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

Asdrov muttered.

But Zormna was already to the front door. Honestly… Pandering to leering men was so annoying. And what was that garbage about being a feminist? She was a human being.

Zormna opened the front door and marched out.

Nobody followed this time.

Zormna went straight to the hedge. She didn’t think Darren was imaginative enough come up with a new strategy. And her plan was simple. She just had to think of something to tell him to make him get lost.

Zormna peered around the perfectly trimmed shrub.

Six eager hands seized her, pulling her to the shadow.

For the briefest second Zormna thought it was the FBI. She wrenched off their holds with the intent to break bones if necessary. But when she took in the color of blue jean and the shape of tennis shoes—and more than one pair, with one Pennington High flags tee shirt among them—she pulled back and stared at their faces. Jennifer, Kevin, and stupid Darren stared back at her.

“What are you doing here?” Zormna exclaimed. She looked immediately to the road to see if the FBI had followed them. Then she looked to the shadows. So far, nobody.

“Darren said you were in trouble!” Jennifer shot back, entirely affronted. “He said they tied you up!”

Groaning, Zormna slumped against the hedge. “This can’t be happening.”

 “Zormna, are you ok?” Darren asked, gazing wide-eyed at her. They were almost nose to nose.

“Get off!” Zormna pushed him back. “You are not supposed to be here! I told you both to leave him alone.”

“I was just here with you!” Darren protested. “They tied you up!”

“Do I look tied up now?” Zormna snapped back. Then she looked to the road again. “Have you been followed?”

Jennifer shook her head. “We took a lot of backways to get here. Are you sure you’re ok?” Her eyes looked to Zormna’s wrists which were a little swelled from her bonds.

Zormna nodded, pulling down her sleeves. “Yes. Go home.”

“Not without you,” Kevin said.

Zormna shot him a confused look.

“Look. Darren told us everything,” Kevin said, reaching out to check her neck and face for bruises. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“What do you mean by everything?” Panic rose within Zormna as she pushed his hands away.

“About what happened,” Jennifer said, her eyes saying not all the details.

Darren nodded like a dashboard figurine.

“And you believed him?”

“He looked really panicked,” Jennifer said.

Zormna set a hand her to head, thinking. Jennifer had not spilled the beans, and Darren was being as kooky as usual. Kevin probably only thought she was in danger by a gang of some sort. But it wasn’t likely that the ‘alien’ thing was out of the bag. Zormna sank into the bush, brainstorming for a plan of action.

“What happened,” Kevin asked. “Really?”

“Did they threaten you?” Darren crouched near with way too much enjoyment. He was practically bouncing. “Did they torture you?”

Kevin shoved him back, rolling his eyes.

“No.” Zormna shot Darren a perturbed glare. “Nothing like that happened. Can you all just go already? It was a mistake. That’s all.”

“A mistake?” Jennifer then frowned at Darren. “How?”

“Just us go?” Kevin looked confused. “You have to come with us.”

 Zormna wanted to scream. She didn’t see anyone on the road, but that did not mean the FBI wouldn’t come soon. It was all a mess.

Darren opened his mouth for a retort, but Jennifer slapped a hand over it. She rose up to look over the hedge as if she had heard something. A door slammed from Jafarr’s house. It was conspicuously loud. Apparently he thought Zormna was taking too long, and he wanted her to know he was coming.

“What’s that?” Kevin whispered, looking around in panic.

Jennifer peered over the bushes. She let out a small ‘eep!’ and dropped back down again. Immediately she urged them to all to go.

But Zormna was so tired. She slumped against the hedge, resisting the others who tried to drag her back into the trashcan alley behind the house.

“Come on!” Darren mouthed.

 Zormna shook her head. It was too stupid. Things had to be fixed now. She stood straight onto her feet, in full view.

“What are you doing?” Jennifer squeaked. She tugged on Zormna’s pant leg for her to get down.

But Jafarr saw her as plainly as a lawn ornament, and raised his eyebrows. He strode directly to the end of the hedge.

“We have visitors.” Zormna pointed downward.

All three who had come to rescue her stared up in horror. Darren gaped with ashen lips, looking betrayed. But Jennifer and Kevin shared their confusion. They slowly rose.

Peering over the shrubbery at them all, Jafarr surveyed their faces. His own face was unreadable. 

“They came to rescue me,” Zormna said.

Jafarr almost laughed. “Great.”

Jennifer’s mouth popped open in protest. “Great?” Indignantly setting her hands to her hips, Jennifer snapped, “Great? Look, I don’t know what you are up to, but Darren said you guys tied and gagged Zormna. She has welts on her wrists. So what are you playing at? Do you think you can pull the wool over our eyes? I know something is going on. You can’t threaten her. She’s got friends!”

Jafarr lifted his eyebrows at her. He glanced at Zormna as if to say, ‘Good.’ He also assessed the hostile way Kevin stood at his girlfriend’s side.

“Look,” Jafarr said. “She broke into our house with dork here. We were going to call the cops. She almost broke the font window, so yeah, we tied her up—at first. Then she calmed down. And we decided to let her go. No harm, no foul, right?”

For a minute, Jennifer hesitated. She snuck a look at Zormna who nodded for her to give it up.

But Kevin shook his head angrily. “No. Something else is going on here. I have seen enough to know that. Whether it is the FBI or you messing with her, I won’t let you.”

“Yeah!” Darren chimed in, thrusting up his chin.

“Ugh.” Zormna flopped forward against the hedge, sinking in among the leaves. They were going to ruin everything. Would she never get any peace?

Jafarr rolled his eyes to the sky. “What do you think is going on?”

Darren opened his mouth.

“Not you,” Jafarr cut him off. “I don’t want to hear any alien nonsense from you.”

Darren glared at him.

Jennifer looked to the ground, her face flushing. She looked like she wanted to escape.

But since it was Kevin that was keeping them there, they waited until he replied. “I don’t know. But Jennifer’s been keeping secrets since Zormna’s arrival, and things only got worse when Zormna crashed into you. And I think you know what’s going on with the FBI.”

Jafarr frowned. He glanced to Zormna and said, “This is what you’ve been dealing with this entire time?”

Zormna moaned, nodding against the leaves.

He chuckled weakly. He glanced back at the house. Al was staring out the front door at them, glaring most particularly at Darren.

“Do you want me to help you clear up this mess?” Jafarr asked Zormna.

Sadly nodding, her face against the bush, Zormna muttered, “Go ahead.”

If it was his job to protect her, and he had been leading a rebellion for a while, then maybe he had a few tricks that she did not. Zormna hoped he could see a solution with those seer eyes of his.

“Let’s get off the street before the FBI come.” Jafarr waved them to the house.

Zormna nodded, righting herself with a dirty look at Darren. She cast Jennifer a warning glance before shooting Kevin an exhausted one.

Jafarr led the way.

Zormna walked around the hedge, shoving Jennifer to come along. When she reached the other side, Zormna walked backwards toward the front door. “You wanted to be in the know. Now is your chance.”

Jennifer looked more like she wanted to run home instead. But then Zormna wasn’t talking to her anyway. It was Kevin, and he looked determined. The guy eyed Jafarr, who at their fullest heights was shorter than Kevin by a couple inches—then he marched forward.

Darren grinned with delight at the open invitation. He hopped right after Zormna and Jafarr, almost skipping to keep up. It took a lifetime worth of self-control not to throttle the idiot.

Jafarr stopped at the door, letting Zormna go on ahead. She marched in past Al, nodding to him as she went inside.

When Darren hopped up the steps, Jafarr put his arm across the doorway, blocking his entrance. “And don’t break anything.”

Blinking innocently at him, Darren replied, “Well, of course.”

Frowning, Jafarr removed his arm from across the doorway. But he shoved Darren into Al’s arms to make sure Darren really didn’t break anything. Al steered Darren by his neck past Eergvin and Asdrov to the other side of the room.

Jennifer hesitated on the stoop. Jafarr’s eyes read her. As Jennifer passed through the doorway, Jafarr whispered to her, “You should turn back now, if you are smart. From here on, your life will only get more complicated.”

But Jennifer raised her chin and stomped in the rest of the way.

Kevin marched in after her, though Jafarr also stopped him. This time he blocked the entrance with his body.

“Sometimes,” Jafarr said with the most solid stare on the tall junior, “it is best to stay ignorant.”

But Kevin shoved by, going inside.

Zormna had stood at the side of the door, watching all this. She and Jafarr shared a wan look.

Leaning near him as he closed the front door, Zormna said just over a whisper, “Go easy on them. They are just idiot kids, after all.”

Chuckling, Jafarr raised his eyebrows at her. He shut the door and locked it.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Living with Summer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Circumstances don’t make the man, they just reveal his true self.”—anon—

 

 

Admittedly, Jennifer was terrified.

When Darren had run, breathless, into the pizza place where she and Kevin were having an afternoon rendezvous, telling her that Zormna was at the Streigle brothers’ house and in trouble, Jennifer broke down and told Kevin they had to go rescue her. Kevin had been stunned, as he hadn’t believed a word of Darren’s story—especially since he was rambling about aliens from Mars again. However, Kevin did agree to go with her and Darren to rescue Zormna from an ex-gang member.

Darren, of course, had been spastic about it. Both excited and scared as he recounted the exact events of Zormna’s capture, Darren also insisted they take the back routes so they would not be followed by the FBI. The only thing that had not added up was why Zormna would want to go to Jeff’s place when clearly the guy frightened her.

So, of course when Zormna merely walked out of the Streigle brothers’ house and acted like nothing had happened, Jennifer could not help but feel upset—like someone was playing a really cruel prank on her.

It was all Darren’s fault, of course.

Jennifer was only glad she had not told Kevin the truth about Zormna.

But now that they were all standing inside Jeff Streigle’s house, none of them could fathom what the presumed punk kid from Chicago had to say. Though, looking at Zormna’s eyes, Jennifer was sure it was just another story set up to protect her alien secret. Zormna shot her one of those don’t-offer-any-new-information looks. So did Jeff.

Jennifer froze, blinking.

Jeff knew her family secret. Looking to Zormna to see if she was the one that had told, Zormna shook her head, ever so minutely. Apparently he had always known. Somehow, that