Friday, July 5, 2013

Fourth of July Picnic: Brat Attack!

"Yes!" Tammy exclaimed, pumping her fist.  She and her husband Dave were one point away from winning the badminton tournament at her company's annual Fourth of July picnic. 

It shouldn't have been a big deal; most years she won or lost a match or two and didn't remember.  But this year she had made it to the final match, and on the other side of the net were Julie and Madison, two summer interns.  Summer brats, Tammy had been calling them.  Spoiled college brat princesses, she thought, especially Julie.  Oh, they were smart enough, and competent.  But for a twenty-year-old to talk to a woman twice her age so condescendingly, as though Tammy were a dim-witted child rather than her own supervisor--that made Tammy's blood boil.  And Julie seemed to talk to all women that way.  Not men, though.  No, with men she was flirty, obsequious, rubbing their arms as they spoke, nodding agreement, complimenting their intelligence.  Why do men always fall for that, Julie wondered.

Tammy glared across the net as her husband prepared to serve.  Julie was crouched low, swaying back and forth, like a cat ready to pounce.  A little Chinese cat, thought Tammy.  Julie's parents were born in Taiwan but had moved to the U.S. before Julie was born.  She looked like a petite China doll--straight black hair, round face, full lips, slim but curvy body--but she was American born and raised.  Today she and her friend Madison were both wearing Hooter's-inspired sleeveless t-shirts and short-shorts which revealed all their nubile charms.  Julie's nails were freshly painted a stylish blue, and her lips were awash in a peach-colored lip gloss.  No wonder all the men at the picnic kept staring at her.  At least I'll beat her at this damn badminton game, thought Tammy.

Unfortunately, Julie was nearly as quick as a cat.  She sent Dave's serve back across the net hard.  Dave hit a weak return to Madison.  Julie's fellow brat princess was tall, willowy, and athletic, with fair skin and blue eyes.  Madison wore her chestnut hair in a long braid.  Her nails were bright pink, and like Julie she used a liberal amount of lip gloss.   A volleyball player in high school, she easily jumped up and smashed the birdie back over the net and into the ground at Dave's feet.

"All tied!" hooted Julie.  She and Madison high-fived each other.

"What was that?" Tammy berated Dave.  He shrugged and turned away.

It took six more points, but in the end Tammy did win.  Mr. Drake, the company president, presented her with the silly-but-coveted prize, a golden shuttle-cock.  "Yes!" Tammy shouted, holding the spray-painted birdie over her head in victory while the crowd applauded.  She looked over to Julie, to see the look on her face, but she and Madison had already drifted over to their little crowd of interns, the brat princesses.  Not seeing Julie's disappointment took away some of the pleasure of the victory.

A few minutes later Tammy and Dave were back at their circle of friends, enjoying some drinks, when Tammy noticed several men lift their eyes to gaze behind her.  She turned to see Julie standing at her shoulder, flanked by two of her princess pack.  Julie smiled, her glossy lips shining.  "Hey gang!" she said to the assembled crowd.  "Nice match, Tammy.  I guess age won out this time, huh?  Hey, can I see that neat shuttlecock prize?"  Her voice was high and soft, another thing that really annoyed Tammy.

Tammy wanted to shout, Hell no!  With everyone looking, though, she had to play nice.  Like always.  "Of course, dear," she forced herself to smile.  She handed the little Asian woman the birdie.

"Wow, that's cool," Julie said, turning to show her friends.  The three of them exclaimed over it for a moment or two, then began walking back to their picnic spot.

"Hey, wait!" Tammy yelled.  "Give that back!"

Julie turned back around.  She was still smiling, but the pretense of friendliness was gone.  "What, this?  It's just a stupid birdie.  You don't need it.  Get another one next year."

Tammy charged forward, grasping for her golden shuttlecock.  "Get off me!" Julie shouted.  The two struggled for a moment over the birdie. 

"You little brat!" screamed Tammy. "Give it back!"

The squabble escalated and suddenly both women had dropped the shuttlecock and had their hands wrapped in each other's hair.  They shrieked in pain and anger, each seemingly trying to rip the other's hair out.  Julie, despite being smaller than her older opponent, soon began to get the upper hand.  She began shaking Tammy's head back and forth and dragging her around the grass.  "Stop!" Tammy cried, falling to her knees.  "Let go! Stop!"  Tammy had released the Asian girl's black hair and was now only trying to protect herself, albeit unsuccessfully. 

With one last twist, Julie threw Tammy to the grass.  Like a tigress, she pounced on her wounded prey.  Tammy tried to roll into a ball and cover her head, but Julie straddled her torso and grabbed her wrists.  Tammy fought and strained but watched in horror as Julie pushed her arms to the grass above her head.  "Let me go!" Tammy cried.  Julie slid forward and placed her knees on Tammy's biceps, causing Tammy to squeal in pain again.  "That hurts!  Let me go, you little bitch!"

Tammy bucked and squirmed but Julie stayed atop her chest, her thighs squeezing and squashing her boobs, her knees pressing into her biceps.  "Did you just call me a bitch?" Julie asked, grinning, her high voice condescending as ever.  "I just wanted to see your stupid shuttle-cock."  Julie emphasized the last syllable of the word.

Tammy couldn't believe this was happening.  There was the physical pain, to be sure.  There was the shock of combat, the adrenaline and fear of being in an actual fight.  Worse, though, was being defeated and humiliated so quickly by Julie, of all people.  The little snot-nosed brat she had to tolerate all summer!  Bitches like Julie should never win!

These feeling were rushing through Tammy's mind as she lay on the ground, sobbing beneath her petite tormentress, when suddenly she saw Dave's face looming above.  And just like that, Julie was no longer pressing her down into the grass; the little bitch was lifted into the air.  Dave had scooped her up with one manly arm around her waist and pulled her off.  He took a few steps away and deposited her on the ground without a word.

"Are you ok?" he asked, coming back to Tammy.

She didn't speak, just buried her head in his chest while he wrapped his arms around her protectively and led her back to their friends.  Where were you? she wanted to scream.  Thank you for saving me! she wanted to say at the same time.  A million other thoughts and feeling flooded through her as he helped her down into a lawn chair.

For a few moments she let her husband hold her and comfort her.  Her friends handed her drinks and made soothing comments.  She was just getting her composure back when it hit her: she still didn't have the shuttle-cock.

"Just let it go," said Dave.

"No!" snapped Tammy.  "No!  Not after what she did!  I need to get it back!"

"She's probably already gone.  Don't worry about it."

Tammy snapped her head around.  She spotted Julie and the other brats in their circle of chairs, laughing hysterically.

"She's still there!  I need to get it back."

"Ok, Ok.  Don't worry.  Let me get it," said Dave.  "You wait here."

"Thank you!" Tammy felt an outpouring of gratitude for her husband.  Her protector.  Her knight.

She watched as he walked over the the group.  They seemed not to notice him at first.  He stood behind Julie for a moment, but she never turned around.  Then Tammy saw Madison motion to Julie to turn around.  She could see Dave saying something, and then he held out his hand. 

What Tammy saw next made her feel like she was hit in the stomach with a sledgehammer.

Tammy herself had learned this technique before in a rape prevention/self defense class, but she had never seen it used in real life.  While Dave's hand was extended, the little Asian girl, a foot shorter than him, grabbed his wrist with one hand while reaching across with her other hand and seizing the outside of his palm and pinky.  Quickly she rotated his hand while pulling him toward her, forcing his pinky and the edge of his hand outward, his palm facing the sky.  Just like that, Dave was on his knees, his face near the grass, and Julie was standing over him, twisting his wrist in a direction it was never meant to flex.  For additional measure she was bending his ring finger and pinky even further backward. 

Don't hurt him! Tammy thought as she ran to the scene.  Don't let her do that to you! she thought almost as quickly. 

"Don't talk to me that way again, little boy," Julie was saying, her high, feminine voice cutting like steel, as Tammy drew near. 

Madison stepped in her path and grabbed her by the arm.  "You better not," she warned. 

"Fuck you," muttered Dave.  Tammy could tell he was in incredible pain from the look on his face.

"Stop it!" yelled Tammy. 

Julie looked up at her and laughed.  "Sending your husband to do your dirty work, huh?"

Tammy's presence spurred Dave to respond.  Grimacing in pain, he wrenched his arm free from Julie's grasp, shouting in agony as he did so.  I knew that little bitch couldn't keep the upper hand on a man, Tammy thought.  But no sooner had Dave risen to his feet than Julie lashed out and kicked the back of Dave's knee with her bare foot.  He collapsed like a house of cards. 

"No!" screamed Tammy, rushing forward. 

"Stay out!" Madison commanded, looping her arms around Tammy from behind and pulling her backward.  Madison was much stronger than Tammy, who quickly realized she couldn't break free.

"Don't let her do that!" Tammy shouted, tears again running down her cheeks.  She could only watch helplessly. Julie grabbed Dave's hair with both hands as he was rising to his feet and she began shaking his head violently back and forth, dragging him around the grass in a wide circle.  It would have been comical, a China doll half the size of the big man shaking him like a dog shakes a rag toy, if it hadn't been her husband being humiliated.

Finally Dave wrenched himself free from the little brat's grip but lost his balance and tumbled to the ground again.  Again, Julie resembled a feline predator, pouncing on the bigger man from behind.  This time she found a different chink in Dave's armor.  His t-shirt had ridden up and exposed the waist band of his boxers.  For the first time since middle school, Tammy saw someone get a wedgie, but this time it was her husband receiving a wedgie at the petite hands of a college coed.

Dave tried to get to his feet but Julie pushed him forward and kept tugging his underwear higher.  The ripping sound was nearly drowned out by his howl of pain.  With one more yank, Julie stood holding a piece of the waist band, which had ripped free from the rest of the garment.  Dave rolled into a fetal position at her feet.

Tammy couldn't believe this was happening.  How could her husband have let himself be humiliated like this?  By a girl?  Madison was laughing wildly in her ear while still holding her tightly.  Tammy kicked and struggled but Madison was just too strong to escape.

The nightmare continued.  Julie reached down and grabbed one of Dave's wrists.  Before he realized what she was doing, Julie pulled his arm straight up in the air and bent his wrist backward.  The way he squealed when the China doll brat put her petite foot on the side of his head and drove his face into the ground while twisting his arm and wrist made Julie want to vomit.  Was this really her husband?  Was this little brat really beating her husband like this?  Was Dave actually squealing?  Again, it could have been a comedy scene in a movie, but this was real life, and her husband was in pain.   He couldn't defend Tammy from this little bitch; he couldn't even defend himself from her.

By this time Tammy's coworkers at the picnic had all gathered around the action.  Yet nobody intervened. Was it because they didn't understand what was happening?  Or did they all find the scene before them so fascinating, so improbably riveting, that they didn't want it to end?  Whatever the reason, their presence, witnessing Julie grinding her foot into her husband's cheek, magnified Tammy's humiliation a thousand-fold.

Finally Dave was able to roll to the side and force Julie to lose her balance.  Gritting his teeth against the pain in his arm, he managed to lunge away and break free from her grasp.  His escape was short-lived.  Julie shoved him as he tried to get up, and in his weakened condition he went down again easily.  The brat pushed him to his back and pounced on his chest, grabbing his wrists and pushing them to the grass above his head.  Tammy's disbelief continued to grow!  This little bitch was trying to pin her big husband to the ground the way she had pinned her earlier!

But Dave was a man.  Even after suffering the twisted wrists, hair-pulling, and wedgie, he was still much stronger than the little college girl.  Regaining his composure, he forced his arms up and started to push Julie off.  She looked like she was trying to pin a bear.  It seemed as though his size, strength, and gender would finally prevail, when suddenly Madison released Tammy and joined the fray. 

Just as Dave shoved Julie to the side, the tall girl grabbed his right arm with both her hands and pushed it back to the grass.  "Get his other arm!" she shouted, and Julie used her whole body to force his left arm straight out onto the grass.  Dave kicked and bucked madly.  He swung his legs up, trying to kick his attackers.  Madison deftly captured one of his ankles as he did and pulled it up over his head, bending him in half.  With one hand she held his right wrist to the ground and with the other she held his right leg in the air. 

The two girls giggled as they looked down into Dave's face.  Tammy had rushed even closer, but she didn't intervene.  Was she afraid?  Or was she, like the other spectators, compelled by the scene?  Through her tears, Tammy realized that part of her wanted to see what would happen next. 

"Let me go," demanded Dave.

Julie and Madison laughed hysterically as they held him down.  "Make us, big man!" Julie giggled.  Dave squirmed madly but the girls held him immobile.

"Let's make him eat grass!" suggested Madison.  Releasing his leg, she pulled up a handful and tried to stuff it into his mouth.  He turned his head from side to side, but still she managed to force some in, her bright pink fingernails worming their way through his clenched lips. 

"I have something for him to eat," shouted Julie gleefully.  From somewhere she produced the golden birdie, the prize that had started the whole melee.  She dangled it in front of Dave's face.  "Do you still want this?"  she asked.  Then she looked up and spotted Tammy.  "You sent him over to get this, didn't you?" 

Tammy's eyes locked with Julie's.  In that instant Tammy felt total defeat.  Julie's arrogance and brattiness had grown beyond a mere attitude.  Now they were part of physical reality.  Julie's smug smile grew out of her actual, physical victory.

"Make him open his mouth," Julie said.  Madison giggled and squeezed her pink fingernails into Dave's cheeks, harder and harder, until finally she forced his jaws apart.  He thrashed madly but the two girls together continued to hold his arms tightly to the grass.  As soon as his mouth was open an inch, Jule shoved the shuttlecock in.  He tried to fight it but she wedged it in tightly, pushing until the tip went over his tongue and to the back of his throat, the plastic feathers disappearing completely.  Immediately both girls put their hands over his mouth, one over the other, to keep him from spitting it out.  Dave's eyes were wide.  Gagging sounds escaped from under the brats' palms as they continued to cover his mouth, forcing him to keep the shuttlecock inside.  They were both bent over top of his face, smiling down excitedly, their glossy lips wet and shiny. 

"Well, ok," Julie finally said, still giggling.  "I guess that's enough."  She and Madison took their hands off Dave's mouth.  He spit out the birdie and began coughing.  The girls stood up, and Dave rolled into a ball, gagging and moaning. 

Tammy rushed forward, then stopped.  Should she comfort her husband?  Or slap him?  How could he let himself be humiliated by these stupid brats?  She stood over him and watched him moan pathetically in the grass at her feet.

"I thought this picnic was going to be boring," Julie grinned, staring at Tammy.

"Me too," said Madison.  "I thought it was just going to be stuff for old people.  I didn't know it would be so much fun."

"Well, Tammy, we've got to get to our sorority picnic.  This has been a blast.  I'll see you Monday morning!"  They walked away laughing, their short-shorts rocking back and forth in rhythm.