A/N: I know this a long chapter, but it's very important to the rest of the story. I promise you that I've tried to make it as enjoyable as possible, though. -) Also, I can't figure out how to keep this in my original formatting from when I first typed it, so if anyone knows how to get back so that it looks better, please let me know. Thanks.
Chapter 3
"Sarai! Wait!" Brenda yelled as she ran to catch up with her in the hall at school the next day. Sarai stopped.
"Hey." Brenda said.
"Hey." Sarai answered. The two of them started walking again.
"What's up?" Brenda asked.
"Nothin' much," Sarai replied. "Just going to History."
"I have English next." Brenda said. "Sarai, Brandon told me all about what you told him last night. We both think that's it terrible what happened to you, and if there's anything I can do to help, please don't be afraid to ask. I want to help in any way possible, and I mean it."
"Thanks." Sarai said, smiling at Brenda.
"I also wanted to invite you to sit with me and the other girls today at lunch. I think you'd like them." Brenda said.
"Really? Thanks!" Sarai replied. "You just made my day!"
"Well, I figured you can only sit by yourself so many times before you start going crazy by not having anyone to talk to."
"So true!" Sarai said with a little laugh. "I'll look for you in the cafeteria, but right now, this is my class, so I'll see you later." Sarai said as she stopped by the door.
"I'll save you a seat." Brenda said. "See you later!"
When lunch came, Sarai got her food and looked for Brenda in the cafeteria.
"Sarai! Over here!" She heard Brenda yelled.
Sarai looked around and saw Brenda waving her arms around, then walked over to the table, where she sat her food down.
"Sarai, I'd like you to meet Donna Martin, Kelly Taylor and Andrea Zuckerman. Guys, this is Sarai Greenly. She just moved here from Minneapolis. I invited her to eat lunch with us because she needs some serious gal pals."
"Well," Donna said before taking a drink out of her can of Diet Coke, "we are always happy to have another 'gal pal'!"
"So, Sarai, tell us more about yourself." Kelly said.
Sarai spent the whole lunch period talking to the girls, and she felt she'd left the cafeteria with four new friends. She didn't tell them about her dad, though. Having Brenda and Brandon know about him was enough for now. She figured she'd tell everyone else about him later, once she got to know them better. She didn't want to scare them away from her.
When she got home that afternoon, the first thing Sarai did was start on her homework. She hated to leave it for the last minute and thought it was just easier to do it first thing.
Around 5 o'clock, she heated up some left-over pizza in the microwave for dinner and took it upstairs, along with a can of Diet Coke, for dinner. On the nights when she had to be alone with her dad, she usually ate dinner alone in her room with the door locked. She'd either watch TV, listen to the radio, or read for the rest of the night, if she felt she could concentrate on it enough. Some nights she'd sneak out, just to get away from him.
At about 7:30, her dad walked into the room.
"How. . .how did you get in here?" Sarai stammered, sitting straight up on the bed.
"I have all the spare keys to all the rooms in this house." Mr. Greenly said as he walked closer to her. He sat down next to her on the bed.
"I haven't seen much of you lately." He said. "Why?"
"I've been busy. With school." Sarai answered, suddenly starting to feel uncomfortable.
"You're very beautiful." Sarai's dad said as he touched her chest. "You remind me of your mother when she was younger. You look just like her."
Sarai moved farther away. He pushed her down on the bed.
"You haven't told anyone about our little secret, have you?" He said in a threatening tone as he kept one hand on her throat.
Sarai shook her head, even though it was a lie. She was too scared to talk.
"Good, 'cuz we're gonna have another night of fun!" Mr. Greenly said. "I've been thinking about this and planning it for a long time!"
Tears started running down Sarai's face again as she thought of the first time he raped her. Then she heard the front door close.
"Sarai!" Brandon yelled.
"BRANDON!" She screamed.
"Shut up!" Mr. Greenly yelled as he clamped his hand down over her mouth.
"NOOO!" Sarai cried, her cries muffled from his hand. "NOOO! OH NOOO!"
Brandon ran up the stairs, frantically searching for Sarai. When he found her and her dad in her room, he stopped.
"BRANDON!" She yelled again.
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!" Mr. Greenly yelled.
"Let her go!" Brandon said from the doorway.
"Excuse me?" Mr. Greenly said as he turned and faced Brandon.
"I said let her go!"
"YOU SAID YOU DIDN'T TELL ANYBODY! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Mr. Greenly yelled at Sarai.
Sarai cried.
"YOU'RE GOIN' WITH HER, TOO, PRETTY BOY!" Mr. Greenly yelled at Brandon. He then stormed out of the room and down the stairs.
"Are you alright?" Brandon asked as he rushed over to Sarai and sat down next to her on the bed.
Sarai sat up. Brandon reached out his arms to hug her, and she collapsed in them, crying hard and shaking.
"You're alright now." Brandon said, trying to comfort her by keeping her in his arms and rubbing her back.
Sarai looked up at him. "Brandon, he's got guns. What he said wasn't a joke. He's threatened to kill me before if I told anyone about him!"
"Then you need to get out of here! Here!" He said as he reached in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his car keys and a quarter. "Go out of that window and take my car down to Dixie's Corner Market. When you get there, use the pay phone and call 911. I'll stay here and stall him so he doesn't come looking for you until the police come."
Sarai took the keys and the quarter.
"I'll be fine! Now go!" Brandon exclaimed.
Sarai did as she was instructed and climbed out of the window and ran out to Brandon's car. She drove down to Dixie's, going at least 10 miles over the speed limit, but she didn't care if she got stopped or not. In fact, she thought it'd be better if she did get stopped because then she might not have to call the police. She could just ask them to go to her house.
"Hello?" Sarai frantically said to the dispatcher on the phone.
"How may I assist you today?" The dispatcher answered.
"Yeah, my name's Sarai Greenly. I live at 504 West Beverly Court. My dad has just threatened to kill me and my best friend." Sarai said, crying into the phone. "I need you to send the police over to my house right away! My best friend is still in there!"
"Calm down, Ms. Greenly. We're sending someone over right now. Just calm down, sweetie. Everything's gonna be alright and it's all under control." The dispatcher said. "It's showing on my radar that there should already be a car at your house."
"Thank you!" Sarai said as she quickly hung up the phone, and then ran back to the car.
Sarai quickly drove back home. When she got there, there were two police cars besides her mom's car there.
"Sarai, what's going on?" Mrs. Greenly asked Sarai as Sarai got out of Brandon's car. "And where did you get that car from?" She asked about Brandon's car.
"Mom, do you remember all that stuff I told you about Dad? What you wouldn't believe and everything?" Sarai asked.
"Yes." Mrs. Greenly said, confused.
"Well, I told one of my friends about it yesterday. He said when he got out of work tonight he was coming over to check on me and make sure he hadn't tried to do anything else. Well, Dad did try and when my friend got here and found out what was going on, he came upstairs to my room, where we were and Dad threatened to kill both of us. When he left my room, Brandon, that's my friend, told me to get out of here and go call the police. That's his car over there that he let me use to go to the party store down the street so I could call. He stayed here so Dad wouldn't come after me." Sarai said as she tried to swallow back tears.
A gun shot rang out, then a few police officers went in the house.
"Oh no!" Sarai cried. "He killed him, I know he did!" She felt like throwing up.
A few minutes later, Sarai saw a couple of police officers escorting Brandon out of the front door. He seemed to be walking fine, but his right arm was raised up and dripping with blood. One of the officers took Brandon out to a squad car, while another one approached Sarai.
"Are you Sarai Greenly?" The officer asked.
"Yeah." Sarai answered as she wiped away some tears. "Is Brandon alright?"
"He's going to be fine. He got shot in the right arm, but it doesn't look like it's anything serious. We're calling out for an ambulance to come take him to the hospital, but I can assure you that it's non-life threatening. As for you, we need you to go sit in the car with him. You're going to be taken down to the police station to file a report, then we need to question you about what happened. When Brandon gets released from the hospital, he'll be joining you at the police station for questioning."
Sarai nodded. "I understand." She said.
"As for your dad, he's going into custody. You and Brandon should be prepared to go to court for his hearing so you can talk to the judge. In the mean time, do you have any other relatives around here that you can stay with? You can't stay here."
"No." Sarai answered. "I just moved here with my parents a couple of weeks ago. What about my mom?"
"We're afraid that if your dad knows where she is and you're with her, he may try to do something again. Therefore, we need you to stay with someone else other than her." The officer said. "We can always take you to the Department of Children and Family Services, too. If you live there, you'll basically be a ward of the state and could possibly be placed in a foster home until it's determined if you can come back and stay with your family or not or until you reach the age of 18, which ever comes first."
Sarai shook her head in understanding. The officer escorted her to the car that Brandon was in and helped her get in it.
"How's your arm?" She asked as he kept it slightly elevated. He had a piece of cloth wrapped tightly around it to absorb the blood and help slow the bleeding.
"It's alright." Brandon said. "It hurts a little. . .well, OK, a lot, but they say I'll be fine. Are you alright?"
"I'm still scared. They might send me to live in a foster home until all of this gets worked out or until I turn 18, since I don't have any relatives around here. They said I can't stay with my mom because they're afraid that if he knows where she is and he knows that I'm with her then he might try something again." Sarai answered.
"Son, we need your name and phone number so we can call your parents." A police officer said as he approached Brandon.
"My name's Brandon Walsh and my phone number is 555-7348. My parents' names are Jim and Cindy Walsh."
The police officer crawled back into the driver's seat of the car.
"Marianne, this is Dawn. I need you to call a Jim and Cindy Walsh. Their son Brandon was at the house at 504 West Beverly Court. I need to tell them that he's going to the hospital for a gunshot wound in the right arm. Please tell them that it's non-life threatening and that after he does get out the hospital he'll need to come down to the station for questioning. The number is 555-7348." The police officer said over the CB radio in the car.
"555-7348?" The woman replied.
"Yes. Thank you." The officer said.
Sarai watched as two other officers escorted her dad out of the house in handcuffs. She silently cried, wishing that everything could go back to the way it was before all of this started happening.
Sarai heard sirens from an ambulance. The ambulance came down the street and stopped at her house. One of the police officers came and helped Brandon get out of the car.
"I'll see you at the police station." Brandon said as he got out of the car. "Good luck."
Sarai nodded, then continued looking out the window. She saw a local TV news van pull up.
"Oh great!" She thought to herself. "Now it's going to be broadcast all over TV and everyone in Beverly Hills will know about me."
"Excuse me, are you one of the victims?" A news reporter asked Sarai. Brandon's door had been left open.
"Yes." Sarai said.
"Would you mind sharing your story with me?" The reporter asked as she took a pen and some paper out of her pocket.
"No, I really don't want to." Sarai answered.
The reporter then turned and walked away from the car.
Brandon sat in the Emergency Room at Beverly Hills Hospital, waiting for a doctor to come in and get the bullet out of his arm. He kept thinking about Sarai and wondering how she was holding up. He also kept thinking that if he hadn't shown up at her house earlier that she could've been seriously hurt or even dead.
"Excuse me, but can you please tell me what room Brandon Walsh is in? I'm his mother and we were told we could find him here." He heard his mom asking one of the nurses at the nursing station.
"Of course! He's in room 2." The nurse said as she looked at a chart. "The doctor hasn't been in to see him yet.
Brenda was the first one to run in the room and hug him. "Are you alright?" She asked.
"I'm fine." He said. "I'm a little worried about Sarai, though."
"What happened?" Brenda asked as she sat down in a chair.
"I went over to her house to check on her after I got out of work. When I got there, her dad was upstairs in her room where she was and he was going to rape her again. When he found out that she'd told me about him, he threatened to kill both of us. I had her take my car down to Dixie's Market to call the police while I stayed there. Her dad fired a gun at me, but I tried to move out of the way of the bullet. It got me in the right arm, though. The cops took Sarai down to the police station for questioning and to file a report and after I get out of here I have to go there to answer some questions, too."
Jim and Cindy ran into the room and hugged Brandon.
"We are so happy that you're alright!" Cindy said. "What were you doing over, there, anyway?"
Brandon told the whole story to his parents.
"Where's Sarai?" Jim asked.
"She's at the police station filing a report and getting questioned, just like I have to do when I get out of here. They're not letting her go back to live with her parents. Her mom didn't do anything to her, but they're afraid if she's with her mom and her dad knows it then he might come back and try something again. Since she has no relatives around here, she may end up in foster care."
"She's not going to foster care." Cindy said.
"What!" Jim asked, confused about what his wife was talking about.
"I can't do it. I can't allow her to go into foster care. She just moved here, and I think it'll be too much for her to have to move again. What she really needs right now is good friends who are supportive of her. I want her to stay with us."
"Mom, are you sure?" Brenda asked.
"I'm positive." Cindy replied. "She can sleep in the guest room. This way she'll be with people she knows and she won't have to make that big of a move."
"I don't think I've ever loved you as much as I do now." Brenda said as she hugged Cindy.
After the bullet had been removed from his arm and his arm had been stitched up, Jim and Cindy drove Brandon to the Beverly Hills Police Department. Brandon didn't exactly have fond memories of the Beverly Hills Police Department. He kept thinking of when he'd been arrested and lodged there the year before for drunk driving. That was the worst possible mistake he had ever made. Jim, Cindy and Brenda walked in with him, but were told they couldn't go in with him when he was questioned. The only other person allowed to be with him was Sarai.
After Sarai had been questioned, it was his turn. Brandon made sure he explained everything in the best detail possible. He tried not to leave anything out.
"Thank you kids for your time." The officer said as he walked out of the room with Sarai and Brandon and to the lobby where Jim, Cindy and Brenda were waiting for them. "Sarai, we're going to make your safety our number one priority. Please call if you need anything or if we can be of further assistance to you."
"Thanks. I will." Said a still shaken-up Sarai.
"Oh, wait!" The officer said before he left the room. "We still have the issue of where you're going to stay at while this all being worked out. You have two choices. We can contact any of your relatives in Minnesota and see if you can stay with them or we can contact the Department of Children and Family services. If you go there, you'll be put in a shelter for homeless kids and will basically become a ward of the state."
"Officer, we'd like Sarai to come stay with us, if it's possible.
"Are you sure?" Sarai asked, tears forming again in her eyes.
"Yes." Cindy said. "I think you need us right now."
"Hold on." The officer said. "Let me go make some phone calls and I'll see if Sarai can go home with you."
The police officer went and made his phone calls before returning.
"Sarai, if you want to, and if the Walshs feel that it's within your best interests, you may go home with them and stay with them until everything is all under control." The officer said.
Sarai turned and ran to Cindy, with tears in her eyes and hugged her.
"Jim and Cindy, since Sarai is only 17, you should be prepared to take classes to become state certified foster parents if she has to remain in your care until she reaches 18, just so the State of California doesn't come back on you. How long Sarai will be staying with you will be determined when Scott Greenly, her father, goes to trial. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday and after that a trial date will be set. Sarai, if there's anything you need from your house, you can call us tomorrow and we'll send an officer over to get you and take you back to the house. Since it's a crime scene and investigators will be working over there tomorrow, you'll need to be with an officer when you go over there."
Sarai shook her head in understanding.
"You guys have a good night and thank you for your time." The officer said as he turned and left.
"Come on. Let's go home." Jim said as he started to walk out. The others followed behind.
When they got home, Brenda took Sarai up to the room she'd be sleeping in.
"This is where you'll sleep. My room's right next door to the right and Brandon's is next door to the left. The bathroom is right across the hall. You'll be sharing that with me and Brandon. He says I'm a bathroom hog, but he's the real bathroom hog, so you can kick him out if you have to. My parents' room is right down the hall on the left."
Sarai sat down on the bed.
"Wanna talk?" Brenda asked as she sat down next to her.
"I don't get it." Sarai said. "Why me? He's my dad. The same person who said he loved me more than anything in the world when I was a little girl. If he loved me so much, why did he put me through this Hell?"
"He's mentally sick, Sarai. He's crazy." Brenda said.
"I feel like I must've done something to deserve this."
"You didn't do anything. He's the one that's wrong, so don't you feel bad for anything." Brenda replied.
"You guys might wanna come watch the news." Brandon said from the doorway.
"We're coming." Brenda answered.
Brenda and Sarai got up off of the bed and walked downstairs to the living room, where the TV was turned on.
"We have breaking news about an incident on the west side of Beverly Hills." A news anchor on the television said.
Brandon, Brenda, Cindy, Jim and Sarai attentively watched the TV.
"WHBH's Carla Sitroni has more." The anchor said. "Carla?"
The camera then switched over and showed a picture of Sarai's house.
"Hi Jack." Carla said. "I'm here at 504 West Beverly Court. Earlier tonight, a man was taken into custody by the Beverly Hills police when he tried to kill his 17-year-old daughter and her 17-year-old friend. It started shortly after 7:30 PM, when the girl's friend came over to her house to see her after he got out of work from his job at a local restaurant. The friend came in the house and found the girl's father about to rape her. The man then threatened to kill both of the teenagers. The girl managed to escape to call the police, but he friend remained in the house. Gunshots were fired and the girl's friend was struck in the right arm with a bullet. He was taken to Beverly Hills Hospital, where he was treated and released. The names of the suspect and the victims are all being kept anonymous at the request of the victims. No fatalities were reported. Back to you, Jack."
"Thank you, Carla. I'm glad no one was hurt." Jack said.
"I think I'm going to go to bed." Sarai said as she headed back up the stairs.
"Hold on and you can borrow some pajamas." Brenda said as she followed her up the stairs.
Sarai couldn't wait for her father's trial. She didn't want to go back to living with him, and she wasn't sure she wanted to live with her mother if her dad had to go to prison, since she never believed anything Sarai had told her about her father, anyway.
