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

Eyes wide as quarters, Holly stumbled back, gaping at her with the same stunned expression as Michelle—though it was unclear what Holly was surprised at. That Zormna had figured it out so quickly? Or that she could shove her back so easily? Or perhaps, and this terrified Zormna…that her accusation was wrong and Holly was innocent.

Yet surrounded by Harvest high school teammates, Holly straightened up and lifted her chin. Holly’s karate teammates glared down on the Pennington cheerleader.

“I don’t have your stupid necklace!” Holly bit back, thusting out her chest as if challenging Zormna to a fight.

“Liar!” Zormna pulled her hands into fists, feeling more intensely that she was right.

“Witch!” Holly cast back.

The camp counselors rushed up to stop the fight. Of course they went in to restrain known troublemaker first.

“Calm down, Zormna! What’s the matter?”  Miss Betiford grabbed for her arm, as Coach Harr reached out to pull Zormna away from Holly and her friends entirely.

Zormna tried to push past them, ready to tear out the Harvest girl’s tongue. Yet her efforts really were half-hearted. Zormna’s knees were buckling.  

Ripping herself out of the counselors’ holds, Zormna pointed at Holly. “She has my medallion. She stole it from me when I was sleeping.”

Coach Harr glanced at Holly who was rolling her eyes and folding her arms with a ‘don’t-be-such-a-child’ huff.

“How do you know that this girl here has your medallion?” he asked. “Did you see her run off with it?”

“No!” Zormna restrained herself from calling him an idiot. “I said I was sleeping. I can’t very well see someone steal anything asleep, now can I?”

The coach stepped between Zormna and the Harvest girls, blocking Zormna’s view of her target. He clasped Zormna’s arms to hold her there as if she were a very disobedient child. “Then how do you know she took it?”

Zormna exhaled and averted her eyes sullenly to the ground. He was right, of course. She had no proof. Just a gut feeling.

“But I have to get it back. My mother gave it to me before she died!” Zormna truly buckled now. She started to sob uncontrollably, covering her face with her hand.

The Harvest girls around her broke into silent mocking sobs, though Miss Betiford ushered Zormna to a chair. The girls strolled away while the woman ordered a glass of juice to be brought.

The spectacle was over.

And though Holly and her friends went back to what they were doing, rolling their eyes, they went off still mimicking Zormna’s last declaration as if it was the most cliché thing they had ever heard.

Zormna hunched over on the bench, refusing to be comforted. Her mind went over and over again all the possible places her medallion could have fallen or gone. None of it made sense. It had all the marks of the same way her clothes had been stolen—and by someone who was so stealthy as to take something off from around her neck.

“Maybe you dropped it on the beach last night,” Miss Betiford suggested.

Shaking her head, Zormna replied, “No, no, no! I specifically remember having it on when I went to bed. I always make sure I have it. Someone stole it.”

“You can’t assume that, Zormna—” Miss Betiford gently chastened.

“Yes I can! Someone stole it!” Zormna stared up at her angrily.

Miss Betiford took a breath and leaned in closer, “Perhaps it fell off in your sleeping bag.”

“I searched that already.” Zormna grumbled.

Not giving up, Miss Betiford said, “Your pillow case?”

“Searched that.”

“Your duffle bag?”

“That too.”

In desperation, Miss Betiford offered, “Your shoes?”

Turning towards her and scowling, Zormna snapped, “I’m wearing those! I’d know if my medallion was in them!”

Standing up in her own frustration, the cheer counselor said with an undertone of disbelief, “Well then search them again. Perhaps you overlooked it—”

“I don’t overlook things!” Zormna stared up at the woman. She pointed out the doors. “I have never overlooked things! I have been trained not to overlook things!” 

Jeff walked behind the counselor then started to make several faces at Zormna, behind the woman’s back.  

“I don’t miss things! And Jafarr, if you don’t quit I’m gonna….” She stopped, staring at him as he removed his fish face and switched to an expression that said to lighten up. She sat back, feeling like crying again.

Raising his palms in the air, Jeff said, “Whatever it is, I didn’t take it.”

Zormna shook her head and stood up. “No, you wouldn’t take it.” To herself, she said, “You wouldn’t.” 

“What got stolen?” Jeff asked, smirking at Miss Betiford.

“Never you mind,” the woman said.

“My medallion,” Zormna grumbled. Turning, she stalked out to the lodge doors. Miss Betiford sighed, but retreated with Coach Harr when she believed that Zormna would no longer attack any of the other students there.

Jeff raised his eyebrows, wondering first of all who had managed that, and second, who was that stupid.

Zormna stopped in the doorway, tears rolling down the sides of her face again. Jeff stood nearby and waited.

Returning his gaze to the eating hall, he noticed the watching eyes of the cook, Coach Brown and Maya. He was about to let Zormna know, but she returned inside the hall and walked back to the food line while thinking intently, pacing more or less. As she passed him, she said, watching his face, “I see them. Don’t get so antsy.”

Jeff clenched his teeth and stepped back to his table. Yep, she definitely didn’t miss a thing.

So…some idiot had stolen Zormna’s medallion. Big mistake. It had obviously been stolen, because Zormna was more careful with that than the branded mark on her shoulder. And knowing Zormna’s mind, he knew she was already formulating a way to get it back—because no way Zormna would give it up the one item she had left from her parents for lost.

But that meant waiting. And until she asked for his help in the matter, Jeff decided to leave it to her.

*

Not long after breakfast, several cars pulled into the camp parking lot. Everyone watched them as they unloaded important-looking officials. Most of them had come to observe the school district’s sports teams. Each one of the coaches straightened up and put on genial smiles to greet them. The campers had more mixed reactions. A good chunk of the students stared with increasing anxiety and giddiness. Though, another chunk rolled their eyes with the knowledge that now the pressure would be on. It was time to make their coaches look good, basically. It was the day of reckoning. But not everyone looked forward to it.

Almost as soon as the sports officials unloaded, given a short time to recuperate from their drive, each official went off to observe their respective sports. That gave the students just enough time to stretch their muscles and go over their drills. As the cheerleaders gathered on grassy knoll, the wrestlers pulled out the mats in the lodge. The baseball teams gathered to play round robin short games in the far fields, and the tennis teams did the same. All the while, cross country and track teams ran, one lap around the camp, the other going around the football fields as the soccer teams played on grass. With everyone split off, saving gymnastics and karate for later so everyone could watch, the camp was buzzing with excitement.

They had a judges’ tent set up on the edge of the cleared spot near the grassy knoll, giving them plenty of shade while they judged the cheerleaders and gave them advice. The cheer squads, one after the other competed, presenting their routines. From Billsburg to Monroe, each team played their chosen dance mixes. They jumped right into the beat, shaking their pom-poms, dancing and flipping with loud shouts, and building every conceivable kind of pyramid possible. The Monroe team, as always, competed fiercely with Pennington for the best routine. Both groups raised eyebrows, though the Pennington team seemed to draw the most whispers of excitement as they not only built their pirate ship with Zormna holding their flag as the top of the mast, the team hoisting it with a stick just as Amanda Tilton wanted so that it fluttered perfectly when it went up. And to top that off, when their team broke up the ship, it was like an explosion had hit it along with a boom in the music. Their top mast doing a triple spin in the air, landing in her teammates’ arms—only to flip off again and run with the flag around them as the others chased after her like the tentacles of an octopus. Visually, it was stunning. However, once their competition was over, the issue of stunt safety dominated the rest of the morning.

At lunch, everyone discussed who won what.

“Of course Pennington dominated wrestling,” Michelle said with a superior air. “Didn’t you hear? Jeff slammed Damon again. He’s been totally holding back.”

Biting into her hoagie, Zormna lifted her eyebrows, not saying anything, though she knew Michelle was probably right. Her mind was still on her stolen medallion.

“But Billsburg completely wasted us in track, and baseball,” Joy said, shaking her head with humiliated despair. “Our guys are so lazy.”

“If it was our basketball team—” Stacey cut in.

Jennifer nodded. “Yeah, but basketball holds their own camp. I don’t understand their boycott of Camp Lake Dale.”

“No basketball courts, stupid,” Amanda said.

Jennifer elbowed her in the side. “Don’t say that! It’s not like it is hard to build one.”

“But Harvest so wasted us in tennis.” Joy murmured, slouching on the table as if every loss was personal.

“Well,” Jennifer glanced over at Zormna who was still brooding. “Then our gymnastics team better beat them this afternoon. You’ll do that, right, Zormna?”

Zormna blinked and looked up. “What?”

Several of the girls snickered.

“You’re going to waste them in gymnastics, right?” Jennifer repeated.

Sighing, Zormna leaned back on the table and shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”

Michelle nudged Stacey and whispered to her. Jennifer was making a face besides. “You’re not very enthusiastic.”

“Should I be?” Zormna murmured.

“A little, at least,” Joy replied, smirking.

Glancing over at her, Zormna grimaced. “I’ll be more enthusiastic when I find the thief who stole my medallion.”

Michelle snorted with a laugh. “You gotta let it go. That ugly thing is gone.”

Zormna jumped up from her seat, shouting. “I won’t! You have no idea what that medallion means to me!”

Everyone turned to look.

Joy tugged on Zormna’s sleeve for her to sit down, glancing anxiously at everyone else, including the counselors who were keeping an eye out for trouble.

“Don’t have a cow!” Michelle balked, scooting away from her.

With a poisonous look, Zormna huffed and climbed out from her seat, taking her sandwich with her. She stomped away without another word, though the other girls stared as if they were expecting a verbal blow up. Joy shook her head as she sank back into her seat.

“Maybe her sob story is the truth,” Jennifer murmured. “Her mom gave it to her.”

Stacey let out a loud exhale and nodded.

“We’d better find it,” Joy said.

After lunch the sports switched. Those wrestlers that also played football—like Damon and his friends—joined the football players in their party. The other wrestlers exported themselves to the lake while the gymnastics group used the lodge—though some boys stayed to watch.

Gymnastics did not have a competition exactly. The girls prepared only two routines, or skills, and they performed for the regional judges who evaluated their performances and gave advice. Most of them were allowed to leave when they were finished.

Because she disliked the floor so much and did not have any time to prepare a decent routine, Zormna took to the uneven bars instead and just winged it. Those watching said her performance was marvelous, though she moved less gracefully for Coach Dayes’s taste. As for the boys watching, they held up numbers on large sheets of paper giving her a ten, and whistled as she walked off the mat to the balance beam where she waited with the others that had also chosen that as their second skill. She started stretching her muscles.

Once the uneven bars were done, the judges had the girls perform their floor