Aaron had misconstrued Christine's cry for help, thinking that meant she was out of options. He yelled, "Come on, guys; help me get the bitch. She almost broke my leg!"
The other three football players just stood there, not moving toward her. She decided to make the situation clear to Aaron so she moved aggressively toward the three and they all backed off rapidly. Then she just stood there on the balls of her feet, visibly waiting for whatever anyone might try next.
Aaron cussed them out: "You guys are all pussies. Are you gonna let a girl stop you?"
Ryan replied dejectedly, "She already has, just like with you." Then he warned Aaron about Christine: "None of us could hold her. The last time I grabbed her she knocked me out. Take her on again if you want, but watch out."
Suddenly he realized that one possibility would explain their situation. He knew of Christine's reputation: that she was superb at everything she did. He asked, "Christine, are you a black belt?"
That question startled the others; it hadn't occurred to them. They all waited for her answer.
She replied, "Almost. My exam is early next year."
Aaron's first thought was Oh shit! He suspected (rightly) that someone preparing for such an exam would be at the peak of their training and practice. He cursed under his breath.
Aaron had not always been bigger than everyone else, so he'd had to develop street smarts as a child, unlike the three coddled "rich boys." He recalled her peculiar shriek as she had kicked him, now recognizing it for the martial arts attack cry that it must have been, and realized that her incredible takedown when he'd rushed at Alan had probably not been a fluke. If she'd stopped the other three without apparently injuring them, they must have posed even less difficulty for her than he had.
Her precise aerial assault and her reported knockout of Ryan implied a dangerous level of expertise. His leg was bruised and aching, swelling above the knee where she had kicked it. He was a bully, not a fool; he would not risk an even more serious injury by confronting her again.
He turned his rage on Ryan, who had brought him into the fight, saying in an obvious sing-song mockery, "A frigid, brainy looker from school is acting like his bodyguard. Don't worry about her."
Then he shouted in anger: "Did it ever occur to you to do your fucking homework and find out why she thought she could protect him? No wonder she stopped you all. Taking on a black belt - or worse, someone who's ready for their black-belt exam - without even knowing it is fuckin' suicide."
When Christine heard Aaron quoting someone, she deduced it must be Ryan. That disrupted her quiet, combat-ready demeanor; she glared at Ryan, shooting daggers with her eyes. If looks could kill he would have withered and died on the spot.
Ryan had shifted his gaze to her the moment he heard Aaron repeat that insult. He knew she wouldn't forget.
Aaron, on the other hand, grinned with a bit of relief as he saw her switch her attention to Ryan. Since he had decided to avoid taking her on again, Ryan would now bear the brunt of her wrath if the fighting resumed, rather than him. He thought that was only fair, since Ryan was the one who had set up this disastrous confrontation and enlisted his services.
Everyone just stood there, each at a loss about what to do next. It wasn't at all clear what would break the standoff. Then they all heard a loud scream from around the corner of the racquetball court: "STOP! STOP!" Everyone froze, not knowing if it was the police or what.
In fact it was Heather, running down the same corridor that had taken Alan and Christine towards Aaron, wearing just her skimpy red cheerleader outfit. It had taken her a few minutes of running around before she got close enough to hear the sound of Aaron's angry voice. Her approach had gone unnoticed since the corridor was out of everyone's sight, so by the time she yelled she was already only about twenty feet away from where Alan's attackers stood.
Ryan's gang had gone into the fight with casual attitudes, but now they were so preoccupied with their impasse with Christine and this new revelation of what they were up against that they hardly reacted to Heather's appearance. Aaron initially classified her as "just a dumb cheerleader," which he deduced from glancing at her red cheerleader outfit. The others recognized her as soon as she appeared, since she was the school's only blonde cheerleader and the only one with a long ponytail, but that recognition also led them to dismiss her as being irrelevant to their standoff with Christine.
As Heather came to a halt a few feet from them, she screamed "It's over! Stop! The police are here!"
"The police?!" Ryan asked. He knew there was a policeman providing regular security at the game, but had checked him out and was underwhelmed. The guy was old and fat, with a double chin on his double chin. He looked like the type who would be really bent out of shape to have to get up and do anything (which probably explained why he was given the lowly task of providing security at a high school football game).
Heather said, panting, "Yeah, he's coming. He's slow."
However, Ryan looked her in the eyes, really examining her expression. He concluded, "No he's not. That's bullshit. You're full of shit!"
In fact, Heather was bluffing. She had followed Ryan from afar, so far off in fact that she made a couple of wrong turns before she got within range of the fighting and followed the sound the rest of the way. She hadn't come across the police officer or anyone else on the way here. The mere fact that she was arguing with Ryan was a big victory, however, because it meant the fighting was still stopped while everyone decided what to do about her intrusion. Heather certainly was no fighter, but it looked to her like Alan and Christine were in a very bad position. Just one look at Aaron's sheer size was enough to tell her that.
Her goal was to raise enough confusion so that the fighting would be delayed until others would come and help. She started slowly walking towards Alan and Christine as she kept talking to Ryan. "Seriously! You guys are the ones who are fucked... No wait. Why don't you just stay here, not believe me, and keep on fighting? Keep fighting until the police can see you and catch you in the act. Yeah, that's a smart move."
Aaron was not used to defeat, but he already had a police record and didn't want to add to it. Even though he was being paid to help, this wasn't his fight or his school. In particular, he had no intention of taking on Christine again. "Hey, guys, maybe we should get out of here. Who is this chick, anyways? It seems like you know her." He was still limping back and forth, trying to walk off the aching bruise in his leg caused by Christine's kick.
Rock pointed at Heather angrily and said fiercely, "That WAS my girlfriend. Heather. I, I... had FEELINGS for her! But then this mother-fuckin' asshole came along" - he pointed back towards Alan - "and ruined everything!"
Heather was very surprised by that. Feelings for me? That pencil-dicked asshole showed all the "feelings" of a Neanderthal. It was all about status: the quarterback going out with the hottest girl in school. But still, if he suffers from that delusion, I can use that to my advantage. He's practically getting gushy on me by his monosyllabic, pea-brained standards. I need to keep him talking about our so-called "relationship."
She said, "What do you mean you 'had feelings for me'? Feelings? You sure never showed 'em! You LOST me, you jerk! You didn't know how to treat a woman, and I only stayed with you until someone better came along. Which wasn't hard." She couldn't resist sexual innuendo even now.
Aaron stared at them, thinking, All this is about HER? Shit. Women trouble is the worst kind of trouble there is! What bullshit!
Rock tried to roar back but it came out so strangled that even Ivan goggled at him. "You two-timing WHORE! I treated you like a queen and you went behind my back in FRONT of me! Donna told me what really happened between you and him at the Baskin-Robbins!"
Donna spied on Heather just like Heather spied on Donna, and one of her friends had overheard Heather boasting about this incident. She'd gleefully told Rock what Heather had done with Alan as a means of splitting up Heather and Rock and improving Donna's odds of becoming Homecoming Queen.
This was news to Heather, who made a definite note of Donna's scheming. But she didn't even flinch, because now she was in her element. She put a hand on her hip, struck a pose, and said saucily, "Look. I can't help it if you failed to satisfy." She was about to launch into some really nasty comments about Rock's very undersized penis and compare it to what Alan's oversized penis could do for her, but then she remembered where she was - she was surrounded by four angry guys who still had their fists up and were raring to fight. That made it not a good idea to goad Rock into becoming even angrier than he already was.
So she tried a different tack. "Rock, things were good at first between us, but then it just wasn't happening. I liked you but there just wasn't that click, that spark, you know? If Alan hadn't come along, somebody else would have. In fact, if you want to talk about 'stealing' me away from you, you ought to know that I'M the one who went after HIM! Besides, I didn't think you cared for me at all. I thought I was just your arm candy."
"I cared, Heather; I really cared!" By this point Rock was practically blubbering. "I thought you were someone special. I thought we had that spark? Didn't we?"
Heather smiled at him sympathetically while thinking, Shit, how long do I have to string this loser along? He loved me? What a crock! He's not worthy of holding Alan's jockstrap! Somebody come and save us already before I gag on all this stupid bullshit!
Christine thought, What a slut! She'll sleep with anybody! What does Alan see in her that I can't offer?
The pause had given Ryan time to start to assess the situation logically. He realized the presence of Heather as a witness was a very bad thing indeed, if one combined it with the fact that Christine was there as well. He said to the others, "Hey, this is very touching and all, but we need to get out of here."
But Rock cut him off before he could say more. "Shut up! This is important to me! Heather and I have some issues to settle, and I don't want any of you to touch a hair on her head. She's MINE!"
Ryan had been hoping that they could just back off from Christine and get away, then deny everything. After all, it would be their word against Alan's and Christine's - four against two, or now three counting Heather. But as Heather continued to talk, his worries began to grow. Christine and Heather, they're like mortal enemies; everybody knows that. They don't agree on anything. If they both testify against us, that could be really bad. Hell, I don't even have a decent alibi like the others if I can't make it back to the bench, and how will I be able to make it back with Heather and the others running around screaming bloody murder? I have to stop them from talking somehow. But how?
Fuck! What are we gonna do? It's not like we can stop them; they're gonna talk. The whole idea was to smash Alan and intimidate Christine, but those girls aren't intimidated at all. In fact, it's the other way around; Christine has intimidated each of us. I should have known she'd be superb at whatever she did. FUCK!
If we just jump the fence right now, Alan's bruises - hell, the blood on the ground from Aaron's face. With all that DNA testing shit, they'll probably be able to prove we were here. I've gotta at least somehow get Heather to shut up. Or even get her on our side! What if she says that they started it? Hell, Christine and Heather really hate each other's guts - everybody knows that! If only I could use that to my advantage and get 'em to turn against each other. Heather's a viper who rules the pit, but she's a mercenary at heart and will sell out for the right offer. I just have to figure out something I've got that she wants. But what?!