The Holy Accused

Ruth Valerian was the first girl out of the gross high school locker room to come to gym class, not that she didn’t mean to do that every day, I assure you that was on purpose. What wasn’t Ruth’s intention was being chosen as the quarterback for the tackle football game against the boy’s class. That was pure bad luck.

“Do I have to?” Ruth begged of the coach, almost pathetically. She wasn’t particularly fond of football or any other sport with a ball. Any other day she would jump out of the smelly locker room eager to start the class with a yoga video or lifting weights but there didnt seem to be a point to the madness of sports and frankly she was afraid of the ball. It was like it had a mind of its own. One second, someone is holding it, the next it was bruising her face with the speed of a bullet. Her classmates never aimed for anyone but her.

“Yes you do” the coach said apathetically, All he ever saw from some of the girls in his class was half effort so this time he switched around places to give some of the less fervent girls the lead roles and Ruth was at the top of that list.

“You better not mess this up,” said Hanna running just for a second to her side and punching Ruth in the shoulder extremely hard. She gave her a threatening look as she jogged away. All the girls stretched and ran laps around the gym then jogged outside to the football field to meet the boys.

Ruth stayed away from Hanna and pretty much everyone else as much as she could but she searched the crowd of girls for a more gentle person who might be able to explain the rules of football. Her knowledge of the game was limited to what the ball looked like and the fact that people tackled the quarterback. Coming closer to the field and getting more desperate she tried to find somebody she could ask, anybody, but all the girls ran away when she walked toward them.

It was no secret that there had been a forwarding text message sent to all the girls at the beginning of the year to stay away from Ruth so she would leave the school. This was one of the most impossible goals they could have. She would never leave this school. In fact she wouldn’t even be able to leave if the teachers themselves refused to speak to Ruth. Everybody knew this but it didnt change how they treated her.

Standing opposite the boys on the white line of the football field, her pidgeon feet hidden in the tall grass, she looked at the boy standing in front of her and asked loud enough for him to hear her,“how do you play this game?” For a moment he stared at her taken aback until someone shouted “Hut” and before she knew it the football was in her hands. The boy who she asked how to play charged toward her, so logically she threw the ball to the ground and ran to the side, away from him with her eyes shut. She didn’t want some random stranger to stampede her to the ground, he could have the dumb ball. The coach caught her and turned her around to where she was standing before

“Get in the game Ruth!!! He shouted into her face jogging back to the sidelines to watch.

“Just so you know, I’m not afraid to tackle a girl, even an ugly one.” said the boy standing across from Ruth

“So the point is to tackle me?”

“Well that’s my goal but your job is to keep the ball ,” he said mockingly

“That’s all?” Ruth asked literally, hoping for more advice.

“Of course not, you have to take it to the…” he didn’t get to finish when the game began with an interrupting voice.

“Hut!” someone shouted interrupting him and starting the game. This time Ruth was ready to catch the ball and when she had it in her hands she ran in every which direction trying to take it where it needed to go. None of the guys caught up with her but she didn’t know where to go anyway. She stopped in place so the boy could tell her where she needed to go. The boy she needed to talk to caught up and jumped on her back trying his hardest to push her to the ground.

“Oh my gosh, how much do you weigh!!!” he shouted, pushing all his body weight over her trying to get her to the ground. Ruth wasn't overweight but she had a whole lot of muscle hidden underneath her baggy clothes. Plus she had her fingers secretly pressed into a pressure point on the boy's arm so a good amount of his effort was going to waste.

“which way did you say I go?” she asked

“just throw the ball!” he shouted. She tossed it in the air in whichever direction and one of the boys caught it.

“Nice one” the boys said.

“We could sure use you on the opposing team” said the jocks on the school football team.

After a dozen more plays just like that, without any hint from anybody what she was supposed to be doing, Ruth realized how late it was getting and needed an excuse to leave early. She left the game after a play and stopped the game for a minute to talk to the coach.

“I feel sick” she said. The coach looked at her skeptically.

“You look fine, I don’t think…” he started to say until Ruth threw up right in front of him, just beside his shoes and he jumped back. “You better go to the nurse... now... hurry up.”

Ally, her maid, taught her to throw up on command particularly to get out of work and in class. It only works because she always eats so much anyway but she tried to use it only when it was completely neccessary or if someone happened to be being extremely annoying.

She went straight to the nurses office and told her she threw up in gym class. The nurse took her temperature and checked for any illness but when she couldn’t find anything wrong with her she told her to go back to class.

“I’m not feeling so good again, I think I’m gonna…” Ruth threw up again right on the nurses shoes.

“Oh, my goodness, okay, umm why don’t we call your guardian so they can pick you up,” she said and handed me the phone so I could make the call.

After entering the phone number and calling it, Ruth lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello…Could you pick me up from school…Its on the street next to the gas station, Imagine School… you know where it is, I show you it every time…”

“Your guardian doesn’t know where the school is?” the nurse asked suspiciously.

“It’s been awhile since he’s come here, usually its uhh my mom that comes but she can’t make it.” By mom she meant Ally and by he she meant Rivers. Her mom was always away on business and her dad never heard of Imagine school.

Before she hung up the class bell rang for everyone to go to 4th period. “See you soon,” she said to Rivers over the phone and put the phone down.

The boy from the football game and his friend came into the nurses office with Ruth’s backpack and a packet of homework from all her other classes.

“Thanks” she said.

“The girls didn’t want to bring your backpack so they gave it to us from the locker room, we didn’t go in the girls locker room just in case you were thinking…” he said.

“Okay then” Ruth laughed.

“You definitely don’t look sick” said the boy’s friend. Ruth did a little fake cough and pulled her backpack over her shoulder.

“Well I feel sick so…” she began and just then Rivers walked in behind them and smiled weakly at the nurse.

“Are you here for Ruth?” the nurse asked looking up at Rivers who was about 7 feet tall and very muscular. His shirt had the sleeves ripped off and he had on a dirty pair of black shorts. Exactly the same thing Ruth was wearing only her shirt was blue and his was brown.

“Yeah” he said in his surprisingly high voice. He signed the paper to sign Ruth out in her father’s name and then looked down at the two boys who were also staring up at him.

“You two must be Ruth’s friends, nice to meet you,” he said holding his hand out to shake to both of them, Ruth chuckled to herself.

“I’m Tom” said the kid who was making fun of her during football.

“I’m Jerry” said Tom’s friend. Rivers laughed and didn’t try to hide it. He started walking out and Ruth followed him out the door.

“Well bye Tom and Jerry, hope to see you again. Maybe you could visit Ruth sometime…” River started saying at the door but as soon as he was a step out of the door walkway and out of sight, Ruth tackled him to the cement and hit him teasingly.

“You’re an idiot, those two are jerks. Why would you invite them over to my house?” Ruth said in an inside voice.

“How rude, did you ever think that maybe I wanted to invite them over to my house, for some ice cream and a cartoon” he said and Ruth laughed and let him up off the ground.
"The icecream your thinking of is 'Ben and Jerry's" Ruth said as she laughed. "But we were a cat and a mouse, I would totally be Jerry."
"I don't think so, I could kill you off with a drop of cat poison in your tuna anyday, if I wanted to..I just let you win," Rivers said.
“Sure whatever, you’re hardly strong enough to be Tom, even he comes close to winning some of the battles.”
“What are you talking about? Remember how I beat you last Monday,” Rivers said proudly.
“That’s because it was an early morning match and I had to leave for school. You only won by default,” Ruth said, chuckling at Rivers who was so proud of himself.
Ruth and Rivers worked at an arena where they fought in matches for a large amount of money per fight, depending on how long it lasted. Among all the other competitors Ruth was the best and Rivers second best. Nobody could beat them so they stayed at the top of their game and after a few years fighting, Rivers and all of their other fellow fighters decided to stay permanently in that arena and fight the people that visited instead of traveling. In the entire world, the NY arena was the best of the best and people came from everywhere to challenge them. Bets were placed and prizes and awards were given to winners. Tourists liked to come to the stands and watch the games from the sidelines but the age limit to watch was 17 years old and most of the fighters were at least in their late 20s.
Ruth was the only exception to the age rule because her father was the one who built the first arena up from its bricks and started the whole ring of arenas. He trained her from the day he adopted her to be a fighter and took up all her time and energy training so she didn’t really have any time for friends or school. This year was her first time going to a public school, she'd been homeschooled her whole life.
The only friend Ruth had when she was little was Caleb. He lived across the street from her and they played with each other every week but she was always tired from training when she visited him. So the day of Caleb's sixth birthday party he became furious with Ruth for falling asleep as soon as she came. He warned her that he wouldn’t be her friend anymore if she didn’t stop training so hard. They started yelling at each other but Ruth had the upper hand. She called him every nasty name she had ever heard shouted at the games and his face blew up in fury. Sitting on the green couch that Ruth used to fall asleep on for hours, Caleb tried to hit Ruth in the face but failed miserably when Ruth caught his wrist and flipped him head first over the couch onto the ground, breaking 3 of his bones. His family made a restraining order against her not long after.

So that’s why Ruth and her parents moved far from the suburbs to a large house a mile away from the arena. She felt more at ease in her new home where there were no neighbors surrounding her to avoid when she trained outside with her father. That was also when they hired Ally and added a skylight and an indoor pool to the house. Although Ruth was still forlorn in the house because of how empty it usually was with her and Ally being the only ones home. But more than anything, Ruth was glad to be rid of Caleb.
Quickly they got into River's rusty brown truck and drove 20 minutes to the arena to start practice for the game. Early bird fans were already lined up in a cluttered line that was anything but straight and as soon as they got out of the truck they could see in the midst of the crowd, fighters wearing the same uniform as Ruth and Rivers, signing autographs and showing off for the fans.
Ruth ran up to Harold, one of the older fighters who was in his thirties, flexing his muscles for a group of girls. "I'm like a modern day gladiator" he said to them as they touched his arm muscles in awe.
"Come on Harold you need to take your meds or you know what'll happen" Ruth said pulling him by the neckline of his shirt, almost choking him. He blushed and took his shirt off to get away from Ruth, knowing her grip was too tight to loosen. The fans forgot what Ruth said as they grabbed his shirt and fought over it.
"Teenagers" he said to the fan girls rolling his eyes at Ruth before following her toward the back doors of the arena. Only she stopped and turned around as she heard her nickname being called.
"Look it’s Ruthless!!! Ruthless can I have your autograph!!!" A loud voice shouted from the crowd. She left Harold and came closer to the line, Harold and Rivers followed behind her.
"Please! Don’t call me that!!!" she shouted. She couldn’t stand that dumb nickname. Ruth meant loyalty and that was what it was supposed to mean, not merciless. The way she fought was anything but ruthless; it was more sympathetic and maybe even refrained from doing anything harsh."Call me Ruth and yes I'll give you an autograph." The man who asked for the autograph came out with notebook paper and a pen.
"It’s for my daughter, she loves you. Write 'for my number one fan, Sarah... Love Ruthless." Upon hearing that Ruth dropped the pen and just about jumped on the man reciting the book of Ruth but Rivers and several other fighters twice the size of her picked her up by her hands and feet and dragged her into the arena, with her still reciting the Bible verses she memorized.
"Please let me down!" she yelled politely, holding in how annoyed she was. They set her down on the floor and she stayed there, looking up at Rivers she asked, "Can you believe that guy?"
"You think that’s bad?" he responded."You have it easy; I remember when a group of fans started a charity organization to prevent pollution in Rivers. They collected 1,000 dollars in donations and put it all towards stalking me with tracking devices and everything. Who cares if a few fans made up some little nickname for you, I think it’s cute," he said, helping Ruth off the floor.
"I guess your right but now that you mention it, I recall giving a week’s allowance to that charity."
"How generous of you to support the cause," said Rivers, sarcastically.
"I’m a common saint, and speaking of saints, I finally found a church that has services earlier that 2 am every day of the week, you have no excuses now." Ruth told Rivers, excited to be able to bring him to church. He never went to one before and she had begged him several times to attend but he found his excuses.
"I think the game is about to start, we're late again, Ruth. I don’t want to miss Rogers’ fight, I bet my whole paycheck on him," he said avoiding the topic and running through the archway to the competitor's box where the fighters sat. She heard the faint voice of her father announcing Roger matched against Jacob. With the little time she had left, Ruth went through the door to the weight room, sat on the bench and said a prayer for Rivers and everyone else.
When she opened her eyes she saw an older man who was new to the arena sitting on the weight bench in front of her, lifting a 100 pound barbell in each of his hands. He was looking straight into her eyes with the most savage look showing that he cared irrevocably about winning. She stood up to come closer to him and he stood up in front of her, towering 4 feet above her head.
"I’m Ruth" she said giving him a smile and holding out her hand to shake.
“Jesse” he said in the deepest voice she had ever heard. He didn’t smile back.
"So are you new to the arena?" she asked him, curiously. She knew she hadn't seen all the fighters there and didn't want to assume anything.
"To this one, yes, but I’ve been fighting for a very long time" he said, proudly.
"Me too" she said matter of factly with a kind smile. He laughed as if he didn’t believe her.
"Isn't the age limit just to watch at least 17? How old are you? Maybe 14?" he asked, laughing at her.
"Actually I'm 15," she said matter of factly.

"Right, well you'd better get back to your mommy and daddy, I think theres an entrance to the stands through there."Just then her dad anounced Ruth going up against Jacob and got into announcing all of Jacob's achievements so Ruth had time to come back.

"Thats my dad now, I guess its my turn" she said and started towards the arena.

"Well then Ill have to take it easy on you" he saida and Ruth laughed.

"Oh please don't" she joked but he still didnt laugh.

As Ruth walked center stage on the sandy stadium where they fought. her dad announced her name again and the entire crowd shouted her nickname so loud God could hear how terrible it was from Heaven. She stopped and gave the crowd a cold stare until someone stood up and shouted "Ruth!!!!!" Then she smiled at him and skipped to the middle where Jacob was standing already. Jacob gave her a smile for good luck and she returned the gesture.

The air horn blew that signaled the beginning of the fight and Jacob was the first to shoot up from his position and throw his arms over her, pushing them both to the floor. Jacob was 300 pounds of pure muscle so he usually chose to wrestle his opponents to the ground and beat them up when they were at their weakest. There were very little rules for the matches so every fighter had their own unique way of fighting but they all had at least one thing in common, none of them could beat Ruth when she tried.

Jacob spent a couple minutes making an effort to pin Ruth to the ground but he could barely catch her arms or legs the way she was dodging him. The crowd cheered Ruth on and booed Jacob until he finally had her wrists held in his hands and her legs pinned down to the ground. Meanwhile Ruth had an idea, she twisted her legs around Jacobs and did a somersault with Jacob so that in the end she was on top of him. They did a couple dozen more somersaults until they both got dizzy and Jacob threw up in the sand. Not only could she throw up at will but she hardly ever did it any other time than when she wanted to and vommiting was one way to lose a fight. Ruth was declared the winner and Jacob gave her a pat on the back as he left the stadium and went back to his seat.

Her father announced Rivers was next against Ruth and he ran onto the stage, eager to start the match. When they started, Rivers bolted at Ruth and she ran away, going the same speed only a foot ahead of him. They had to make it look real, so instead of faking punches and pretending they were trying to hurt eachother, they used this time to show off new skills they'd discovered. Rivers chased Ruth to the only corner in the room and she proceeded to run up the wall, pushing off of one corner to the next then doing a backflip and landing behind Rivers and running away again. He caught up to her and squeezed her shoulder where he recently learned there was a pressure point, causing Ruth to stop so Rivers could tackle her to the ground and tickle her neck and armpits. Ruth got away from the tickle monster by spitting in his face, then wrapped him up in a big hug and used the pressure point on his back to put him to sleep. Her dad anounced on the speaker she won the match and gave her time to carry him into the competitors box before announcing the next fight.

Jesse was up against her next. He jumped onto the stage waving a fist in the air and encouraging the crowd to cheer for him even though they didnt know his name. The crowd made the loudest noise they could make because of his good looks. He came to the middle and stood behind the imaginary line, slightly craning his neck over it to stare Ruth in the eyes with a barbarian look, trying to intimidate her and at the same time coaxing her to make the first move.

When the air horn blew, telling them to start, neither of them made a move. Jesse seemed to be pondering how hard was acceptable to hit a teenager and Ruth couldnt help but laugh at the thoughtful look of her opponent when they were supposed to have started already. She could feel the glaring eyes of her dad burning the back of her head, warning her she better start the fight soon. It was one of her philosophies not to make the first move until she had a clue what her opponent's attack would be. In fear of her dad being angry at her, she leaped to the right and Jesse jumped out of his daydream and punched the thin air in front of him. Since she knew his attack now Ruth made the first move and kicked Jesse's feet away from him on the ground. He fell to his knees and looked toward her with a sharp jerk of his head. The crowd cheered, going from complete silence to a loud mass of screams cheering on Ruth. After a moment of no movement, Ruth came closer to Jesse but he grabbed her by the arm and flipped her over his head to the ground. She landed on two feet, bent down as low as Jesse but quickly got back up and grabbed Jesse's arm, doing the same thing to him as he did to her.

He landed on his butt, his hand free from Ruth's. "Oh your gonna get it now" he said angry that he was hurt more than her.

Ruth ran a few feet away from him and jumped from one foot to another. Her father told her never to speak to her opponent during a fight becuase it distracts you so she could'nt respond but if she could she would have told him not to talk during a fight because he could use all the concentration he could get.

Jessse got up and ran as fast as he could toward Ruth and got ready to ram into her and knock her to the ground. Not about to get tackled by a stranger again, she waited until he got just in her reach then jumped just about a foot above his head and caught on to his back, like she often did with Rivers when she needed to see over someone's head in a concert or reach the ceiling to fix a lightbulb. Jesse jumped up and slammed down on his back, planning to squash her like a bug but Ruth jumped off his back before he could stop himsellf and he landed flat on his back with all his weight.

Seeing him laying in pain, Ruth mouthed the word "surrender" hoping he would stop there and not have to get hurt anymore but he shook his head and climbed up onto his feet again. He shot his fist at Ruth so many times if he would have hit her straight on it would have given her a concussion by the first punch.

For half an hour Jesse continued to attack Ruth in every way he could think. He punched at her with all he had but she dodged every one. Then he tried kicking, scratching, wrestling, flipping, and everything else that came to mind and when he stopped attacking her, she didnt make a move, except to urge him on by moving closer. Jesse was enraged and stopped thinking about what he was doing. Instead he put all the energy and strength he could possibly gather up and pushed it all toward Ruth. As for Ruth, she could feel her dad getting angrier and more impatient with her by the second, in fact he was like a volcano about to erupt from where he sat watching her. He even went on the loud speaker with the most furious voice, demanding she did something by shouting "Ruth!!"

Breaking her dad's training advice she spoke to Jesse, although it was a long shot that he would be able to hear her, saying "take it easy on me." She closed her eyes, breaking her concentration, and didnt move or attempt to dodge anything Jessse threw. Immediately Jesse angrily punched her in the face, giving her a black eye. Then he grabbed her wrist and lifted her body up into the air by her arm and threw her to the ground like a sack of potatoes, twisting her arm in his hand when he didnt bother to let go.

Expecting her to get back up and fight, he kept holding on to Ruths wrist and slammed his body down on her until her dad went on the speaker and declared Jesse the winner. He smiled for the first time in a while and strode back to his seat to take a drink from his waterbottle, leaving Ruth on the ground. As he sat down in his seat for a moment he saw Ruth still laying face down in the sand, a small pile of blood forming beside her. It was a scene he'd seen many times and he hardly gave it another thought until someone spoke beside him

"Man you just killed a teenager" he said and Jesse shot up out of his seat, spitting his water out and holding on to the glass separating him from the arena. He forgot how young she really was, Jesse had never layed a finger on a teenager, let alone beat one up with all the strength he had. What if he went to far? What if she didnt make it?

The announcer of the games ran out to the middle of the arena and bent down in the sand, wearing a suit and tie. He lifted his daughter up and called for the doctor who was always standing by and carried her out of the arena, crying. As he passed by where Jesse sat, he shot him the dirtiest look ever, which added to Jesse's conscience that the director of the biggest fighting arena in America had it out for him because he practically killed his daughter.

Wanting to know how Ruth was, Jesse followed them out of the arena and watched as the girl was carried onto an ambulance. She was so small and fragile looking just compared to the doctor who was half the size of Jesse. He felt so ashamed for what he did. He felt so ashamed when he imagined her, laying there in the sand like that.

She never even threw a punch at him but he had been so angry he just wanted to kill the girl when she was winning against him. He would make it up to her though, somehow.