My Recent Experience

Last Tuesday I was (for lack of a better more eloquent phrase) beaten-up.
Before you stress and your heart-rate increases by 10-fold it's not as bad as it sounds. On Tuesday's I finish school at 2pm. i walked very quickly to the tram stop and managed to catch the 2.04 tram to Hawthorn Station. As I stepped off the tram and headed across the road I looked about me to see if any of my friends had made the earl tram. Seeing no one i continued. Unfortunately a wild looking creature (of the female species) must have seen me looking about and - as she overtook me on the footpath - ejaculated "what you lookin' at bitch?" and spat her chewing gum at my feet.
Thinking this odd behaviour but pretty harmless I let her and her two large male companions overtake me. As I reached the top of the ramp to platforms 2 and 3 the girl (for lack of a more precise and yet truthful word) came up to me yelled something - i can't remember what - and shoved me in the chest and smacked/punched me across the left side of my face. I think at that point one of her male companions called to her because she walked away. I was a little shocked and my jaw went all tingly.
I saw a girl from school (Alice) who I knew and thought to myself 'if i stand with someone she won't come near me again'. I was wrong.
As we reached the platform we decided to stand as far away as possible from the ruffian and wait for some other people we knew to arrive. Within moments my attacker approached us and demanded "What chu bitches laughing at? Better not be me"
To this little Alice replied "None of your business" she was quite brave!
I had taken my hair out to cover the left side of my face; i didn't want anyone to see I was hurt. The girl (I think I'll call her 'C' to lessen confusion) hit/shoved/punched me again - I'm a bit unclear as to what she did but I remember it not being nice. I chose to walk away from her. This was a bit of a mistake because she grabbed my hair, pulled me down and punched me in the back of the head several times. I held onto my hair, closer to the roots, to prevent her from pulling any out and I think I was stronger than her because somehow I was facing her and I looked her in the face and said
"Look I don't know you, haven't spoken to you, leave me alone" or something to this extent and turned to walk away again. C aimed a kick at my back and hit my bag (it probably hurt her foot it was so packed with school books) and according to witnesses one of her companions pulled her away. It was at that point that the train arrived.
A girl I know from school, Catherine, came up to me put her arm around me and walked me onto the train. She basically held me up as I went into shock.
Alas the drama was not over: as we stood there one of C's companions walked into our carriage and approached us. He told us not to do anything about what happened, that it was just his sister and that if he hadn't pulled her off me it would have been much worse.
Catherine made him go away.
After spending an hour and a half at the police station giving my statement to a policeman who could only type with two fingers and asked me if my attacker was "Australian or New Australian" my mama took me home. I had a hot shower, rubbed arnica (anti-bruising cream) all over my face, chest and shoulders and climbed into bed where I was served toast, a cookie and a cup of sweet tea.

In retrospect when C attacked me there were at least 20 other school girls present and two middle-aged big men. None of these witnesses helped me. After the danger was over Catherine, Alice and a few others grouped around me on the train and organised for someone to stay with me at Camberwell until my train came. This was good because I was in a state of shock and need help. I cried for about three hours but finally - after having to repeat myself several hundred times to the policeman - I was able to think and speak about it without crying.
My only injuries were a sore neck and left shoulder and occasional sharp pains in the side of my face. After three days and a Bowen session I am quite recovered and all aches and pains are gone. Thanks to the arnica the bruising that had started disappeared in time for me to go to school the next day.
On the upside the detective handling my case is called Detective Sergent Beams. Yup that's right; Beams. When he introduced himself I immediately thought of the numerous crime novels I've read and was tempted to ask whether he was a character from a book. I didn't though.

The only thing that has stuck with me is slight paranoia. Now wherever I go I'm afraid I'll bump into C and her companions again. I'm afraid no one is going to help me if I get attacked. I'm afraid that if I see anyone in the situation I was in that I won't have the guts to walk over and help them. I'm afraid to go to Hawthorn Station by myself.
I figure I'm safe in the morning because C didn't look like the kind of girl to be up and about at 8 in the morning.