One surprise that Rhen had not seen coming when she’d agreed to move in with Dana was her insistence that she attend church with her every Sunday. Thankfully though she hadn’t been all that pushy about it, and had also made it very clear that first morning when she’d awoken her with the rising sun and told her that it was time to get ready for services, that she didn’t expect her to come with her if she had any moral objections to it.
Well, any moral objections that weren’t rooted in a belief that she should be allowed spend her Sunday mornings sleeping in until noon.
Dana had went on to explain as she waited patiently for Rhen to roll over from where she was curled up and cuddling her stuffed teddy bear and penguin that she attended a small community church that preached a nicely modernized version of Christianity. One that eschewed all of the fire and brimstone in favor of a more progressive stance on social issues, and that didn’t try pushing an agenda of returning to an idealized version of America that had never actually existed. She did however make it a point to mention that while they didn’t adhere to any archaic views on things like same-sex marriage, they were still firm believers that parents should raise their children to be well-behaved and respectful to their elders.
Apparently it didn’t matter to them who your parent or parents were, so long as you obeyed them like a good boy or girl should.
That managed to coax an amused, although still quite sleepy, snort from Rhen as she finally started to stir beneath her sheets. Judging by her aunt’s own views on the subjects of child rearing and discipline, she was willing to bet that her fellow churchgoers weren’t afraid of baring a bottom or two from time to time themselves.
“So spare the rod and spoil the child, eh?” she teased around a yawn as she at last sat up and stretched her arms over her head.
“I think most parents prefer to use a paddle or belt,” countered Dana with an amused twinkle in her eyes, not missing a beat. “But yes, that would be an accurate summary of the church’s stance on discipline in the home. So I’d be on my best behavior if I were you, cutie pie.”
Rhen felt an icy finger trace down along her spine at those words, and she shivered just a little bit as the sobering implications of what they might mean for her settled in along the bottom of her stomach like a heavy stone.
“Um… r-right, of course. Best behavior, got it.”
Noticing the air of trepidation radiating out from the younger girl, Dana flashed her a reassuring smile.
“Look, hon, I’m not expecting you to convert or buy into anything that you don’t personally agree with, alright?” she went on to clarify, bracing one hand on her hip as she gestured airily with her other.
She most certainly didn’t want to scare the poor girl off or make her feel like she didn’t belong if she could at all help it.
“But I think you’d really enjoy going to church with me if you gave it a chance. Father Jacob’s sermons are usually pretty fun, and there’re a lot of kids around your age to play with. Like I said though, I’m not going to force you to come with me if you have an actual reason for not wanting to go that isn’t just ‘it’s boring’ or ‘I’m tired’. I know religion can be a touchy subject with a lot of people, but I really do think that having you get a nice strong dose of community values every Sunday will help do you a world of good when you’re older.”
Rhen scowled grumpily at the thinly veiled reference to her adopted age, but the look coupled with the tangled bird’s nest that was her hair just then only seemed to make her aunt smile wider, and she decided not to press the issue further.
It was far too early to get spanked, in her opinion.
“Okay, okay,” she sighed, kicking off her blankets with another yawn as she wriggled around to angle her feet over the edge of her bed. “I get it, I’ll go. You’ve convinced me, and I’ll be happy… Well, not exactly happy, but you know…”
She gestured vaguely and then shrugged.
“Happy-ish to go to church with you. But um… can we have some breakfast first?”
Right at that moment, her stomach decided to make itself known as it rumbled loudly, and Dana’s smile burst into a full-on grin.
“Sure thing, cutie pie,” she chirped, back to her far-too-bubbly in the morning self as she helped her niece out of bed and ruffled her hair affectionately.
Still smiling, she then took Rhen by the shoulders and turned her back around to face her abandoned mattress.
“But why don’t you go ahead and make your bed first before you forget? I wouldn’t want to have you spending your first day of services sitting on a sore tushy, after all.”
She then leaned in closer behind her petite cutie patootie sophomore, bringing her lips right next to her ear as she added teasingly.
“Those pews can be awfully uncomfortable on a freshly-spanked bottom, you know. And I don’t think you’d enjoy finding out what typically happens to naughty little girls who can’t stop squirming when they should be sitting still and listening.”
With those ominous parting words, along with a quick kiss to the cheek and a couple of firm pats to the puffy white clouds adorning the seat of the younger girl’s pajama bottoms, Dana stepped away and began making her way toward the open bedroom door.
“I’ll go ahead and get breakfast started,” she called out over her shoulder as she went, waving a casual hand toward her pouting niece.
“We’re in a bit of a hurry though, so it’ll have to be quick. Does oatmeal sound good to you?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” answered Rhen, not bothering to look after her auntie’s retreating form as she busied herself with straightening out her sheets and pillow.
Her mind was already swimming with exciting and terrifying visions of what might be awaiting her if she stepped out of line while she was at church that morning.
Oh my god! What if I’m the only teenager there who still gets spanked like a little kid?
She felt her cheeks clench beneath her pajama bottoms at the thought, and she resolved to be on her very best behavior that morning.
—
As it turned out, Rhen was not the only girl (or boy) in her early teens who still made the occasional (or in her case, fairly regular) trip across a parent or guardian’s knee for correction whenever she misbehaved.
Knowing what signs to look for, she’d been able to easily spot at least one or two of her fellow young parishioners shifting uncomfortably on the lightly padded pews every week since she started attending church with her aunt. And in short order, playing “Spot the Sore Seat” had quickly become one of her favorite pastimes during the sometimes rather long-winded sermons, especially after Dana had decided to make it a rule that she had to leave her smartphone at home after it had gone off during the closing prayer one morning.
Rhen had definitely wound up not sitting so comfortably herself during lunch that afternoon.
It was surprisingly reassuring, and yet still rather humiliating, to have it so thoroughly confirmed for her once again that her auntie’s views on discipline weren’t really all that far outside of the norm as she’d at first thought they were. And as if her time being outfitted with a brand new wardrobe and shopping for a hairbrush at the mall hadn’t made it clear enough to her already, being introduced to everyone as Dana Johnson’s niece from out of town certainly helped to highlight for her just how much of a bratty little kid she was seen as in the eyes of most adults.
And on more than a few occasions, even her own, if she was being honest.
Whenever the other adults in the congregation looked at her, they didn’t see a nearly twenty-one-year-old college student dressed down to look like a teenager. Instead they just saw what her Aunt Dana had seen from that very first moment they’d met, an impetuous little girl who was prone to ignoring her chores and had a tendency to get too big for her britches. In short, a mostly well-meaning girl who needed a very firm hand to keep her in line. And while spanking as a means of discipline might have declined in popularity somewhat in recent years, the practice was still very much alive and well in the tight-knit little community of churchgoers.
And she fit right in.
In fact, spankings were such a common enough occurrence that one time Rhen had even overheard a girl several years older than her own adopted age being told very loudly by her irate father that she and him were going to be having a “very long talk” when they got home later that afternoon. He’d said the words so casually, and in front of all of her friends passing her by on their way out the door, that at first Rhen had thought that she might have misheard him. But the way the other girl’s face had crumpled into a mortified mask of despair as she started frantically begging her father to reconsider had made it all too clear that she hadn’t.
Rhen definitely had a pretty good idea of just what kind of talk the girl’s father had in mind for her when they got home. Based on the way he kept tapping his beefy forefinger against the side of his silver belt buckle, it had been pretty obvious. And feeling for her fellow teen, she’d flashed the pouting girl a sympathetic smile. One that had been rebuffed almost immediately with an annoyed scowl, as if her attempts to commiserate with the doomed young lady had only served to underscore the childishness of her impending punishment all the more.
That had rankled Rhen, who’d reacted on instinct by sticking out her tongue and blowing a raspberry at the jerk of an older girl, much to the amusement of her aunt who’d been standing right beside her at the time.
Amusement which had at least allowed her to keep her panties on when she inevitably went over her knee later that afternoon for a brisk spanking of her own for teasing the other girl and being disrespectful in the chapel.
As far as Rhen was concerned though, it had been totally worth it.
And she’d forgotten all about the warmth in her rear end practically as soon as she’d been let up off of Dana’s lap to go play again. Taking far greater pleasure in the knowledge that her bottom was almost certainly much better off than that stuck-up older girl’s had been just then.
—
The knowledge that she wasn’t the only one getting her bottom warmed from time to time did a lot to help Rhen relax and let herself enjoy the weekly services without feeling like the odd one out among the other
“teens”. After a few weeks she’d even managed to settle into the role of class clown among the half-dozen other kids in her Sunday school class.
Unfortunately for her though, this would inevitably lead to her learning one very valuable lesson that she hadn’t thought to consider.
Not only did she fit in perfectly well as just another semi-regularly spanked young teen among the other youths of the congregation, but that as such, there were plenty more people other than her aunt who didn’t see anything wrong with tanning her hide for her if she was being a brat.
Now that had certainly been an eye-opening experience for her.
Rhen was most definitely a disruptive influence in her Sunday school class. But in her mind, she just couldn’t help it.
Off and on while growing up, she and her grandma had attended a fairly similar church to the one Dana dragged her to every week. And even then, she’d found the hour long classes that she and all of the other kids had been forced to endure while their parents got to mix and mingle after the main sermon was over to be interminably dull.
So she’d taken it upon herself to try spicing them up with her naturally charming personality and sparkling wit.
It was just too bad that her teacher didn’t see things the same way.
While the priest who usually delivered the sermon every Sunday morning was youthful and energetic, often tying the subject he was pontificating on back to modern day references and cultural touchstones, Rhen’s Sunday school teacher was anything but. Where Father Jacob was fun and vibrant, Sister Miller was a total stick in the mud, and she had a very small amount of patience for any kind of, as she liked to put it,
“horseplay” in her classroom. And as if she weren’t bad enough all on her own, her pretty young assistant (and daughter), Sister Anna, wasn’t that much better either in Rhen’s estimation.
The girl was all of eighteen and had just started her first semester of college only two weeks earlier, though thankfully by some small miracle their paths had yet to cross on campus. She was willowy and condescending, thought she knew everything there was to know about life now that she’d graduated from high school, and was pious to the point of being snotty beyond belief. And although her mother ran her class with an iron fist, that didn’t stop Anna from taking every opportunity she could find to exercise her meager authority over the students that made up their little Sunday school group as well, reveling in any and every chance she got to lord it over the thirteen and fourteen-year-olds that she thought she was so much wiser and more sophisticated than.
Not that that usually amounted to much more than shushing someone, usually Rhen, whenever it was clear that they were starting to get on her mother’s nerves.
Even so, it still dug mercilessly at Rhen’s pride to have a girl who was in reality only two years younger than she was being able to order her around with impunity. She’d taken to silently hoping that the ever-prissy Sister Anna would eventually slip up in some way during class that would be enough to provoke her mother into promising to turn her over her knee once they were home. But so far though, she hadn’t had any luck in that area. Instead all she’d gotten was an unpleasant twisting feeling in the pit of her stomach that seemed to say that if her adopted age was only a couple of years younger, she probably would have already taken a trip or two across Anna’s lap for all the glaring and times she’d stuck her tongue out at her while her mother wasn’t looking.
Which just might have been worth it as far as Rhen was concerned.
To say that Sister Miller’s lessons were boring would have been a massive understatement in Rhen’s opinion. They typically consisted of studying a single story from the Bible every week, everyone in the small class taking turns reading a verse or two each aloud, followed by an awkward group discussion where she’d do her best to try and coax out some meaningful answers from her students that weren’t just rote responses given out of habit.
Truth be told, part of Rhen felt kind of bad for the woman. Trying to steer a bunch of young teenagers into an actual discussion of their thoughts and feelings on a subject was no easy task on even the best of days. And she also knew that if she were really as mature as she liked to believe she was (and liked to whine about to Dana whenever she was in the process of yanking down her panties for a spanking) she would have helped get things moving and tried to get her fellow students to participate more, but her teacher was just so… boring.
For the first week or two that Rhen had started attending church with her aunt, she’d managed to behave herself well enough during her Sunday school lessons to avoid drawing the ire of Sister Miller any more than any of her fellow students usually did. The prospect of being the new girl in the congregation and trying to integrate herself into an already established group of friends who’d been in the same classes together for almost a decade now had been a daunting one. So instead, she’d decided to just keep quiet and gradually insert herself into the edges of their conversations until at last she felt comfortable enough to start actually taking part in, and often leading them, in cracking wise and goofing around.
Unsurprisingly for her, she’d found that it was remarkably fun to be the center of attention in their little group. And with her eight years of extra experience being a brat under her belt, she was able to keep them all in stitches with her running commentary of dumb jokes and biblical puns with ease.
That always seemed to get a rise out of Sister Miller too, who would stumble over whatever it was that she was reading aloud to the class when it became clear that nobody was listening to her anymore. She’d then go tomato red and start blustering on and on at them about the importance of understanding the teachings of the stories they were reading, and how she expected them to pay attention and not just make a racket. And all the while she was doing that, her daughter would move to stand beside her with her arms crossed, nodding her head fervently and occasionally repeating something her mother had just said as if it were her own idea.
Honestly, the two of them made quite the amusing pair, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Sister Miller was so imposing when she was angry, Rhen might have egged them on even further. But instead, she just kept her mouth shut with the rest of her class as they waited for her to run out of steam whenever they upset her to the point of stopping a lesson.
The older woman’s lecturing was usually enough to cow them all, including Rhen, to the point of being quiet for the next twenty minutes or so (usually enough time to wrap up their lesson) while she plodded on with whatever point it was that she’d been trying to make earlier. But sometimes a stern lecture wasn’t enough to keep her students in line for long, and in those moments she’d wind up asking the room at large, far too sweetly in Rhen’s opinion, if any of them wanted her to go get their parents.
The threat of getting a parent involved was always the point at which the snickering came to a sudden and complete halt. Nobody wanted to risk ruining the rest of their weekend by getting into trouble at home.
Plus there was of course the added tension that said trouble might involve having their pants pulled down or their dresses flipped up in back for some swift and decisive correction. Rhen wasn’t sure just how often her fellow students found themselves taking trips across their parents’ knees, but she had a feeling that being called in because their kid couldn’t keep their mouth shut during Sunday school would be enough to get most of them to decide that a spanking was in order.
And so when Sister Miller started to get really angry, everyone knew that it was time to shut up and look sorry.
Rhen had managed to adhere to this philosophy as well, and so far it had worked wonders for her. That is, until one fateful Sunday morning a couple of months after she’d moved in with Dana when she’d gotten just a little too cocky for her own good She’d just finished off a major writing assignment the night before and didn’t have any other homework due right away, and the prospect of being able to laze around all that afternoon and her day off the following Monday had emboldened her to the point of being careless. And so on a whim she’d decided to see just how far she could push her grumpy old Sunday school teacher before she finally snapped completely.
That day they’d been studying a story from the Old Testament about God speaking to a man through a talking donkey, and for obvious reasons, Rhen had found the whole thing to be very amusing. All throughout their lesson she’d been mouthing off, derailing the discussion her teacher was trying to lead at seemingly every opportunity.
If anybody had stopped to ask her why she was being such a brat, she probably would have argued that it really wasn’t her fault. Obviously it was impossible for her not to take delight in finding excuses to work the words “ass” and “talking ass” into the conversation whenever she could, especially given the way it made everyone laugh at how bold and daring she was, so why should she get into trouble for it? Besides, it was Sister Miller who had picked out the story for them to study in the first place, not her. She should have known what kind of reaction she was going to get from them once they started reading it.
Well, mostly just from her, but still… that was beside the point as far as Rhen was concerned.
“Young lady, you will stop all the potty talk this instant, or else I’m going to go get your aunt and see what she has to say about it!” fumed a livid Sister Miller, steam all but billowing out of her ears as she glared daggers at the newest addition to her little flock of somewhat-eager young minds.
“Potty talk? What potty talk is that, Sister?” wheedled a smug Rhen, doing her best to sound wholly innocent as she held up her bible to point at the verses she’d ostensibly been quoting from. “It’s not a swear word if it’s in the Bible, right?”
She flashed the older woman a saccharine sweet smile as she thought of another audacious little jab.
“Oh! Is this the story where the phrase ‘talking out of your ass’
comes from?”
Just as she’d been hoping, all of her fellow students burst into another fit of irreverent giggling at that, thinking that her jokes were the absolute peak of hilarity just then. Which of course only made Sister Miller all the more annoyed with her.
Wow, her face is almost as red as Aunt Dana’s hair!
“Rhen Mathews, if I hear one more word coming out of that mouth of yours before closing prayer is finished, and I mean just one, I’m going to show you just how I handle naughty little girls in my classroom. And believe you me, young lady, you are not going to like it one bit. Is that understood?”
Although Rhen didn’t know for sure just what her teacher might do to her if she kept it up, she was willing to take the older woman at her word that it wouldn’t be pleasant.
Apparently her fellow students were all well aware of what she meant however, because her sharp reprimand sent a ripple of nervous excitement through them all. Eliciting a chorus of grim “Ooos” from the lot of them as they shifted in their seats to grin in snide amusement at her, wordlessly taunting her as she now found herself toeing the edge of disaster, their teasing expressions egging her on to call Sister Miller’s bluff.
Sensing that she wouldn’t find any support among them now that the declaration had been made by their teacher, Rhen decided to follow her instincts and clamp her mouth shut, nodding in silent confirmation that she did in fact understand and would be quiet.
“Good,” sniffed Sister Miller, clearly doing her best to regain her grip on her composure as she exhaled sharply through her nose and turned back to the blackboard to finish writing out the bible references that they would be going over next. “Now, as I was saying…”
But as she scratched out chapter and verse after chapter and verse for them to take turns reading aloud, Rhen found that she just couldn’t contain herself. No sooner had her grumpy goose of a teacher gotten back to their lesson than a golden idea for a joke had bubbled up to the surface of her mind.
Oh come on! Why didn’t I think of this earlier?
Pouting, she sat there for nearly a minute straight with her arms folded tightly across her chest, her mouth pursed into a tight line with the effort of staying silent, and her knee bouncing in front of her with pent-up energy as Sister Miller scratched out several more scripture references in
her cramped handwriting across the board in dusty, yellow chalk.
Come on… Just keep it together, Rhen. There’s not that much time left in class, you can tell it after prayers are done.
In the end though, Rhen’s need to get her joke out of her system won out over her worries about what might happen to her if she did so.
“Oh man, I had no idea that Shrek was based off of a Bible story,”
she stage-whispered to the boy and girl sitting beside her that she’d had the most success with cracking up so far that lesson.
She grinned slyly at the confused looks they both gave her, ignoring the butterflies starting to stir around inside her stomach as she continued loud enough for everyone else to hear.
“You know, because of the talking donkey?”
Her smirk broadened as their faces lit up with understanding, and she pitched her voice down into her best Eddy Murphy impression as she added.
“I bet that donkey was all like… We can stay up late, swappin’
Bible stories, and in the morning… I’m making falafels!”
The room immediately burst into laughter again, although that may have just been from the sheer stupidity of the joke she’d just told, rather than because it was actually all that funny. Either way, Rhen cackled right along with her fellow students, far too proud of her lame little joke to care about the storm that was surely brewing where Sister Miller stood as she wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye. In that moment she was far too busy reveling in being the center of attention again to care about what might happen next.
And boy was she ever.
It seemed as if pretty much everyone had thought that her joke was funny, even the always so prim and proper Anna had cracked a slight smile. Well, everyone except Sister Miller that is, who slammed her oversized large-print Bible shut as she thundered.
“That is it!”
All of the laughter was choked off immediately as everyone in the room, save for the furious teacher, jumped at the loud THWUMP of the leather-bound book smacking down heavily onto the little table beside her.
“Anna, honey, would you please go get Rhen’s aunt for me and let her know that I’d like to have a word with her?”
Though her nostrils still flared, Sister Miller’s initial fiery temper had cooled into that same ice-cold calm that Rhen had seen Dana adopt every time she was about to dish out some serious discipline.
It did not bode well for her confidence.
“Now.”
Uh-oh…
“Sure thing, Mom,” chirped Anna, positively giddy with the importance of the small task she’d just been given.
Popping up from the hard plastic seat that she’d angled off to one side away from the others, she sashayed her way out of the classroom and made a beeline toward where the rest of the adults were off enjoying a post-sermon cup of coffee and some donuts while their kids were forced to endure a double dose of church.
The room was dead silent for the entire time that she was gone, and Rhen was left to fidget in her seat as her face flushed with heat and her heart fluttered nervously in her chest.
Crap, crap, crap! Why couldn’t I just keep my freaking mouth shut?
Far sooner than she would have preferred, Anna returned with Dana in tow only a step or two behind her.
“Hey there, Janice,” she said by way of greeting to the other woman, way too casually for Rhen’s liking, as she strode into the small classroom and put her hands on her hips.
She cast a quick sidelong glance toward her niece, noting the way she was blushing and squirming in her chair, but otherwise kept her attention fully focused on the still quietly fuming teacher in front of her.
“Anna said you needed to see me right away. Something about asses and falafels?”
Rather than darken the other woman’s mood, Dana’s teasing half-grin and irreverently arched eyebrow seemed to come as a welcome relief to Sister Miller, who snorted in amusement.
“Oh sure, it’s fine when she does it,” grumbled Rhen quietly enough so that only the boy and girl sitting beside her could hear her.
Thankfully though they remained silent as they watched the two older women continue to talk.
“Yes, something like that,” confirmed Sister Miller with a dismissive wave toward Rhen. “You see, the problem is that this one here just can’t seem to help herself and keeps interrupting my class with all of her smart-mouth comments. And while I usually don’t mind a bit of horseplay here and there, she’s been a constant distraction all lesson.”
“Oh she has, has she?” asked Dana in that dangerously low purr of hers she used whenever Rhen was a hair’s breadth away from a spanking, turning to regard her niece with an unimpressed look. “Young lady, is this true?”
“Well…”
Rhen fiddled with the bunched-up folds of her pale yellow church dress as she did her best to think of some way to spin things that wouldn’t end up getting her into even more trouble. Try as she might though she couldn’t come up with anything, and she wound up just sighing as she dipped her chin down to look at her knees with a barely-concealed pout.
“Yes ma’am, it is.”
“I see,” was all the response she got from her aunt before she turned her attention back toward the Sunday school teacher she was apparently so buddy-buddy with. “I am so sorry she’s been behaving like this, Janice.
Rhen knows that she’s supposed to be quiet and pay attention when she’s in class, and church is no exception. Isn’t that right, little girl?”
Heat staining her face a bright shade of strawberry red, Rhen blew out a long breath, her cheeks puffing out with indignation. But as she looked up toward her aunt to argue that she hadn’t been being that bad, the words stalled in her throat and she swallowed them.
Now was definitely not the time to argue, especially not with all of her friends watching on in open amusement.
“Yes Aunt Dana, I’m sorry.”
“Humph, yeah, I bet you are,” muttered Anna as she tossed her hair back over a shoulder and sniffed in disdain.
Dana just smiled indulgently at the younger girl as she continued to address her mother.
“Well there we have it, a confession straight from the source and an apology… of sorts.”
She pursed her lips into a frown as if to say that she didn’t think it was much of one as she added.
“And if it makes you feel any better, Janice, I don’t mind telling you that I’m going to be painting Rhen’s sassy little caboose bright red as soon as we get home today.”
That got a squeak from Rhen, who knew she really shouldn’t have expected anything less.
Even though most, if not all, of her fellow students were no strangers to getting spanked themselves, the spectacle of one of their own having it so publically announced that they were in for one upon returning home was just way too juicy not to react to.
“Bunch of traitors,” grumbled Rhen to herself as she folded her arms in front of her ruffle-covered chest and glared at her knees.
Apparently she hadn’t grumbled quietly enough however, since the remark earned her a sharp, reprimanding look from her aunt, Sister Miller, and Anna.
“Watch it, missy.”
The combined power of those three glares was enough to have Rhen sitting up straight, hands primly folded atop one another in her lap, as she swallowed hard and did her best to exude an air of total obedience and good behavior.
“Sorry!”
The adults kept up their scowling for a handful of heartbeats longer, before seeming to tune her out completely as they picked up their conversation as if nothing had just happened. Well, all of them except for Anna, who continued to smugly watch Rhen with the rest of the class while her mother spoke with the girl’s aunt.
“Oh Dana, you’re a peach,” said Janice Miller with a satisfied nod as she cast a sidelong glance toward where Rhen was sitting. “Lord knows that girl definitely could stand to benefit from having to eat her lunch standing up today after the malarkey she’s been spewing. Heck, if my Anna had said even half the things that Rhen has today, I’d have her chewing on a bar of soap until she had bubbles coming out her ears!”
That got a fresh round of snickers from the other kids in the room, and Rhen felt her stomach clench as she desperately hoped that her aunt wouldn’t decide the other woman had a point.
“Oh, don’t you worry,” chuckled Dana, her face a mask of grim amusement. “By the time I’m through with her, Little Miss Sassmouth will definitely have learned a thing or two about controlling herself.”
Well, at least she didn’t say she was going to wash my mouth out…
Sister Miller let those ominous words hang in the air for several more long moments, enjoying the way they made Rhen squirm, before she spoke again.
“I’m sure you’ll have no problem showing her the error of her ways, Dana, but uh… that’s not actually the reason why I wanted Anna to come get you,” she explained with a nod toward her daughter. “I was hoping I could get your approval to introduce Rhen to the Board.”
Rather than more low whistles and excited exclamations, that question produced a round of shocked gasps and nervous titters among her fellow students. All of which were reactions that Rhen didn’t like even a little bit.
“I know she’s technically too old for it now,” Sister Miller went on as she shrugged in a way that made it all too clear that she didn’t mind in the slightest. “But I figured that since young Rhen here wants to be part of the lesson so badly, she could help demonstrate how the making amends portion of repentance typically works for little boys and girls who can’t behave themselves during Sunday school. What do you think?”
Rhen wasn’t sure why her aunt needed to be hauled in just so that she could give her permission to let her niece say she was sorry to a board of people, but at that moment she was totally alright with it. While having to apologize to what she assumed must be the head priest and his two assistants would be embarrassing, it was far from unbearable.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea, Janice,” exclaimed Dana with a pleasantly surprised laugh, her face brightening at the suggestion. “That’d certainly take her down a peg or two wouldn’t it? By all means, feel free.”
Uh-oh… thought Rhen with a grimace, resisting the urge to squirm her thighs together as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. I think I might have made a bit of a miscalculation here.
“It’s so nice to see that you’re still a firm believer in training children up in the way they should go,” crooned Sister Miller, still smug as ever as she moved to walk her friend toward the classroom door. “I’m sure this will be a very uplifting and edifying experience for Rhen as well. After all, the Board is a sacred tradition, and just because she’s older than twelve now shouldn’t mean she should be forced to miss out on experiencing it for herself. Frankly, if I had things my way, we’d keep it in use up until graduation. It just does such a wonderful job of curbing bratty behavior.”
“Oh yes, you don’t have to convince me there,” snorted Dana, turning to glare past the other woman’s shoulder toward her niece one last time before she went.
“I expect you to do as you’re told and not give Sister Miller or Sister Anna any more trouble, Rhen,” she said with a warning wag of her finger. “You do not want me to have to come back in here again before class is over. Is that understood, young lady?”
Once again being the center of attention, and not at all liking the direction things seemed to be headed, Rhen hastened to assure the sternly frowning older woman that she would be on her very best behavior from then on.
“I’ll be good, Aunt Dana!”
She didn’t care that her words brought about a fresh round of tittering from the other kids seated around her, at that moment she was in full-on damage control mode.
“You’d better be, missy,” huffed her aunt with a frown, seemingly satisfied. “Because if I hear that you’ve been anything other than a perfect angel, I’ll put you over my knee right in front of all your friends here before we go home and show them just how I handle smart-mouthed little girls who don’t do as they’re told. You got that?”
“Got it!” squeaked Rhen, face going beet red.
Nodding one more time, Dana at last turned to leave, calling over her shoulder as she went.
“You got everything handled here, Janice?”
“Sure do,” answered the other woman easily, all traces of her earlier frustration having been replaced by smug satisfaction. “You just leave the rest to me and Anna. We’ll have her ready and waiting for you to collect after class is over.”
“Okay then,” called Dana, waving casually behind her as she sauntered off toward a fresh cup of coffee. “See you later.”
“Bye Missus Johnson,” chirped Anna, waving after the woman in a transparent attempt to magnify her role as one of the no-nonsense adults, much to the unspoken amusement of her mother judging by the way her mouth twitched up at the corners.
After Rhen’s aunt had left, a tense silence had descended upon the little classroom with its painted cinderblock walls and dusty blackboard once again. And for several long heartbeats, the only sound that could be heard was the faint ticking of the plastic clock mounted to the wall beside the door.
“Alright then, I’m going to go get the Board,” declared Sister Miller, eventually breaking the pregnant silence as she dusted her hands off on the front of her dress and turned her attention toward her daughter with a brusque sense of purpose.
Anna was clearly doing her very best not to let on just how excited she was just then, and was failing miserably. But that didn’t seem to bother her mother however, as she strode toward the open door that her friend had just left from.
“While I’m doing that, I want you to go ahead and get Little Miss Sassmouth here,” she angled a stern nod toward Rhen before returning her focus back to her daughter. “In position and waiting for her punishment by the time I get back. Do you think you can handle that, Anna?”
“Sure thing, Mom,” piped up the young lady, straightening up a little bit more where she stood as her mother flashed her an approving look.
“Good girl,” she said as she turned to go again. “Oh, and feel free to toast her buns a little bit if she gives you any trouble. We all know she’s going to be sleeping on her tummy tonight anyway, so a few extra swats here and there aren’t going to make much of a difference in the long run.”
“R-Right!” answered Anna again, barely-leashed excitement fully evident in her quavering voice. “You can count on me!”
With those parting instructions, Sister Miller bustled her way out of the classroom, leaving Rhen alone with Anna and the six other kids of her supposed age. All of whom had huge, anticipatory grins plastered across their faces.
Uh-oh…
Rhen could hardly blame them for their excitement though. She knew she would have had much the same look on her own face had she been in their position. Even so, she wasn’t really given much of a chance to dwell on that though, as Anna wasted little time in getting down to business once she’d been left in charge.
“Okay Rhen, come here,” she ordered, pointing to a spot a handful of paces in front of the blackboard in the center of the room. One that would put her directly in the middle of the semi-circle of chairs that everyone else was sitting in. “Right now.”
Although Anna’s “I’m the boss, and you’ll do what I say!” voice still needed some work, it was still more than enough to get Rhen jumping up from her chair as if it had just tried to bite her. She wasn’t sure what this whole “Board” business was all about anymore, but she was fairly certain that she’d been gravely mistaken earlier when she’d thought that it was merely some sort of half-hearted public apology.
Goddammit, I should have known that it would be something like this, she silently swore to herself, even as her non-verbal curse made her stomach roil with more butterflies. Uh, sorry about that one, God… um, Sir.
Approaching the place where Anna had indicated, she turned to face her with a sullen pout as she silently waited for her next order to come.
“Um…”
The Sunday school assistant floundered slightly and then cleared her throat, cheeks flushing as she tried to think of how best to phrase her next order.
“Ahem! B-Bend over and grab your knees,” she snapped, folding her arms under the respectable swell of her breasts in what was probably her best approximation of her own mother’s “Do it now or you’re going to regret it” stance. “Oh, and don’t forget to keep your legs straight too. Mom likes the girls she paddles to have their butts angled up nice and high for the Board to land on. So no slouching, you hear me?”
Yeah, I bet you know all about that, don’t you, Anna? mused Rhen darkly, not daring to voice that particular thought aloud, not when the other girl had been given carte blanche to spank her as much as she liked to if she didn’t cooperate fully.
She turned to face the blackboard, deliberately putting her back to her eager audience as a shiver of morbid anticipation tingled its way down the valley of her spine. She gritted her teeth against the surge of embarrassment that roiled up inside her stomach as she bent at the waist, keeping her knees straight and her thighs pressed tightly together just in case things ended up going as badly as she feared they might. Dana was certainly a big believer in the merits of a bare bottom spanking, and she doubted that Sister Miller would be any different. There was no way she wanted to show off anything more than she absolutely had to to the gaggle of brats who were gearing up behind her to enjoy the upcoming show.
Her dire prediction proved to be at least a semi-accurate one as she felt Anna starting to fumble with the hem of her dress behind her, trying to gather up its billowy folds with just one hand as if she did things like that all the time. It was clear that she didn’t though by the way she kept messing it up, but eventually she managed to get a proper grip on the garment with two hands, and a moment after that Rhen felt her dress being hiked up her legs and tossed over her hips to expose the seat of her panties to the classroom at large.
Well, at least I’m inside this time, she thought with a wobbly grimace, doing her best to try and find even a faint trace of a silver lining in the darkness of the hole she’d somehow managed to dig for herself.
That’s got to count for something, right?
It really didn’t, and she knew it.
Oh crap, wait a minute…
As she had so often done since moving in with her, Dana had picked out her clothes for her that morning before church. And of course it was only after she’d felt seven pairs of eyes locking onto her rump followed by a chorus of faint snickering that boiled over into genuine cackles of delight behind her that Rhen remembered just what particular pair of underwear she’d been given to wear that day.
“Awww, I love Beauty and the Beast,” cooed Anna, her voice positively oozing condescension as she ran a palm over the dancing Belles stretched snugly across the chubby curves of Rhen’s bent behind. “I think I might have even owned a pair of panties like this back when I was your age too. Oh how cute!”
She gave Rhen’s bottom a couple of tentative, exploratory pats, clearly testing to see how far she could push things with the minimal amount of authority her mother had left her with. Rhen grumbled grouchily at the way the other girl made her bottom jiggle in front of her friends, but all that seemed to do was give her more confidence, as she was rewarded with a little over a dozen enthusiastic (though not particularly well executed) swats to her upturned bottom.
SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!
“Uh-uh-uh,” teased Anna, wagging an admonishing forefinger at Rhen while her other hand lay perched along the curve of the hip she had jutted out sassily to one side. “None of that now, missy, or else I might just decide that those panties of yours need to come down too.”
“You wouldn’t!” gasped Rhen, an electric shiver of terror arcing through her to dispel at her feet.
“Try me,” warned the other girl, her voice a low growl now as she threaded the fingers of her right hand into the waistband of Rhen’s Disney princess panties, snapping the elastic lightly against the tops of her arched cheeks. “Bad little girls like you usually only get the Board over their panties, but I’m sure my mom would be only too happy to make an exception if you keep sassing me.”
“Um, no thanks,” squeaked Rhen, doing her best to sound contrite as she began to verbally backpedal before Anna could change her mind.
“Please! I’ll be good, Sister Anna, I’m sorry.”
“Well that’s certainly an impressive improvement,” interjected Sister Miller’s amused voice from somewhere off to Rhen’s left then, making everyone jump as she strode back into the small classroom unannounced and unhurried. “It’s amazing how quickly misbehaving children change their tune once their bottoms are put on the line.”
“It sure is,” agreed Anna, clearly doing her best to sound like she too was well-versed in the ways of discipline, and not as if she’d just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
Her mother stepped up beside her and surveyed Rhen’s panty-clad bottom and bent over position with a cool, critical eye, before nodding once in approval.
“Excellent work, Anna,” she said with a tight smile, placing a hand on her daughter’s shoulder and giving it a light squeeze. “A firm hand and a few swats on the tush are usually all you really need to get most bratty girls, like Rhen here, to fall into line. I hope you remember that the next time I need to leave you in charge.”
“Thanks Mom,” chirped Anna, positively glowing with the praise.
“And yes, I most certainly will.”
Rhen gritted her teeth at the sickly sweet tone the younger girl used, and vowed to herself that she’d never give her an excuse to try putting her mother’s advice to the test in the near future or beyond. She had a feeling that Anna would be a very fast learner when it came to dishing out discipline, and she definitely didn’t want to find out one way or the other if she could at all help it.
“You may take your seat with the others now, dear,” her mother continued with a wave of dismissal a few moments later after she’d gotten her fill of admiring the sight of Rhen obediently presenting her Disney princess panties for discipline. Awaiting her punishment like the good girl she should have been acting like all along. “Unless, that is…”
She paused then and furrowed her brow in concern as she leaned in closer to Rhen and asked not unkindly.
“Would you like to have Anna help you stay bent over while you take your licks, Rhen? Your aunt mentioned to me in the hall that you’re a bit of a squirmer whenever she has to spank you, and I would prefer it if I didn’t have you dancing around and breaking position every time I pop your tush with the Board.”
She took a moment to heft said Board in her hands as she went on.
“We’ve still got a lesson to get through today, you know. And as much as I’d enjoy showing you what a proper paddling feels like, one like the kind I give my Anna whenever she’s been naughty, we really ought to be getting back to that as soon as possible.”
The question and its accompanying light teasing were enough to give Rhen pause and convince her to tear her gaze away from the square-inch of worn carpet she’d been glaring at in front of her brightly-polished penny loafers for the last minute or two, pouting.
It wasn’t like she squirmed that much, geez. At least, not enough to require someone else to help hold her in place for one little spanking from some dumb old board… probably.
“I’ll be fine,” she grumbled as politely as she could manage, trying to take solace in the fact that Anna’s mother had so casually just mentioned her own spankings.
I guess Little Miss Perfectly-Mature isn’t as well behaved as she likes to pretend she is.
It wasn’t that much of a comforting thought at the moment, but it was better than nothing as Rhen tilted her head to the side, craning her neck back to see what it was that Sister Miller was brandishing at her that had prompted her to ask such a question in the first place.
And immediately she wished she hadn’t.
The Board turned out to be a very scary looking wooden paddle with an extra-long handle and an even wider business end. Rhen had a sneaking suspicion that it might have actually started out life as some sort of tool for sliding pizzas in and out of an oven, but judging by the worn sheen it had on just the one side, it had clearly been put to use roasting butts for far, far longer. Some enterprising member of the clergy had even taken the time to lovingly engrave several verses from the Old and New Testaments that extolled the virtues of not sparing the rod and instilling discipline into the hearts of children from a young age and so on.
Rhen was honestly a little surprised at just how many scripture references seemed to apply to disciplining children, and how many they’d managed to fit onto the Board, especially given how large it was.
And the sight of them was starting to make her think that maybe she didn’t like going to church so much after all.
Then again, she had been being a total brat all that morning, so she supposed that it was only fair that she was about to be taken to task for it now. Besides, it wasn’t like this was the first time someone else was going to watch her getting spanked.
At least my panties are up this time, she silently breathed in relief, feeling her stomach clench as the mental image of her underwear being tugged down to hang around her knees danced across her mind’s eye.
Somehow though I doubt that Aunt Dana is going to be nearly so considerate when we get home…
Rhen had a feeling that it was going to be a long, long afternoon for her.
Right at that moment though she knew that she had much more pressing concerns to worry about as she felt that massive paddle being tap, tap, tapped firmly across both of her cheeks at once.
“Holy crap that thing is big!”
“Why yes, yes it is,” chuckled Sister Miller, pausing in her tapping to let the full weight of the Board rest ominously against the back of Rhen’s panties. “Thank you for sharing that valuable bit of insight with us, dear.”
Rhen’s face flushed molten lava hot as her classmates snickered behind her. She definitely hadn’t meant to voice that particular thought out loud.
“Now then, young lady,” her teacher continued, derailing any attempts she might have made to rein in her embarrassment as that blasted paddle started to rub in a slow, lazy circle across her soft and yielding bottom.
Her voice easily cut through the snickering and snide comments her fellow classmates were sharing just as effectively as if it was their butts she was rubbing that paddle against.
“Seeing as you’re a relatively new addition to our little flock, I’ll give you a brief explanation of how a punishment from the Board typically works.”
Rhen found herself swallowing hard as she straightened her knees up a fraction, the gravity of the ritualized discipline she was about to receive sending the fluttering inside the pit of her stomach into overdrive.
God- I mean, gosh dang it! Why can’t she just start whacking me already and get it over with? Geez! All of this standing around and waiting freaking sucks. At least with Aunt Dana it’s fast and furious, and then it’s over.
Thankfully though, this time she managed to not let any of those thoughts slip free as Sister Miller continued to explain.
“When we have little lambs that just can’t seem to behave themselves during Sunday school, usually the younger ones around nine or ten mostly, and they refuse to listen to warnings, their teachers will often have them bend over for a few swats from the Board.”
With those words she gave the Board a couple of light raps against the fullest part of her target.
“So that they can learn from the bottom up as it were. Typically these punishments are carried out over a naughty boy or girl’s underwear, but as Anna said…”
At that she paused long enough to cast another tight smile toward her daughter, who at least had the good grace to squirm a little bit herself.
“In certain special cases, either egregious or repeated misbehavior, a bit of bare bottom discipline is called for.”
Rhen squeaked, going so rigid in the knees that she nearly tipped over as she felt the paddle being pulled back from her tush. Her cheeks were clenched tight beneath the thin material of her princess panties, and she found herself fervently hoping and praying that they were going to stay where they were around her hips.
“And while it’s certainly true that an argument could be made that a girl your age should really know better than to behave like a child, and therefore deserves to receive a more severe punishment with her panties down…”
The whole class drew in a collective breath of anticipation, the tension in the room skyrocketing.
“I think that we’ll keep them up for today,” chuckled Sister Miller, bringing the paddle back down in one final test swat as the gathered audience sighed with disappointment.
“Oh my gosh, thank you, ma’am,” gasped Rhen, tension easing from her whole body as her legs wobbled.
She started to squirm in place just a little bit then, the sudden relief washing over her making her aware of just how badly she needed to use the bathroom right then.
Hold it in, Rhen, hold… it… in…
“You’re very welcome, dear,” replied the older woman with another low chuckle as if she could tell exactly what was going through Rhen’s mind at that very moment as her voice darkened a shade and she added. “But I want you to know that this is your one and only free pass, young lady. If we ever have to do this again, you’d better believe that your panties will be coming down for an extra special session with the Board that will make today’s lesson seem like patty-cake.”
“It won’t, I swear,” Rhen hastened to assure her, falling into the usual refrain she adopted whenever she was about to be spanked. “I’m sorry, Sister!”
“Humph, we’ll just see about that,” huffed Sister Miller skeptically.
Rhen could practically feel the tension inside the room starting to build again as her teacher wound up for her first swat with the Board.
Bringing it up to her shoulder and holding it there, poised to bring it down at any moment.
“Now hang on tight, Rhen, you’ll be getting thirteen of these,” she ordered. “One for each year of your age as a means to help you remember to act like it instead of being a little brat.”
Rhen’s ponytail bobbed in a silent nod of acknowledgement.
Well, at least it’s not twenty…
“Oh, and I expect you to count each swat out loud and say thank you afterward. Is that understood?”
The question managed to elicit another two or three nervous titters from her classmates, though they were laced with far less mirth now.
Rhen was sure that most, if not all of them, were probably grappling with some rather unpleasant memories of what it had felt like to be in her position at some point in their past.
“Yes ma-“ she began to answer, before her words were cut off in a squawk as the Board suddenly collided at full force with her bouncy bottom.
WOOSH-SMACK!
“Ah!” Rhen yelped, as an unexpected explosion of pain blossomed across both of her cheeks at once.
The sheer shock and sharp bite of the Board’s impact caused her to immediately forget everything that she’d just been told to do as she shot to her feet. Her hands flew back to clutch at the seat of her panties where she was sure a fire had just been lit, and she hopped from foot to foot, moaning in agony.
Now that had hurt!
“Uh-uh-uh, Rhen,” chided Anna, as she sprang from her seat and dashed over to her side. “You know that’s not allowed, kiddo.”
The indignity of being called “kiddo” by a girl who was only two years younger than she was on top of her already frayed nerves from trying to get a grip on the fury raging beneath her panties had Rhen acting before she had a chance to think.
Whirling to glare at the girl beside her, she spat.
“Oh my god, will you freaking just buzz off? I do not need your bullcrap right now!”
At the last minute she’d started to come to her senses and had managed to keep herself from swearing, but that was about the most she could do. She knew that she was probably in enough trouble as it was already for that little outburst. There was no sense in making it worse by potentially adding a bar of soap into the mix later on.
Rather than do as she’d been told however, Anna’s face just set itself into a determined mask as she snatched up Rhen’s still frantically rubbing hands in her own. With a firm shove, she tipped her forward until she was bent over again with her panties on display, and in the process pinned her wrists behind her back.
“Young lady, I am your elder and you will speak to me with respect!”
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
Anna punctuated each word of her impromptu lecture with as hard of a spank as she could muster, and whether it was from pure indignation or just being a quick learner, these particular spanks had Rhen gritting her teeth as her hips shifted from side to side in a futile attempt to get out of the line of fire.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she blurted out in between little yelps.
Her bottom was smarting something fierce from those rapid-fire swats, and as the initial sting started to fade, she could feel her cheeks clenching with the fear that her panties might be about to come down.
“Well done, Anna,” spoke up Sister Miller with an impressed little laugh, interjecting herself into the middle of their exchange as she cleared her throat and nodded approvingly at her daughter. “Just like I told you, a firm hand and a few swats on the tush will have even the brattiest girl falling into line in no time. Great work.”
“Thanks, Mom,” chirped the girl, one hand still pinning Rhen’s wrists behind her back while the other rested warningly along the curve of her right cheek. “That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.”
“Yes, it’s not all that difficult once you understand the basics of it, and practice does tend to help in that regard,” observed her mother dryly, her voice carrying a tight smile. “Speaking of…”
She hefted the board again, using it to shoo away Anna’s hands from Rhen’s bottom and wrists.
“Would you mind helping Rhen stay in position while we try this again?”
“Of course,” agreed Anna without a moment’s hesitation.
She then proceeded to adjust the folds of Rhen’s dress across her back before laying her hands atop it there to help keep her bent over. With a smug smile on her face, she drummed her fingers against the small amount of exposed skin just above the white waistband of the girl’s panties as she added with a bit more steel in her voice.
“Try and do your best to keep your hands on your knees this time, Rhen. If you don’t think you can do it though, let me know and I’ll hold them for you, alright?”
As much as the offer made her face flush with fresh heat, Rhen couldn’t help but nod slightly in appreciation for it.
“I will, um… thanks.”
“No prob.”
WOOSH-SMACK!
Again from out of nowhere came the sudden explosion of thick wood against soft and tender girl buns.
“Holy crap! Ow, ow, ow!”
“Easy there, kiddo,” soothed Anna almost immediately, her voice mostly gentle now as she rubbed a hand in smooth circles along Rhen’s lower back. “Just take a few deep breaths, and don’t forget to count, alright?”
“R-Right,” gritted out Rhen through clenched teeth as she hissed in air through them.
There was no way in heck she wanted to repeat any more swats from that godforsaken paddle if she could at all avoid it. (She already knew that there was no way that that first one was going to count.)
“I’m waiting, young lady…”
Rhen squirmed as she felt the heavy weight of the Board tapping impatiently against the seat of her panties again, and she breathed out a long, low groan.
“One. Thank you, Sister.”
“There we go,” cooed Sister Miller, sounding more than a little pleased with herself as she pulled the Board back up to her shoulder. “Only twelve more to go. Hang on tight now…”
WOOSH-SMACK!
Once more the paddle thundered down against Rhen’s upturned bottom, rocking her up onto the balls of her feet as she hissed out a garbled mishmash of curse words and apologies through her clenched teeth. As the initial bite melted into a more manageable burning sensation, she shook her bottom up and down and side to side as much as she could in a desperate attempt to throw off at least some small portion of the harsh pain.
This time though she remembered what to say without being prompted.
“Two… owie, owie, owie! Thank you, oof-“
She sniffled.
“Thank you, Sister.”
On and on it went, the seconds seeming to stretch out into hours as swat after, bottom-flattening, finger-clenching, teeth-rattling, swat crashed against Rhen’s soft and yielding bottom cheeks encased in her still merrily dancing princess panties, clearly not bothered in the slightest by the raging inferno crackling just beneath their thin cotton surface.
Though the entire ordeal lasted just over three and a half minutes in total from start to finish, Rhen was left panting like she’d just ran a marathon when she was at last helped back to a standing position on wobbly knees by a smugly preening Anna.
“Am I going to have any more sass or backtalk from you, young lady?” demanded Sister Miller after she’d given her errant charge enough time to dance in place with her hands glued to the sizzling seat of her panties while her classmates looked on with varying degrees of morbid glee and snide amusement.
“No ma’am,” Rhen answered immediately, not bothering to stop her squirming as the scalding heat in her bottom continued to throb on despite the lack of additional paddle swats landing against it.
Now that she had time to think and compare, Rhen had to admit that it hadn’t been all that bad of an experience. It had certainly hurt, yes, and the humiliation factor of having all of her fellow students watch everything that had happened was nothing to scoff at either. But all in all it hadn’t been quite as bad as a full-blown spanking from Dana when she was really steamed. It most definitely wasn’t something she ever wanted to repeat again, but now that it was over, she felt oddly proud of herself for having endured it and as if she were now that much more a part of the group among her church friends.
She just wished they’d stop giggling at her.
“Good,” sniffed Sister Miller, taking a step forward to grab Rhen by a handful of the scruff of her dress as she marched her over to face the blackboard.
She set the Board down to rest vertically upon the little metal shelf that held a pair of dusty erasers, with all of its bible verses facing out toward the other students, and then picked up a stubby piece of yellow chalk. With a quick flick of her wrist she traced out a small circle about two inches in diameter, a little more than a third of the way up the length of the blackboard.
Maintaining her grip with one hand still firmly entwined around the collar of Rhen’s yellow and white, ruffled church dress, she was able to easily push her bright red face forward until her nose was pressing lightly against the dark slate in front of her.
“You see that circle?” she asked, even as she guided her face down until it was just below eye-level for her. “That’s exactly where I want the tip of your nose to stay until your aunt comes to get you later. You got that?”
“Yes ma’am,” came Rhen’s muffled reply a moment later after she was sure that she’d gotten her head positioned just right.
“Good.”
Sister Miller only let go of the repentant youngster’s collar after she had her positioned just the way she wanted her, which forced her to arch her back and push out her simmering bottom toward the classroom as she rose up onto the balls of her feet and spread her legs about a shoulder’s width apart to stay balanced. She then gathered up the loose folds of her dress that had fallen back down to cover her seat and pulled them up and out of the way once more. This time pinning them in place against the back of her dress with a pair of safety pins that Rhen hadn’t known she’d brought with her until that very moment.
With her skirts now secured in place and no longer covering her yellow Beauty and the Beast panties and the faint splashes of dark pink peeking out from beneath their leg holes, Sister Miller then gathered up her wrists and arranged them too behind her back.
“There we go, perfect,” she declared, taking a step back and surveying her handiwork with a little nod, her hands braced on her hips in satisfaction. “Now you be sure to keep those hands right where they are, Rhen. If I catch you rubbing before I say you can, I’ll really give you something to whine about, you hear?”
“I won’t rub, ma’am, I promise,” Rhen squeaked against the blackboard in front of her, her hands tightening against her wrists where she was grabbing them.
“Very good… Now then, everyone,” the older woman said, turning to face the rest of her class after a few more moments of letting Rhen stand hunched forward as the center of attention. “Shall we continue our lesson?”
“Yes, Sister Miller,” was the immediate, angelic response from the six other students still sitting comfortably.
Not a single person dared to even think about sticking a toe out of line for the remainder of their discussion about the talking donkey from the Old Testament. And Rhen was left to wriggle and squirm, struggling to keep her nose in place inside that tiny chalk circle as the class continued on without her.
Well, at least today’s lesson wasn’t boring, she thought to herself with a wan smirk that was thankfully hidden out of sight from the ever sharp-eyed Sister Miller. Although if Aunt Dana is really as mad as I think she is, I doubt that this little distraction will have been worth the price in the end.
Rhen sighed then and blew a stray strand of black hair away from her face.
