Six Very Naughty Girls (7 page)

As her colleague went to collect the plimsoll, Mrs
 
Thompson
prompted
Lucy
to tell the class what she had done.
 
That was the normal procedure – the girl who was to be punished had to tell the class who would witness her punishment what she had done to deserve it.

Lucy
was obviously very distressed and remorseful and
Alison
really felt for her as she started hesitantly to stammer out her confession.

“My name is
Lucy
Conway, Form 3C.
 
I hadn’t done my History homework,” she began in a quiet voice, almost cringing away from her audience.

“Louder!” said Mrs
 
Thompson
, “I want all of these girls to know how you have disgraced yourself!”

To give emphasis to her words, the angry form mistress leant down and slapped the front of
Lucy
’s right thigh, eliciting a sharp yip from the schoolgirl.

“
Ow
!”

Alison
saw the angry red mark of that slap appear on her friend’s thigh.

Lucy
started again, obviously very close to tears now.
 
She spoke loudly enough to be heard clearly by all of the girls now but there was a tremble in her voice.

“I’m
Lucy
Conway of 3C.
 
I hadn’t done my History homework.
 
I knew, if I didn’t hand it in on time, Miss
 
Simpson
would give me a detention.
 
It had to be in by the last lesson that morning

“I saw Jo’s
History
exercise book on her desk in morning break.
 

“
Oww
!!”

Mrs
 
Thompson
had leant down again and slapped
Lucy
’s thigh, in the same place.

“Tell the class Jo’s full name!”

Tears were starting to seep from
Lucy
’s eyes now.

“I’m sorry, miss.
 
It’s Joanne
Walters
.
 
Jo is very good at History.

“There was only me and two other girls there and they were busy chatting to each other.
 
I hadn’t planned to but, on the spur of the moment, I snaffled the book and put it in my case.
 
Then I went out to the toilets and, in the cubicle I copied out her work into my book, with the books on my lap as I sat on the toilet.

“But then I thought, if our answers were exactly alike, Miss S
impson
would realise that one of us must have copied the other’s work.
 
And no-one would believe that Jo had copied me!

“So, I tore out the pages with Jo’s answers on them and tore them into little pieces and flushed them down the toilet.

“Then I went back to the classroom and put Jo’s book back on her desk.

“I’m really sorry, miss, I know I shouldn’t have done it.
 
But it really wasn’t to get Jo into trouble.
 
I like Jo.
 
I was just trying to get out of trouble, but everything I did made it worse.”

By now the gym mistress was back, bearing the big white plimsoll which she passed to Mrs
 
Thompson
.

“Tell the class what Miss
 
Simpson
did when she discovered your despicable deception,” directed Mrs
 
Thompson
.”

“Yes, miss, sorry.
 
She gave me detention, for not doing the homework and reported me to you, my form mistress, for copying Jo’s and for flushing it down the toilet.”

Mrs
 
Thompson
now turned and addressed the girls of
Alison
’s class.
 

“I had to ponder long and hard, let me tell you, before deciding not to report
Lucy
to the headmistress for the cane.
 
But I decided that, as she already had a detention to serve, a sound
slippering
would meet the case.”

“Right!” said Mrs
Thompson
.
 
“Before we get you over that horse, we’d better balance you up!
 
How many slaps did your right thigh get?”

“Two, miss,” said
Lucy
miserably.

“Right!”

The form mistress leaned down once again and administered two stinging slaps to
he
front of
Lucy
’s left thigh.

“
Oww
!
 
Owww
!!”

Poor
Lucy
was crying openly now.

“Your waterworks don’t impress any of us,
Lucy
.
 
Get yourself over the horse now!”

Lucy
obeyed immediately.
 
She didn’t want to give Mrs
 
Thompson
cause to deliver any more of those smarting slaps.
 
And, ostrich-like, she felt better when she couldn’t see all the other girls watching her, even though she knew that they still would be doing so.
 
Lucy
was an athletic girl and it only took her a moment to clamber up over the horse and hold onto the handholds on the other side.

Now all the watching girls could see was
Lucy
’s long legs, her feet encased in short white gym socks and plimsolls and her slightly chubby bottom, tightly covered by her light blue PE shorts.

This last was Mrs
 
Thompson
’s target.
 
She had made sure, when
Lucy
got changed, that the girl was not wearing anything under her shorts and she intended to make every smack of this
slippering
count.

The form mistress took a firm grip of the heel of the plimsoll and raised it high in the air.
 
She waited a few seconds, deciding where to bring it down and not wanting to give
Lucy
a clue as to when the
slippering
would start.
 
Then, suddenly, she whipped her arm down, twisting her body as she did so, and smacked the hard but flexible rubber
sole
of the plimsoll down, smacking fiercely onto the thin cotton fabric covering
Lucy
’s right bottom cheek.

SMACKK!!

The sound of that terrific impact rang out loudly in the silent gymnasium.
 
Alison
was shocked by the loud report.
 
But not so shocked as
Lucy
.
 
The girl yelled at the top of her voice and jerked her head back.
 
The watching girls saw her long jet black hair flying wildly and then saw
Lucy
’s body slump back over the horse, wriggling from side to side.

As Mrs
 
Thompson
lifted the plimsoll for the second instalment of
Lucy
’s
slippering
, the third year girl started to sob loudly.
 
Alison
felt so guilty, watching her friend’s humiliating punishment.

She had tried to close her eyes but, despite her feelings of guilt, was too fascinated to do so.
 
What was happening to her friend was horrible, awful beyond words.
 
But somehow part of her found it impossible to watch and to observe the smallest details.

After a pause of about twenty seconds, Mrs
 
Thompson
slammed the slipper down again, with a similar action and just as hard, onto
Lucy
’s right buttock.
 
Lucy
yelled again and bounced up and down across the leather horse.

This time the form mistress did not pause. As soon as
Lucy
’s bouncing had subsided and she once more lay in position, just squirming slightly, she brought the slipper down again.
 
It smashed down hard onto the girl’s jiggling bottom, once again on the right cheek, taking everyone in the gym – and especially
Lucy
– by surprise.
 
The poor girl let loose an unearthly wail at the unexpected smart of
the slipper landing again on her newly tender right buttock.
 
Alison
’s mouth opened wide in shock and she squirmed in her place in sympathy with her friend.

Mrs
Thompson
did not display any sympathy towards the obviously suffering girl.
 
Once again, she raised the plimsoll high, once again she twisted her body as the punishment implement sped down, increasing its force as it dented the thin blue cotton fabric of
Lucy
's shorts deep into her right buttock.
 
And, once again,
Lucy
yelled her distress out loud.
 
Even those of the assembled girls who had been inclined to smile at the deserved misfortunes of a girl from another form, were now abashed at the severity of the punishment.

In
Alison
's imagination she could see her friend's angry red bottom flesh shining through those thin blue shorts.
 
Still, she could not close her eyes.

Lucy
sobbed loudly, squirming over the vaulting horse, her chubby bottom jigging up and down.

As before, the form mistress waited until
Lucy
was relatively still before whacking the plimsoll down again.
 
This time she aimed it squarely across the girl's left bottom cheek.
 
Lucy
shrieked out an incoherent plea for mercy in the midst of her sobs.

Her form mistress, however, was not inclined to be merciful.
 
She intended to ensure that young Miss Conway should receive her punishment in full.
 
She raised the plimsoll for the sixth and final whack.

She had kept a little something in reserve and made that last whack the hardest of all.
 
It arced in ferociously, aimed at her right cheek again, but lower this time, partly landing on bare skin, below the meagre protection of the light blue PE shorts.

Lucy
bucked over the horse, bawling like a baby.
 
She kicked out her long legs and
Alison
and the other girls saw the slipper's blazing imprint branded on her thigh.

Mrs
Thompson
allowed
Lucy
a moment to recover and then told her to dismount.

This exercise took the girl considerably more time than it had taken for her to drape herself over the horse.
 
Eventually, she stood unsteadily on trembling legs, still weeping and with both her hands pressed to her bottom in an unavailing attempt to ease the overwhelming smart.

"I'm sorry for the interruption to your lesson, Laura," Mrs
Thompson
said to the gym mistress, handing the plimsoll back to her.