Taken

Chapter 4- The Arena

Julie Stevens's eyes fluttered open. She was weighed down by a wave of drowsiness flooding her whole body. She was disoriented and her vision was blurry. All she could make out was the arrangement of the sleeping bodies on the hard, cement floor. They were laid out all in a line across the empty room. She began to look around nervously. Julie struggled to recall what had led her to here.

She searched frantically through all the memories in her head, the good and the bad. Her brain was like a cluttered office, papers stacked unorganized on a desk and she had to sift through and find the right one about the events that led her to here. She picked up a page from the cluttered desk and began to read it. It was not the right one, but she kept reading and remembering because it reminded her that she still existed in this place. 

It was midday on the playground at Jefferson Elementary School. There were a circle of kids out on the field away from the playground. The supervisors hadn't noticed the circle yet, but Julie did. She hurried over quickly to the circle where chants were starting up.

"Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy!" Julie knew what was going on. It was a fight between Tommy Mullins and her crush, Jeremy Randle. Jeremy was a weaker kid, very shy, so no one bet on him. Julie did. For some strange reason, she had always been attracted to him. He was like her in many ways.

For one, Jeremy was not shy. He just didn't have anything important to say or contribute to the world. Nether did Julie. Julie was never loud and didn't talk much to anyone. She was was this way because of her family life. Her parents both had stable jobs, but her 3 brothers would always beat on her. They would pull her hair and call her names like slut and whore. Kicking her and punching her were included in this harassment. She never understood why they beat her up. Julie never liked to talk about it and was always quiet from then on. Her parents did everything they could to stop the sibling rivalry, but it wasn't enough.

All of her abuse from her much older brothers toughened Julie up. She soon came to face her fears of her brothers beating her up and she soon fought back. She didn't put up with the harassment. She would try to fight back, but would always lose. This is why Julie didn't like bullying because it reminded her of her home life. However, Julie never stepped in to help someone up until that day Tommy nad Jeremy decided to fight. She was afraid that she would have a new enemy in her life. She wasn't afraid that she would be beaten up if she stepped in to help someone, she was afraid because she didn't want any more enemies, beside her brothers, that she would have to worry about. All these morals were thrown out the window when she knocked Tommy Mullins unconscious.

She continued to watch the fight and it got brutal. Blood was dripping from each of the boy's noses. Tommy had Jeremy on the ground ready to deliver the final blow when Julie pushed through the swarm of people. She was tired of watching people get bullied, especially Jeremy Randle. Tommy was surprised to see her. Julie grabbed his hair and delivered a powerful headbutt which sent him flailing to the ground. She climbed on top of him, adrenaline pumping through her veins which gave her more power than ever before. She then delivered punch after punch across Tommy's face. Everyone watched in horror as Julie beat him up.

Jeremy slowly got up and backed away from the bloody scene. Blood was spewing out of the corners of Tommy's mouth with every punch. Julie had never done this before and everyone was horrified to see it. Julie had always been known as the quiet one but now, everything had changed. When she delivered the final blow, Tommy stopped moving. Julie slowly got up. Everyone stared in awe of what she had done. Blood was smeared on her fists and she had anger flowing through her whole body.

"Leave now!" Julie yelled at the crowd. The crowd of people slowly backed away and ran but the supervisors soon replaced the crowd's spot. Julie was never the same after that day. She was still quiet, but she wasn't afraid to kick someone's ass if they needed it. She no longer cared if she had any friends, she just wanted enemies so she could fix the wrongs of the world. After the fight, she was sent home and her parents scolded her. Her brothers taunted her but she felt no need to beat them up. They would get their asses kicked soon enough.