The Mars Project, Julie Steimle [read aloud txt] 📗

her follow in the direction Jeff had gone. Adam shrugged then headed to their History class, but Sam straggled.

Peering around a corner as the halls began to clear, Zormna found Jeff where she had expected him. Somehow she knew he couldn’t go to class after that.

“Jafarr,” she whispered, glancing once over her shoulder for any of their in-school spies.

He looked up, startled then let his head fall back onto his knees.

“Jafarr,” she said again. “Are you all right?”

He shook his head against his knees. “No.” Then he peered up at her. “I nearly blew it. I nearly exposed us.”

She shrugged. “So did I.”

Still shaking his head, he said, “No. No. They know your story. They don’t know mine. They all think I just fought with my father and suspected was in a gang. Now they know I….” He let his head fall to his knees again.

Zormna leaned down first to look at his face, though his long black bangs concealed it. Then she sat next to him on the steps. The halls were clear now—except possibly somewhere there were security guards roaming. She stretched her arm around his back, and she leaned closer.

“Some things you can’t change,” Zormna whispered.

Jeff nodded against his knees though he spoke to the floor. “I wish I could have changed that one. His death made me the leader.”

Zormna held her breath. She had wondered how it had happened. A sixteen-year-old leading a rebellion was very different than a soldier rising through the ranks of a military and given a position of honor. The rebels had to have a reason to follow a sixteen-year-old kid and not all those older and more experienced people ahead of him. Sighing, she patted him comfortingly on his back. “Well, you didn’t expose us that much. People now just think you have a more tragic past. They’ll believe the gang story more. You have been initiated in the club.”

He looked up at her though his bangs with a pained expression. “No offense, but I never wanted your reputation.”

She shrugged and stood up. “I’m late for class.”

He nodded, remaining where he was.

Glancing down at him, Zormna’s face etched with concern again. “Will you be all right?”

Jeff looked up then let out a sigh, stretching his legs. He looked up at Zormna wearily. “I don’t even know if the P.M.s got to Malay. It is most likely they did, but we wouldn’t know.”

“As leader,” Zormna nodded with grave understanding, “you had to cut off her access to everything, didn’t you?”

He nodded in pain. “Had to. It was thousands of peoples’ lives versus three. I had to cut her off. We changed everything because she went back into the undercity.”

Turning to go, Zormna sighed with a wave. “Take care of yourself, Jafarr Zeldar.”

He chuckled and wiped his eyes. He listened to her footfalls as she walked away.

Standing up, Jeff turned to go to his class. He decided to just say to the teacher that he was stuck in the bathroom. However, when he stared up the steps to the third floor, he recognized the shape of bulky Pennington security guard standing there, silhouetted by the fluorescent lights.

“Uh, hi,” Jeff said, weakly waving.

The man tapped his foot. Then he motioned with his finger for Jeff to follow.

Nodding Jeff sighed again.

*

“Detention?” Jennifer exclaimed after taking a bite out of her lunch.

Brian nodded. “He ditched his Economics class. And Burton, the security guard, found him hiding on the steps with a girl. The girl got away, but he nabbed Jeff.”

Zormna ducked her head, digging her spoon deeper into her applesauce as her face flushed.

“But why did he ditch? He doesn’t have a girlfriend, does he?” Jonathan asked. He glanced at Zormna who finished off her applesauce and was now starting into her orange juice with a suddenly occupied look.

Mark also glanced at Zormna. “Did he see them making out?”

Brian shook his head. He also peeked at Zormna. “No,” he replied, “I don’t think so. I actually think Jeff was upset about what happened in English.”

Zormna’s blush cooled off in hearing his words.

Jennifer and Kevin looked at Brian. They had also noticed their glances toward Zormna. It worried them.

“What happened?” Jennifer asked, waiting for someone to fess up.

Sam glanced at Brian and Brian exchanged a look with Adam. They all let out a cautious breath.

“Maybe Zormna should tell it,” Sam said with a raised voice.

Brian nodded, looking to her.

She had been avoiding their eyes this whole time. But it was useless. Straightening up, Zormna looked to Jennifer and Kevin first.

“Mr. Humphries was doing this word game—I think he called it word association—and he started asking Jeff and me a lot of weird questions. And for some reason he just did the game with only him and me.” She shook her head thinking about it. While delivering Jennifer a warning glance, Zormna continued. “Jeff ended up telling about how his last girlfriend broke up with him.”

Brian gasped in disgust. “He didn’t. He told about how his old girlfriend’s dad was into illegal stuff and was killed—and how his old girlfriend got hurt.” Shaking his head, Brian said, “I mean, I had always thought gangs had harassed him. But, I had no idea Jeff was involved with organized crime.”

“He was not involved with organized crime,” Zormna protested. “Jeff isn’t crooked and never has been. Jeff lived in an extremely dangerous neighborhood where the law wasn’t exactly…” She shook her head. “Cops got killed in his neighborhood.”

The entire group stared at her.

“You really do know him well, don’t you?” Jonathan said, scooting in closer.

Turning red, Zormna glanced away, her arms pulling across her stomach. All their eyes had fixed on her, waiting for more. She could clear it up for them, after all. It was now her turn to do damage control. Unfortunately she was not an experienced liar like Jeff was.

She cleared her throat and explained, “I was the girl in the stairwell with him. What you heard today was news to me too. I had to find out what was up with him. And he told me.”

Sam leaned in. “What is up with him?”

Looking up at him, and then glancing at the rest, Zormna shook her head. She took a breath, her mind racing for a believable answer.

“He knew some, well, shady characters,” Zormna said. “Like I said, he lived in a really dangerous neighborhood. And some of the people he knew were in trouble with the law.” She winced when she said law, but continued. “Those people he knew got hurt, and nearly got him hurt. It is one of the reasons his father got into him so much. His girlfriend is one of the reasons they moved to Chicago from Missouri.”

Jennifer glanced at Zormna and then at Kevin. She did not know how much was true and how much was alibi. The entire thing about Chicago and Missouri had to be a lie. But she decided not to ask.

Brian’s head hung though. He closed his eyes, cringing on behalf of his friend. “I wondered why he never talked about it.” Then thinking about it more, he said, “What I don’t get is how a cool guy like Jeff would get involved with people like that. I mean, yeah, I could blame the girl, but he always seemed to have a strong sense of justice—you know, like he’d fight for a cause if you gave him one.”

Zormna pursed her lips together and looked the other way.

Mark and Jonathan nodded though, agreeing with Brian.  

“His brother Alex used to joke that he wanted to be the ambassador to China,” Mark said. “That used to make Jeff so mad—but it was like a private joke or something.”

“Where’s Darren?” Zormna decided to change the subject.

Jennifer looked at her blankly. “Where else?”

Zormna nodded. That’s right, it was Monday.

*

Jeff sat, staring at the carved up desk amidst the other captives of in-school detention. Though it wasn’t his first time in in-school detention, it had been a while. He sat there for a good stretch, stuck only with his thoughts. The teacher on duty did not allow much else. They weren’t allowed to read books, nor were they allowed to do their homework. It was an incredible waste of time meant to be painfully felt.

Zormna peered in the window at three o’clock, waiting until she got his attention. Then she waved at him to come to the door. He shook his head and nudged toward the teacher at the front of the room.

She nodded, slipping away from the window. In seconds she was back, this time with big words written on her notebook, which she held up to the glass.

 

I’m going to work until 9:00 tonight. See me after.

 

She pulled the notebook down from the window and peered in again. Many of the captives were stifling laughs, though the teacher was almost livid. He jerked the door open.

“Do you want to come in and sit with the rest of them?” he said, yelling.

Zormna backed up. She peered over at Jeff who was smothering a laugh also. “Not at this particular moment.”

The instructor growled at her then slammed the door. She could hear him barking at the kids to shut up. He called them several demeaning words that she was not sure was truly allowable. Jeff’s face did turn red in real anger. Fighting the temptation to go in and give the man a piece of her mind, Zormna just shook her head and walked back down the hall to go out of the building.

*

It was late. The McLenna house lights were down and only a few on the street were still lit. Jeff sat on the front steps when Zormna arrived in her car. Jennifer was driving. She parked on the curb. Zormna grinned when she saw Jeff. She climbed out of the car, handing him a burger.

“Hungry?” Zormna asked innocently though her exhaustion was evident on her face. 

He shook his head. “I need to get home actually. What did you want to talk about?”

She let her head drop, then she glanced at the FBI car across the street. “I just wanted to make sure you were all right after today.”

He looked at her sideways. “Are you feeling well?”

Scowling at him, she said, “Don’t be a jerk, Jafarr. Everyone noticed you were gone at lunch and started asking questions.”

Jeff nodded. “That’s expected with the nosy bunch that’s been hanging around us lately.”

Jennifer rolled her eyes with a dirty look at him. She walked to the front door and let herself inside without another word to Jeff or Zormna.

Now alone, Zormna put in clearer. “I am glad you are all right. But between you and me—Al hooch’orn oomtor’en hal[1].”  

Glancing also at the FBI car, he nodded. “Ok.”

She smiled a little. “Jafarr.”

He glanced at her sadly.

“I can’t say I’m not happy that I now know you really do understand how I feel—but I didn’t wish my life on you. I just hope you know that.” Zormna tried to smile at him reassuringly. “I’m just glad to know that I can trust you.”

Jeff watched her as she walked up to the McLenna house and entered inside. It was strange, but somehow her saying that made all the difference.  He quickly went to his truck and drove home.

 

 

[1] I want to know all.

 

Chapter Fourteen: Setting Dates