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

One by one, the boys hopped down the steps onto the gravel to get their things from the side compartment.

Jeff climbed off the bus with his friends right behind. He was still laughing at a remark his friend Jonathan Baker had just made about the fresh air, when his feet hit the gravel. Yet his eyes lifted onto Monroe High school bus a few yards from theirs and he stiffened. Automatically he took a step in retreat.

Climbing off next, Brian pushed him forward with a laugh. “Make room, Jeff.”

Still chuckling, Jonathan fell on top of Brian as he came out of the bus next. “Hey! You’re causing a traffic jam!”

“Well…if it isn’t the Pennington dipsticks.” A mocking voice floated across the gravel from one of the Monroe busses.

All three boys lifted their eyes. They set upon what Jeff had noticed the moment he had stepped outside. The Monroe wrestling team.

They were boys about as thick and tall as those of Pennington, though they wore colors of Orange and Blue and had the Monroe Mountain Lion on their chests.

Jeff stepped to the side, silently glaring at their rivals.

Their fourth to their group, Mark Wheley, hopped off the bus, skipping the last step to land coolly onto the ground. He gave their Monroe heckler a smirk and folded his arms. “Well, Damon. It seems you haven’t changed. You’re the same lint ball as ever.” 

He nudged Jonathan who smothered a laugh.

“Oh, real clever, cheese-head,” replied Damon Pikes, a thick-necked, broad-chested boy of about seventeen years. He was decently healthy for a boy his age, with sharp blue eyes and brownish hair. But he really only had eyes for Jeff, whom he stared at with a twisted smile. “Well, Jeffey boy, it seems you might be a man after all. I didn’t think you would come. I was sure you were too chicken to face me.”

Jeff rolled his dark eyes in response. “Nice to see you too, schmuck.”

Zormna had witnessed all of this as she climbed out of her bus right after Joy. Jeff had previously mentioned to her that coming to camp would prove problematic for him, though he had not exactly gone into detail. Yet she had heard from others about the Monroe-Pennington rivalry. But to be honest, she had forgotten the details because she has thought Jeff was being incredibly juvenile at the time and was just making excuses. 

Joy walked straight over to her brother, her mouth opening perhaps to tell him their parents would not like them getting into fights. But Brian did not look like the one that would be fighting. Jeff had balled his hands into fists as Damon glowered with the inclination to pounce on him.

Zormna stared, squinting cockeyed at both boys before following Joy to find out exactly what was going on.

“Kill him, Damon!” yelled a Monroe girl.

Several girls from the Pennington cheer team shouted back for that girl to shut up (with a few colorful remarks added)—though Joy had hooked her hand into her brother’s arm hissing into his ear something. Brian made a face but nodded to her.

Zormna whispered into Joy’s ear, “What’s going on?”

Joy turned back without taking her eyes off the rivalry and said, “Oh, it happened last year when Jeff first transferred over. Damon used to be the state champ, but Jeff took his title. So he’s, like, really peeved at Jeff and the whole Pennington team. They tried to jump Jeff up at one of the meets. It has been just awful. Monroe High kids suck.”

That the worst thing Joy had ever said about anybody. The girls around her were saying much worse.

Peering at each one of the kids from Monroe High, glancing over their tacky orange-and-blue team uniforms, Zormna bit her lip with wonder. Such a thing just didn’t happen where came from—but then fighting within the ranks would have been seen as insubordination. Though, on the streets where Jeff had grown up, he probably had seen plenty of it.

However, despite all the bluster and posturing, Damon did nothing more than crack his knuckles and stare menacingly. As for Jeff, whom Zormna knew could handle himself in a fight, his gaze coldly dared Damon to do the stupid thing like try to attack him in front of all the teachers and coaches. Zormna knew that look. She understood it very well. Jeff knew he was safe. He was just teasing his opponent.

Snorting, she turned to go to collect her things.

Jeff glanced back. His eyes met hers. The icy coldness of his unfathomable blue-eyed gaze hardened as if he were passing a thought to her. She halted where she was, setting a hand on her hip with the faintest shake of her head that replied that he was acting childish. Her own deep green eyes pierced him. And a thought fluttered through the pair of them, almost shared, though she didn’t know how.

Of course this childish high school rivalry was all nonsense. He understood. Besides—he regarded her as his only real rival. She returned the sentiment with a faint smirk.

Damon followed Jeff’s gaze, incensed that Jeff would abruptly shift his focus, even for a moment. But then his eyes set on Zormna.

The boy stepped from his friends, going towards the Pennington bus as if gravity drew him in. His friends went after him.

“Hey! You aren’t serious?” Joe Sergeant, another top Monroe wrestler shouted after him.

“Yeah! Not here!” Aaron Wilson joined in, even reached out to pull Damon back.

But Damon shook them off.

“I’m not.” He then shot Jeff a smirk as if he didn’t care at all that Jeff was there. “I just noticed a newbie. I figured I knew every gal on the Pennington cheer team.”

“New year, new team,” Michelle Clay declared, stepping up to block him if she could.

But Damon Pikes walked past Michelle straight towards Zormna. He was a least a foot taller than her and marched up like King Kong on the prowl. Zormna took one step back with a glance to Jeff as if she might actually need his help with this one. Jeff even looked surprised, if only for a second. In fact, there was a flicker in Jeff’s eyes that almost asked Zormna to clobber Damon if she wanted to.

 The Pennington cheer team stepped aside only to encircle them, in case he laid a finger on their teammate. Damon halted in front of Zormna, a smile of macho bravado spreading on across his thick jaw. “I don’t think we’ve met.”  

“No.” Zormna squared her shoulders, gazing curiously up at this thickset figure. “We haven’t met.”

“I’m Damon,” he said and took a step closer. His smile expanded while his eyes stroked her face then caressed her tiny but mature figure.

Jeff cleared his throat with a cough. “Uh, Damon. I wouldn’t get too close if I were you.”

Glancing at Jeff, Damon took another step closer towards Zormna.

But Zormna leaned away from him, making a face which Joy snickered at, her hand covering her mouth.

Brian smirked, enjoying Zormna’s automatic revulsion. Of course he knew Zormna hated it when boys hit on her.

“What? Is she your girlfriend?” Damon asked Jeff in a half-mocking tone.

“Oh please!’ Zormna shoved the Monroe wrestler back with more strength than he expected, then walked around to Joy’s other side. “Don’t be sick! I don’t know who you are, but don’t you dare make implications about Jafarr and me.” 

Damon’s smile turned to fascination, listening to her Irish-like brogue, while Zormna made faces at Jeff who returned them with equal mockery.

“Jafarr?” Damon rolled the R like Zormna had.

Amid another facial contortion at Zormna, Jeff cringed then glanced at his friends who were smothering laughs at the repeat of Jeff’s real name. She had been trying to call him ‘Jeff’, but when under stress the old name usually slipped out. His friends still thought it funny that Jeff’s mother had named him after the villain from Aladdin. Or at least that was the story they told everyone.

Damon opened his mouth to ask more from this newcomer, but Zormna had already ducked into the thick of the Pennington cheerleaders. And the camp directors were now marching over to the busses to pass on their instructions.

Most of the Pennington team shoved Damon out, so he retreated back to his group. They hissed at him with questions of their own. All the boys in the parking lot were now staring at Zormna. And why not? She always stuck out, like a shining piece of gold.

“Ok, boys and girls, listen up. Each team needs to register at the main lodge. You’ll find you cabin assignments there and meet your cabin counselors. Any questions?” The man in the khaki pants waited for their response.

A boy from the track team raised his hand.

“Yes?” the camp counselor said with a certain sign of tiredness to his voice.

“Yeah, where’s the bathroom?” the boy asked.

The crowd burst out in snickers, the majority going back to the busses to get their things.

Most of them picked up their bags and carried them to the lodge. But others decided to leave them for later. Those kids from Pennington rushed to the lodge not that far from those from Billsburg and Monroe. Under the eye of so many adults, a scuffle was a bad idea, so each of them went in without a ruckus. Zormna followed suit, though Jeff lingered near the back of the group watching Zormna’s back as he had promised to do. Unfortunately, the one thing that caught his eye was Damon watching her.

Thing was, Damon did not look like he had any malicious intent towards Zormna. How could he after knowing her so briefly? But what Jeff saw made the muscles in his neck tense up. The seventeen-year-old from Monroe was ogling her—examining her face, her pale skin, and her feminine figure with hormonal intensity. He seemed to really like watching the shape of her butt as she walked. The turn of her head. The curve of her neck. The arch and slender shape of her waist and well-formed chest. Even the flicker of her impossibly green eyes drew his attention. Or maybe it was her mouth—full-lipped and touched with a slight blush. Or perhaps how her face was shaped, with dimples and that charming delicate cleft in her chin made her look so eye-catching. Or maybe it was her hair—entirely wild with curls that spiraled from some places and hung in a wave in others, only curling at the ends like a burning fire.

Jeff slapped himself in the face and told himself to knock it off. He already knew Zormna was gorgeous—though to American standards she would have been considered way too pale, and certainly too small. Reminding himself to keep his head on straight, Jeff maintained his distance, hoping Zormna would notice Damon was stalking her. He knew she could and would take care of herself in matters such as these. And he didn’t want to interfere unless she wanted the extra help.

Zormna noticed Damon’s staring all right, and groaned inside. It was a thing she had experienced before, repeatedly. For once she wished that when a boy first saw her he did not stare at her body parts. There were no exceptions.

As the students filed into the lodge, forming narrower lines, Damon took his opportunity to sidle up to Zormna. “Hi, remember me? I’m Damon Pikes.”

Zormna averted her eyes to the ceiling. 

“And you?” Damon’s voice had that interested tone. Too confident.

Zormna sighed, suppressing a moan, wondering what she would have to do to get rid of this new admirer. “Zormna Clendar.” 

“You aren’t from around here, are you?” Damon asked, implying her accent, though he was mostly trying to strike up conversation.

“No, I’m from…” Zormna hesitated and groaned at the lie, “…Ireland. I transferred in last semester.”

“Transferred? You’re not here on foreign exchange?” He tilted his head with a curious look, glancing once at her chest, though he was dismayed that the neck to her shirt covered her bust line so there was no cleavage to be seen.

Shaking her head, Zormna said, “No.