The Millennial Box by Julie Steimle (snow like ashes .TXT) 📖

bike was the rough-looking Steele on his Harley. Everyone at the school had veered around when they went to their cars and bikes. Some were taking pictures and whispering others to go get school security. But Zormna and Jeff stopped and stared at him with recognition.

"What are you doing here?" Jeff said, marching faster over the asphalt to the scary-looking man.

Whispers in the lot erupted, on-lookers taking more pictures. Already their schoolmates were whispering that Steel was probably somebody Jeff knew from a Chicago gang.

Brian and his friends had been followed at a safe distance, until this moment. Up until then, they were conversing about the change in Jeff and whether or not they could get him to join them in afterschool stuff, as he lately he had blown them off with excuses about work and some family thing he had to do for his uncle and aunt. But they already suspected those were lies to keep them out of his business. They looked worriedly to Zormna who was just a step behind Jeff and getting way too close to a dangerous character. Even though in their heads they remembered watching Zormna take on four football players from Monroe High last year, and logically they knew she had been thoroughly trained in martial arts, their eyes took in how small she was next to the man. Seeing her so small with Jeff the only thing between her and that creepy biker - as though one bump would shatter her like porcelain - instinct kicked in. They all marched up together.

Adam hissed to Brian, "Do you know him?"

Brian shook his head. "But Jeff seems to."

"And so does Zormna," Mark said, hurrying quicker.

Jonathan kept his eyes on Steel, who to him looked capable of taking on a group of teenage boys with his pinkies. A crowd had grown. They had a lot of people to get through to reach their friend.

"I came to see you," Steele said to Jeff and only Jeff, ignoring the swelling crowd.

"What for?" Zormna snapped, quickly joining Jeff's side.

The man smirked at her in particular. Brian didn't like the way the man's eyes raked over Zormna's figure.

Jeff grumbled with similar dissatisfaction.

"We need to talk," Steele said, peering around the lot at the teenagers.

Shaking his head, Brian stepped quicker to where Jeff was. Jonathan, Mark, and Adam followed faster, though with shared panicked looks.

Jeff laughed. "Does the FBI know you're here?"

Everyone overheard that and almost gasped.

Zormna folded her arms and waited.

Steele nodded with a peek to their swelling audience. "Are you kidding? What do you think I was hired for?"

Rolling his eyes, Jeff shook his head with peeks to those listening in. He would have to trim their conversation as he had an alibi to protect. "Can't they do their own job?"

Brian reached Jeff's side. "Jeff, are you ok? Who's this?"

Cringing, Jeff closed his eyes. Zormna groaned, massaging her forehead. But Steele peered down his upturned nose at Brian and his approaching friends as one would mere infants. Steele snorted.

Through a grimace, Jeff said, "This is a bounty hunter we met in Florida. He is working with the FBI."

Not what anyone had expected, his friends stepped closer to Zormna and Jeff. Zormna, they notice, looked especially nonplussed about the entire conversation...but she definitely wasn't afraid. She mostly looked mad.

"Bounty hunter?" Brian murmured, now examining Steele's face as if to read the quality of the darkness in his eyes. "What for? Can't they find the killer to Zormna's great aunt on their own?"

Zormna peeked at Jeff who cringed more.   

"Now I haven't heard about this." Steel shifted in his seat on his motorcycle.

"That's because it is none of your business," Zormna snapped with a savage glare at him.

Steele pulled back. He peeked to Jeff who looked tired. As much as the bounty hunter had seen Zormna's temper before, she was more vocal now than when he had first met her. The fact that she had always dodged away from him had generally given him the impression that she was for the most part just some orphaned girl with an attitude that Jeff had hooked up with. But of course he knew there was more to it. The FBI agents often flinched guiltily around her - especially Agents Keane and Sicamore.

Jeff shook his head. "No, you haven't heard. But you weren't hired for that." Jeff turned toward Brian. Pointing at Steele, he said, "He is here to help investigate the murders of five FBI agents - what I was arrested for a few weeks back."

All Jeff's friends, and many watching students as well, gasped and gawked at Steele now, their mouths hanging open.

"They don't still think you did it, do they?" Mark protested, exchanging glances with his friends and Zormna, while peeking at the rough man standing before them. 

Jeff shook his head. "But they do think that I know who did. That's why Zormna and I were gone that last week, to help with the investigation."

The general reaction from the crowd ranged from initial disbelief to complete surprise. However, most listened intently as the drama was the most exciting thing that would come to Pennington since the murder of Zormna's great aunt.

"So, do you know who the killers are?" Brian asked. A considerable crowd was now coming from the school to see what everyone else was looking at - including body guards. Zormna wondered if any of the FBI spies pm campus were among them.

Jeff shook his head. "I'm not supposed to talk about it."

Zormna glanced at him with a small smile. She had been wondering how Jeff was going to protect his alibi with all these people watching. He really was a master at coming up with believable stories. And as he spoke, she noticed that some of her classmates looking at her differently now. Was it possible they finally believed what she had been protesting the entire week - that she and Jeff didn't just sneak off for some kind of kinky tryst? She felt a little more relaxed, standing to Jeff. It was only Steele whom she really had to worry about. Would he blow their cover? Jeff had said he was from Home. And though he had play-acted for the FBI well enough, she wasn't so sure he would do it for the local kids.

In fact, the man smirked at them both and revved up his motorcycle engine to disturb the crowd. "Can we go somewhere to talk in private?"

Gazing over his shoulder at rubbernecking crowd, Jeff pointed toward the stadium. "There's good, if you don't mind leaving your bike."

Brian and the rest prepared to follow, clearly to protect Jeff. Yet Jeff rested his hand on Brian's shoulder, anticipating him. "This is sort of private. You know, top secret. So, we really do need to be alone."  

"The guy's a thug," Brian hissed, sneaking looks at the man. "It's not safe."

Jeff chuckled, nodding. "Zormna will be with me. I'll be fine."

Then Jeff marched off toward the stadium while the man parked his motorcycle and climbed off.

"Jeff!" Brian called after him, glancing at Zormna who flustered with pride at what Jeff had said about her. He never would have admitted that before.

Walking backwards, Jeff said, "Brian, we can handle it."

"Don't worry," Zormna hissed in Brian's ear as she followed Jeff, grinning "We have a few hundred witnesses already, and the guy's left his motorcycle. He's just here to talk."

But Brian grabbed her arm to hold her back before she could go completely. "Zormna, what's going on?"

Zormna sighed, understanding his disquiet. Brian was a true friend after all. Yet she said, "I can't say. He's just some dirty old man that works with the FBI. I'll watch Jeff's back. Trust me."

Cringing, Brian let go of her arm. He watched her walk after the man called Steele, shooting daggers with her eyes at his back.

Jeff's other friends shared looks, wondering what truly was up. After all that they had gone through as friends, Jeff, whom they had known for over two years now, had always seemed like he was someone severely desperate to clean up his life, and Pennington was his last chance. That is until Zormna had come to town. Her entrance really had changed everything. And though he always had freaky deep eyes that stared hauntingly into space as if looking into ancient memory, they had always attributed it to his abused past. Most people had never considered him at all secretive. He had always come across as an open book as he always answered frankly about the abuse in his family though he avoided talk about his possible life in a gang. But now, seeing him with Zormna and that man Steele, his friends realized that Jeff was anything but an open book. There were things he would never tell them. And as they watched, they realized that they really did want to know what secrets he was hiding.

And was it dangerous.

Chapter Eleven: Let's Not Get Personal...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards." - Mark Twain -

 

 

"So, what do you want?" Jeff asked once they reached the bleacher steps.

The school fields were empty due to the cold, and the parking lot was emptying of voyeurs as they spoke in private. There still was a considerable crowd that watched at the fence, waiting to see what this dangerous-looking stranger was intending with their well-known school wrestler. Zormna stood back against the bleacher guardrails to watch them talk, almost as if guarding Jeff.

"You have quite a fan club, Jafarr," Steele said, looking back at Jeff's friends. Brian and the rest were now debating whether to stick around, or to leave Jeff to himself as he had requested. They could tell now that Steele wasn't going to harm either of them.

Jeff rolled his eyes and asked the question again. "What do you want, Steele?"

The man looked around. "Is this place secure?"

Zormna shook her head and pointed toward the road across from the parking lot. A light colored sedan sat there as usual.

"No place is secure," she said and sat down on the bleachers.

Steele glanced down at her.

She gazed back stonily, waiting for him to say what he came to say.

"I'll have to risk it," he said.

"I wouldn't," Zormna remarked, hugging herself from the cold.

Jeff smirked at her. She had grown wiser.

"Who is she?" Steele asked at last, pointing at Zormna.

Zormna stopped a laugh before it could escape from her, cold hand over mouth.

Sitting down on the bleachers, Jeff said, "They still didn't tell you?"

Steele shook his head.

Jeff laughed to himself also, shaking his head

The man kept staring at them, waiting for some answers.

Finally Jeff peeked at Zormna with a wicked thought and said, "Ok, ok. She's Zormna Clendar. A smart mouth and a big pain and - Ow!"  

Zormna had thrown her Chemistry textbook at him with the dirtiest look.

However, Jeff kept grinning, rubbing his sore arm. He bent down and picked up the text.

Steele shook his head tiredly. After a slow steady stare, he turned to speak directly to Zormna. "Why is the FBI keeping you a secret from me? They want me to investigate him and his organization, as far as they understand it. That, I completely get. But why are they dealing