The Secret of Zormna Clendar by Julie Steimle (great reads .TXT) 📖

the cashier, Jennifer managed a grin. The lady blinked as she picked up her scanner, searching for the price tag on the suit.

Zormna slumped on the counter with a sulk. Thankfully, she quit complaining.

“That will be twenty-three dollars,” the cashier said.

Zormna was still sulking when she extracted her wallet, handing her a twenty and a five.

*

“Which one did she get?” Mark whispered.

“I don’t know,” Brian hissed back.

The boys were hiding behind the summer display of mannequins and jeans—minus Alex. He went off to his after-school job the moment Zormna and Jennifer passed by.

“The peach one,” Jonathan said.

Jeff moaned, crouched behind the table laden with short jean shorts. “Can we please go? This is stupid.”

“No,” Mark snapped back. “You lost your vote when you made her mad.”

“What is the big deal between you two anyway?” Todd asked. “I mean, I’m sorry she broke your nose and all, but you don’t have to hang onto it or anything. She said it was an accident.”

“And you believe her?” Jeff retorted.

“Yeah,” Brian and Todd chimed in together.

But Jeff just shook his head.

They watched Jennifer pull on Zormna’s arm, leading her toward the entrance like a sulky child, bag in hand.

Jeff chuckled vindictively.

They could hear Jennifer say as they walked by, “What’s the big deal anyway? Everybody is going to be sleeveless.”

Zormna groaned, though it sounded like a whine. “You’re not going to get it, and I am not going to bother explaining it to you. I just don’t do that sort of thing.”

“That’s so stupid,” Jennifer snapped. “Nobody is going to care. It isn’t like people are going to admire your sexy shoulders. They’ll be looking at your legs and boobs. You know that.”

But that got another groan. “Trust me. It will be worse.”

“Don’t be dumb,” Jennifer said. “But we’ll get you a tee shirt if it will make you happy…”

And they went out of earshot.

Mark sighed in a dreamy hormonal way. “Man…I can’t wait to see her in a bathing suit.”

Jeff snorted, dropping his rear against the display. He was sick of crouching. “You won’t see her in a bathing suit. She won’t like the one she bought, and she’ll find some way to get out of it.”

His friends stared at him. Brian leaned in first, picking up a fallen pair of shorts Jeff had accidentally knocked onto the floor. He put it on the table. “Jeff, how come you know so much about this girl when you only spent two weeks in Ireland?”

“A month, according to Alex,” Todd said, wondering the same as Brian.

Brian shook his head at him. “Whatever.”

Averting his eyes to the ceiling, Jeff shook his head with a ‘duh’ attitude. “She had a reputation. Everyone knew her.”

“A reputation?” Jonathan perked up.

“Not like that.” Jeff glared playfully his way. “She’s all soldier. In fact she was known as The Zormna Clendar. Like she calls the head of the school—Kevin Something-or-other—The Kevin. I’m sure you’ve heard her.”

Todd nodded. He had heard that. The Kevin. And she had mentioned her best friend Salvar, and that other guy…the one she liked, also. The older man.

“What about that guy, Arden? Is he The Arden or something?” Brian asked, interested jealousy in his tone. “Is he really all that?”

And Jeff chuckled, scratching the scar on his nose. “Actually, Arden was a pretty nice guy.”

They crowded around him, intrigued.

Jeff said, “Look, what can I say? Give it up. Zormna isn’t the kind of girl that high school boys can get. Her eyes are on Men. I’m sure. And at the first chance she gets to go back to Ireland, she’ll take it.”

And he stalked off toward the food court.

“You know,” Jonathan said to Todd as they followed Jeff at a distance. “I think he may have tried something with her once.”

“No….” Brian shook his head. “Jeff’s not like that.”

But Mark snickered. “It would explain why he’s so uncomfortable whenever we mention her.”

“I’m telling you,” Brian protested. “He’s not that kind of guy.”

The idea never really occurred to Todd. Zormna politely ignored most the boys at school who flirted with her, or at least ignored their flirting.

“Maybe she broke his heart,” Mark said.

“She broke his nose,” Brian interjected. “Am I’m sure that just hurt his pride. Don’t read anything into it.”

“His pride?” Mark remained unconvinced.

But Jonathan snickered, nodding. “She totally crushed Ted’s pride. If a five-foot-tall blonde bested me in a fight, I’d be mortified.”

Todd envisioned it as well. They had not been there for the scuffle between Ted ‘Lead Weight’ Hamilton and Zormna. But the guy could no longer meet their gaze. And most of the team still teased Ted about being beaten by a girl.

Only, Zormna was (as Jennifer called her) a super-ninja. And as Jeff put it: all military.

*

Though no one openly admitted it, everyone in PE was anxiously waiting to what their Irish immigrant would be wearing.

And then she entered.

“Ah man!” Mark kicked the concrete with his bare foot, immediately disappointed.

Jeff chuckled with an I-told-you-so glance.

Brian sighed, almost relieved.

But Alex shook his head, saying nothing.

Todd had to admit, he was disappointed. Zormna had come out in the peach bathing suit, alright. But over the top she wore a long cream-colored tee shirt. Some of the girls looked on, scandalized. Many were jealous.

Coach Baker objected right away.

“No street clothes in the pool. He pointed to her. “You need to remove that shirt.”

Jeff lifted his head, surveying the scene with an impish smirk. The other boys waited for the drama to ensue.

Zormna ducked her head demurely and said, “I can’t. I need it.”

“You can’t wear that in the pool. Take it off now,” the coach said.

She stiffened, going all military, just like she did with Todd’s parents. “I told you, I can’t.”

Advancing on her, Coach Baker repeated, “It is school policy that only authorized swimwear is worn in the pool. Now take that shirt off, or I will be forced to put you in detention.”

“Then put me in detention.” Zormna’s voice rose. She stood her tallest. “But I will not go around without my shoulders covered! I told you. I can’t!”

And Jeff cackled, barely covering his mouth. He leaned back and nudged to Alex. But Alex only smirked, sighing.  

Coach Baker shot Jeff a dirty look over his shoulder. Yet he said to Zormna, “Do you want me to suspend you? You will remove that shirt now or—”

“Suspend?” Zormna’s voice raised pitch to the point that it pierced the inner ear. Her cheeks had flushed. She was clenching her fists like she would wrestle her teacher into the tile. “Over an issue of modesty?”

The coach ruffled, pulling back. “No. The pool rules are clear—”

“Rules with no sense ought to be removed.” Zormna growled through her teeth. “Rules that infringe on personal moral issues truly must—”

“If I let you wear a tee shirt then every girl here will want to wear one!”

“Good!” Zormna snapped back. “Maybe that is how it should be! Maybe the girls that don’t want their bodies on display should be allowed to dress as they feel! This is supposed to be a free country? Isn’t it?”

Coach Baker clenched his teeth. “The rules state—”

“The rules are contradictory to freedom of conscience,” Zormna countered. “Which I believe are guaranteed in your Constitution as implied by the First Amendment.”

The entire pool area hushed.

“Hm.” Brian raised his eyebrows.

Even Jeff stopped laughing. He looked to Todd and whispered, “This is how she gets out of it.”

And Todd watched the coach go white.

“She gets the upper hand by knowing not just the rules, but which rules have preeminence.” Jeff narrated as the coach sputtered while glancing once at Brian (who definitely had spoken up about religious tolerance when it came to practices and wrestling meets on Sundays), and at Jonathan (who had similar issues, yet with the barbecued pork at a team party). “And as everyone knows, Zormna has a lawyer.”

Todd choked, not quite laughing. It was so true. Zormna looked, not like a fourteen-year-old girl having a hissy fit over a fashion issue, but a femanazi ready to sue.

The coach said, “Fine. Wear the shirt. But hear this. If you cause me any more grief, I will suspend you from this class.”

And he stomped away to the head of the waiting group. The man was so flustered that he ticked off the roll without even a word.

Everyone stared. Some of the girls watched Zormna with admiration for the first time. No one got the best of Coach Baker—until now.

But the event passed, and all the classes started their lessons. The wrestling team was practicing diving, mostly. Which meant they took turns and waited in line for each of the high, medium, and low dives. Zormna’s class had already divided into swimming levels. The beginners—and there were three—took instruction from Coach Harris who coached the swim team; while the others followed instruction from Coach Wilson in advanced swimming strokes to prep them for the coming Olympics. Zormna was watching enviously from the beginner’s group.

“Man…” Mark sighed again, “Even the wet tee shirt doesn’t reveal anything.”

Brian bopped him on the head. “Knock it off. Zormna does not like to be stared at like that.”

Whipping around, Mark glared. “Who made you the swimsuit police?”

Jonathan ducked out from between them, sliding up to Todd and Jeff. Alex was up on the ladder, climbing to the middle platform.

“Hey, what is the deal with the tee-shirt anyway?” Jonathan asked. “Is she prepping to be a nun?”

Jeff nodded. “That’s right. What is the big deal?”

And he broke from the line, Sauntering up to the pool where Zormna was up to her chest in water, floating with her tip-toes touching the bottom of the pool, Jeff had a sly look in his eyes and a smirk on his lips. “What’s the matter, Zormna? You think you’re gonna catch cold?”

The little blonde whipped around in the water. Her cheeks flushed upon recognition.

The other students around them snickered, especially the girls that had been so jealous of her. Coach Harris was currently preoccupied with a student getting over his terror of water.

“What are you afraid of?” Jeff walked along the pool edge toward her. “You’re all dressed up like a grandma.”

Zormna’s expression curled down into a sharp scowl. “At least I haven’t lost my morals. Look at you! Everyone can see everything!” 

Her voice echoed against the walls, heard by many. Including the coach this time.

And look at him, they all did.

Despite his healthy musculature, long pink burn marks and irregular scars streaked across Jeff’s back as if he had spent long hours in some medieval torture chamber. Along with those, evidences of old bruises and even broken ribs marred his flesh. And though the boys were used to seeing the damage on Jeff’s body from changing alongside him in the locker room, the girls stared, murmuring over his scars.

But Jeff barely gave pause to what she had said. And he quickly shrugged it off. Walking around the edge of the pool with spread-out arms, he flaunted his bare back and chest. “I have nothing to hide. I’m not ashamed of the way I look. My past is my past.”

Yet Zormna shuddered inside the water. She could hardly take her eyes off of the scars. The sides of her face got hot as though a rapid fever of guilt had settled on her. She shrank away from him, murmuring. “Is that so wise?”

Jeff tilted back his head.

Zormna pulled her arms close to her body, turning her back on him. She waded closer to her instructor. Her entire body was shivering. And her ears were still red.

“Get on your side of the room, Streigle!” Coach Baker snapped.

Pressing his mouth into a line, Jeff turned with a glance back at Zormna one last time. His eyes lost their usual mischief. The smirk of his lips had gone.

“What happened?” Brian, Todd, and the others asked when he returned to his place in line.

“Nothing.” Jeff shook it off.

Alex and Todd peered after her, sighing once again with dismay that Jeff had not succeeded in goading Zormna into taking off the