A Parthan Summer, Julie Steimle [best ereader for pdf TXT] 📗

the hall where they could speak in private, Zormna whispered, “Are you are regular at this camp?”

“First time,” Sarah whispered. Then she spoke lower, “Look, I’m sorry. It just slipped out. But, what is a…what are you doing here?”

“I’m here on special projects within Zeta,” Zormna glanced over her shoulder at the doorway. “And since you obviously know I am Surface Patrol, you understand the danger you are in right now.”

The gymnastics’ aide seemed to shrink more, shuddering.

“But I will cut you some slack if you leave this camp today,” Zormna said.

Sarah paled. “But…this is a good job. This opportunity will never come again.”

Zormna glared at her.

“I…I swear I won’t have another slip up again,” Sarah promised.

Groaning within herself, Zormna noticed Coach Dayes watching her. Shaking her head Zormna replied, “Look, I am undercover here, and… this is classified information. But the FBI is coming to this camp for reasons I cannot divulge. I hadn’t known you were here, but your presence may cause trouble for me. I suggest you leave as soon as possible. We can’t have their government sticking fingers into our business.” 

“The FBI?” Sarah went pale.

“They’re following me,” Zormna snapped. “And I can’t have you in the crosshairs. You will be a liability.”

“Following you?” Sarah stared now.

Nodding, Zormna said, “They’ve uncovered an operation I am connected with, and I am here to clear it up.”

 The intern swallowed again, tasting the dryness in her throat.  “Listen, I haven’t been Home in five years. I’m no longer caught up in the dealings of back Home—”

“That doesn’t matter.” Zormna’s stern glare at Sarah was enough to make the woman shrink down and cower. “You should keep your shoulders covered—”

The woman tugged on her exposed sleeve again, trying to cover the mark there. A tattoo rested on the surface bearing the family crest of the High Class family Kezter. The symbol of the heart of Arras was in the center.

“—You should keep Home secret. Using the language as you have has broken the fourth emigration law—no outward implication of where you are from.” Zormna glowered at her.

Exasperated, Sarah exclaimed, “But your hair!”

Zormna rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, an unusual haircut is not proof of anything.” Shaking her head disapprovingly, Zormna said, “Besides, I don’t plan to be here long.”

Looking around herself again, Zormna noticed the waiting gymnastics instructor. She appeared inclined to break up their whisper session, as Sarah was growing even more nervous cornered by Zormna.

“So, find a way to get out of your duties and go home early,” Zormna said, her mind already thinking ahead. “I’m afraid you will have to be watched.”

“Watched?” Sarah exclaimed, nearly falling back against the wall. 

Zormna’s glare silenced her protest further. 

Sarah sadly nodded, hanging her shoulders as she said, “All right. I can plan to work in the city and cut my time short here. Maybe I can transfer to the other camp.” 

Zormna nodded. “Good. Do that.”

“But I have to know. Who are you?” Sarah’s voice had dropped into a whine. “I know you are Surface Patrol, but what authority?”

“Zeta,” Zormna said as flatly as she could to maintain Sarah’s anxiety. “I’m the head alea.”

Sarah’s eyes widened. Trembling, she bowed to the Zormna. “I will inform my boss at once that I have to be transferred. I’ll make something up.”

Zormna nodded curtly to Sarah in her old militaristic manner. “Thank you. Your service to your people will be much appreciated.”

The gymnastics intern quickly exited the room, gathering her belongings before she left. Her bluff had worked.

Following Sarah at a slower pace, Zormna halted at the doorway. She hoped with all her heart that the High Class Arrassian born girl would never cross her path again. Honestly, it had taken every bit of strength to keep her own hands from shaking, though she had contained it pretty well. She clutched them in fists so that no one could see the fear that twisted in the sides of her stomach. Zormna didn’t know how she pulled it off, really. Since living on Earth she had gotten soft.  

But if that High Class girl had found out what she really was—a Tarrn—Sarah would have been sure to inform her friends. Forget the meddling FBI. Zormna was convinced that she would have been murdered before the end of the week. Just seeing Sarah’s bare shoulders, adorned with that tattoo, frightened her. Of course, she had to send Sarah off for more ethical reasons—because if the FBI saw that tattoo, they also would have figured out what she was, and they would all be in trouble.

Sarah talked to her supervisor immediately after leaving the lodge, obviously inventing a reason for her transfer. Zormna watched to make sure. Sarah’s face still had that stupefied, frightened expression as she explained the sudden reason for her unforeseen departure. For that small moment, Zormna appreciated her military upbringing—or ‘being a stiff’, as Jennifer McLenna called it. And though she didn’t like scaring people, at times it was very useful.

She watched Coach Dayes struggle to dissuade the intern from leaving the camp without success. Instead, Sarah rushed back to the women counselors’ cabin, hastily gathering her belongings. She packed her things into her car while explaining again as best as she could why she had to go on her way out. Within fifteen minutes from the moment Zormna had spoken to her, she was fully packed and driving down the mountain road away from the sports camp.

Drawing in a breath as soon as she was sure the woman was gone for good, Zormna turned from the lodge doorway and headed up the hill toward her cabin.

“What did you say to her?”

Zormna turned around and saw Holly Joyce who almost tromped around the corner from behind the lodge. Apparently she had also watched the intern leave. 

“Excuse me?” Zormna blinked at her with as innocent a face she could muster.

“What did you do to the gymnastics assistant? She flew out like she was hunted,” Holly snapped, stepping down the hill towards Zormna. She stood almost a foot taller than her, perhaps just a couple inches shorter than Jeff. She could have been a supermodel.

Zormna lifted her chin, feeling unbelievably small for the first time in a long while.

“It wasn’t what I said,” Zormna lied. “She had other things to do. She just had to go.”

“Bull,” Holly replied rather snappishly, lifting her eyes over the campground to the road. “You said something on purpose to make her leave. You’re a total witch.”

Blinking again, Zormna recoiled. A witch? It was the first time she had been called such a thing. Though most English epithets usually had no effect on her, this one kind of stung. Was it so pitiless to frighten someone to get her out of the way? Perhaps. But the idea of being murdered because a High Class girl might find out she was a Tarrn seemed so much more important. Zormna lifted her chin to show she did not regret what she had done.

Holly glared down over the top of her head. “I don’t get why you did that. That was so mean.”

It was painful holding that posture. Zormna tried to justify bullying Sarah in her mind, but Holly really did sound more levelheaded here.

“She didn’t embarrass you up there,” Holly said. “You were showing off.”

So that was what Holly thought, Zormna realized, relaxing her shoulders. Of course she was showing off. For a confused second Zormna had thought she was being accused of something worse. She turned to go.

“What was it? You didn’t want someone better than you in this camp?” Holly said, stepping closer. “You were promoting yourself, you egotistical little—”

Zormna whipped back around. “I was not! I wouldn’t get jealous of an instructor.” 

“You were too,” Holly said, and set her hands on her hips. “If you didn’t care then you wouldn’t have been watching me this whole time.” 

Zormna’s eyes widened a little. Skilled and observant. Now she really wanted to know more about Holly.  

“Yeah, I saw you staring,” the Harvest High karate girl continued. She smugly tossed back her long braid. “You have been watching me this entire day. You nearly killed yourself when you leapt down from that pyramid to show off.”

This time, Zormna honestly laughed and shook her head. Looking up to the forest sky she thought, Now who was full of herself? She peered at Holly again, but this time she detected a glare in her eye. “So maybe I was staring, but I wasn’t showing off then.”

Holly laughed, hefting her chin. “Bull. You are so jealous you can’t see straight. I saw you go off and fake a headache for an hour, but miraculously—oh! You’re all better!”

Of course it would look that way to an outsider. And Zormna was already getting bored with the conversation. Holly was just like the other girls after all.

“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Zormna said.

“Yeah, right. No one gets over a headache that quick. You faker,” Holly said. 

“Faker?” Zormna’s glare darkened. “I was only curious about you and your karate pajama people. Not jealous. I have nothing to be jealous of.”

Holly clenched her teeth, took a step toward Zormna, and formed fists as if to use them. Her feet crunched on the sandy gravel, getting ready for a fight. “You are a jerk, Zelda.”

“It’s Zormna, and you are an idiot.” Without paying any more attention to the conversation, Zormna brushed past Holly and marched up the hill.

Holly called after her. “You’d better watch it, shorty. I’m not a person to mess with.”

Not even looking back, Zormna muttered, “Neither am I.”

She refused to look back the rest of the climb, though Zormna listened to see if Holly would follow her. If Holly had been someone of a real threat, she’d attack when her back was turned. But as Zormna went up the rough soil and pine needles mixed with twigs and random weeds, she knew this girl was still a teen that treated her martial art as a sport.

The moment Zormna reached the doors of the cabin, she smiled at her teammates—but it was a fake smile. She had gotten used to making those since she joined cheerleading.

“How’s your headache?” Joy asked, looking up from the book she was reading at her cot.

“Fine,” Zormna replied in a flat voice.

“She’s not fine” Jennifer whispered to Joy. And Joy nodded.

 “That’s not a real smile. Her eyes get all glowy when she really smiles,” Joy replied in a hush.

Jennifer nodded. “Bad mood.”

Zormna dropped into her cot, thinking about what she could do and what she had done. Despite all the rationalization that had gone through her head, Holly’s words had hurt her more than she admitted.

She didn’t want to be the mean girl. She had hated bullies growing up. But, she had to admit that she was jealous of Holly. Pennington High didn’t offer martial arts as an elective—and she missed that. Also, after watching Holly, she understood that the girl was skilled, very skilled—admirably skilled. So perhaps she was showing off a little. Besides, if Holly saw her as competition, then Zormna felt happy to oblige. After all, a little real competition would be fun.

Zormna snorted to herself and rolled over on her cot for a nap before the dinner bell.

 

[1] “Silence! I have a headache!”

 

Chapter Six: First Night