think it over.

“If he were,” Zormna whispered, mostly to herself, “I’d already be dead.”

Jennifer drew in a sharp breath.

Did Jeff hate Zormna that much? He may have been in a gang but…. Then Jennifer considered that maybe that story had been lie. Yet, Jeff did have a history of violence.

Jennifer thought back to when the Streigle brothers had moved into town. Alex had moved in first. He had come to Pennington sometime at the end of the last school year. There was nothing spectacularly memorable about Alex or his entrance into Pennington except that he had said he was from Chicago and he was now living with an uncle. Todd had instantly liked him. But then Alex was a pleasant, likeable, ordinary kind of guy. He got along with nearly everyone. But then, several months later, Jeff moved into town.

It was in August, not long before the beginning of the school year. Jennifer had been sitting in the car with her mother and her brother when she first saw Jeff. Todd had pointed out the midnight-haired scar-faced boy just before joining his pals at the movie theater. He had remarked that Jeff had just arrived two days previous and was a little jumpy. At the time, all Jennifer thought was that Jeff didn’t look much like his brother, who was ash-blond with light blue eyes. But when her mother saw Jeff, she had narrowed her eyes intensely and hissed a warning Jennifer never quite forgot. “He looks like a punk. Don’t you date him.”

No kidding. Jennifer didn’t like the look of the scars on Jeff’s face, despite his entrancing fathomless blue eyes and bone structure like Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Thinking about those eyes now—that should have been a sign he wasn’t human.

Jennifer shook off that Darren-like thought. It was stupid. Of course he was human.

The first few months Jeff had lived in Pennington, Jennifer had steered clear of him. He was initially twitchy, and oftentimes edgy, like he was waiting to be jumped. But really, there were not any indications that the boy was anything but an American degenerate. After all, neither Streigle boy had an accent even similar to Zormna’s. And Jeff’s twitchiness, it was said, was because his father had physically abused him. Jeff had plenty of nasty scars prove that. Todd saw them regularly during PE. As for the scar on his face and his broken nose…well, both Jeff and Zormna (sort of) admitted she had been the cause. Maybe Jeff did meet Zormna in Ireland. Maybe