At Bishop Hardinge's school it was considered rather daring to smoke cigarettes as this was against the rules and if you were caught you were likely to be caned.

Susan Allen was a quiet and law-abiding girl and kept out of trouble. One day, however, her new friend Debbie Russell came up to her with some cigarettes and asked her if she wanted to smoke one. Susan knew that Debbie smoked quite a lot and, in fact, she had got the cane for it in the previous term. She didn't want her friend to think she was scared so they went to a far off, secluded corner of the playing field.

It was only about the third or fourth cigarette Susan had ever smoked, and she wasn't really enjoying it, when they heard somebody coming. The girls were relieved when it turned out to be Kate, Debbie's older sister. But they were shocked when she said that she was a prefect and that she was going to have to report them to the headmistress. They didn't believe that she could really mean it and Debbie wouldn't give her the cigarettes when she asked for them. She walked off, saying again that she would report them both.

They finished their cigarettes before going back inside for the rest of the lunch hour. Sue asked her friend if she thought Kate might really mean it. She still didn't think so, but they'd had a row the day before and Sue got the impression that she was not too sure.

They found out as soon as afternoon school started. Miss Finch, their class teacher, read their names out and told them to report to Mr Fowler after school that afternoon. Mr Fowler was the deputy headmaster and was responsible for inflicting corporal punishment when this was deemed necessary in the opinion of Mrs Woodman, the headmistress. After that announcement Sue couldn't pay much attention to the rest of that day's lessons. She was aware of the other girls in her class looking at her and Debbie and whispering to each other about what was going to happen to the two of them.

After school, as she and her friend made their way along the corridors to Mr Fowler's office, she asked Debbie whether she thought there was any chance that they wouldn't get the cane. She was not cheered up when Debbie said that she was sure that they would. She'd had the cane for smoking before and Mr Fowler was not likely to let her off with anything less this time. And if he caned her he would have to cane Susan as well.

Debbie saw that Sue was really terrified, and she stood still to talk to her. "I'm not looking forward to this either, Sue." she said. "I hate getting the cane! It bloody well hurts like hell! But there's nothing we can do about it. And it's not the end of the world - we'll live! You'll only make it worse by getting so worked up!" Susan tried to put a brave face on, but Debbie's words had not made her feel any better.

When they reached Mr Fowler's door Debbie knocked and the girls went in. The deputy headmaster looked very angry. He asked them for the cigarettes and Debbie opened her school case and dug them out. Unceremoniously he threw the packet in the bin. Then he told them both to go and stand facing the wall, hands on heads, and not to talk to each other. When the girls were in position Mr Fowler resumed the paperwork he had been doing.

Nothing happened for more than a quarter of an hour. The deputy headmaster knew that a period of waiting and apprehension would increase the effect of the punishment. He was certainly right so far as Sue was concerned. She was very near to tears when there was a knock on the door and Mrs Whitfield, the French teacher, came in. She completely ignored the two culprits and had a brief conversation with Mr Fowler. As they talked Sue hardly knew whether she wanted them to carry on talking and so delay her punishment or whether she wanted the awful, stomach churning, waiting to be over. When she had finished Mrs Whitfield glanced at the girls and said "Well, I'd better let you get on then. I can see you've got some work to do!"

After she left Susan, still facing the wall, heard Mr Fowler get up from his desk and open a cupboard. Then she heard something being placed on the desk. She could guess what that was. The deputy headmaster told them to turn round and Sue saw the light brown cane lying on his desk. It was slender, slightly curved, and nearly three feet in length. Susan's knees knocked together at the thought of the effect of that stick on her bottom.

Mr Fowler said that he had no alternative other than to cane them both. He said that he hoped that Debbie realised that her sister had only done her duty in reporting them. He said that he would deal more severely with Debbie as she had procured the cigarettes and she had been punished for smoking before.

"Right, Debbie," he said, "you know the form. Let's show Susan what happens to naughty girls' bottoms! Susan, you stand where you are and keep your hands on your head. It will be your turn soon enough!"

Biting her lips Debbie moved a tall stool into the centre of the office. The memory of her last caning, only the term before, was still very clear to her and she knew what was expected. Mr Fowler watched impassively as she slowly started to unbutton her blue school skirt, stepped out of it and left it on the teacher's desk. Glumly the fifteen year old bent over the stool, gripping the lowest crossbar tightly.

Sue had a clear view of her friend's pert schoolgirl bottom, encased in tight-fitting regulation blue school panties, trembling slightly, waiting for the cane. But Mr Fowler was not satisfied.

"Oh no, my girl! You're not getting away with that!" he said. "I warned you last time; if you were sent to me again it would be panties down! Now, get them down right away, miss!"

Debbie protested, but it was to no avail. Reluctantly the humiliated girl inched her panties down, before Susan's horrified stare, until they fell to her ankles revealing the delicate pale flesh of her rounded buttocks. Then, with an audible sigh, she once more bent over the stool. She kept both her legs dead straight and tightly pressed together.

Sue watched in appalled horror as Mr Fowler removed his jacket and picked up the cane. He tapped it across the centre of Debbie's bottom, denting the soft flesh. Then he slowly raised it to the full extent of his arm and whipped it down with great force.

Susan had not fully realised just how severe a punishment a caning was. It was just terrifying to see the speed and force of that stroke, and to imagine the effect of that flexible cane wielded with a grown man's full strength across a teenage girl's bared, vulnerable bottom. She gasped as the cane rose again and she saw a white line form across the full width of Debbie's quivering behind before quickly reddening. Sue turned away and closed her eyes. She didn't want to believe this was really happening.

Susan could close her eyes, but not her ears. Debbie's whole body had shuddered at the impact of that first stroke, but she had remained in position, grunting as the intense stinging pain bit home. But after the third stroke Debbie gave vent to an earsplitting yell of pain "Arghh . . . Yeeowww!!" Shocked, Sue opened her eyes again and looked to see what was going on. Debbie's feet were beating a tattoo on the floor as she bent over the stool and she could see some light brown curls peeping through the gap in her thighs.

Debbie could no longer keep still. After the fourth whack, delivered with unrelenting force to her gyrating behind, she yelled again and half rose and turned towards the deputy headmaster. Sue could see that she had started to cry. She felt sick at the thought that it would be her turn soon. Mr Fowler caught hold of the tall fourth-former, bent her over again and forced her back into position.

"You don't seem to have learned anything from your last visit here," the deputy said, "I hope the message will get through to you this time!" Then he drew the cane back and was just about to deliver the next stroke when Debbie suddenly reached back and protected her bottom with her hands. Mr Fowler just checked himself in time and angrily told Debbie that she was lucky she hadn't got her fingers broken. He said that if Debbie was not prepared to stay in position and take her well-deserved medicine he would ask Susan to hold her down and he would give her extra strokes. He said Debbie had known what to expect if she was caught smoking again.

After that Debbie stayed in position for the last two strokes but she yelled loudly at each and drummed her feet in pain. She was no longer trying to keep her legs together as she had at first and from her frantic squirmings and wrigglings and her anguished yelps it was obvious to Sue just how much of an effort it was taking her to stay in place. After the sixth stroke the deputy told Debbie to get up.

She straightened and her hands went immediately to her wealed backside. The sobbing teenager danced around the office in agony, not even thinking about covering herself up. Mr Fowler allowed her a few seconds to recover and then told her to pull up her panties and put her skirt back on again.

Debbie had been slow about lowering her panties but she took even longer to pull them up again. Ugly raised weals covered the whole surface of her bottom and she gasped and squealed as she painfully manouvred the navy blue panties into place. Sue was absolutely petrified. Her friend was so tall, so tough. And yet a mere six blows from that supple wand had sufficed to reduce her to tearful humiliation.

The deputy ordered Debbie to go and stand by the wall and turned his attention to the second of the two girls. "All right, Susan. Skirt off and over the stool!"

Desperately hoping that there would be some miraculous intervention the frightened girl took as much time as she dared to in complying with Mr Fowler's instructions, but she ended up soon enough draped over the stool with her trembling bottom upthrust for its ordeal. Mr Fowler allowed Susan to retain her panties for her punishment. In fact he knew perfectly well that the thin school panties did not provide any real protection from his cane. But he was quite aware that the girls all hated having to take their panties down and be punished on the bare and regarded this as a much worse punishment.

Pretty little Susan escaped relatively lightly compared to her friend. Mr Fowler whacked his cane down four times over her navy blue school panties, rather than the six awarded to Debbie, and he did not use so much force in her punishment. Nevertheless the effect on the fourth former was traumatic. The normally well-behaved girl had never before even been spanked, and the acute sting imparted by the deputy's cane shocked her.

She yelled out loud at each stroke and, although she grimly held on to the crossbar of the stool for dear life, her bottom was weaving wildly from side to side by the time the fourth stroke sliced in. That final stroke was much harder than the first three, as hard as any that Debbie had received earlier. Sue lost her grip on the bar and leapt upright in agony grabbing her pain-filled behind.

She hadn't known if she was going to get six like Debbie and it was a marvellous relief when Mr Fowler laid the cane back on his desk and said "I hope that will help to remind you that there is a school rule against smoking, Susan." Then he entered the details in the school Punishment Book, told the girls to report for an hours detention the following Monday and finally allowed them to go.

As they limped slowly down the corridor each step was painful. Sue said some unprintable things to Debbie about her sister and she agreed emphatically. They made their painful way to the toilets where they rinsed their faces and removed the signs that they'd been crying. They stayed there for about twenty minutes until the worst of the violent stinging was dying away, leaving a duller throbbing pain behind, which still hurt but was easier to bear without showing it so much. The girls practised sitting down on the cloakroom benches, but both, especially Debbie, found it still too painful to sit down properly. If they tried this it brought back the first penetrating soreness.

Eventually Debbie said to Sue that they really ought to start for home. On their way to the bus stop Debbie said that she would make sure that they got their own back on Kate and Sue said that she would help if it was needed.

One of the worst things about the whole incident for Susan was telling her mum about it. Mrs Allen was very angry that her daughter had been caned for smoking and, although she kissed her and was sympathetic, she said she had deserved her punishment. Sue's father was also very angry and Susan was sent to bed early and had her pocket money reduced to less than her younger brother's. Mrs Allen also said that she shouldn't mix with Debbie and would have gone round to complain to her mother about her getting Susan into trouble if her daughter hadn't stopped her.

A few days later, the morning after both girls had undergone their detention, Debbie told her friend that she had thought of a way they could get back on Kate. She was the prefect responsible for the school library and a lot of the books had been missing recently and questions asked. Debbie said that some at least of these were at their house, brought there by Kate. Of course she would not normally have told on her, but after what she had done for herself and Sue the girls both thought that Debbie would be justified if she could do it without anyone knowing she had deliberately given her away.

It had taken her a while to think of a way to achieve this, but her plan was to get their English teacher, who was the master in charge of the library, to go back to their house on some pretext so that he would see and recognise the books, as Kate had just left them around the house, not expecting anyone from the school to see them.

It seemed a good scheme and the girls hoped that Mr Bradbrook, the English master, would report Kate to the headmistress and she would lose her position as a prefect. Debbie also thought that if their mother found out that Kate had been taking books from school without permission she might well spank her with a hairbrush. Both Russell sisters had often been punished in this way in the past, although the last time for Kate had been some years ago. Debbie herself still paid regular visits over her mother's knees and thought that a dose of the hairbrush was just what Kate needed to bring her down a peg or two. She said she would tell Sue the next day if her plan had worked.

After the English lesson Debbie had a short discussion with Mr Bradbrook and after school Susan saw her being driven home in the English master's car.

Next morning she saw her again as soon as she got to school. Kate said that the plan had completely succeeded! Mr Bradbrook had seen the books as soon as he had arrived at her house and had asked Debbie if she had taken them. Debbie had said that she had no idea how they had got there. Then Mr Bradbrook asked Mrs Russell if she knew anything about them. She said that her elder daughter, Kate, had brought them home. Not realising that they were the school's property, she thought Mr Bradbrook was just impressed with her daughter's reading!

Then Kate got home and was taken aback to see Mr Bradbrook there. He asked her about the books and on the spur of the moment she said that Debbie had brought them home. But he told her what her mother had said. Then she said she'd brought them home to repair the bindings, but he didn't believe the change of story and in the end she admitted it, bursting into tears. He left with the books, saying he would report Kate to Mrs Woodman and that she should go to her office before assembly next day.

Debbie said that then her mother had sent Kate to her room and she soon followed her. Soon Debbie had heard the sounds of a vigorous spanking which seemed to go on and on. She could clearly hear the loud smack of the hairbrush but no sound from Kate. Her mother was obviously not going to stop until she reacted and the whacks continued remorselessly. Eventually Kate's resolution had to snap and she yelled out. Then, after a few last wallops, the sounds of the punishment ended.

Sue's behind had still not fully recovered and she was delighted to hear that the tall seventeen year old who had reported her had earned a sore bottom of her own. Debbie said that Kate did not suspect that she had deliberately engineered the whole thing. That morning, before they had left for school, she had sympathised with Kate about her spanking and she had shown no signs of suspecting her. But she did ask Debbie something which surprised her. She asked her if she thought that she might get the cane at school!

Debbie and Sue had never really considered this a possibility when Debbie came up with her plan because it was virtually unknown for sixth formers to get the cane and unheard of for prefects. The most they had expected was that Kate might get put in detention and have to sit in humiliation for an hour among naughty first and second years with her bottom at imminent risk from the wooden paddle frequently at use in detention class - and from which Sue's bottom had had the narrowest of escapes that Monday. Debbie told Kate how unlikely it seemed to her that she could be caned, but she responded that she'd almost certainly not be a prefect much longer; that the headmistress would probably say that she'd abused a position of trust and that she'd probably made matters worse by trying to blame Debbie at first. "It's the sort of thing they take ever so seriously, Debbie. I know it is."

Debbie saw that her sister was genuinely worried about getting the cane and noticed that she had decided to go to school wearing a pair of grey trousers rather than a skirt. This was permitted for fifth formers and above but Kate never usually wore trousers and Debbie realised that she was motivated by the hope that, if she was sent to Mr Fowler, the deputy headmaster would let her keep the trousers on. Boys at the local grammar school were normally caned over trousers, which didn't interfere with the punishment so much as a loose school skirt. Debbie knew that some fifth form girls had been caned wearing trousers last term.

Kate apologised to Debbie for trying to put the blame on her, and even for having reported her and Susan the week before. Debbie was still not ready to forgive her, as her own caning was still too fresh in her memory, and she did not encourage her as much as she might have done. Debbie knew that Kate had been caned when she'd been in the second year, before Debbie and Sue had joined Bishop Hardinge's school. She well remembered how, when she had been ten years old, her mother had made her big sister show her the cane marks on her bottom and had told her that that was what happened to naughty girls. But that was a long time ago and Debbie thought that Kate had forgotten what it was like to be caned. So she pointedly mentioned to her sister that she still had the marks from her caning and that it still hurt her to sit down.

As she was relaying all this to Susan the bell went for assembly. In her announcements the headmistress said that the person who had taken the books from the library had now been identified.

"I am sorry to have to tell you," she went on "that it was Kate Russell, a sixth form prefect and the girl most responsible for the safe custody of the books. Kate is no longer a prefect and I can assure the school she will be regretting her behaviour bitterly before she is very much older!"

On their way to the first lesson after assembly Debbie told Sue that she was beginning to think that Kate might actually get the cane. The headmistress's words had certainly left it as a strong possibility! The two girls resolved to hang around outside Mr Fowler's office at breaktimes during lunch hour and after school - the times at which canings were usually administered - to see if Kate really got her comeuppance.

The girls were a little late in arriving near the deputy headmaster's office at the beginning of morning break as the History teacher kept the class in for a couple of minutes after the bell went. They made their way along the corridor and stopped some way short of Mr Fowler's door and pretended to be interested in some notices pinned to a board.

THWACKK!!

Although the sound was muffled by the intervening door neither girl had any difficulty in recognising the sound as that of a cane lashing down onto a naughty schoolgirl's upturned bottom. Sue turned to Debbie: "Yes! Kate's getting the cane!".

Debbie was equally excited, but more cautious. "Hold on," she said, "We don't know it's her. It could be anyone. It won't be long, a couple more whacks like that and we'll hear her yell!"

But, in fact, stroke after stroke was heard to descend, at regular intervals of about fifteen seconds and no sound at all could be heard from the victim. Debbie and Sue looked at each other. They had heard eight strokes, and there might have been more before they arrived, and there was no reaction from the girl being caned nor any sign that the punishment was reaching its end.

Perhaps Mr Fowler, too, was feeling some frustration. There was a longer pause before the next stroke and it sounded even more vicious than its predecessors to the listening girls outside. Still there was no answering yell. Debbie realised that it had to be Kate in there. She had never heard of any girl getting this number of strokes before, certainly it had to be a senior girl's caning, and she remembered how long it had taken before Kate had cried out under their mother's hairbrush the evening before.

Finally flesh and blood could take no more. As the next stroke smacked down the girls heard an anguished howl, unmistakably in Kate's voice. Immediately there was another loud thwack, followed by an even louder shriek. The listeners realised that the unbelievable punishment was at an end when they heard, through the faint sound of sobbing, the clatter of Mr Fowler's cane being put down on his desk. Once again Debbie and Susan gave all their attention to the noticeboard.

Sooner than the girls expected the door the deputy's office opened and Kate emerged. The tall seventeen year old was in a terrible state. Her long blonde hair was all over the place and her pretty face was screwed up in pain. She was crying. With her left hand pressed to the seat of her grey trousers the well-caned former prefect scuttled down the corridor as fast as her unsteady legs could carry her. She took no notice of Debbie and Sue standing there. She didn't even see them.

As if retracing Debbie and Susan's steps after their canings Kate stumbled along, half-blinded by tears, to the girls' toilets. There she locked herself in to a cubicle and proceeded to weep out her pain and shame, leaning on the cistern with one hand while the other, ever so carefully and tenderly, caressed her intensely stinging bottom. It was almost the end of morning school when Kate, by now a little more in control of herself, emerged from the cubicle and washed and dried her face. She did not even think about going in to her class, but went straight home.

When Debbie got home that evening Kate was lying stretched out face down on her bed, stark naked, with a folded wet towel laid across her caned buttocks. Before Debbie had a chance to say anything Kate once again apologised for reporting her and Susan. "I'm really sorry, Debbie. I'd forgotten just how much that bloody cane hurts! Well! I won't forget again in a hurry!"

Debbie felt a wave of sympathy for her brave big sister. She had been going to taunt her and explain how she and Sue had masterminded her punishment, but now she felt ashamed. "Oh, Katie!" she said, "I'm so sorry! Your poor bum! Is there anything I can do at all?"

Kate asked her sister to take the towel to the bathroom, rinse it in cold water, wring it out and bring it back to put on her behind. "My bum still hurts like hell," she said, "but I think the cold stops the stinging a bit."

As she picked up the towel Debbie saw the mess that their mother's hairbrush and Mr Fowler's cane had made of Kate's rear. The entire area of the buttocks was black and blue and covered with a network of raised weals. She could not restrain an exclamation at the horrid sight and scurried out to the bathroom on her errand of mercy.

On her return she very carefully laid the towel to cover her sister's battered bottom. "How many strokes did you get, Katie?" she asked, sympathetically.

But Kate could not tell her. Mr Fowler had not announced the number in advance and Kate had lost count well before the end. "It was really awful, Debbie," she confessed to her sister. "Mr Fowler was really angry. He was snorting like an animal. He said he would make sure I knew what a real caning was like." Kate wriggled on the bed as a spasm of pain went through her. "I'm jolly glad I wore trousers, though," she went on, "I'd never have been able to take a caning like that over just panties!"

Debbie, however, was not so sure. She thought that if Mr Fowler had seen the marks left by Mrs Russell's hairbrush - as he certainly would have done when Kate had raised her skirt for an over-panties punishment - he would never have caned her so hard or given her so many strokes. And not being able to see the cane marks, and Kate being so stupidly brave he probably didn't realise just how much he was hurting her. Apart from the caning and losing her position as a prefect Kate had also been sentenced to detention after school each Monday for the rest of term - and there were still seven Mondays to go.

At school next morning Kate was sent to Mr Fowler for leaving without permission the day before and the start of morning break found her once more in his office. He told her that if she had asked she would have been given leave, but that she had no right just to go off like that.

"So. How's your backside feeling this morning, Kate?" he asked.

Kate blushed. It was hard enough just talking to the man who had so outraged that normally private part of her anatomy, without him asking her questions about it! But she had to reply.

"It still hurts, sir. A lot! It's covered in bruises and it's really sore. I had to eat breakfast standing up this morning!" As she spoke Kate's hands went behind her to the seat of the school skirt she was wearing.

Mr Fowler permitted himself a smile. "Good!" he said. "I'm glad all my effort yesterday wasn't totally wasted! Now I shall endeavour to bring home to you the importance of not leaving school without permission!" The deputy headmaster rose, opened a cupboard and withdrew a cane. "Right, Kate," he said. "In view of yesterday's events I think two strokes will be sufficient!"

"Oh, no, please sir, no!" Kate pleaded, tears pricking at her large grey eyes. "Please not the cane! Oh, please . . ."

"It's all right, Kate," said the deputy headmaster, surprisingly, "I quite agree that your bottom suffered enough yesterday! Hold out your left hand.

The seventeen year old extended her left arm. She was almost as tall as Mr Fowler himself and he adjusted the height of the hand until its position was satisfactory. He tapped the cane across the girl's palm and then raised it high. Kate closed her eyes. "You don't leave school without permission, girl!" snapped the master, before lashing the slender cane down across Kate's palm, just below the base of her fingers.

Kate's whole body shuddered, but she kept her hand firmly extended, hardly altering her stance at all. Mr Fowler nodded approvingly. Kate Russell might be a very naughty girl, totally unfitted for the duties of a prefect, but she was certainly no coward.

Nevertheless he did not moderate the force of her second stroke. The cane slashed violently down to land parallel to and almost the first. The two weals quickly melded into one. As soon as the cane landed Kate jerked her hand away and waved it wildly in the air. She then brought it in front of her mouth and blew on it frantically. Finally she bent forward pressing her stinging palm to the pit of her stomach.

Mr Fowler did not allow her whatever meagre relief this may have brought for long. "Hands by your sides and go and stand facing the wall!" he ordered.

He kept her in this position until the bell went for the end of morning break. Then he asked her what her next lesson was and in which classroom.

"French, sir. In room 16."

"All right," he replied. "We'll go there together. We don't want you running off again!"

So the deputy marched the former prefect through the school like a naughty girl half her age, before delivering her to Mrs Whitfield's class. "Go to your place and sit down" he ordered.

All the girls watched as Kate carefully manouvred herself into her place, wincing noticeably and drawing a deep breath as her bottom made contact with the hard wooden bench.

"Girls I want you all to profit from the example of Kate Russell," said Mr Fowler. "You are all sixth formers and are expected to behave like adults. If you behave as adults you will be treated as adults. If you behave like naughty schoolgirls you will be treated as naughty schoolgirls. And at this school, as we have all just seen, naughty schoolgirls find sitting down very uncomfortable!

"All right, Mrs Whitfield, please carry on," he concluded leaving the classroom. Poor Kate buried her head in her hands and wept quietly to herself for the rest of that lesson.