As Andrea Hopkins returned to her bedroom from showering, a large bath towel wrapped around her, the early morning sunlight peeked around the edges of her curtains. She finished drying herself off, aided by the pleasantly warm air in the room. Casting the towel aside, she slipped into her silky dressing gown, sat on the edge of her bed and began brushing out her shoulder-length auburn hair before securing it sharply back in a ponytail.

“Breakfast in ten minutes!” Andrea’s mother called from downstairs.

“Okay, just dressing, mum!”

Andrea wasn’t certain she really felt like eating, but the call from her mother at least sparked her into action. She stood up to search the second drawer down in an old oak chest of drawers, her underwear drawer, and pulled out brief white panties and a white bra. The uncertainties of the day ahead caused Andrea to reconsider several times, but in the end the simple white underwear seemed the best compromise.

Now in bra and knickers, a clean fresh white blouse would both satisfy the sixth form’s uniform policy and offer a sense of maturity befitting her seventeen years. She put it on, leaving just the top button undone. To her wardrobe now, and she was faced with a choice of a fairly tight-fitting grey skirt, a looser pleated grey skirt, or grey trousers, all acceptable for a girl in her school’s sixth form. Finding it near impossible to think rationally, Andrea finally opted for the grey trousers. They felt a little tight around her bottom, but that would be okay. White ankle socks and black low-heeled shoes completed her outfit for the day.

“Everything okay, darling?” Andrea’s mother asked as they sat opposite each other at the kitchen table.

“Yes,” Andrea snapped without thinking, then added more calmly, “Why?”

“You seem a little tense this morning, darling. Is everything okay at school?”

“Yes, thank you.”

They continued their meal in silence. Mrs Hopkins knew by now that her daughter was of an age where she kept certain things to herself, and probing for more information would only cause resentment. Best to keep quiet and let Andrea ask for help if she needed it.

Andrea, of course, knew exactly what was on her mind, and she certainly had no wish to share it with her mother. That one thing on her mind was the meeting scheduled for eleven o’clock with her headmistress, Miss Wentworth.

Breakfast finished, Andrea helped her mother wash the dishes, collected her school things and a light jacket, and left the house with a shouted goodbye. Her best friend, Sarah Johnson, was waiting for her at the end of the street. The bus that would drop them outside their school was just minutes from arriving at the bus stop fifty yards along the road.

“How are you feeling?” Sarah asked tentatively, aware of Andrea’s meeting with Miss Wentworth.

“Okay, I guess.”

“What do you think the outcome will be?”

“I really don’t know. I’m going to admit I took Helen Davis’s briefcase and hid it. I’ll say I did it as a joke, and that I didn’t consider whether someone might find it and hand it in to the school office.”

“Do you think Miss Wentworth will believe that?”

“Why shouldn’t she?”

“Durr, because you and Helen don’t get on? Because everyone knows you hate each other? Because you really wanted Helen to think she’d lost it?”

“Okay, okay! I think it’s still the best defence I have.”

Their bus arrived and they got on, climbing the stairs to the upper deck. They found a quiet seat towards the rear.

“You might be right,” Sarah continued.

“Perhaps it would be better if I just admitted taking the damn briefcase as a prank and leave Wentworth to worry about my motives. I don’t think it will make much difference anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s going to cane me for sure, whatever I say.”

“You reckon?”

“Yeah. She’ll see it as a form of bullying, and we all know her attitude to that.”

“True,” replied Sarah thoughtfully. “You sound like you’re resigned to it?”

“I am, really.”

“I’ve heard she sometimes offers a choice between caning and some other punishment,” Sarah suggested, hoping to cheer her friend up.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Detention, maybe?”

“That would mean staying on after school, which means mum would find out.”

“You’re keeping it from her?”

“Yes, if I can.”

“Changing the subject, are you up for going into town and doing some shopping after school?”

“Possibly. We’ll see.”

Sarah could see her friend was losing interest in their conversation and was deep in her own thoughts. They continued the journey in silence.

By this time, the bus was slowing down to stop outside the school entrance. The two girls picked up their bags, ready to join the throng of other girls leaving the bus.

Inside the school, the two girls went to the lower sixth form room and, at nine o’clock precisely, their form room teacher, the young Miss Hemp, entered. The room fell silent almost immediately.

Miss Phillippa Hemp, twenty-four and in her second year of teaching, was well-liked amongst the girls. She was a respected games mistress, having represented her county at tennis and athletics, and also taught Geography and English up to A-level.

The register having been taken, Miss Hemp then read several announcements from her computer screen before one announcement caught her eye sufficiently to make her stop in mid-flow. She re-read this particular announcement several times before looking up and addressing Andrea.

“Andrea, you and I need to see Miss Wentworth at eleven o’clock, apparently. Perhaps, when the others go off to assembly, you and I could give it a miss and have a little chat? I’ll email the secretaries’ office to explain our not being there. Okay?”

“Yes, miss,” Andrea replied, finding it hard to look the teacher straight in the eye.

When the bell rang to summon everyone to the morning assembly, Andrea and Miss Hemp waited for the other girls to leave the room.

“So, what’s this all about, Andrea?” Miss Hemp asked when they were alone.

Andrea explained how she’d become annoyed with Helen Davis’s constant teasing, some of which had been quite spiteful, and how she’d hidden Helen’s briefcase to cause some annoyance in return. She simply had not anticipated that someone else would come across it before Helen did, presume it had been mislaid, and hand it in as lost property to the school secretaries. This caused Helen considerable distress, and she had been almost in tears when she asked at the secretaries’ office as a last resort.

The senior secretary, Mrs Barnes, had then instigated an enquiry and discovered from several other girls that it was Andrea who had taken the briefcase. She then informed the headmistress.

“I see,” Phillippa Hemp said when she leaned back in her chair after Andrea had finished explaining. “So, you’re expecting some kind of a reprimand when we see Miss Wentworth?”

“I think she’ll cane me,” replied Andrea. “She’ll see it as a kind of bullying.”

“Cane you?” Phillippa said in surprise. “Really?”

Andrea nodded.

“I did wonder why she wanted me along as well. I knew you were in some kind of trouble, but didn’t know what you’d done. I just thought as a lower-sixth girl you were in for a good telling-off. Presumably, she wants me along as a witness.”

“I expect so,” Andrea said, somewhat lost in thought.

“If I put in a good word for you, it’s possible Miss Wentworth will consider detention as sufficient punishment,” Miss Hemp suggested. “I imagine it will be at least two one-hour detentions though.”

“I think I’d prefer to take the caning and get it over with, thanks Miss Hemp. I hate detentions. Thankfully, I’ve only had two in my entire time here.”

Phillippa Hemp now leaned forward. The idea a girl would prefer to be caned than be detained after school for a couple of hours was against her natural inclination, but she decided there and then to support Andrea rather than try and steer the girl towards any particular course of action. Finally, she spoke.

“You’ve still got about an hour and a half to think it over, and we don’t actually know what Miss Wentworth has in mind anyway. Assembly will be almost over now, so let’s both get to our classes. I’ll see you again in the secretaries’ office just before eleven o’clock. Okay?”

“Okay.”

At eleven o’clock, at the end of the mid-morning break, Andrea tapped politely on the door of the secretaries’ office and pushed the door open. Miss Hemp was already there and, from the looks on everyone’s faces and the abrupt way all conversation stopped, they’d been talking about Andrea.

Phillippa Hemp smiled weakly and invited Andrea to sit with her on two chairs placed against the wall near to the door to the headmistress’s study. Mrs Barnes and her young assistant, a girl Andrea only knew as Amy, went about their work.

“You okay?” Miss Hemp asked.

Andrea nodded nervously.

“Cheer up, neither of us know exactly how this meeting will go and we certainly don’t know what the outcome will be.”

Andrea smiled, not convinced there was much doubt about what lay ahead. She just wanted to keep her nerve and not make a fool of herself.

A buzzer sounded on the older secretary’s desk.

“You can go in now,” Mrs Barnes said as she looked across the room at Miss Hemp and Andrea.

Phillippa Hemp looked at Andrea and waited for her to make the first move.

“Might as well get it over with,” Andrea said quietly as she stood up.

The young teacher tried hard to think of something useful to say, but nothing came to mind. She cupped her hand on Andrea’s shoulder, and the seventeen-year-old faintly smiled.

Having knocked and opened the door, Miss Hemp held the door open for Andrea to enter, and then they both stood in front of the headmistress’s large desk.

Miss Wentworth, a tall slender woman in her early fifties, was writing something on an inner page of a folder and didn’t look up immediately. When she finished, she closed the folder and put it to one side before putting her pen in a top drawer.

“Thank you for coming, Miss Hemp. Andrea, the matter of Helen Davis’s briefcase is what concerns me. Would you care to tell me what happened from your point of view.”

Andrea coughed, and tried to think quickly.

“I meant it as a prank, miss. I left it somewhere Helen could easily find it. I didn’t know someone would come along and take it to the office, thinking it was lost property.”

Miss Wentworth looked up into Andrea’s eyes. It felt like they were burning into her, trying to gauge just how much of Andrea’s statement could be believed.

“Helen and you are not the best of friends, or so I am led to believe. Is that correct?”

Andrea coughed again. “Um, I suppose not, not really, miss. No.”

“And that is what makes me wonder just how much of an innocent prank this really was, Andrea.”

The headmistress appeared to be waiting for Andrea to respond, but nothing came to the seventeen-year-old’s mind that wouldn’t incriminate her even further. She remained silent, looking down at the carpet under her feet.

“Andrea, I’m not going to waste time over this silly little affair. Whatever your motives, it caused Helen considerable worry and wasted the time of our secretaries. It was a silly thing to do, and it has backfired on you.”

Andrea could only nod her agreement.

“There will have to be a punishment, Andrea. I’m sure you realise that. The only decision I have to make is what to do with you. Do you have anything you’d like to say?”

“No, miss,” Andrea replied in a low and disconsolate voice.

“The quickest way to put this to rest for all of us would be four strokes of the cane, Andrea, but I’m guessing you would prefer detention. So, you will serve three one-hour detentions, starting with Thursday evening this week. Okay?”

Andrea breathed in sharply. She knew what she wanted to say, but found it incredibly difficult to utter the words.

“Do you have anything to say, Andrea?” Miss Wentworth asked, realising the girl had something on her mind.

Andrea coughed. “Could I have the cane, please miss?”

The headmistress was clearly surprised. She sat up in her chair and didn’t immediately reply. Her eyes once again stared straight into the seventeen-year-old’s eyes as she tried to get a handle on what Andrea was thinking.

“Have you thought about this, Andrea?” Miss Wentworth finally asked.

Andrea nodded. “Yes, miss,” she replied weakly.

“Okay, yes, I could cane you if you prefer. But, are you really sure you want to do this? It is a bit of an ordeal, you know.”

Andrea nodded briskly, her eyes already filling with tears. “I know. I mean, I guess it is.”

“And you still want me to cane you?”

“Yes please, miss.”

“Very well, Andrea,” the headmistress replied, taking a box of tissues from a desk drawer and putting it in front of Andrea. “Canings in this school are rare, Andrea, as I’m sure you know, but when I do cane a girl it is always done across her bottom. Your trousers will need to be removed, but you will keep your knickers on. Do you still want to go through with this? It is quite painful, you know.”

Andrea finished dabbing at her eyes with a tissue and thought about what she had just been told. She had more or less expected the cane might be applied to her bottom, which is why she had chosen to wear trousers to school today, just in case. Getting it on the seat of her knickers was not something that had even crossed her mind.

“Yes, that’s fine, miss,” she said quietly.

“Right. Miss Hemp, perhaps you’d like to take Andrea over to the three armchairs by the window. I’ll put the light on so you can close the curtains. Help her get ready, please.”

Phillippa Hemp looked just as nervous as Andrea. She went across the room to where three well-upholstered armchairs had been arranged around a low, circular coffee table and drew the heavy patterned curtains. With the lights now on in the room, it remained quite bright.

Andrea had not moved from standing in front of the headmistress’s desk. Phillippa Hemp smiled sympathetically and beckoned the girl over by patting the arm of one of the chairs. Meanwhile, Miss Wentworth busied herself with placing a small upright chair in the space in front of her desk. She then went to a tall cupboard where she started rummaging inside.

“Slip your shoes off!” Miss Hemp whispered as Andrea came and stood by the side of one of the armchairs.

Andrea now stood with her back towards the headmistress’s desk, and so she did not see the thirty-inch, slender rattan cane being laid on the desk. She slipped off her shiny black school shoes and Miss Hemp pushed them under the coffee table. Her grey uniform trousers were fastened with a button to secure the waistband, and a zip at the front. She managed to undo the button, but the zip refused to budge.

“Don’t be shy,” Miss Hemp said encouragingly. “We’re all girls together.”

“I can’t get the zip down!” Andrea explained, starting to panic.

“Let me help,” Phillippa Hemp said as she crouched down and began tugging at the zip. “It looks like you’ve got your blouse trapped in the zip. Did you put your blouse on first and then fasten your trousers around it?”

“Yes, I always do.”

“It seems well stuck. I can’t shift it.”

“Is there a problem, ladies?” Miss Wentworth asked as she came over to see what the delay was.

“Her zip’s stuck and I can’t shift it.”

“Can you pull her trousers down without undoing the zip?”

Phillippa Hemp tried tugging Andrea’s trousers down.

“No, they’re too tight.”

“Here, let me try.”

Both working together, Miss Wentworth and Phillippa Hemp managed to edge the offending zip down, while Andrea stood as still as she was able, feeling totally humiliated.

Once the zip was undone, Miss Wentworth yanked the trousers down to Andrea’s ankles.

“There! Slip your trousers off and come over to me when you’re ready.”

Phillippa Hemp helped Andrea out of her trousers, and then the young teacher folded them neatly and placed them on the coffee table.

“Ready?”

Andrea grimaced, but turned and began walking over to where the headmistress waited. As she neared the desk, her eyes focused on the pale-yellow rattan cane lying on the desk.

“Yes, it will certainly sting your bottom, Andrea,” Miss Wentworth said with a smile when she saw Andrea staring at the cane. “Are you sure you want to go ahead with this? There’s still time to change your mind and take the detentions.”

Andrea’s hands went to the seat of her white knickers, and she began stretching them to cover as much of her bottom as she could.

“No miss, I’d prefer to take the caning.”

“Sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure, miss.”

“Okay, let’s get this done. Now, we need you to bend over the back of the chair, Andrea. Head down, and stick your bottom out. Help her, please Miss Hemp.”

With Phillippa Hemp’s hand on her back pushing her gently forwards, Andrea moved close to the back of the chair and leaned over.

“You need to get right over, Andrea,” Miss Wentworth said, a slight impatience creeping into her voice. “I need your knickers stretched tight across your bottom and your bottom well up.”

Andrea shuffled her feet a couple of inches forward and bent herself further over the back of the chair. The top rail pressed into her stomach and it didn’t feel comfortable. Then, Miss Hemp put a hand on the back of her head and forced it down. Andrea could feel her brief white panties straining across her bottom and riding up to reveal more of her lower bottom cheeks than she would have liked.

“Is that okay?” Phillippa Hemp asked, putting her face down low next to Andrea’s and then looking up at Miss Wentworth.

“I think so,” Andrea murmured.

“Can you maintain that position, Andrea?” Miss Wentworth asked.

“Yes, miss. I think so,” Andrea responded, a little more loudly.

“Let’s get it done then.”

As Phillippa Hemp stood back, Miss Wentworth picked up the cane from her desk and came round to stand behind Andrea.

“Keep as still as you can, Andrea. That way I can apply the strokes without delay and it will all be over as quickly as possible. Okay?”

“Okay, miss.”

Bent right over the back of the chair with her brief white knickers stretched tight across her bottom was not particularly comfortable, and Andrea really wanted Miss Wentworth to get on with it. She was almost grateful when Miss Wentworth moved more to her side and started lining up the cane, giving the seat of Andrea’s white knickers several gentle taps. Then, without more ado, the headmistress drew the cane back and sent it whistling down to crack sharply across Andrea’s bottom. Instantly, the acute pain streaked across the girl’s buttocks. She gasped.

“Keep nice and still for me, Andrea,” the headmistress cautioned before sending another hard stroke that rapped across the small expanse of white knicker material.

“Aah!” Andrea gasped more noisily. The two cane strokes had really smarted and she could feel her eyes welling up. It was a long time since anyone had smacked her bottom, and that was never anything as intense as this.

A third stroke whipped through the air and imparted another dose of stinging agony to Andrea’s bottom. She inhaled sharply at the intense pain.

Before she could really settle herself, the fourth and final stroke slammed into her bottom, low down this time where very little of her brief knickers protected her bottom.

“Aaaahh!!” Andrea cried out. She desperately wanted to stand and soothe some of the pain from her bottom, but didn’t know if she was allowed. She waited, her eyes now full of tears.

“Thank you, Andrea. That completes your punishment. I will enter the details in the school’s punishment book. You will need to countersign it and then you are free to go.”

Andrea slowly eased herself up from her bending position and gently began running her fingers over the seat of her white knickers. She could feel four ridges that had not been there before, and they were all particularly sore and painful.

“Okay?” Phillippa Hemp put a comforting arm around Andrea’s shoulders and offered her a couple of tissues to wipe her eyes.

Andrea nodded briskly. She watched through teary eyes as Miss Wentworth completed an entry in a blue exercise book that stretched across two pages, and then the headmistress offered her the pen and pointed to where she needed to sign. Her entry was roughly one third down the page.

It read:

Andrea Hopkins, lower sixth, four strokes, cane, unacceptable behaviour.

She took the pen and quickly signed something that resembled her usual signature, even though her hands were shaking and it was difficult to hold the pen.

“Help her get dressed, would you, Miss Hemp?”

With Miss Hemp’s arm still around her shoulders, Andrea was led slowly back to where her trousers and shoes were.

“You okay?” Phillippa Hemp whispered in Andrea’s ear.

“A bit sore,” Andrea replied, attempting a smile and still attempting to rub her bottom.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Miss Wentworth called across the room as she returned the cane to its cupboard. “I have a couple of errands to run.”

“Wow! That was quite something,” Phillippa Hemp declared once they were alone.

“At least it got it over with. I’m sure Helen Davis will be pleased. I expect she’ll want to see the marks on my bum, along with her friends.”

“Don’t let them!” Phillippa Hemp declared as she helped Andrea slip her feet into her trousers.

“They probably won’t give me a choice.”

“What do you mean?”

“After lunch, they’ll grab me and take me into an empty classroom where they’ll bend me over a desk and pull my trousers and knickers down.”

“No, they won’t! You just stay near me until lunch break is over.”

Andrea chuckled. “It’s okay. Really. Once they’ve had their fun, they’ll leave me alone. And you can’t protect me all the time. Sooner or later, they’ll get me.”

“Careful with that zip. You don’t want to get your blouse caught in it again.”

“No, they might not be as careful as you were. I don’t want to spend the afternoon with my flies undone because the zip is broken.”

“No, that might be rather embarrassing. Even worse than having your bottom smacked!”

The End

© Kenny Walters 2022