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

back of his head, hissing something under his breath. Yet, Jeff batted his brother away. Still grinning, his eyes had taken on an evil, rather vindictive glint. Yet Zormna stared at him as though he had said the stupidest thing she had ever heard. She was about to turn towards the restrooms again, but the cries from the boys around them gushed out—all of them gawping at her with an envious whimper. “Are you nuts? She’s a girl!” “You’re the state champ! What are you thinking?” “I know you want to grab a hold of that body, but you’re crazy!” “She’s half your size!” “What are you messing at? She’s just a chick!”

Zormna stiffened and turned back around. Her glare was mostly for them.

A grand leer of success spread from ear to ear on Jeff’s scarred face. He leaned back to welcome her into the pit.

All the wrestlers as well as those standing by goggled at him. And then they looked up at the glower that emanated from Zormna’s face towards them. Drawing in breaths, they retreated as she stomped their way.

Jennifer grabbed Zormna’s arm. “No! What are you doing? He’s the state champ for pity’s stake! He’ll….”

But staring back at her was the face of an Irish-ninja who growled, “Don’t grab my arm.”

Jennifer let go.

“Ha! Ha!” Jeff clapped his hands together, grinning wider as Zormna advanced.

His pals tugged on his shoulder, trying to pull him back. But Jeff waded through the mud to get into a good position. Alex dragged them off with a shake of his head, urgently whispering something. As Zormna advanced, he also backed off farther. Ted ‘Lead Weight’ Hamilton was the last to try to stop Jeff before Zormna arrived at the edge of the pit.

“Jeff, don’t do this. I know she looks tiny, but she’ll humiliate you. That girl packs a wallop like you can’t believe.”

Glancing once at him, Jeff patted Ted on the shoulder before shoving him off. “Relax. I’ve wrestled her before. I know what I’m doing.”

Jennifer about died when Zormna hopped into the muddy hole. It looked nothing like the long jump pit it had been before the sand was removed for the Olympics. The depressed hole in the ground was its own arena. Zormna gave Jeff one nod to say she was ready.

Jennifer ran to the edge of the pit. “Zormna, get out of there.”

But Zormna squished to a good place in the mud across from Jeff, squaring her shoulders. “I will be fine.”

As quickly as Zormna had climbed entirely into the muddy hole, a large crowd gathered around it. They shoved Jennifer aside. She could hardly see as every one of the wrestlers climbed out of the muck to the edges.

Alex called out to all of them that if they didn’t move out father they’d regret it.

Wisely, they climbed onto the grass.

Jennifer elbowed her way back in the first circle, squeezing next to Alex. He watched as anxiously as she did. And more people gathered to see what was going on. Perhaps all of Pennington High had been waiting for this face off. And what they saw sent shivers up their arms.

Both Jeff and Zormna stretched their muscles in a similar manner. Though, he looked like he could take down a mountain, whereas Zormna had that lithe impish build that could not be pinned down. Her eyes sparkled deviously, the same as Jeff’s. Another shiver ran down Jennifer’s back. It struck her again how considerably alike they truly were, despite how utterly opposite they were also. Like the pieces to a chess game.

 “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time, Zormna,” Jeff said.

Zormna narrowed her eyes. Her fiery hair rippled like waves from her face, the longer strands whipping along her chin. A devilish smile expanded on her full lips. Zormna hunkered down with a glare across the pit, entirely for him. Jeff’s indigo stare glared back at her under the dark mop of bangs that fell into his eyes. For a second, time stood still, from heartbeat to heartbeat.

The crowd held their breaths, watching. It was an insane bit of reality, but they really were going to do it, weren’t they?

Jeff lunged first. 

It was surreal. Jennifer expected Jeff to knock Zormna off her feet right away. But that never happened. Super Irish-ninja countered him, flipping with the right grip in the right spot on his body, bracing him as anyone on the wrestling team would have. They both skidded in the mud from the impact, struggling to keep their footing.

“Ohhh!” the crowd reacted.

But Jeff wasn’t state champ wrestler for nothing. He was the one with the strength, and everyone could see it. Regardless of the military training she claimed to have had, Zormna was still three years younger than Jeff was. And smaller. Zormna slid. She slipped, and Jeff got the upper hand.

He had her pinned against the side of the pit, and someone dared to count.

“One…t—”

Zormna wriggled out like an eel, slipping up and around him then pounced on his back, Irish-ninja style.

Watchers gasped, drawing back. Ted’s lips went white, shuddering as he watched. Though he had seen her maneuver out of a tight spot before, this was much different. Zormna did not have that cool expression on her face like she had in History class. Her eyes remained intense, lacking all amusement as she struggled with Jeff’s grip to throw her off.

More people joined the crowd. Among them, two of the spying federal agents slipped in, watching. The teachers from far off lifted their heads at the sight of the commotion. And the cheers—some for Zormna, many for Jeff—rose as all hungrily watched the state champ throw her off.

Zormna landed like a cat, spinning to spring again.

Darren ran over with his camera, elbowing his way through the expanding crowd. Even he had to crane his neck to see.

As Jeff grabbed for an expert pin, hardly chivalric in where he put his hands, Todd and the gang held their breaths. They occasionally burst out in exclamations, not knowing whom to cheer for at all. Most were sure Jeff would kill her.

Jennifer was not so sure.

Fact was, Zormna fought just as dirty as Jeff did, and hard. When he grabbed, she countered with a kick, a leg swipe, and another combination of techniques that were clearly not wrestling moves. She knocked him off his feet. She pounced, but he rolled up onto his feet with a hop. And the crowd swelled, pressing more densely around them so that Jennifer was afraid they might push her into the pit. Most of the wrestlers held them back, but they were beginning to be not enough. Soon, teachers came charging in, endeavoring to push through the edges with cries for them to stop fighting.

Then everyone drew in a breath.

Jeff had managed to put Zormna in a chokehold, forcing her towards the ground.

Yet she twisted and broke his grip (no one knew how she did it), slipping under his legs with a duck and a toss, pitching him onto his back. As Jeff stared skyward, she pounced. He rolled over. But the now muddy-headed blonde tackled him with weight. She shoved him forcibly into the earth.

Zormna secured one of his arms, leaned her knee on a point of his spine while pinning the other arm at a skewed angle underneath him, and braced his neck with her hand, applying pressure and pain that everyone could see on his face.

Jeff howled, wriggling his shoulders with what strength he had left. But he couldn’t move out from under her. At. All.

Everyone went silent.

All eyes upon the two, everyone just stared until someone in the crowd started the count.

“One…two…three…”

“I don’t believe it,” Todd murmured.

“Four…five…”

“No way,” Brian drew in a breath.

“Six…seven…eight…”

“Clear the way!” the vice principal called, pushing to get through.

Jennifer looked up, still blinking the shock out from her eyes. Super ninja indeed. Yet even she had never in a million years thought Zormna would really be that capable of taking down the state champ. Her eyes flickered to Darren’s smug face as he took another picture.

 “Nine…ten!”

Jeff emitted a groan.

Zormna glanced down at him, smiling pitilessly as Jeff slapped the muddy earth with the hand he had at last freed from under him, motioning that he had given up and wanted her off his back. Several of the girls around her groaned. But more gaped dimly.

Leaning down, Zormna whispered into his ear. “Number eight.”

Few heard her, Jeff’s friends included.

Jeff growled. He pounded the earth with his fist. Flushing even darker, he shoved off the ground.

Alex set a hand over his mouth—though Jennifer was not sure he was hiding a laugh or was just as awestruck as the rest.

Zormna stood up, and squared her shoulders. Half of her hair was plastered to her head with mud, but she looked so smug. And as she stepped away from Jeff, lifting her chin triumphantly, someone somewhere in the crowd took a photo.

Then more took pictures. Most likely they would be up on Twitter in the next minute. Jeff winced at the flashes, closing one eye and holding up his hand to block the light. He stood up, achy, wiping mud from out of his ear. He watched the blonde with an even darker glare than Zormna could come up with. In fact, his looks were lethal. So much that Todd and pals hopped into the mud, surrounding him to prevent a second fight.

Broke his nose indeed. Everyone believed his story now.

And Zormna hopped out of the pit without another thought to the wrestle, like it had been routine. She strolled through her schoolmates, straight to Jennifer and tugged on her arm to let Jennifer know she was ready to go back to the bathroom where they had originally intended.  

The crowd parted for them.

Jennifer was almost speechless. “I can’t believe you did that!”

Zormna chuckled. She was way too pleased with herself.

“Look at your hair!” Jennifer hissed low, tugging on one of the long muddy strands.

The crowd divided farther. The other side opened mostly for the teachers that shoved through. The teachers converged on Zormna and Jennifer immediately.

“Are you ok?” Mrs. Carr asked.

“Did he hurt you?” the vice principal cut in, casting scathing looks towards the muddy wrestler who was now wiping the sopping grime off his neck and out his other ear.

“What happened? Why were you fighting?” Mrs. Ryant asked.

“It wasn’t a fight,” Zormna retorted, waving them off and pushing away the groping hands that were searching for bruises. She shoved Jennifer ahead of her to lead them out of the crowd. “It was just a wrestle. A challenge which I accepted. This was a sports event after all. No one was hurt. Besides, he is the one who lost. You should be checking him over. Not me.”

Jeff lifted up his head, wringing the mud out of his bangs with a scathing look. “Yeah? Well, you were slower this time! Zormna, you’ve lost your edge!”

If everyone had been stunned before, they were entirely undone now. All the eyes of the teachers, the wrestlers, and Jeff’s friends popped wider onto him. Clearly he had lost his mind. Every person there saw Zormna destroy the state champ.

Yet Zormna stiffened.

All triumph fell from her face. Her smugness evaporated, first with a sullen glare just for him. Yet Zormna’s expression turned into grief. Pulling her shoulders in, she drew herself up, stuck out her chest, and stomped the rest of the way to the bathrooms.

Jennifer followed her. She glanced once back at Todd. Her brother lifted his hands in surrender. He was just as flabbergasted as she was.

The bathroom line had shrunk to three people. Zormna stormed directly into a stall where she stayed for several minutes. People came and went while Jennifer stood near the sinks, waiting for Zormna to come out. Jennifer nodded to Joy Henderson who peeked in once, whispering to know if Zormna was ok. Jennifer shrugged then pointed to the bathroom stall. Honestly, Jennifer was not sure if the girl was crying or sticking her