When I sat down at my desk yesterday morning to work, the house felt strangely quiet and still.
I glanced around my office, and spied the school desk, folded neatly against the wall. And suddenly my daydreams tranported me to life as a Headmaster, the desk in the middle of the room, the gentle knock at the door.
A girl came in – a girl I liked; a prefect. And whilst it was far from uncommon for girls in the school to be caned, it was exceptionally rare for prefects to receive corporal punishment. Yet on this occasion, I had little choice.
Prefects were dealt with somewhat differently to the rest of the pupils, as she well knew. Tradition dictated a birching, rather than the cane.
We discussed her offence; she apologised profusely. And then I asked her to remove her blazer and take off her knickers, and to bend over the desk. On instruction, she reached back and lifted her skirt, then bent right forward and held on tight.
Twenty strokes, the tradition had it. An examplary punishment for a girl who should have known better and set the example. She held on bravely at first; the sixth stroke made her yelp; she whimpered through the next few, sobbed for the remainder.
And then I made her stand, and she apologised, and we went through with the final part of the routine. For she would be suspended from her duties for one week. I asked her to remove her prefectorial tie and hand it to me, her fingers trembling as she replaced it with the ordinary school tie I offered her in return. We would reverse the exchange seven days later…
Somehow concentrating on my morning’s work was rather tough after that 
Oh the poor girl, anything but taking her tie
Hot though!
“Yet on this occasion, I had little choice.”
Oh poor you, really, LITTLE choice! 😛
And I agree Emma, tie was worse than the birtching 😉
*birching
Yes, that tie business is terrible. I think if you *really* wanted to set an example, you should hold the birch, whip her with the tie. The scorching shame would be far worse than the pain of the birch. Honestly. I swear.
Graham, you’re funny
But yeah, I agree with the majority. Taking the tie was just mean. If anyone had ever tried to take my prefect tie away from me they would have been in BIG trouble. In fact, I still have it now. (Um, is that sad?)
*bites lip*
Just lovely.
You know, Abel, if you had been my Headmaster when I was a prefect — a very bad and not at all exemplary prefect — I do believe I would have made an effort.
But, but– what could the poor, good girl possibly have done to deserve this?
I’ve long suspected that reason isn’t particularly important to the average top. *shakes head*
@Indy: I had no trouble filling in the blanks on what she had done. *consults memory of senior year at high school* Boys, alcohol, drugs, general mouthiness. 😀
But, Alexa, this was normally *a very good girl*, so I don’t think the normal litany of senior year/sixth former escapades can apply … no, I think the poor girl was either set up by the resident bad girls who were tired of her spotless “perfect Prefect” reputation, or else she was taking the fall for some erring girl because she was too moral to be a snitch!
Either way, I think being completely innocent adds a certain piquantness to the suffering…!
But, Abel, how terrible for you that you had trouble getting back into your work, after. I have *such* sympathy for you…. [world’s smallest violin playing in background] 😉
Agree with Zille, she’s a good girl so no boys or alcohol for her.
I think she went into town during prep. She wanted to buy her friend a birthday present and with all her other responsibilities she didn’t have time to get it beforehand.
But good girls get punished too
Was I such an anomoly, then, the bad girl that the teachers mistakenly believed to be a good girl, good enough to be made a prefect? 😀
Oh, no no Alexa! I got up to some very naughty things, and my motto was: “The Eleventh Commandment is ‘Thou Shalt Not Get Caught!’ ”
I just like the idea of suffering despite innocence! (Not that I’ve ever *tried* innocence — it’s just a nice abstraction for me!)
It’s “A.J.”, by the way, not “Alexa”.
Innocence. Hmmm… What is this “innocence” of which you speak? 😀
But, yes, the idea of an actual innocent being punished is lovely. If she is really innocent, I think she is taking the birching for a girl who will be expelled if she gets into trouble one more time.
Jeepers creepers! Feeling a tad sadistic that morning, were we?
I don’t think she was innocent. A good girl, naturally – she wouldn’t be a prefect, otherwise. Although this is the sort of school where even the good girls would doubtless have been caned at least once before they reached the final year.
But she’s done something serious, and entirely out of character. Being caught drinking in the local pub, perhaps? (Maybe she and one of her non-prefect friends went in on a Saturday afternoon, when the boarders are allowed to go into town? The friend would be being caned by her housemaster whilst our heroine was being birched). Or just being caught playing truant?
(I’m not entirely sure the ‘girl being punished unfairly’ concept totally works for me. Although the ‘girl takes punishment to save a friend’ does, but I think the consequences in this particular scene are too serious for that to be the case).
For me being punished ufairly works just fine – no need to actually feel guilty 😉 And you can be rebelious too
But I have to agree, in that scenario, she HAD to be guilty of something…At least to some extend 😉