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

to me. But Todd, I want you to leave this alone. Leave ‘Jeff’ alone. Don’t make him apologize to me.”

Looking to the sky, Todd groaned inside. He could let it alone, but he knew Brian would not want to. Brian liked to fixed things. But McLennas let thing alone.

“I promise.”

 

Todd’s thoughts were entirely preoccupied on Sunday. At church, he sat next to Zormna, as his parents made Jennifer sit on the other side of them with Mindy—as if to keep Zormna’s bad influence away from them. Andrew nodded off somewhere in the middle of the sermon. Their parents did not even bother to keep him awake.

Todd stared forward, listening partially to the pastor as the man recounted the beatitudes to the congregation and how they ought to emulate them. Yet when he peeked sideways at Zormna, she stare up at him, biting her lower lip in wait for the proper moment to speak to him. It was so cute.

“What?” he whispered.

Peeking once at his father, who sat nearest to them, she whispered, “Where do the ‘Streigle brothers’ live? You’ve been to their house, right?”

He nodded, peeking at his dad also.

The pastor started up a fervent call for repentance, listing the beatitudes in succession. Blessed are the…whatever…. Todd thought it was boring.

 “They live on the edge of town, near Star Watching Hill. Their house smells like a doctor’s office.”

“A doctor’s office?”

“Shhh!” Todd’s father shot Zormna a dirty look.

Zormna ducked down.

After a brief moment of silence, Todd whispered quieter, “Yeah. It smells like bleach. His aunt is a total neat freak. She won’t let one drop of dirt touch her floor and no crumb to stay on the table more than a second.”

Zormna cringed. “Like Kevin’s place?”

Chuckling, though he ducked from his father’s second glare, Todd whispered, “You’ve been to Kevin Jacobson’s?” He peeked at those around him then said, “No. Not so fancy. Imagine the barest room you can, then put in ugly Seventies furniture—no pillows, no TV even—with boring pictures of grass on the walls. Then wash everything with bleach. And you get their house.”

“I see.”

“Why do you want to know?” he asked.

Shrugging, Zormna admitted, “I might have to go over there one day and talk with them. Brian’s right in that…we need to come to a truce.”

A truce?

“I’m going to be here for a while, so…”

“Shh!” his parents hissed at her.

Jennifer peered over to see what they were talking about.

Zormna ducked her head lower, so much that her knees touched the pew before her.

But Todd still thought over her word choice. A truce. She would be there for a while…which sounded like she really had been counting on leaving, hoping for it. It pained Todd to realize that of course she thought that.

Todd did not speak for a long while after that. At least not until after the final song when the pastor’s oratory prayer had finished. By then they were all allowed to leave. His family headed to the car. Todd could tell his parents were biting their tongues. But the tension from the front seat was palpable. Perhaps a change of subject was in order.

So Todd cleared his throat and asked Zormna, slightly above a whisper, “I heard you turned down a whole bunch of invitations to Prom. Is that true?”

Ears perked up.

Zormna stiffened. Her eyes quickly peeked to their parents. Their necks and shoulders tightened up.

“Did Jennifer tell you?”

“No,” though Todd passed Jennifer a look. “It is the word around the school.”

Zormna said nothing.

“Can you tell me why?”

Moaning, Zormna replied, “Because, I am not interested in Prom.”

“Is it the dancing?” He nudged her in the side, smirking.

She hung her head. “No. I like dancing.”

Todd glanced at her skirt. “It’s the dresses, isn’t it?”

Thumbs up, Zormna delivered a pained grin. “Bingo.”

Mindy and Andrew chuckled. And the tension in the car lifted. His parents certainly relaxed, turning a corner with a gentle signal.

Todd also laughed. “So, it has nothing to do with the guys….”

She shrugged. “Well, that too.”

Jennifer let out a moan. Her head fell back against the seat.

“So, just the wrong guy asked you,” Todd said.

His parents tensed up again.

Zormna’s eyes flickered to them as she replied, “Todd…”

He heard the warning in her tone, glancing to his parents as well. However, he braced himself up and plowed ahead, “Are you saying you’ll say no if I ask you?”

“We’re friends, Todd,” Zormna replied with militaristic briskness. “I’m living in your house. That would be awkward.”

“It is out of the question,” his father cut in.

“I’m not asking you,” Todd snapped back. He leaned up from his seat. He was still angry with his father for the way he had treated Zormna. And to be honest, his parents were still snappish with her.

“And I told you not to get romantically involved with that girl,” his mother cut in, biting off every word.

Zormna sank deeper into her seat, covering her face with her hands, willing the car to swallow her.

“Look!” Todd shouted with dirty looks for the both of them. “It’s not like I am asking her to marry me! But this is my senior year, and I would really like the hottest girl in our school to go with me—and that happens to be Zormna!”

Zormna lowered her fingers from her face. She stared bulgy-eyed at him.

His mother also appeared too stunned to speak.

Only his father managed a reply and it was with a growl. “You hardly know anything about her—the kind of dangerous things she is involved in—”

But Todd busted out into a bitter laugh. “Like cheerleading?”

His mother turned an accusing glare at Zormna, her eyes shouting ‘Seductress.’

“Look, I know she isn’t your favorite person, ok?” Todd said, looking from one parent to the other. “And I know it is probably some weird Irish thing you guys have against her. But this has got to stop now. All that matters is that I am a teenage-boy and she is a teenage-girl—and there is this big dance. The dance of the year. My senior year! Let’s forget whatever it is that is making you so mad and realize that you are ruining something that ought to be special for me.”

Their silence was thick enough to swim in. So much not said. So much, Todd realized, they refused to say.

When his father brought the car to a halt in the carport, he left the motor running. His hands, tightened around the steering wheel as if he wished it were Zormna’s neck. As his old man shared a look with his mother, Todd braced himself for the next argument.

 

 

His mother shot a sharp glance at Zormna. Zormna had remained mute. Her mouth was pressed closed, her eyes anxiously looking to the door handles as if contemplating the quickest escape possible.

When their father finally shut off the engine with another look to their mother, she turned around in the front seat, fixing her eyes mostly on Zormna. “Fine. But this is not to be a date. We will NOT buy Her Highness a dress. You will NOT rent a limousine. And there will be NO good-night kiss.”

Todd rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to protest that it most certainly would be a date.

“Agreed,” Zormna replied before he could. Her green eyes had fixed firmly on his mother’s baleful glower.

Todd moaned inside. It was one thing arguing with his parents. But he could not argue with his date.

Everyone started to leave the car.

Zormna attempted to exit next, but their mother grabbed her arm. “You will NOT embarrass my son—so you had better put forth some effort in preparing for this Prom, or else.”

Or else? Todd looked back at Zormna who, unsurprisingly stared at his mother with her old dryness. Threats of that nature brought out the sassiness in the girl

“Or what?” Zormna almost laughed. “You’ll throw me out? I’m begging. Please do.”

“No.” Their mother ground out through her teeth, yet peeking at him. “But you will regret messing with his heart.”

Struggling not to roll her eyes, Zormna looked away, inching towards the door to exit, though she did not get very far. “I didn’t ask for this.”

“Then what were you whispering about in church?” Mrs. McLenna demanded.

Turning her eyes more directly to his parents, Zormna replied, “Nothing that concerns either of you.”

She then jerked out of Mrs. McLenna’s grip. She hopped past Jennifer who quickly backed against the wall to let Zormna escape into the house.

Todd scowled at his mother and father.

“Blessed are the merciful, I think the pastor said.” Todd then huffed and marched into the house after her. “Not merciless.”

*

Jennifer remained alone with her parents in the carport. She watched their looks as they climbed out of the car. They glancing tensely at her before shutting the doors and heading up the steps to go inside. They said as they passed her, “She’s already destroying the peace of this family. It starts with jealousies, whispered secrets, and lies. Don’t let her turn you against us.”

They went inside and closed the side door.

Jennifer slumped against the car. What was she to think? She had asked them about the whole caste system thing when Zormna was at the Hendersons’ house. They had taken the defensive immediately. They had said, “Of course people of no consequence would spite those that are in charge. They want the power for themselves.” Jennifer didn’t even dare mention the Streigle brothers. Somehow that felt like a secret too dangerous to share with her parents.

As for what Todd and Zormna were whispering about, she knew enough to know Zormna was not talking about alien stuff with him. Yet the way Zormna had been peeking at her when she prodded her brother for information, it was clear the blonde didn’t want to involve her in any more secrets either. Part of Jennifer felt like storming up to that attic room to demand to know what was going on. The other part was glad to have been left out.

That one day alone with Kevin had been a refreshing drink of reality. If only for a bit, the craziness surrounding Zormna had become a faint memory. Going back in would be like willingly seeking a root canal. Did she really want that pain?

No.

Jennifer didn’t want to deal with alien craziness anymore. She had to forget what she had learned and start thinking like her parents. Stuff surrounding Zormna was the old world. A world that she just did not understand, and for that matter, really didn’t want to. She might as well call it Ireland. She was human, and her family had migrated to America. End of story.

Slowly, Jennifer walked to the kitchen door, nodding to herself. She was going to bring normality back to her life, and that meant letting Zormna keep her secrets.

 

Chapter Twenty-Four: Weirdly Normal Things

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I can resist everything except temptation.” –Oscar Wilde

 

Despite all the pretending, Zormna was actually anxious when she walked onto the campus toward the glass-covered bulletin board Monday morning. The lists would be up. And for the first time ever, she worried that she might fail to get in.

A crowd swarmed around the standing marquee already. Most were just curious. But the majority of the girls that came and went either left with triumphant squeals of delight or trudged away bitterly. As Zormna approached, several of the girls shot Zormna dirty