Chapter 6

It took Arianna a while to get everything situated and cleaned but she was finally able to leave. The comfort of safety and warmth were left behind for blistering cold. She rounded the corner going to the student parking lot when a weird feeling began growing in the pit of her stomach. For a moment she contemplated turning around but chalked it up to it being so dark outside. Arriana had never felt so nervous and scared though. She was not expecting what happened next. Nobody could expect what happened.

Large, powerful arms grabbed her from behind holding her tight. She started to panic and didn't know what to do. It took her a few moments to get her senses in order and even out her breathing. She wracked her brain for everything the self-defense teacher had taught her. She tried to get her thoughts collected to focus on the person who had his arms wrapped around her slender body.

Okay Arianna, focus. Come on you can do it. Don't panic. Don't let him get his way. He must be about what, five foot eight, only two inches taller than I am. If I throw my weight to the right I can throw off his balance, move left leg behind his right leg and thrust the elbow back once he does begin to loosen his grip. What if he doesn't loosen his grip? No time for what if's Arianna. You need to do something now!

With her thoughts finally, in order, she threw her stance off and turned into dead weight. The man started to stumble trying to balance out the sudden shift and Arianna stood up making him lose balance even more and loosening his grip on her. She moved her leg behind his and swept it forward as she threw her elbow into his chest. The man fell backward and hit the pavement with a dull thud. Arianna turned to face the guy and kicked him in the gut before he could stand up. As he writhed on the ground, holding onto his stomach, she gave him an extra kick to the face knocking him unconscious.

She reached for her phone in her jeans pocket to call the cops. "Smithtown police, what is your emergency?" The dispatcher said.

She sounded like a middle-aged, fat woman who was bored with her job.
"This is Arianna James. I'm at Smithtown Senior High and I was just attacked." She said wearily.

"Are you ok ma'am?" The woman on the other end asked sounding a little more concerned.

"Yeah but he's not. You may want to send an ambulance for him."

"Miss, what do you mean?" The woman asked.

"Well, I kicked his ass. That's what I mean." Arianna told her getting annoyed that she was still talking instead of sending the police.
"Um, okay. The police are on their way. Would you like me to stay on the line with you?" The dispatcher asked.

"No, I'm fine. If he wakes up I'll just kick him again." Arianna said.

Hanging up the phone, she pulled a granola bar out of her backpack, sat on the curb and waited for the police to show up. Looking up and across the parking lot, she saw a man standing in the tree line. She put her snack down and stood up. He was standing there watching her, not moving.

How long has that guy been there? Why didn't I notice him before?

She started walking across the parking lot expecting the man to turn and leave but he never moved. He stood there just watching her. Before she could see his face, though, he turned and threaded into the woods.

Ah, there he goes.

"Hey! Hey you! Stop! Why are you watching me?" Arianna yelled at the man, getting more upset. She ran to the tree line and started yelling for him again. Nobody answered. She turned to the sound of the police sirens and saw a patrol car speed into the parking lot. Sighing heavily, she made her way towards the officers as they climbed out and rushed to the unconscious man on the ground. She turned and scanned the tree line once more, not knowing what she expected to see. She saw nothing. Of course, there was nobody there. Looking back at the officers Arianna noticed a rather plump looking man was on a radio. Probably calling for the ambulance she had told them to call in the first place. Once she was close enough, she got a good look at the man on the ground. He didn't look scary at all like she had imagined. He looked like every other ordinary guy out there. He did not strike her as a big, bad vicious rapist or murderer.

Who is he? Why would he attack me?

"Ma'am?" The officer standing to Arianna's right interrupted her thoughts.

"Hmm?" Arianna asked tearing her eyes off the unconscious man.

The officer was a good-looking man with short black hair and chocolate brown eyes. The other cop though needed to visit the gym. He was your stereotypical fat cop. His graying hair was a greasy mess, his pants looked to be a size or two too small for him and his shirt was stretched to the limit over his gut. The poor buttons looked as though they were about to pop off and the awful odor emanating from him was making Arianna gag as he drew nearer.

"Oh my god!" She choked out once he got too close.

"What's wrong miss?" The fat cop, whose nametag said P. Abernathy, asked rushing to her.

She put her hand over her mouth and nose, taking a few steps back, "No! Please, I'm fine, really. It's nothing. I just thought I saw something."

"Are you sure it's nothing? We can go check it out." He replied shining his flashlight behind him, thinking that was where she was looking.

"No, you really don't have to do that." She said taking another step back trying to escape the smell and find fresh air.

She wondered how his poor partner was able to stand being in that cramped patrol car with him.

"Ma'am?" The young cop asked her again.

"Yes, officer?" She looked back to the good-looking cop glancing at his name tag she saw it read T. Dodders

"We need to ask you a few questions now." T. Dodders calmly stated.

"Oh, yeah, of course."

"When did you notice the assailant?"

"I noticed him when he grabbed me. He must have been hiding in the shadows somewhere otherwise I would've run back into the school."

"And why are you here so late?" He asked narrowing his dark eyes at her.

Narrowing her eyes back at him, Arianna was beginning to feel more and more like a suspect than the victim.

I was the one who was attacked right? What was I supposed to do let the guy hurt me?

"I had swim practice. Since I'm the captain, I'm always the last one out." Arianna replied coldly.

"And everybody was already gone?" Dodders asked suspiciously.

"Everyone except for Coach Doare. He should still be in his office. We have a meet tomorrow and he always stays late to work on a plan."

"And he didn't hear anything?" He said with a disbelieving tone.

"How could he? His office is below ground level. The pool is on the other side of the building. There was no way he could hear anything up here."

Looking at her with suspicion in his eyes. "I think I'll have to go and talk to him myself."

"Okay. I'm not sure what he can tell you since he wasn't here." She responded coldly.

Ignoring the tone in Arianna's voice he continued, "Did you know the assailant?"

She felt confused. Hadn't he just asked her this?

"I just told you I've never seen him so how could I possibly know him? I never saw him come up on me and I have never seen him before tonight. Why are you treating me like I'm the bad guy?" Arianna shot at him.

He simply rolled his eyes ignoring her question, "Do you need medical attention?"

"No, but he does. Why are you ignoring my questions?"

"Yeah, we see this. You did all that damage on your own?" He glared at her.

"Well yeah. He attacked me, so I defended myself. I'm not in trouble, am I? Do you have an issue with self-defense?"

"No, of course not. It's just that we have never seen a woman do such damage when she was not armed. Are you armed? Did you take classes of some sort?" He continued asking.
"No, I am not armed and yes I've taken classes. I just tried to remember what my instructor taught me and fought back. I was not about to become a victim to some crazy rapist or murderer. And what are you implying about a woman not doing so much damage? You're not sexist, are you?"

She was getting increasingly agitated with every word she spoke.
"No, I am not a sexist. I have all the respect in the world for women," Dodders choked out, "Stick around. We still want you checked out once the EMS crew gets here."

"Yeah, sure." Arianna knew that the man was full of shit.

He's probably going to go home and beat his wife now.

"Jerk." She muttered under her breath.

"You'll get yours in due time." He muttered back.

Arianna heard him say something, she wasn't sure what but she shot an icy glare at him. She took a seat on the sidewalk and continued waiting. She saw the ambulance pull up, the crew jump out and saunter over to the still unconscious man.

Please don't hurry to help the injured man. Take your time. How about another doughnut?

She knew the man had attacked her, but it has been almost an hour since the cops showed up and the ambulance station is not that far from here. Maybe fifteen minutes away and she knew there was always a crew on call down the road at the fast food joint. She shook her head knowing they were probably inside drinking free coffee and hitting on the greasy, pimply jail bait who work there. She started to feel bad for the assailant and was completely disgusted with everyone she saw so far.

They're a bunch ofworthless dips.