The Holy Accused

In Science class, the teacher called Ruth to his desk as everyone was walking out. He pulled up Ruth's current grades on the computer and warned her she would fail his class. "You need to get a tutor," he told her, rubbing his prickly face as he looked at her, waiting for her to say something.

"Who would you suggest?" she asked.

"Ive talked to Mellissa from 11th grade about it and she agreed to be your science tutor, if your okay with that," he said. Ruth knew Mellissa from on the bus, she was two years older so they'd never talked but she sat behind her every day and they also went to the same church. Mellissa was very popular but she was still very smart.

"Okay so we do it during school right?" Ruth asked hopefully.

"Actually you two will have to meet up sometime after school for your tutoring sessions. Hurry up and get to your next class," he said, putting his glasses on and looking back at his computer.

"but..." Ruth started to plead. She couldnt do it after school.

"You dont want to be late, good bye."

After gym class, Ruth went to her lunch period and stood behind Mellissa waiting for her to turn around so she could talk to her. After a minute, the people at her table turned to look at Ruth wondering why she was there and Mellissa turned around. "Oh hi," she said "So guess I'm your tutor."

"Yep, Mr Henry told me about it. He said we should chose a time for the tutoring and..." Ruth tried to tell her that the only time she could make it was 20 minutes directly after class on Sundays, since that was the only day her dad ever let her miss some training to go to church events but Mellissa stopped her from talking.

"Sorry but I can't do it today, its my birthday," she said happily.

"Oh, well happy birthday," said both Ruth and one of the girls at her table who just sat down next to her.

"Thanks," said Mellissa to her friend. Then she started talking to the people at her table and ignoring her, so Ruth went back to her normal table by the door and ate her sack lunch alone. Her entire day seemed to feel lonlier than usual and it made her tired and unenergetic, so along with her usual lunch she ate 3 of the school's lunches to make her feel better.

At the end of the day, Ruth dragged herself onto the bus and sat in her seat behind Mellissa who was sitting with a random boy, ignoring Ruth like usual. During the whole ride, she stared out the window and watched single trees until the were out of sight, waiting for her house to come into view which didnt happen until a dozen kids got off at their stops.

"Does the hotel put chocolates on your pillow everyday since you live there?" Mellissa asked Ruth as she stood up to get off the bus at her stop. Because of the size of her house, Ruth told Mellissa and everybody else who asked that her house was a hotel.

"They dont put chocolates on anybody's pillows, its not that fancy," Ruth said trying to lower Mellissa's expectations.

"Yeah right, that place is freaking huge," Mellissa said complimenting her. Ruth ignored her last comment and ran off the bus across the long driveway to meet Ally sitting on the bench outside wearing jeans and tie die shirt.

"How could you wear that shirt outside, what if my friends saw you!" Ruth teased Ally, jokingly.

"Not everyone can be rich enough to have such nice clothes as you, your highness. But I seem to recall a quote i once read..." Ally started jokingly.

"You? Reading literature and remembering it enough to quote it? I'm impressed, what was it?" asked Ruth as they walked into her house and sat down in the kitchen. Ally pulled out the crockpot and scooped up a plate of food for Ruth.

"I wish I had friends, the workers at the arena are the only people that like me and Im pretty sure dad pays them..."

"Why are you reading my diary!!!??? I wrote that a long time ago..."

"I think its because of the cast on my arm and my black eye, theyre scared of me. Nobody on the bus sits by me but I bet they would if they got a glimpse of my nanny, she's so fashionable..."

"That is not what I said," Ruth shouted

"I'm paraphrasing" Ally explained, dropping a spoon full of green glob on a plate in front of Ruth.

"Eww what is this?!!!" Ruth choked, taking a bite of the food in front of her.

"Your dad has me making health nut food, just for you. Bon appetit," she said, holding her throat and gagging with a repulsed face.

"Dont you have any chicken wings or pizza left over from last night or even something from last week, anything but this," Ruth pleaded.

"If you say please i might give you some of my sandwhich but then again i dont want your father mad at me so i probably won't share" Ally said.

"Then is there any point of me asking?" Ruth asked.

"Not really, hurry up and eat so you can go. You've been late the past few days and my paycheck was cut more than half. I'm currently making less than you would if you got payed for your job. If your not out that door in 15 minutes you'll be sorry," she said warningly, pulling a sandwhich out of her paper bag.

Ruth finished her health food resentfully then stole Ally's sandwhich as she left the kitchen and walked upstairs to her bedroom, locking the door. After searching for the last uniform she had that wasnt dirty, she put it on and layed down in her bed. She closed her eyes said a prayer for the games that day, for the people at her school and for Ally. Mostly for the people at her school though since there were so many of them and she wanted to ask God to give her a chance to be a friend to all of them.Then she spent a minute asking for Rivers to find God however that was supposed to happen. He almost seemed like a lost cause but she wasnt going to stop asking.

"Get your butt out here, your going to be late again!!!" shouted Ally from outside her door. Ruth jumped down the stairs and ran out the door, sprinting to the arena which was a 10 minute run at her speed. Nobody was outside the arena when she got there and the doors were wide open showing the game going on already. She saw Rivers run past the door being chased by a new guy, he was obviously giving her time to arrive by dragging on the fight. Rivers could get him to surrender in a second. Instead of making a move though, Rivers stopped and waved as he saw Ruth in the door way and in that second of distraction, the new guy knocked Rivers to the floor and was declared the winner. Rivers got up and shook hands with him, not too badly hurt.

"Next up is Ruth..." said her dad on the loudspeaker and the crowd cheered as she walked in through the front doors. The new guy she was fighting looked at her arm and threw his arms up questioningly.

"Whats this young girl doing up here with a broken arm??!!!" he shouted but nobody could hear him except for Ruth who was standing in front of him in the middle of the arena, trying to talk to answer his question.

"Just go with it," she said. The air horn blew and he started by kicking at her at an angle, unsure of himself until she caught his foot with her good arm and twisted it around, dropping him to the floor.

"So thats how it is" he said before getting up and standing in front of her again. From then on he went after her broken arm, trying to hurt it more to make her surrender but no matter how he tried, he couldnt get near it.

She aimed for all of his pressure points and used many of the tactics she and Rivers had used in an attempt to get more into the fight and please her dad. It ended up lasting shorter than any fight she ever did when she knocked him to the ground by running up the corner and landing with her foot on his back, pushing him to the ground. He was fine afterwards and told her she was a good one as he walked back to his seat.

In the next five matches Ruth was paired against three new people, and then against Harold and Jacob, all of which she won against except for Jacob who beat her by poking her in both eyes so she couldnt see. After she lost she acted like a zombie and walked around with her arms out and her eyes closed looking for Jacob, then gave him a quick hug and walked back to her seat, holding her eyes and laughing.

Ruth sat next to Rivers and watched the rest of the game play out through the glass. Jesse went up next with a smile on his face for once, he didnt seem to have the same expression from when he was fighting Ruth but much more at ease. As he fought Jacob she noticed the need to win and the anger was gone and he didnt care whether he won or lost. In the end, when Jesse knocked Jacob to the ground winning, he helped him up off the floor and shook his hand like they were best friends. Jacob stepped in the box for a second and looked at Ruth.

"I'm hungry, you guys want anything?" Jacob asked.

"Get me some tomatoes, this fight sucks" Rivers joked, looking through the glass at the nect fight.

"Bring me a popcorn with all the butter they have" Ruth added. Jacob chuckled and went up the stairs to the snack bar. Ruth and Rivers watched the games as Jesse went on for another 4 rounds. It was a long time until Rivers came back but when he did he had his arms overflowing with bags of popcorn and other food.

"What took you so long?" asked Jesse not seeing any tomatoes in his hands.

"Theres a kid working the snack bar who's scared to death of fighters and gave me all the free food i wanted in exchange for not beating him up," Rivers said, laughing so hard he almost dropped Ruth's popcorn.

"How compassionate of you to spare his life" Ruth said sarcastically, taking the biggest bag of popcorn from Jacobs arms and stuffing a handful in her mouth. "Theres no butter!" she noticed. "I'll be right back," she said, walking up the stairs without waiting for them to respond.

At the snack bar was an angry mob of people waiting for their food. In the front of the line was Harold, Zach, Ronny, and Richard, standing 6 feet above the rest of the customers, gathering piles of food for free from the scared worker. Everyone behind them were screaming out orders and complaints. Ruth made her way to the front, shoving past people with her elbows and stood just behind Harold. She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down to her height so he could hear her over the loud crowd. "Leave the poor kid alone" she said, hugging her butterless popcorn tight to keep from dropping it.

"Is that an order?" He asked like a challenge.

"I beat you up already today, dont make me do it do again" she said but couldnt keep a straight face and laughed when she said it. "But seriously its his first day, dont get him fired."

"Good point" he said to Ruth then shouted through the kitchen door where the new guy was "Thanks Tommy my boy, see you tomorrow." He patted Ruth on the back and left with the food he had already gotten.

"Are they gone?" came a familiar voice through the kitchen door. Then Tom stuck his head out and looked at Ruth and the huge crowd gathered behind her.

"Hey I need butter on this popcorn" Ruth said to Tom.

"Oh, well I need to get to these other people's orders first Ruth, just wait a minute," He said running up to the counter and talking to another customer. Ruth took a seat in a bench by the counter and watched the games go on as customers came and went from the snack bar. A couple fighters came and talked to her before going back to their seats with their food until Ruth stood up and walked toward the empty snack bar near the end of the games.

"Tom, can i get some butter on this popcorn now..." Ruth started saying until she saw Melissa leaning against the counter talking to him.

"Oh, hi Ruth. Didnt expect to see you here," Melissa said.

"Thats what I thought when i saw her" said Tom to Mellissa," theres an age limit of 17 you know, i thought you were only 14?"

"15" Ruth corrected him.

"It might be a little violent for you but i wont tell anyone. Ill get your butter now, be right back" Tom said, taking her bag of popcorn through the kitchen door.

"Is this your first time at the games?" Ruth asked Melissa when Tom was gone.

"Yeah, Tom gave me the tickets as a birthday present. Back row of course, Im not rich enough to be up there in the front but I'm grateful for such a great boyfriend to give me such amazing gifts," she said just as Tom came out holding the bag of popcorn.

"Only the best for my cupcake" Tom said to Mellissa, giving her a kiss.

"Although if you really loved me you would get me seats where I atleast can see the faces of the fighters, I cant see anything way back there"

"Im not even close enough to see their faces and besides if you could see them you might fall for one of them. But their pretty scary looking, you should be glad their faces are fuzzy back there from what I've seen of them at the snack bar," Tom said seriously.

"Your right babe, I would probably die if i came close to one, their so mean. How do they have the heart to beat people up like that?

"Well...they dont hurt eachother too..." Ruth started to say but neither of them were listening to her and Melissa interupted.

"I saw one of them grab the opponent by the neck and drag them to the floor by it" Mellissa said. Ruth had done that to one of the new guys, holding the corner of their shoulder where there was a momentarily paralyzing pressure point she used to pull him to the floor

"Their crazy! one of the fighters ran up the wall and jumped down onto the other fighters back like a falling wrecking ball, its like they dont know when its too much, theyre just programmed to hurt until they win," Tom said and Ruth spilled the top layer of her popcorn listening.

"I remember that move, did you see at the end the player they jumped on gave them a kiss as they were walking back," Mellissa said way too loudly and excitedly.

"He did not!!!" Ruth shouted defensively. "I mean... I saw it from up close and they weren't close enough to be kissing." What they said was completely untrue. The new guy she was fighting when she ran up the wall came close to her ear and whispered "Ill get you next time," before he went to his seat, holding onto his cracked back.

Then a loud cheer erupted and Jesse jumped up and down in the middle of the arena with his arms raised, his opponent laying face down on the floor with sand kicking onto his face from Jesse's feet.

"He's hot" Melliss said looking at Jesse. Tom squinted at him then crawled under the table out of the snack bar to go down the stairs and get a better look. Ruth grabbed onto his arm "What are you doing?" Ruth asked before he could pass her on the stairs.

"I want to get a better look at my competition, let go," he said and continued down the stairs with Ruth and Mellissa following.

As he got closer to the stadium he looked up at Jesse and his eyes lit up in recognition, "Thats your uncle, Ruth!!!" He said turning around, expecting her to be behind him but before he turned around to look at her, she ran out of sight, toward the rise where her father sat announcing the games. When she got up there, she took a seat behind her father and watched the games, eating her popcorn without her dad noticing her. From high above the stadium, in front of the crowd but not in plain sight, she had a perfect view of Tom, Mellissa and Jesse.

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