Apocalypse Before Finals - Julie Steimle (bts book recommendations .TXT) 📗

simpered at her with such mischievous glee. She didn't even see Jeff - or perhaps she was pretending not to see him. He had, after all, snubbed her for a freshman.

Cringing at Michelle's condescending voice, Zormna could only give her a pained smile.

"But where's your date?" Michelle continued on with a sneer.  "Where's your little green man? Surely Darren came as a Martian to match your perfect leprechaun."

Jeff stiffened. He peeked back at Zormna whose scowling eyes fixed on Michelle with unmasked disgust.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Zormna asked.

Michelle blinked her thick mascaraed lashes in disbelief, feigning sweetness. "Whatever do you mean?"

"She means," Jeff cut in with bite, "Bug off. Go away."

Michelle's mouth dropped open, her eyes now swooping on Jeff as if she finally saw him for the 'creep' he was.

Quickly, Bradley stepped forward, shoving his beefy chest into Jeff's face, or trying to. They were comparable in height, though Bradley was taller and broader in the shoulders. Besides, Jeff had a more frightening stare, and an even more terrifying reputation. They both knew Jeff would win if they got into a fight. But this was all for the show of it.

"Do you have a problem?" Jeff said, turning to Bradley.

The football player grunted, ignoring his instincts to back away. He stepped closer to Jeff. "Yeah. You were rude to my date, and I don't like that."

Zormna abruptly laughed. "She was being rude to me. Get it over it, Bradley. You two are such a cliché."

By this time Lisa and Darren both had stepped out of the bathroom. They took one look at each other and hastily excused themselves to find their dates. Both took three steps forward where they witnessed the confrontation before them. Lisa yipped, putting her hands over her mouth. Darren sighed wearily and shook his head.

"Don't talk to my date like that!" Michelle snapped back at Zormna, feeling well-protected next to the hulking football quarterback.

Zormna hopped off her stool. "Are you looking for a fight?" She marched straight up to Michelle.

The head cheerleader recoiled. The girl knew full well that Zormna was more than capable of beating up Bradley if she wanted. Michelle had seen Zormna use her martial arts on a number of occasions, once on Bradley last semester. Bradley backed off immediately. Both ducked away, Michelle pulling her date to the other side of the gym while making disparaging remarks about Jeff and Zormna - but not loud enough for either one of them to hear.

Jeff grumpily huffed.

Lisa rushed over to him, grabbing his arm while shooting fearful glances at Zormna. "What happened? What was going on?"

Gently shrugging it off, easing her fingers so they let go of his shirt, Jeff muttered, "Just a couple of jerks. It's nothing." He then tugged his date toward the dance floor. "Come on. I owe you a slow dance."

More than happy to go with him, his date peeked once at Zormna as they hurried away. Zormna looked like she would catch fire, her prey gone.

Darren strolled up cautiously. Peering at Zormna's heated, yet hardened expression, he could see the soldier in her had been drawn out. This part of her showed up less and less these days as Jeff had helped her to become less uptight, but this was the face Darren had known when he had first met her. He could tell Zormna had never quite recovered from what had been bothering her earlier that week. 

"Trouble?" he asked in a would-be-casual voice.

Zormna smiled weakly at him and nodded, her muscles easing. She dragged him to the photo line, telling him not to worry about it. "It's nothing really important. Just kids being idiots."

He nodded, trying to believe it. He thought it even funnier, Zormna calling people older than her 'kids'.

Agent Sicamore packed up his things to go back to Washington D.C. for his next seminar on the Martian military force. He took all his files, saying nothing to his secretary, Marc, about what he needed. He just said he wanted to look over everything once more. Since Agent Sicamore was often in the habit of going through the files, Marc pulled out every paper file and placed them on his table. Most of them contained envelopes that had been sealed and resealed, dated and signed, so that even Marc could not open them without it being noticed. He didn't even know the contents except for the titles on the front.

Normally Marc would have delivered the files without saying anything, a trait Sicamore liked, especially when he wanted to be alone to think. But this time Marc stopped at the door and turned around.

"Can I ask you a question?" the secretary said.

Agent Sicamore looked up, seeing Marc was still there. He straightened up and closed the file he was peering into. "What is it?"

The thirty-something man leaned against the doorjamb. "Do you think we are doing right, interfering with those kids like this?"

Sighing, Agent Sicamore thought about it for a moment.

"I don't know, Marc. I've thought about it, but I think the government is right. They're dangerous and we have to protect our country."

The secretary stared at the floor in silence. When he lifted his head, he said, "I know it's pretty scary - the idea that aliens have already penetrated our country, but I keep thinking something is wrong about our conclusion that these kids bad."

Agent Sicamore nodded with a small smile. "I call that the cute alien syndrome."

Marc coughed and shook his head. "How is it a syndrome when they are the first aliens we have met? ...At least as far as I know. I mean how can we diagnose anything if this is our only exposure to other intelligent life? I mean, legitimate, real life exposure. This is the first time we have ever reacted to it."

The head of the Mars Project still shook his head. "I see what you are saying, and I think you are right in many ways. But I need to think about my country. That is what matters to me right now."

"So it's shoot first and ask questions later then?" Marc said with clear disappointment.

Sicamore shook his head. "No. We've held our guns firm. It is now don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes."

The secretary visibly shuddered. "I'd hate to think of the war that would cause."

Agent Sicamore sighed and nodded. "Is that all, Marc?"

"That's all. Sorry to disturb you, sir." Marc retreated and closed the door behind him.

Sicamore opened his folder and started to inspect it again. He had been going over and over the Streigle family facts, and all those recorded contacts with the couple in Chicago, including those folk to whom they had sold their Missouri bed-and-breakfast. All of them were suspicious.

Outside the door, Marc withdrew from his desk near Agent Sicamore's door and went to the file room. Stepping in with the pretense to put things away, he sighed, shaking his head, and pulled out a small pay-as-you-go cell phone. It wasn't as nice as his iPhone, and had no apps. Just calling and texting. Punching on the dial tone button, he pressed the speed dial.

It rang once.

It rang again twice.

It rang a third time

"Hold on..." Jeff pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. It was buzzing, and he had only just felt it. He was sitting on a large mushroom at the time while his date sat beside him, straightening out her jeans and shirt then readjusting the daisy corsage on her wrist. She made sure her braids hung straight. The cameraman glared at him as Jeff held up one finger letting him know his call would take just a minute.

"Hello?" Jeff yelled over the music in the room.

<<It's M.>>

"I can't hear you," Jeff said, cupping the earpiece to his ear.

<<It's M.>> the voice said louder.

Jeff blanched. "Talk."

The voice on the other side spoke clearly, though not very loud, as if he feared to be over heard. <<Plan A has begun. And about the transfer station at the old b-and-b - they know the truth.>>

Jeff's cellphone almost slipped from his fingers.

<<Big Z?>>

He placed his receiver back to his mouth. "Gotcha. I'll call tonight."

"Who was that?" Lisa asked him, smiling.

Jeff shoved the phone back into his pocket and tried to regain his composure. "My aunt. She wants me to hurry home."

His date sighed sadly, sensing that this too-good-to-be-true date was indeed over. Jeff settled onto the huge mushroom and attempted a smile for the camera.

Sadie Hawkins ended late. Zormna had to stay for clean up, so Darren stayed too, promising Jeff that he'd call his mother for a ride so they would not have to walk home in the dark. Otherwise, Jeff would have insisted he and his date walk home with them. Darren could tell that Jeff was agitated by something, which Zormna had first noticed. He watched them whisper quietly together, not enough to be overheard by anyone, and then they hastily parted. As they had were doing this, Jeff's date got a brief jealous look on her face.

"Don't worry," Darren said to her. "They're like brother and sister."

Lisa shot him a disbelieving glance, raising her eyebrows.

Then Jeff left Zormna with a wave, going back to his date with a smile. "Ready to go home?"

"Only if you stop for ice cream on the way back," Lisa said.

Jeff laughed, nodding. "I promised. The Dairy Fairy, here we come."

 

Once the gym was cleaned up of the major garbage, Miss Bianchi bade the students to go home and rest. The custodians would take care of everything else. The moment Zormna heard this, she ran to tell Darren they could leave.

Unfortunately, Darren was unable to get his mother on the phone, and his father was on an overnight shift. That meant they had to walk home. As they started off toward their neighborhood on foot, Darren remembered that his mother was at a PTA meeting at the elementary school and would have her phone off during the meeting. So, intrepidly, they walked together. Or, that was how Darren saw it. Zormna just walked at her regular pace, not looking worried at all that they were undoubtedly being followed.

"Calm down," Zormna muttered to Darren the second time now. "You are safe with me around."

Blinking at her, he laughed.

He was walking with her to keep her safe. They both knew that. Of course, if they had been jumped, Zormna would have been the one most able to defend themselves. But Darren wasn't the target, and never would be. It was the FBI following them, and they were only interested in 'Martians'. However, they could not nab Zormna with Darren there. Besides being a witness, he was capable of making a lot of noise and drawing attention so that there would be a lot more witnesses.

After several minutes of kicking the sidewalk with his heels and lightly chatting with Zormna over whom she planned to vote for in the upcoming student body elections, he eventually brought up the online debate he had run across on Twitter. She had been smirking and listening while saying nothing of any significance the entire time. When they neared their houses, he finally asked, "Zormna, do you think your people would ever come and meet our president, you know, officially?"

Zormna lurched to a halt and stared at him. It had been ages since Darren had talked about Mars things. And he had promised both her and Jeff that he would find a new hobby. The constant presence of FBI had made her wary about anything she could say. She had thought Darren had understood that also.

"I really don't think this is a good time to talk about that," Zormna said with exasperation.

Darren looked around at the shining street lights and the barren streets. He shrugged. "What? They can't hear. They're far away."

Wanly, Zormna shook her head, knowing the FBI were never far away. "You'd be surprised what technology can do."

"Come on. No microphone can listen to us at that distance," Darren said.

Those listening at that distance held