Bones in the Sand, Julie Steimle [best books to read for students .TXT] 📗

"You know how that blackness looks on a starry night. In a telescope it seems far profounder."

 - H.G. Wells -

If this was Christmas, thought Zormna Clendar, then what was all the excitement about? She stared out of her cold attic window at the falling snow, melting the frost with the touch of her fingertips, making trails in the glass. It had been one long week of decorating and dirty looks from Mr. and Mrs. McLennas. Zormna had to sneak off to do anything "festive," as her friends called it. It was Zormna's first Christmas ever. They didn't celebrate it where she came from. Of course, most people thought Zormna had come from Ireland and that she had simply lived a deprived childhood - as she claimed to be an orphan raised in an Irish military school. The truth was much stranger.

It wasn't that she hadn't looked forward to Christmas. Jennifer McLenna had told her all about it - the gifts, the food, the parties. It was just that once the Christmas break arrived, Jennifer's parents had forbidden Zormna to leave the house to see Jeff Streigle - a senior at their high school whom she had been hanging out with a great deal since Homecoming.

And why? Well, he did have collection of scars that made the pale, midnight-haired boy look like a hooligan. And his indigo-blue eyes were sometimes described as creepy. And there was the rumor that he had once been in a Chicago gang before he had moved to Pennington Heights. But he was the state champ wrestler and a rather popular guy at school. In fact, most who knew him described him as laid back and likeable. A great many girls crushed on him, in fact.

Zormna climbed off her bed and sighed. The truth was, that last semester Zormna and Jeff had left town together and stayed in the same motel room in Florida. Nothing had happened though. They were just friends. It just looked bad. In fact, it looked so bad that the entire school had thought they had slept together - trashing their reputations. And that led to them getting into fights with their classmates, getting assigned detention, and counseling sessions for anger management and Sex-E - respectively. And to top it off, the Mr. and Mrs. McLenna had forbidden her to leave the house to see him.

The thing was, there was nothing the McLennas could say to keep Zormna away from Jeff, or Jeff away from Zormna. They had found a true friend and ally in each other...besides other things. 

Some would say it was love - but that was ridiculous. Jeff talked about an ex-girlfriend all the time, and Zormna wasn't interested in that kind of thing at all. Some called it teenaged rebellion, but it wasn't that either. Neither of them were against the establishment, as far as they were concerned. The American establishment wasn't so bad, in their eyes - and experience. Truth be told, they were connected by something a lot deeper.

Prophecy.

Zormna chuckled over that thought while searching through the chest at the end of her bed for a shirt and a pair of pants. No one would really believe the truth. After all, who really would believe that this small, pale, fiery-blond-haired, green-eyed girl was destined to free her people from a ten-thousand-year oppression as a returning queen, and that eighteen-year-old Jeff was the leader of a national rebellion sworn to protect her? Or that both of them were the descendants of kings...

Zormna laughed. No one would. Not even the FBI who were keeping an eye on them because they had found out about the 'alien' presence among them.

Fact was, Mr. and Mrs. McLenna liked to rub in that she had no family. And though they had originally taken her in because they knew full well where Zormna had come from (as they also had come from there themselves, but were better at hiding it), that feeling of kindness had long past. It had passed when they had found out her true lineage. Because their families, by ancient tradition, were in fact at odds. In fact, her family had been murdered by people of their class...and the only reason she wasn't dead was because the McLennas weren't murders.

Of course most of their children didn't even know their parents were from Mars - and that was how it should be. Their daughter Jennifer had found out that last spring, and that had caused enough trouble in the house - which they blamed entire on Zormna. Basically, Zormna didn't like enduring holidays at the McLenna home because Jennifer's parents made it all too clear to her that she was not wanted or liked - despite the fact that they had repeatedly refused to let her become an emancipated minor as she had requested since day one of her arrival. It was to punish her, she believed. She was not a proper person in their eyes.

Zormna pulled on a thick pair of socks and searched around for her boots. They were hiding underneath the bed with a pair of her sneakers and an unused pair of black Mary Janes. She had thrown on another sweater because it looked biting cold out. Then she looked around the room with one more sweep. That seemed to be all she needed.

Grabbing her set of keys to the house she had inherited from her great aunt, Zormna opened her bedroom door carefully. She almost took one step, but she stopped, peering down at her feet and frowning. There, in front of the attic door, sat Mindy and Andrew, Jennifer's freckle-faced younger brother and sister who could have passed for Raggedy Ann and Andy, waiting and watching her door with expectant eyes.

"Oh! You're awake! Let's go get Mommy and open the presents under the tree now!" Mindy excitedly hopped on the balls of her feet.

Zormna moaned. Watching the two innocents as they scrambled to their parents' bedroom door to wake them, she knew it was hopeless.

"She's up! She's up! You said we could open our presents when Zormna woke up," Andrew called through the white door at the end of the hall.

Mr. McLenna opened it a crack to look out. Zormna slumped along the doorjamb to her room. There was no getting out early after all. They had set the perfect spies on her. Clever people.

It seemed as if the whole house awoke from the clamor of those two children. The perfect alarm clock. Todd, who had barely returned from college, stood in his bedroom doorway and scratched his rusty head of hair, yawning and grinning at his younger brother and sister. Jennifer opened her door in the same way, pulling on a terrycloth robe covered with roses and gazing with glassy blue eyes into the hall. Both parents had the same dazed expression, yet it was clear enough to Zormna that all of them were going to come out, and she was not going to make it out past them that morning.

Led by the two excited children, the whole family traveled down the stairs to the kitchen and living room. Zormna would have turned around and gone back into her room, but Jennifer smiled at her and dragged her off the attic step with a pleased smile on her face.

"Come on, Zormna," she said, yawning, "It's time to open our presents."

Zormna came with her, letting Jennifer link arms with her and lead her down the soft-carpeted hall to the stairs - though it wasn't like she would get anything. Mr. McLenna made it very clear last week that he had no intention of giving her anything more than they already had given her, including the eggnog they made the night before and the cookies the entire family decorated together to give away while caroling. Zormna was lucky that Todd saw her without one and gave her his cookie. She was even luckier that his parents didn't see her eat it.

When the family reached the bottom of the stairs, Zormna attempted to slip by to the front door so she could sneak out. But one hard look from Mrs. McLenna told her that was a bad idea. She settled down on the floor near Mindy and Jennifer instead where they intended for her to look on with envy.

Mr. McLenna groggily reached up to the entertainment center on the wall beyond the television and turned on the radio. He found a station playing classic Christmas tunes. Turning the volume up so that the whole house echoed with the tune of White Christmas, Bing Crosby style, he smiled and gazed across at the family with clear happiness. His expression grew cold when it fell on Zormna. But he passed over her like a burn in a tablecloth -  with a wince - and continued to admire the rest of his children and wife and the winking Christmas tree lights.

"Who wants to open the first present?" he asked pleasantly.

Mindy and Andrew stretched up with raised arms, begging to be picked.

The hour passed by quickly enough. Zormna watched all the children unwrap their gifts with rapture, feeling the acid in her stomach eat deep into her sides under the animosity of the parents. But it wasn't all bad. Though she had expected no presents, she had been wrong. Jennifer had given her a beautiful silver winter coat with matching scarf, gloves and boots, all with white faux fur trim. While she admired the warm lining and Jennifer's rebellious generosity, Todd handed her a college sweatshirt that said State U on it, blushing and mumbling that he also wanted to get her one of their wool blankets but he had run out of money. Mindy and Andrew gave her some handmade Christmas cards with drawings of her doing handsprings and cartwheels, dressed in the ridiculous elf costume her History teacher Miss Bianchi, made her wear at the 'Christmas Around the World' celebration at the school the week before. The cards made Zormna laugh. Mindy loved the outfit from the school celebration so much that she had begged Zormna to give it to her when she was done with it - which Zormna did whole-heartedly, glad to be rid of the silly thing. Unfortunately, they had plenty of pictures of her in it which she was unable to get deleted from their school's online webpage and intended yearbook page. Of course, from the McLenna parents she got nothing, which was what she had expected.

When the gift exchanging was over and Mindy and Andrew had shared some of their nuts from their Christmas stocking with Zormna, the family parted to begin breakfast and to get dressed. Zormna stood up to take her few gifts to her attic room, brushing off the crumbs and shells from the peanuts and feeling much lighter than when she had awoken that morning. She turned to edge of the banister and started up the step. As she proceeded, Mr. McLenna stopped her, heavily resting his hand on her shoulder.

Resisting the natural urge to jerk out from his touch, Zormna looked up at the father of the home, waiting for the inevitable negative remarks that always seemed to come from his mouth, but hoping for one pleasant word in light of the holiday. After all, they were supposed to be celebrating peace on Earth. However, his face showed that no such kind words would be said. He looked stern.

He said, "Come to the table. Mrs. McLenna and I have yet to give you your present."

Zormna stared at him. Honestly surprised, she let him steer her to the dining room table. There, lying on one of the dinner mats was a manila folder filled with papers. Zormna looked up at Mr. McLenna and then at Mrs. McLenna.

Mr. McLenna cleared his throat. Picking up the folder