Response to Ariana - Janie

I don't think Ariana ever actually planned to go with Connor. If you really think about Ariana's personality, and from the quote, "There have been no other girls he's brought here, although he hasn't told Ariana that" (4), we can surmise that they haven't been together long; Ariana's talk about kicking AWOL doesn't seem to go beneath the surface. It reminded me of how some kids will just say, "I should pull the fire alarm before my math test so I don't have to take it!" or "I will totally beat you up if you steal my pencil again." People say these things without really thinking too much about them; they dont actually plan to ever do them. In Ariana's case, even her response was kind of airy. It didn't seem to hold much meaning for her: "Sure. Sure I do. I could leave here" (4). Because we're seeing this part from Connor's point of view, it's difficult to notice Ariana's nonchalance at "going AWOL," but she was never going to leave in the first place. She's far too comfortable in her current life to leave it for Connor.