A Parthan Summer by Julie Steimle (best books for 8th graders TXT) 📖

mean your uncle was shot?”

“Oh.” Zormna blinked at her, realizing that she had been so comfortable that it just came out. Not that the story hadn’t already been told before, but she had never been so easy with it before. She crouched onto her knees next to Amy and said, “Well, he was a cop…and in a rough neighborhood.”

“I’m so sorry.” Amy looked likely to cry on Zormna’s behalf.

Holly stomped between them, towering over Zormna. “What did you say to her?”

Zormna rose onto her feet. “None of your business.”

“Holly!” Amy quickly got to her feet. “It wasn’t like that!”

“Trying to scare away the competition?” Holly snarled, shoving her chest into Zormna’s face. Times like these, Zormna wished she wasn’t so short. Stuck staring into another girl’s boobs was not an experience she enjoyed.

“No.” Zormna tersely looked at the ceiling.

“We were just talking,” Amy explained.

“Was she trying to scare you?” Holly asked, dragging Amy to the side.

“No!” Amy protested, her face going white. “We were talking about personal stuff.”

“Personal stuff?” Holly shot Amy a derisive look. “Amy, open your eyes. She messes with people. She’s a manipulative b—”

“Holly!” Zormna sharply cut her off. “Amy does not like that kind of language! You shouldn’t speak like that in front of her.”

Rolling her eyes, Holly looked at the ceiling. “Pu-lease! Don’t you get all high and mighty with—”

“Foul language will not be tolerated, Miss Joyce,” Coach Dayes said.

Holly blanched, looking back. The gymnastics coach had come right behind her, glaring with her arms folded across her chest. “If you cannot speak civilly, you may leave.”

Suppressing any expression of triumph, Zormna watched Holly storm away.

“Thanks,” Amy whispered, peeking to Coach Dayes who followed Holly to speak to her.

“It was a ‘win-win’,” Zormna said. “Believe me. I don’t care for that language much either.”

Amy tilted her head cheerfully to the side and grinned. “I like you.”

Zormna blinked at her. Then a slow smile formed. Lowering her eyes, she said, “Likewise.”

*

Friday evening finished with a big dinner of taco salad, and a campfire at the large pit up beyond the football field. Everyone had to hike to get there. The camp counselors taught the kids songs then led in a camp-wide sing-along. They tossed in pinecones, and a select few told ghost stories. When everyone parted, hiking back down, they stuck to the lit areas of the camp as chills ran up and down their skin.

But several Pennington girls did not go to bed right away. They stayed up in the cheer cabin, the main lights off, flashlights on, whispering while playing the game Truth or Dare. It was their compromise, as Joy refused to play Hard as a Board, Light as a Feather…especially after hearing all those ghost stories.

“How does this game work?” Zormna asked as they set an empty bottle in the center. One of the girls test-spun it to see if it would spin evenly. It was plastic, so it wobbled rather than smoothly went around like a glass bottle would have.

Michelle replied, “The one whom the bottle points at has to either tell a truth, which the girl before her gets to choose. Or she can take dare instead. And they can’t be wimpy dares either.”

Wimpy was one of those words Zormna barely comprehended. She understood the gist of it. But when looking at the girls, she was sure Michelle did not mean they had to test their physical strength with the dares. Girl games were hardly every like that. Girls did more humiliating things. And knowing this, dread settled in her stomach, not sure she wanted to play this game either. Joy shared an uneasy look with her.

“Ok. Truth or Dare,” Michelle said, making the bottle point at Zormna…or she tried to. It ended up pointing at this curly-haired girl who Zormna didn’t know that much and tended to give her the stink-eye when Joy wasn’t looking. Michelle tried to hide her disgust. “Melinda. Uh… ok…who’s—no, which guy teacher at school do you secretly think is hot.”

All the girls moaned. Teacher crushing was common at Pennington. Zormna had heard a rumor about one getting fired for exchanging ‘private texts’ with a student. A lot had been implied with that. But at school there were about five student teachers who were very attractive. And only two of them were married.

Sighing with a roll of her eyes, Melinda said, “Mr. Faust. Duh.”

Her friends laughed, sharing nods. Mr. Faust taught Health and Safety, and exercised regularly in the gym.

Melinda then spun the bottle. It landed on Jennifer.

“Truth or Dare. What is the worst thing you have ever done to somebody?”

Jennifer blinked in thought, looked to the ceiling and said, “Honestly? Hmm…worst thing? Ok. Last camp, when I got sick on the bus home, I purposely aimed at our last varsity cheer captain.”

Zormna burst out laughing.

Joy covered her mouth.

“No way!” Several exclaimed.

But Jennifer nodded. “She was being such a jerk at camp that I had had enough. And she was making fun of me on the bus, so when I barfed, I aimed.”

Zormna could not stop laughing, because it truly did top anything she had ever done as a prank.

“Jennifer!” Joy protested, shaking her head.

Bashfully looking to Joy, Jennifer said, “I know… But…”

Michelle, however, eyed Jennifer carefully then shook her head. “Spin the bottle.”

So Jennifer did.

It landed on Joy.

Joy shook her head. “Dare.”

“But what about the truth?” Protested several of the girls.

Joy shook her head again. “You guys always make me reveal embarrassing stuff.”

“Fine, then,” Stacey snapped. “You then have to—”

“Wiggle your eyes!”

“What?” Everyone stared at Jennifer, who had blurted it out.

“It’s my choice,” Jennifer protested, peeking at Joy who sighed with relief. “I want to see Joy do that freaky thing with her eyes. She can make her eyes shake.”

“Really?” Zormna peered at her to see.

Chuckling, Joy turned for them all then made the irises shake as if they were having a seizure.

“Ew!” several of the girls pulled back.

But Joy grabbed the bottle quickly and spun it. It landed on Michelle.

“Truth or Dare,” Joy said. “Which of the wrestlers do you really have a crush on?”

Michelle blushed, and actually averted her eyes as if she did not want to reveal it. Then she just shrugged and said, “Dare.”

“Oh!” Several of the girls moaned, as they all wanted to know.

“Ok….” Joy contemplated it for a moment, then said, “You have to walk barefoot outside around the cabin once.”

Michelle gave her a dirty look. She was not a barefoot girl. She even wore socks to bed. “It is a toss-up between Jonathan Baker and Jeff Streigle.”

Zormna’s eyes widened on her.

Shrugging, Michelle said, “I like dark-haired guys.”

She spun the bottle. It landed on a girl in the Jr Varsity team.

“Truth or Dare. The last guy you kissed. Was it a peach, a plum, or an alfalfa?”

The girl laughed, shook her blonde hair and brazenly said, “Oh, alfalfa.”

“Alfalfa?” Zormna looked to Joy, having no clue what she meant.

Joy pressed a hand to her forehead and whispered back. “It is how you say the words, as if you are kissing them.” Her face was red as she explained it.

Zormna remained confused, though. She mouthed the words silently as that girl spun the bottle and it landed on Stacey.

“Truth or Dare. What’s the farthest you’ve ever gone with a guy?”

Joy groaned, closing her eyes.

But Stacey grinned and said, “I haven’t met a guy yet that I like enough to go all the way with, but—”

“That’s enough!” Zormna gaped at her.

“Yeah,” Joy agreed. “T.M.I.”

“What?” Zormna looked to her, confused.

Jennifer groaned. “Why are you so clueless? T.M.I. means Too Much Information.”

“Why are you such a prude?” Stacey snapped. She then shook her head and spun the bottle. It landed on a girl on the junior varsity team named Lisa.

“Ok, Truth or Dare,” Stacey pointed to Lisa. “If you could ‘do it’ with any guy at school, who would it be?”

Joy slapped a hand over her face, turning red, while Zormna just gaped. But the other girls giggled, blushing hilariously at the challenge.

Lisa, though, agonized over it…knowing the girls might tease her until doomsday if she admitted liking any guy at school that badly. “Dare.”

“Ok,” Stacey said, “Either tell the truth, or you have to run butt-naked around the cabin three times.”

“No!” Zormna popped onto her feet. “I am totally against this!”

Her face had entirely flushed.

“Agreed!” Joy chimed in, just as red. “That’s just—”

“That’s the game,” Stacey retorted. And several other girls chimed in, indignant that Zormna had objected.

“Then I’m not playing.” And Zormna stepped out of the circle.

“And neither am I,” Joy snapped, joining her.

“Ah…come on!” called out Amanda, their mascot, who had gotten annoyed by Zormna’s frequent interruptions.

“Poor sport,” Michelle shot out.

“Party-pooper,” Stacey chimed in.

The bulk of the girls shared agreeing nods, though Jennifer rose, going after them.

“Come on,” Jennifer said, pulling on Zormna’s arm. “It’s just camp.”

But Zormna shook her head. “Pranks are one thing. But allowing myself and others to get bullied into doing or sharing humiliating things is entirely another.”

“Well then what kind of dares would you do?” Michelle got to feet, marching over.  

All the girls stared up, their faces furiously asking the same question, though Lisa looked up in hope that she could be rescued.

Meeting the savage eyes of her teammates, Zormna glared back while shielding Joy who honestly had been glad someone had objected first to the direction the game had taken. It had started out innocent enough: crushes and silly secrets. But it was getting more risqué, and Joy (along with a few others) was growing uncomfortable.

Sticking out her chin, Zormna met Michelle’s hard glare and said, “Real dares. No naked anything. And no more jokes and dares about sex.”

A handful of the girls called her prude and a few other things, but a larger number sighed with relief.

“You’re so boring—grandma,” Michelle sneered. “What century are you from?”

Gazing dryly at her, Zormna replied, “This century. I know blackmail fodder when I see it. Any one of us could say something really personal, and someone else could be recording in on her cell phone—then positing to Twitter or whatever. And I am not going to be had by anyone.”

All the girls who had chimed earlier in stared at her in silence.

“I know some of you brought phones on this trip,” Zormna snapped, eyeing a number of them. Those girls blanched, ducking their heads. “And I know you intend to post it online later.” She turned back to Michelle. “So no naked, risqué related things. Got it?”

Michelle stared, blinking at her. She then looked at the other girls, a few who ducked guiltily. “Some of you have recorded stuff to post on Tumbler?”

They did not answer.

“If you post anything that embarrasses me,” Michelle growled, “You’ll lose your spot on the team.”

A couple girls tucked away their cell phones.

Flushed, Michelle then looked back to Zormna. She appeared stuck—like she was about to thank Zormna, yet was angry the girl had ruined a savory game. Regaining her composure, straightening her chin and shoulders, Michelle said, “Fine. Then we keep the dares to sneaky stuff. But that means you have to play.”

“Or what?” Zormna leaned back, already skeptical.

Michelle snorted. “Or you’ll be sorry.”

Joy made a doubtful face behind Michelle, as Zormna hardly had anything that someone could hold against her. She had faced death already, for pity’s sake, and already had her clothes strung up—including all her underwear.

“What’s your dare?” Zormna asked, folding her arms.

Lisa, apparently (and gratefully), had been forgotten. She shifted back, waiting to hear what they would think up.

“Let me think about it,” Michelle said. She turned to deliberate with the other girls. After a few moments, she turned and said, “You sneak into the wrestling cabin and steal Jeff’s ukulele without him seeing.”

Moaning, Zormna hung her head and rolled her eyes. “That is so stupid. You call that a dare? I could find any guy would get it for me. Besides, stealing is idiotic.”

“She has a point,” Stacey murmured.

“I’ve got a better one,” suggested a different team member, whom Zormna did not know well.