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

to Jeff, "Next time, let's get a legitimate alibi from your uncle or somebody before we leave."

Jeff shook his head. "Let's just try to stay out of trouble until the end of the year."

She sighed and nodded. Then she said, "How's your arm?"

As they both walked off to lunch, Jeff shrugged. "It hurts."

 

[1] To whom the right to open this box, we send greetings. For you are the ones who have the right to rule - in faith and in justice - the king and queen - the last Tarrns.

Chapter Fifteen: Of all the Dirty Minded

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"A fulfilled life is not possible without friends." - Anon -

 

 

Things did not go much better after that. The harassment continued regardless - though no one dared grab Zormna again. Rumor spread fast. And people once more remembered that Zormna was a 'super ninja' and Jeff had been part of a gang. No teacher ever found out about Jeff's wounded arm as he had worn a sweatshirt in PE, and he had on his jacket for his other classes. However, his friends noticed.

"You got shot?" Brian gaped at him during lunch.

Jeff shushed him. "Not so loud!"

Whispering while sharing looks with Jonathan, Mark, and Adam, Brian whispered, "How did you get shot?"

Jeff peeked at Zormna and said, "I was helping the FBI."

They looked to Zormna who nodded.

"What were you doing with the FBI?" Mark hissed.

Zormna bit into her sandwich pretending to go over her missing Chemistry homework with Darren. Darren was listening intently, their books open on their laps as they sat together in the cafeteria.

Moaning, Jeff said, "Fine. Zormna and I were helping them find those creeps that killed her great aunt."

His friends' eyes widened.

"Did you find them?" Jonathan asked, breathless. He peeked to Zormna.

Zormna shrugged.

Jeff scratched the back of his scalp. "We hope so. It was an organization connected to an Irish mob."

Jennifer averted her gaze, biting her lower lip as she pretended not to be listening in. She leaned near Kevin who was pretending to be listening to his friends talking nearby. Both were interested in what Jeff had to report, though for different reasons. Kevin still did not know the Irish story was a lie.

"But you don't know for sure," Jonathan said.

Shaking his head, Jeff said, "No."

Jennifer sighed, glancing to Zormna with condolences.

"In fact, we are keeping watch in case these guys they busted contacted anyone about Zormna being here," Jeff said. He then met the gaze of all his friends. "So, if you see any strange folk around the neighborhood poking around especially in Zormna's and Jennifer's neighborhood, let me know ASAP. Because it could be the difference between life and death."

"Oh wow," Brian murmured.

"I think I am going to be sick." Adam put a hand over his mouth.

Zormna leaned over her textbook towards them. "If you do see anybody strange, don't get involved. Just tell us. These people don't play fair and they don't care whom they hurt."

"Really?" Jennifer said, her eyes showing all her worry and what it meant for her family.

Meeting her gaze, Zormna cringed. "We kind of messed with their computer, uh, server also. So...your folks might get uh, furious with me if they connect with it - especially if they figure it out that it's my doing. That website you found for us, you should 'accidentally' lose the bookmark for it on their computer if you want to save them the trouble."

"What computer website?" Mark asked.

Jeff just shook his head, shooting Zormna a dirty look for revealing too much. "An Irish one. Genealogical. It links to the server that we uh...sort of put a virus on."

His friends stared more.

But Darren snickered. Seeing their stares turn to him, he immediately stood up and collected his books. But he said to Jeff, "You created a computer virus? That's cool."

And he hurried off before Mark could get up to swat him.

"You created a computer virus?" Jonathan asked Jeff, gazing at him with complete disbelief.

Zormna now rose from the table, deciding to hunt down Darren who was probably going to the library. She was smiling. "Jeff's great with computers." And she marched off.

Watching her, Jeff smiled to himself. Zormna never gave a compliment lightly. And from her, who was also skilled in that field, it was like she had seriously kissed him.

Adam waved a hand in front of his face. "Jeff!"

"He's spacing it," Brian murmured.

Jeff leaned on his elbow, watching Zormna leave the cafeteria between catcalls and snide remarks, grinning to himself. "Dude, that's hot."

His friends exchanged looks, shaking their heads.

Zormna and Jeff attended their first, 'new and improved' counseling session that afternoon. It was brief, but they were told that instead of joint sessions, they were going to have separate sessions from then on. Apparently the counselor and both teachers had decided that joint sessions had enabled the pair to slip into this deviant behavior and led them into this path of what the counselor described as self-destruction. Jeff and Zormna decided it was not worthwhile to argue. Joint sessions would only be held once a month from then on, just to check up on their progress.

Realizing that both teens had work after school, they were allowed to opt out of a class they were ahead in in exchange for counseling time. Neither liked that option, but it became necessary for them both in that week and the next due to their work schedules. Neither Jeff nor Zormna could get out of their pre-arranged schedules at work. They had already pressed their limits there. So, taking the class hour before lunch twice a week - Zormna missing Chemistry and Jeff missing Civics - they endured their new regime. At least the following week they would have the afterschool option, they figured.

After counseling sessions, they exchanged notes.

"So," Zormna said to Jeff with a weary sigh while walking down the stairs toward the cafeteria. "What has our underpaid school psychiatrist tried to dig out of you this time?"

Chuckling and shaking his head, Jeff said, "I'm not seeing her anymore. They've got me with one of the coaches who was trained in sports psychology. I am now on the anger management track."

She lifted her eyebrows at him. "Really?"

He nodded. "Yep. What about you? Apparently you're not stuck with her. Who did you get stuck with?"

Sighing heavily, Zormna replied, "The school nurse."

"What?" Jeff halted in his tracks.

Zormna nodded, continuing on. "That's right. They've got me seeing the nurse. And do you know what she's doing?"

Jeff shook his head, bemused, following quickly after her.

"They've got her teaching me about contraceptives and the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases," she said.

Jeff stared.

"She lectured me about pregnancy and birth control, Jafarr," Zormna grumbled through her teeth. Then she dug into her book bag. "Look at what she gave me. Look at it!"

Zormna dumped about a handful of contraceptives and three pamphlets on pregnancy into Jeff's hands. Jeff almost dropped them as if they were covered in fungus.

"And that's not all!" Zormna pulled out a small white and blue printed box and dropped it in his hands.

Jeff did not even want to look at it. He could already guess what it was. He shoved it back at Zormna. She wouldn't take it.

Zormna scowled. "She wants me to test it tonight to see if I'm pregnant!"

Students skirted by them in the hall, watching and hurrying to their lockers. Lunch was nearly over. Uncomfortable, Jeff dumped all the stuff back into her book bag, blushing furiously. They walked farther down the hall and turned a corner to get to the larger hall that led to the cafeteria.

"Of all the dirty minded...." Zormna growled. "I already know about the reproductive process, for pity's sake. And she's preaching to me some incredibly weird stuff about it - like she thinks I don't know anything. It's not fair. Why do I have to see her every week next semester while you're taking anger management classes with your counselor? Can't we switch?"

Jeff lifted up his hands. "I don't wanna have your private Sex-Ed classes."

Somebody heard that and snickered.

"Of all the dirty-minded..." Zormna muttered after that kid, shooting them a filthy look. Then Zormna said, "I get that. I don't want them either, but the nurse said - get this - that I needed to be educated in the ways of the world. She sounded like Michelle Clay. I nearly knocked her head off."

Jeff laughed. "Maybe you need anger management classes."

"Fine," Zormna said, hefting her irritatingly full bag to a more comfortable spot on her shoulder, "But I am not taking all this free birth control stuff. I don't need it. I'm not screwing around."

He blushed, knowing they were being overheard. They were standing in the cafeteria door, and it was as if the entire room turned and looked at the two of them when they entered.

Zormna saw it. Her face went red.

"Good use of slang," Jeff murmured as they both rushed through the cafeteria filled with long rows of folding tables and folding chairs and past virtually the entire school without looking at others as they walked to their usual eating spot. Unfortunately it was on the far end of the cafeteria near the outside doors in case of a dire need to escape the place - a personal choice of Mark's.

Brian lifted his head when he saw them. So was Joy, who usually ate with Jennifer McCabe and the other cheerleaders. Joy waved to them both.

"Hi," Zormna said, mystified at Joy who really had lightened up since her second return from Florida. Apparently news of Jeff's bullet wound had exonerated them both in her eyes. But then Joy was a believing sort of person. "Um... not to be rude, but don't you usually eat with - "

Joy nodded, waving it away. "Michelle is being such a jerk and my best friend Jennifer kind of joined in on the trash talk about you. And I couldn't stand it."

Zormna blinked at her. Joy would have stayed and defended her, usually.

"The talk kind of got raunchy, actually," Joy explained, blushing. "Stacey...."

Nodding, Zormna sat next to her.

Jeff found a seat on the other side of the table next to Brian and Mark who were finishing off their lunch. Adam was watching Zormna though as if he still thought everyone was being naïve in assuming Jeff and Zormna were 'just friends'. He had just been explaining to Brian that Jeff was an expert liar and could spin a perfect alibi...though he could not explain the bullet wound in Jeff's arm. Just before they arrived, Brian declared the rumor about Zormna and Jeff as an item as a non-subject for their group. It was too volatile, and he wanted to think the best of both individuals.

"Have you written your sonnet for Mr. Humphries yet?" Brian asked the two as they sat and started into their lunches. Jeff had given Zormna half of his lunch because most of the good cafeteria food was gone, and would likely be so on their counseling days from then on. It was a spam sandwich. The boys watched Zormna heartily bite into it with a degree of amazement.

Jeff shook his head. "No. I haven't even started."

Adam frowned. "It's due next week, Jeff. Don't you think you should get going on it? You don't