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

looks—which, guiltily, gave Zormna hope. Joy Henderson was already there, her finger tracing under the list of names as she read them.

Then she spotted Zormna.

Joy raised her arms with an exultant shriek. “You made it! Zormna, you’re on the list!!”

Joy practically flew over to Zormna, bounding giddily across the lawn. Overwhelmed as Joy hugged her in spastic embrace, Zormna turned her puzzled gaze on Jennifer who frowned with a roll of her eyes that just said, “Duh, of course you made it. Act happy.”

 “I made it?” Admittedly, it was hard to equal Joy’s enthusiasm, but Zormna managed a laugh and decided to join her in hopping up and down. She even slapped on a giddy so-not-her grin. “Jennifer, I made it!”

Jennifer’s lips curled into a smirk.

Joy immediately dragged Zormna by the wrist back to the bulletin board. Zormna glanced back at Jennifer and mouthed, “You act happy.” They rushed through the cluster of kids until they reached the front again where Joy pointed out Zormna’s name. “See? There it is.”

A handful of football players were there, analyzing the list also, with comment like: “She’s cute” and “Who’s that? I hope she’s hot.” Zormna resisted the urge emasculate them right there. Instead, she peered up at the printed sheet, tracing the list of names with her finger. Her name was in the middle. She didn’t know if that a ranking or not, as she knew this was also a popularity contest. But she felt a sense of pride that she had landed solidly on the team. Joy’s was two lines above her.

Joy then left with a hop, waving to another friend before going to the cafeteria for breakfast.

“So?” Jennifer asked, squeezing next to her with a glance at the list also. “How’d you do?”

“Not bad,” Zormna murmured.

But then Jennifer got this funny look on her face, like she was enjoying a private joke. Jennifer whispered conspiratorially low, “You do know happens to you after this don’t you?”

All sorts of things ran through Zormna’s head as she wondered what she had missed that Jennifer was relishing. She said, “I get a uniform and go to cheer practice. It is all in the packet they gave us.”

Jennifer’s sly grin spread. She shook her head. “That is what they told you. But first they initiate you. And that’s not so fun.” Briskly Jennifer spun around to walk away.

“Initiate?” Zormna tried to think of all the possible meanings of that word. As far as she knew, it just meant to start something.

Yet smiling wider with so much pleasure, Jennifer continued on to the building without stopping, though she peeked back.

“What do you mean by initiate?” Zormna called after her, her heart beating with discomfort. “What does that mean?”

Jennifer cackled with a glance over her shoulder. “You’ll see.” And she practically danced to the main building.

Zormna frowned. It had to be one of those slang meanings again. And unfortunately Jennifer took too much enjoyment in her ignorance.

Others came and went, reading the list and leaving. It was getting close to the first hour bell.

“Wow, I never would have thought it. But you are becoming so native.”

Looking to the left of the bulletin board, Zormna found ‘Jeff’ leaning against it. As always, he was wearing his black leather jacket from Home, his dark hair flopping down into those fathomless eyes. They were fixed on her with probing intensity. None of his other friends were around.

Zormna’s glare narrowed at him. “I thought I told you to stay away from me.” But her voice was so low, masking how shaky her limbs and throat became with him so near. Her palms went clammy.

He angled his head, his eyes trailing to her right shoulder.

Shuddering, Zormna jerked her hand in that direction to cover it—but stopped herself. She took a step back.

“Hey, Jeff!” Todd stuck himself in between them, looking from one to the other protectively. “Are you harassing my Prom date?”

“Prom date?” Jeff blinked at him then shook his head as if the very idea was insane.

Todd nodded. “Yep. I asked her yesterday.”

Jeff peeked to Zormna. “How did your parents react that?”

Zormna stiffened then immediately marched away. But she could still hear them as she left.

“They were completely against it.” Though Todd sounded annoyed with Jeff. “Why are you still making her nervous?”

“It’s not on purpose.”

Todd cynically laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“It’s not.” But then Jeff said, “So she’s really planning on staying ‘til next year?”

“What choice does she have? She moved here,” Todd said.

The fact that she kept hearing them indicated the boys were walking together into the building also, not far behind her. The conversation would have continued, but the first bell rang and all three scattered to class.

*

The sky around her was a familiar grade between pink and darker blue. Wind blew Zormna’s hair away from her face—and she breathed deeply. It had to be a dream, of course. Because breathing the air on the surface was impossible. Sand whirled around her as the vehicle she was riding soared through a sandstorm. It was also warm, though it wouldn’t have been. But she had always felt like the surface should have been warm. Just like she should have been able to see the sun with her own eyes and not through a face mask.

Then she heard thumping. Like heavy things dropped on wood, which didn’t fit the setting at all.

Then came giggles.

The brightness evaporated from around her so that everything was dark. Her mind was still in sleep mode, but years of training screamed at her that something untoward was afoot. It did not entirely register because she was still dreaming of flying, the wind in her face and adrenalin rushing through her.

But then more giggling burst through what ought to have been the sound of sand and silence—and the dream was gone.

“Zormna, get up,” someone said. “We’re kidnapping you.”

Rolling onto her back, Zormna blinked her eyes open and stared up at the dark ceiling. Kidnapping?

The word floated into her thoughts, snapping onto a frightful mental image of men with guns, a table with straps, and a hot lamp.

She sprang up from her mattress and yanked on the light cord above the bed. As her blankets dropped, the light swung a few inches from her head, casting a glare on the furniture and all the other bodies in the room. The sharp light forced Zormna to squint. Clenching her fists, she braced her feet on the mattress to fight…

…a squad of girls?

Pink. It was mostly the abundance of pink and baby blue that had Zormna’s head reeling. She blinked her eyes hard, twice, to gain focus on the surprised young feminine faces that stared back at her. Most of them were in pajamas, makeup-less, with hair askew. The rest were in varsity cheer uniforms.

“Don’t do that!” She dropped her guard immediately. Zormna hopped off the bed with an exasperated huff. “You scared me to death!”

Michelle Clay, a second year varsity cheerleader with big hair, laughed and sauntered around the end of the bed towards Zormna. “Heavens, what dream were you having? —Don’t tell me. You were fighting some ninjas with four big green turtles.”

More giggles. But most of the girls gave Michelle complimentary laughs, as if it were on demand.

Annoyed, Zormna was about to answer. “No, it was—” But then she stopped and stared more at the girls surrounding her. “What are you doing in my bedroom? It is night time for pity’s sake!”

“Morning, actually,” Jennifer’s voice came from somewhere near the doorway. Zormna could not quite see her for the crowd in the room.

“Whatever!” Zormna tossed up her hands. “What are you—?” Then Zormna spotted Joy who was makeup-less and in pajamas also. She went to her. “What is going on?”

Snickering, Joy said while rubbing her bed-head, “We’re kidnapping you.”

That word again. Zormna flinched.

Searching through all the heads for Jennifer’s to get a better explanation, Zormna finally found her standing in the doorway, still in her pajamas, enjoying herself way too much. Jennifer’s arms were folded across her chest with that glimmer of mischievous pleasure in her eyes. She smirked with a shrug, pretending she did not know a thing about what was going on. Then Jennifer turned, pushing the door open wider to clear a path.

Returning her gaze on all the other girls, Zormna’s eyes rested on Joy whom she could at least trust. “What for?”

All the girls cackled, enjoying Zormna’s confusion.

“Cheerleader initiation silly,” replied one of the old junior varsity cheerleaders—a brown-haired girl named Jennifer McCabe. The girl giggled, then promptly hooked arm in the crook of Zormna’s elbow with a forceful tug. With Joy, she dragged Zormna straight to the door.

The others openly pounced on her with mutual gusto.

“Wait! I am not dressed to leave the house!” Zormna protested. Her voice shifting higher towards hysteria. It was all she could do against those girls without harming any of them. They weren’t the FBI after all. Just a bunch of silly kids.

The McLenna parents peeked out of their room at the procession then pulled their heads back in with amusement as the girls waved while passing by.

Todd just stared, blinking blearily at them.

By the time the cheerleaders-to-be had hauled Zormna to the front door, she pushed hard enough to break loose without hurting them.

“I can’t go to school in a night gown!” She staggered before the open doorway.

“We are,” another initiate said, shoving Zormna from behind.

They all toppled outside together and down the front steps.

Tripping to keep on her feet, Zormna glanced at the girl’s tank top and shorts. She shuddered. “I don’t care! I will not do it!”

“You will if you want to be a cheerleader,” Michelle Clay declared with the inclination to abandon Zormna there if she protested further.

A shudder went through Zormna. Did she really want this?

Her eyes turned to the regular FBI car in front of their house where the watching agents were thoroughly entertained by the scene. It was so ridiculous. So childish. And yet, it was necessary. With one look at the new head cheerleader, Zormna knew she had to put up with it.

They pulled her across the damp lawn to the road.

Zormna searched out for Jennifer McLenna again, hoping at least to get shoes. But Jennifer merely grinned with a shrug from the open front door. Then she waved, her grin turning at the corners with absolute pleasure. “Goodbye, Zormna. Have fun!”

Zormna shot her a dry look.

And the cheerleaders heaved her away into the van on the curb. They cheered as they slid the door closed, calling for the driver to take them onto their next victim.

Squashed between Joy and Jennifer McCabe in the sardine-can space, the van rocked with the girls giggling and gossiping. It was new sensation, especially since they had accepted her among them. Never, in all her life, had she ever been one of the girls before. And at this point, Zormna only hoped rather than believed this would be a good thing.

*

Everyone at Pennington High came to watch the newly rounded up cheerleaders as they stood at attention on the redtop. After all, the cheerleaders had dished out snottiness and attitude all the other days of the year. This week they would take it.

The new girls waited in rows in their pajamas giving honor to the departing seniors. Then the seniors divvied up the new girls among themselves to serve as their slave for the week. As they did this, the current head cheerleader marched in front of them with a pink ‘riding crop’ and drilled them on their daily assignments as grunts.

Grunts indeed. Zormna knew the difference. It was a cutesy way to pretend to be military. These were kids just playing around.

“You! Clendar!” The head cheerleader pointed her riding crop at Zormna.

Zormna straightened up automatically.

“You’re master is Michelle Clay, next year’s team captain.”

Joy peeked at her, raising her eyebrows as the other girls went, “Ooooo!”

Zormna glanced over at Michelle who stood on the other side of the red painted asphalt. Michelle grinned with satisfaction, relishing in all the torture she