Susan Jennings was in a hurry. She had had to stay late in her last class to explain why she had done so badly in a test and now she wanted to catch up with her friends in the playground. She ran at top speed down the corridor. Just as she was approaching the vestibule she rounded a corner - and ran straight into Miss Wilkins!

Susan stopped dead, shocked at the collision. The winded Maths teacher grabbed at her stomach with one hand and at the girl with her other. It took her some time to recover her breath before she addressed the girl. "You need a lesson, my girl! More haste, less speed. Come with me!"

As Miss Wilkins marched her away Susan felt awful. The young Maths mistress had a reputation as a stern disciplinarian and was said to have a very heavy hand with a slipper. Sue was one of the better behaved girls in her class and had only been slippered once. That had been two years before, when she'd been in the third year. She had been called out for talking in class after repeated warnings. She still remembered how much it hurt and how embarrassing it had been to bend over in front of her class.

Miss Wilkins bundled the sixteen year old along roughly, holding her by her shoulder. When they reached her classroom she pushed Susan in and followed her, closing the door behind them. Susan tried to stammer out an apology, but the teacher did not appear even to listen to her as she went to her desk and extracted a large white plimsoll.

"Remove your blazer, roll up your skirt and bend over one of the desks at the front!" ordered the angry teacher. Susan was startled at this. Running in the corridor was quite a minor offence and most teachers would have been satisfied with a telling off or lines. She had thought that Miss Wilkins, being so strict, might give her the slipper, but she had expected to get it over her skirt like the last time.

"COME ON, GIRL! Don't waste my time!" Susan had no choice. Sullenly she took off her blazer and rolled up her blue pleated skirt, revealing her regulation navy blue panties. Susan felt herself blushing as she slowly bent over the desk.

Miss Wilkins certainly wasted no time. She walloped the slipper down hard across Susan's left buttock. Susan gasped and her body shuddered at the sudden sting. Seven full-bodied whacks followed, each on alternate sides of the teenager's bottom. Miss Wilkins put the plimsoll down and told Susan that she could stand up. As she did so her skirt fell to cover her smarting bottom. Susan tried, nearly successfully, to hold back the tears from her large blue eyes, but her hands tenderly tried to comfort her painful behind through her skirt.

"You can go now, but don't run!" the Maths teacher told her. Susan did not feel like running. She walked to the toilets, trying to avoid the glances of teachers and her schoolmates who looked at her curiously. When there she carefully washed her face and then locked herself into a cubicle until most of the sting had gone. Finally after half of the lunch hour had passed she ventured out into the playground to find her friends who had wondered what had happened to her.

"That bitch Wilkins caught me running in the corridor," she explained. "She gave me the slipper."

"Oh, no! You poor thing!" sympathised Gail Turner, "She whacks the hardest; I think she enjoys hurting you. How many did you get?"

"Eight . . . and she made me lift my skirt! I'm going to get my own back!"

Susan's friends didn't take this threat seriously. But she meant it.

The next day Susan arrived at school early and sneaked into Miss Wilkins' classroom. She had brought a screwdriver with her and she carefully removed some screws from the teacher's chair. Susan was good with her hands and was one of the few girls in the fifth year taking woodwork and metalwork. Soon she had fixed the chair so that anyone who sat in it would fall to the ground. Susan smiled, put the screwdriver in her blazer pocket, and left the classroom.

Later that afternoon the news of an accident to Miss Wilkins was all over the school.

"See, I told you I'd get her back!" Susan boasted to Gail.

"Oh, no! Was that you, Sue?" exclaimed Gail excitedly, "You are stupid. She could have been badly hurt."

"Well, she hurt me!" said Susan defensively.

Unfortunately for Susan, Gail was not a good person to choose to keep a secret. At lunchtime Mrs Hind, the History teacher, heard her telling another girl that it had been Sue who had fixed Miss Wilkins' chair. A little investigation served to show that the Maths teacher had slippered Susan Jennings of 5B the day before. When Susan was confronted she still had the screwdriver in her blazer pocket and she could not deny her guilt for long. She was ordered to report to the headmistress at the start of afternoon break.

Susan knew that this meant the strap. She had never had this before, but she knew from the reports of other girls in her class that it really hurt - a lot more than the slipper. She remembered when Gail had been sent for the strap the year before and had come back still near tears and completely unable to sit down. Gail had said later that it hurt ten times as much as the slipper.

Mrs Hind had told Susan that it had been Gail who had let her secret out and Susan did not speak to her that afternoon. She was angry and resentful, and frightened that she would not be able to take her punishment. She had heard that some girls had to be held down by the school secretary. Also her bottom had not yet completely recovered from her slippering of the previous day and that was bound to accentuate the effect of the punishment.

Susan knocked on the headmistress's door at the beginning of afternoon break. She heard Mrs Carter's stern voice telling her to enter. It was the first time Susan had ever been in the headmistress's office but the scared teenager did not feel like looking about her. She stood in front of Mrs Carter's desk biting her lower lip while her legs started to knock against each other.

"Close the door, Susan!"

Susan jumped and, apologising hurriedly, obeyed.

Mrs Carter inspected the apprehensive fifth year standing before her. She looked almost as though butter would not melt in her mouth, with her slim body and sweet face surmounted by long blonde curls. Her large blue eyes looked pleadingly at the headmistress and her hands were cupped nervously by her side almost as though ready to protect her bottom.

But Mrs Carter was not of a mind to be lenient with this young lady. She took a very dim view of practical jokes, especially those which carried a risk of physical harm. In this case it was only through good fortune that Miss Wilkins had not been seriously injured. If she had been the headmistress would have expelled Susan immediately with no second chances. As it was she would make sure that she received a sound strapping. Mrs Carter knew that Susan had never been sent for the strap before, but the girl was no stranger to corporal punishment - she had been slippered just the day before - and undoubtedly she richly deserved a good hiding.

The headmistress tried to make the seriousness of her offence clear to Susan. She explained that Miss Wilkins could have been very seriously injured. Susan tried to defend herself by saying that she thought that Miss Wilkins had punished her unfairly the day before, but Mrs Carter was not impressed.

She said that if Susan had felt that it was unfair she should have complained to her and that, in any event, she thought that the punishment had been fully deserved.

Mrs Carter opened a drawer and took out a thick leather strap. She unwound it slowly and placed it on her desk. Susan stared at it, petrified. It was dark brown, almost black, in colour and was about two feet long and 1«" broad. Despite its thickness - it was about ¬" thick - it slithered across the desk like a snake. Its business end was split into two tails about 9" or 10" long. Susan shivered as she looked at it. She felt her regulation navy blue panties sticking to her bottom.

"Move that stool into the middle of the room," Mrs Carter ordered the trembling girl. Susan obeyed, wondering as she did so how many other girls had bent over that stool through the years.

"Now remove your blazer and skirt, and bend over the stool!"

Susan turned one last pleading look to the headmistress and then took off her blazer and placed it on the desk. She slipped off her shoes before removing her skirt and stood still for a few seconds before stooping over the stool. It was so deeply humiliating to have to bend over in her navy blue school panties and white knee-length socks. She was sixteen years old after all.

"Twelve strokes, girl!" said Mrs Carter grimly.

Susan gulped. She hadn't expected anything like so many. Gail had only got six strokes and anything more than eight was quite rare. But Mrs Carter intended to make an example of her. Susan wanted to protest but she felt that if she opened her mouth she would be sick.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mrs Carter raise the strap. She screwed her eyes closed and gripped the crossbar of the stool tightly. The strap slashed down, its two tails separating as it fell, to cover nearly the whole of Susan's blue-pantieed bottom.

CRACK!!

The force of the blow almost unbalanced Susan. Then the pain hit her. It hurt horribly. Gail had been right. That one stroke hurt as much as her entire slippering of the day before. And she still had eleven to come! She would never be able to take it. She felt tears come to her eyes.

As she raised the strap again Mrs Carter noted that areas of the girl's bottom-flesh unprotected by her school panties were already beginning to redden.

CRACK!!

This time Susan let her feelings go and squealed loudly with pain. Her legs kicked out and she desperately tried to think of anything other than the unbelievable pain in her nether regions. Mrs Carter smiled faintly and raised the strap.

CRACK!!

The strap splatted across Susan's blue panties, denting them deeply into her tender flesh. Again Susan yelled. Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the bar even tighter in a vain attempt to ease the pain.

CRACK!!

The fourth stroke seemed to hurt even more than the first three. Pain surged through her body. She no longer felt sick; the pain was beyond that. Now it didn't die down at all after each stroke but continued to burn and pulsate through her. She cried out in deep, panting breaths.

CRACK!!

"N-n-n-n-nooooooo!" hissed Susan, shaking her head wildly.

"Stay still, girl!" warned Mrs Carter. Susan's legs were now moving constantly.

CRACK!!!

It was too much. Susan howled in pain and lost her grip on the bar. Her hands went to her outraged bottom and she half straightened. She could feel wide swelling weals through the thin cotton of her panties. Mrs Carter waited patiently, flicking the strap against her own legs. When the sobbing girl made no effort to resume her position, Mrs Carter addressed her.

"Come on Susan. Back over the stool. If I have to call Miss Atkinson in to hold you it will mean extra strokes."

"No! Please!"

"Bend over!" the headmistress ordered inexorably.

Stiffly the tearful girl bent back down over the stool. Sue was determined to be as brave as she could be and to take her punishment. After all she knew that she wasn't the first girl to take a 'twelver' from Mrs Carter, and she wouldn't be the last. All the others had survived so she would as well! Susan's one hope was that it just couldn't hurt any more. Surely this was the maximum pain level and her bottom would be numb to future strokes.

She soon found out that she was wrong! Mrs Carter was an expert with the strap and each of the next four strokes brought a wild cry of pain from the teenage girl. Susan couldn't stay in position and leapt up after each stroke. But Mrs Carter was prepared for this. She knew that any girl, even the biggest sixth formers, found it hard to stay bent over after more than six of the best from her strap and she was prepared to wait.

Susan was now sobbing uncontrollably, but she knew she had no choice and somehow she managed to force herself each time to get back across the stool and to present her supremely painful bottom for yet another stroke.

Mrs Carter paused for a while as Susan resumed her place after the tenth stroke. The headmistress intended the two last strokes to be truly memorable. Deliberately she laid one of the strap's 'tails' atop the other. She knew how much this would intensify the sting. Then she whacked the strap down with full force, using the strength of her whole body, below the previously punished area across the tops of Susan's unprotected thighs.

CRACK!!!

Susan's head shot up and she let out a scream of pain that seemed to come from deep inside her. That stroke had hurt more than twice as much as any of the others. Then she jumped up again and danced madly around the office, her hands waving wildly as she emitted Indian-style war whoops.

Mrs Carter grabbed her by the arm. "I've not finished yet, young lady!" she reminded her. "Get back over the stool!"

Susan hardly believed any longer that this nightmare would end, but she automatically obeyed. Small movements hurt dreadfully and it was some time before Mrs Carter was satisfied with her position. The headmistress could see the mark left by that last stroke glowing bright red across Susan's thighs. She nodded her head. Susan Jennings would not forget this strapping for a long time to come.

Once again the headmistress carefully placed one of the leather tails onto the other. She took aim and then whipped the strap down again so as to land on exactly the same place as the last.

CRACK!!!

The effect was devastating. Susan leapt a good foot into the air and came down in an untidy heap on the floor, howling wildly. Mrs Carter deposited the strap on her desk and waited a moment or two for the sobbing teenager to recover herself. When there was no change she extended an arm and half dragged Susan to her feet. Susan couldn't believe the pain. Her whole mind and body was centred in that hot, throbbing mass of flesh extending from the small of her back to the tops of her thighs.

"Return the stool to its place and get dressed," the headmistress ordered.

It took Susan a long time to obey. Every movement was agony. While she was dressing Mrs Carter made out a slip giving details of Susan's punishment for her to take home and give to her parents to sign.

When Susan had finally managed to replace her clothing Mrs Carter gave her the note and dismissed her, expressing a hope that she had learned a lesson. Susan hobbled to the door with both hands tightly clasped to the seat of her pleated skirt. She took short steps and even these caused increased pain as her tortured buttocks rubbed together. Only when she reached the door did she remove one hand to turn the handle.

Susan made her slow and tearful way down the corridor. Break was over and she was relieved that no one would see her. But just around the corner Gail Turner was waiting for her.

"Oh, God! Susan!" she said when she saw her friend, "I'm so sorry! It's all my fault!"

Susan shook her head and tried to smile. She looked ghastly. Gail moved forward and hugged her friend to her tenderly.

"You got the strap?" she asked. Susan nodded, silently.

"How many?" Susan held up both hands and then another two fingers. She didn't want to speak. Every time she opened her she couldn't restrain involuntary whimpers of pain.

"Oh, no! That's awful! I'm really sorry! Please don't hate me! I didn't mean to give you away!"

Bravely Susan decided to reply to her chum. "Owwww . . . no, it's not your fault . . . aaagh . . . it was just rotten luck. Oh Christ! It hurts!"

"I've got to go, Sue. I'm late already. Maggie's expecting you to be late, but I haven't got an excuse. I really am sorry!"

Susan stood still for a while after her friend's departure. Then she followed, walking more slowly. The pain was slightly more bearable now but the odd tear still managed to trickle down her cheeks. When she arrived at her class she saw Gail standing at the front facing the wall. She found out later that she'd got six whacks from the teacher's ruler for being late. Susan knew it was wrong of her but somehow she couldn't help feeling slightly glad that Gail's bottom had not escaped altogether. Miss Temple took one look at Susan and then told her to stand quietly at the back of the class.

Susan's parents were very angry when she showed them Mrs Carter's note after school. They both agreed that Susan had deserved the strap for what she'd done even though it had been so completely out of character, but Mr Jennings thought that twelve strokes was a bit harsh. They decided not to complain, however, and signed the note.

Next day, at assembly, Susan was called out to stand on the stage and Mrs Carter told the whole school what she had done and how she had been punished.