Subject: Forewarned
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 20:42:54 +0100
From: James Stephenson
To: laura@goodkitty.com

Forewarned

by James Stephenson

Apart from the odd snigger and one or two knowing looks, there was
little reaction when the school secretary came into the class and said
that the head wanted to see Lisa Weatherspoon in his office now.  Lisa
rejoiced in having a reputation as the naughtiest girl in the school.
She was in detention almost every week, and in recent months, her visits
to the headmaster's office from reprimands had become commonplace.
Normally, when summoned like this, she would manage an insolent grin as
she followed the secretary out of the room, to show that she didn't
care.  For once, although it passed unnoticed, the grin was forgotten.
It wasn't that she was especially afraid of going to the head's office
yet again, but the difference this time was that she really didn't have
the fist idea what she was meant to have done wrong.  Nevertheless, she
trotted along behind the overweight secretary, confident that she was in
for yet another telling off for something that she may or may not have
done.
The secretary knocked on the headmaster's door and looked around.
"I have the Weatherspoon girl for you headmaster."
"Splendid."  came the reply.  "Send her straight in."
With a passing grimace, Lisa strode into the familiar room and was
immediately surprised by her reception.  For one thing the headmaster
stood up behind his desk as she walked in.  For another, he had
radically changed his opening line.  Instead of "Stand there in front of
my desk Weatherspoon, I'll be with you when I'm ready." he gestured to
the large leather covered chair in front of his desk.
"Do come in Lisa, take a seat and make yourself comfortable."  Lisa was
quite thrown by this unexpected strategy, and not without some measure
of suspicion.  "Don't worry, Lisa - you're not in trouble for once.  I
just wanted to share some news with you that I think you should know
about."  She found it hard to get to grips with this jovial version of
her regular tormentor and sat down a quite nervously, smoothed her skirt
and placed her hands on her knees.
"What it is Lisa is this.  There has been a growing concern both from
parents and from teachers about the standards of behaviour in this
school, and the governors have been discussing for a while what should
be done.  At a meeting last night, they took the final decisions and the
new rules that they have voted for will come into effect immediately
after next week's half term vacation."
By now Lisa was feeling a distinct sense of foreboding - she had a sixth
sense that was telling her she wasn't going to like this very much.
"To put it briefly Lisa, after half term, any pupil sent to me for
misbehaviour may be given the strap."
Her heart just about stopped beating.  Had he really said what she
thought he'd said?
"Now, the intention is that it shouldn't necessarily be used every time,
but it is felt that knowing of the possibility will make the whole thing
of being sent here that much more effective.  Probably the first time
someone gets sent to me, unless they've done something very serious,
they'll get away with a ticking off and a reminder of what could happen
next time.  Then the first time someone gets strapped, I'll probably
just give them a couple on the hand.  My guess is that there will be a
pretty high proportion for whom that will be quite enough and who'll
make very sure they don't get a repeat dose.  Those that don't learn the
lesson quickly and come back again, I can give them up to six on their
hand or, if I judge that it is necessary to make a more significant
point, then I can also give pupils the strap across their backsides with
a maximum then of ten strokes.  Now I suspect that is going to be an
exceedingly rare event, but I'm sure that it will something long
remembered by anyone foolish enough to push things that far.  You may be
wondering why I'm telling this to you in person; after all I will be
making a general announcement to the whole school in assembly tomorrow
morning.  Well, you see Lisa, I was thinking the other day about which
pupils were most likely to fall foul of the new rules, and I couldn't
help concluding that you were likely to be candidate number one."
By now Lisa felt physically sick.  She hated pain and she was really
frightened by what he had told her already.
"I thought it appropriate therefore that you should have the benefit of
being the first person to be made aware of the new rules, and I'm even
going to give you the privilege of actually seeing the strap."  She held
her breath as he slid open the top drawer of his large oak desk and
reached inside to produce the horrible weapon.
She had never seen a punishment strap before, not even in pictures, and
it was more frightening than she could ever have imagined.  About half a
metre in length, a very dark brown in colour and split for half of its
length into two tails.  It was a couple of inches wide and looked very
thick and heavy as he three it down on the desktop.  She stared at it
transfixed, unable to disguise her growing consternation.
"Pick it up if you want - feel it...."
She timidly reached out to touch it as if it might give her an electric
shock.  It was as heavy as it looked, and the thick leather was quite
stiff so that when she held one end of it the tails only dipped slightly
below the horizontal.  He couldn't be serious!  Even with only moderate
force, this would surely leave your hand in absolute agony and what it
could do to you bottom...  She put it back down, speechless, but
reluctant to maintain contact with it.  He picked it up, lifted it to
his shoulder and brought down hard on the desktop with a bang like a
pistol shot.  Lisa jumped in fright and he grinned with satisfaction.
"I think you're going to have something of a dilemma Lisa.  On the one
hand, if you suddenly reform and keep out of trouble, all your friends
are going to think you're just scared, and they're going to tease you
terribly.  On the other hand, if your behaviour doesn't change, we both
know to won't be long before you'll be feeling that strap again.  One
point of procedure I intend following is that any pupil who gets
corporally punished, I will personally escort them back to their class
immediately afterwards.  So if you get strapped and start crying, there
won't be any opportunity to tidy yourself up before they all see you,
and you're still going to get teased.  It's a real dilemma isn't it?"
Without realising it, Lisa nodded, as she thought through what he was
saying.  She probably would cry and that would be some shameful for her
classmates to see - some of them would think it was hilarious, and a
number had plenty of good reasons to gain pleasure from seeing her
suffer like that.
"Actually, Lisa, off the record now, I think it's probably even worse
for you than that!"  She couldn't see how it could be any worse.  "I
shouldn't say this, but if you ever quote me, I'll just deny it.  I know
for a fact that there are a number of teaching staff who have been
driven demented by your outrageously bad behaviour in the past, and
who've been frustrated by how powerless we were to do anything about it.
They'll be looking for the slightest excuse to send you to me now, so
that they can have the pleasure of seeing you suffer for a change."  Oh,
God, it was true!  Mr. Richardson and Mrs. Henderson to name just two
had been particular targets of Lisa's in the past.  She would be walking
on eggshells with them now.
"There's one other thing I haven't told you.  The governors felt that it
was a remote possibility that someone would, sooner or later, commit any
offence that would be so serious that it would warrant a different level
of response to the strappings I have already told you about.  Or, more
unlikely perhaps, that a pupil would have been strapped so many times
that it seemed to be losing effectiveness in that case.  Hence,
this...."
With that dramatic build-up, he swung open the door of the tall wooden
stationary cupboard, and there, hanging on the inside of the door, was a
crook-handled cane.  Lisa was close to tears now.  The headmaster,
however, was thoroughly enjoying himself as he took the cane down and
swished it cleanly through the air a few times.
"Just imagine, Lisa, how much that thin whippy cane could hurt your
bottom!"  She was imagining and didn't like it one little bit.  She felt
trapped and completely without a way out.
"You're quite safe today Lisa, don't worry.  I'd be in breach of my
contract if I laid a finger on you right now.  But come over here, I
want to let you see what it might be like."  She didn't understand as he
came around the desk and walked to the far side of the room where there
was a big old leather armchair, but she followed along behind.
"If, and of course this is purely conjecture, you were to get yourself
in circumstances where I had no alternative but to cane you, then this
is how it would happen.  You would come across here, stand behind that
chair, and then bend over the back of it and put her hands on the seat.
Go on, try it!"
Terrified that, despite what he had said, he might just hit her, but
nevertheless too frightened now to disobey him, Lisa slowly went to
stand where he had indicated.  The high back of the chair made it
difficult for her to bend over it, and it was a very uncomfortable as
well as a very demeaning position.  In order to put her hands on the
seat of the chair as he'd instructed, Lisa was forced to stand on tiptoe
and to really stretch.  As she did so her shoulder length blonde hair
fell forward so that she had virtually no view of anything else.  He
silently observed the effect with mounting satisfaction.  She was
totally vulnerable and humbled by this pose.  What's more, her short
skirt had risen so that a considerable part of her thighs were now
exposed.  She, like most girls of her age, wore a fairly short skirt and
opaque black tights, but he had never before had such a good view of her
legs and he had to admit they were really rather nice.  However, he had
another shock in store for her yet.
"Very good Lisa.  I'm sure you're beginning to appreciate how exposed
you fell in this position, but after much discussion by the school
governors, there was some considerable concern expressed that having a
skirt flapping around loosely might make it difficult to aim properly
and to achieve the desired result.  Hence it was agreed that I should at
this point turn your skirt up to give a clearer target."
With horror, Lisa felt her skirt being moved and realised that he was
doing just as he had said and exposing her knickers.  Lisa's long legs
encased in the opaque blackness were a much more impressive feature than
he would ever have imagined.  Where the tights were stretched more
across her buttocks, they were less opaque and the white knickers
underneath were readily visible.  They were somewhat on the scanty side
and it occurred to him that she was hardly protected at all from a
caning or from the strap in this position.
"So how does it feel Lisa?  I'd practically be willing to bet money that
you'll be back in here within the next few weeks in this same position,
only next time it'll be for real.  You'll be waiting there, wondering
just how much it's going to smart - wondering how long I'll make you
wait before I start.  Then, suddenly, you'll feel me rest the tip of the
cane on your nether regions as I take aim."  True to his word, she felt
the cane gently resting across the crown of her bottom and she tensed -
might he really just do it now?
Then the cane had gone from her bottom - there was a brief silence,
followed by the sharp swish of the cane and a loud crack as it impacted.
She screwed up her face and waited to feel the searing pain - it was
almost ten seconds before it dawned on her that he had struck the back
of the adjacent chair instead.  Bastard!
"Okay Lisa, you can get up now."  Slowly she eased herself to her feet
and the skirt fell back into place.  She was desperately close to tears.
"That's all Lisa.  I just thought it only fair that you had proper
warning, not that I expect it will make much difference.  You'll have to
clean up your act so much if you don't want someone to take pleasure in
catching you breaking a rule and sending you back here.  Well, I don't
want to keep you from classes any more so run along now."