Christy stormed into the Brimleys’ house with tears stinging her eyes. She slammed the kitchen door loudly, throwing the book bag down with a thunderous crash. Her eyes blazed fiercely.

She heard her parents’ light-hearted laughter coming from the living room when she had first stepped in, and this just added fuel to the fire. How they could be so happy when the world was crashing down on her she had no idea. She stifled a scream and yet another stream of foul language which she had been uttering during her walk home, and blazed into the living room.

Both Haley and Carly gazed at the living room door with wide-open eyes. Haley stood and went to meet her: being parents of a fifteen-year-old meant putting up with quite a lot of ‘noisy’ explosions, but Christy was usually such a mild-mannered kid that they were surprised.

“Hey hey hey what’s up?” he said. “He mis-graded another paper of yours?”

“NO!” The young teen spat vehemently. “I... They... They’re REINSTATING THE FRICKING CORPORAL PUNISHMENT ALLOTMENT!” Chris fumed, tense with anger.

The girl’s parents quickly got over the unacceptable tone she was speaking with, since the content was the most incredible they’d heard in a good while.

“Oh...” was all Haley could say.

Carly, still seated on the couch, didn’t add much. “Whose idea is this?”

“Like I know! I think Principal Warren’s... claims we’ve gotten worse and worse over the years. There’s some kind of mandatory meeting for the parents to attend tonight.” Chris quit her, coughing a bit. “How can they DO this?” she whined.

Carly gave Haley a puzzled look, that he returned, along with a shrug. They sure wouldn’t have expected this, even though news of petty crimes and fights among students *had* increased during the last year, and as parents, it was worrisome.

“When’s the meeting?” Haley just asked. “I suppose we’ll both go and... you know.”

“Calm down now, Chris, no need to be angry,” Carly said, regretting it almost immediately.

Ignoring her father for the moment, Chris retorted, “No need to be ANGRY? Mama, they’re already starting to run the school like it’s some reform school! They told us in assembly right before we left. Some kid called out that it wasn’t fair and he almost was the first one to get paddled! It ISN’T FAIR!”

“HEY!” Carly stood. “Paddling was never been banned *here*, so you want to tone it down.”

It took her several moments to calm down before she was able to add, “The meeting’s at 9:00 tonight. They’re having it late so people who work can go.”

“Honey,” Haley said, approaching his daughter, “we understand you’d be upset about this, but let’s take it one step at a time, okay? We’ll go to this meeting and see what they have to say. I promise everything will be fair.”

Christy lowered her eyes, and one hand unconsciously went to her bottom. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I didn’t mean to go berserk on you...” She sighed. At least it felt like her parents were on her side about this.

Haley patted her head and hugged her softly from behind. “You know we never want anything that isn’t in your best interest, and if this thing doesn’t convince us, we’ll move you out. Right?” Carly nodded. “But as I said, one step at a time. You have homework this afternoon?”

Chris sighed. “Okay... thanks. And yeah... of course I have homework.” She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “I’m just going to go upstairs. Call me for dinner, okay?”

~*~

At ten past midnight, Haley and Carly parked in the driveway in front of the house. They sat in silence in the car for a few more minutes, then eventually walked inside. They were pretty sure Christy was awake waiting for them... but instead, they found her curled up in a little ball on the couch, wearing her everyday clothes. The TV on and the half-eaten frozen pizza confirmed at least her intentions to stay up.

Haley sighed good-heartedly, kissed his wife and went upstairs. Carly, after dropping the purse, knelt by the sofa and whispered in her daughter’s ear: “Honey? We’re home... why don’t you keep this up in your bed, hmm?” she said softly.

Chris slowly came to, sniffled, then nodded. Her head was too heavy to even try and stay awake for a discussion now. She slowly got up, gave her mother a hug, and trudged up to her bedroom. After quickly throwing on a nightgown she crawled into bed and immediately fell asleep...

... until BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! Chris rolled over in bed, trying to focus on her alarm enough to turn it off. The incessant beeping pulsated against her headache and she groaned as she finally found the button.

Suddenly she remembered what had taken place in the last twenty-four hours, and hurriedly, though apprehensively, made her way downstairs for a discussion with her parents.

Carly was already seated at the breakfast table, struggling with the knife and feeling like she had to learn to butter toasted bread all over again. She wasn’t feeling very good. Haley, reading the morning newspaper and dressed for the day already, shared her anxiety. Last night’s events had been... unique, and though convinced of their decisions, both parents worried a confrontation with Chris as much as Chris worried one with them.

When the girl came, Haley smiled and said: “Good morning, princess. Slept well?”

Chris returned a half smile. “Yeah, pretty much... really was exhausted. I meant to stay up to talk to you guys last night... sorry...” She shrugged sheepishly. Not really hungry, she just sat down at the table with her parents. Not wanting to prolong things any, the nervous teenager bluntly asked, “So? What’s the verdict? How was the meeting?”

She was much more direct than they’d wanted, but after all, she had to know sooner or later. Haley folded the newspaper as he spoke, while Carly gave up on her bread with a sigh.

“Well... the meeting was interesting, actually. Was also a lot of fighting, but that was expected. Principal Warren is good, much better than the ‘Witch’, as you’d called her.”

“And,” Carly said, “parents could choose whether to accept corporal punishment being used on their kids or not. It’s a case-by-case thing and they’ve got this contract form that... well...”

Haley took a deep breath. “We signed it, Chris.”

“WHAT!?!” Chris scooted the chair back in a hurry as she stood, causing it to fall to the floor with a clatter. “HOW COULD YOU! DAMNIT! You didn’t even TALK to me about it!” Tears came unbidden. “You said you were going to be FAIR! YOU LIED!” Her eyes flashed angrily and her head swam and she went on her tirade.

Even in their most pessimistic predictions, Haley and Carly couldn’t expect such a strong  reaction... and ‘strong’ is an euphemism. Haley quickly stood and strolled to where Christy stood, and placed his hands on her shoulders to try and contain her.

“You calm down, Chris. We think this IS fair. There are good sides you haven’t heard of yet.”

“Yes,” Carly said. “For example, paddling won’t go on the school record unless it’s a physical fight with another student. Better to take three to six swats than have an official reprimand, no? And also, there’s a new rule about...”

Chris shook her head and wrenched herself out from under her father’s grasp. “I don’t give a CRAP about new rules and my stupid record!” she screamed hoarsely. “No one is going to care! How COULD you? You’re just going to let that bastard beat me?!? How is THAT FAIR?”

Her parents were shocked, and both of them silently wondered if that was the right thing to do after all. Discipline in the house was fairly strict but it worked because Christy was mature enough to accept it, but if *that* was the way she was going to feel about this, then...

“Christine, you’re inches from getting a spanking here at home, so QUIT stomping like a child and start thinking, okay?” Haley said, quite loudly too. “We could just say that you must accept it no questions asked, you know?”

Chris, who by this time felt quite betrayed, was beyond caring. As she stared him straight in the face, she snarled: “Isn’t that what you’re doing anyway? You didn’t exactly give me a damned choice in this whole fricking deal, did you?”

Upon hearing that, Carly slammed her hand on the table and stood. “Christine, *we* are your parents, and we know what is best for you. We are trying to talk about it with you, reasonably, and not everything is as bad as you see it now. But if you can’t accept even that, then this discussion is over. Right off to school with you, and you’ll be across my knee the moment you get home. You can go now,” she finished, still wearing a tight face.

Chris look over at her mother, jolted over of the reverie she been in. “Mama... Please... I’m sorry...” she whimpered. It seemed like everything was going wrong this morning.

“Christy?” Haley spoke softly, too shocked now to even be angry anymore. “You’ll have to have a talk with me too if you don’t do as your mother says. Go get dressed and off to school.”

With a pounding head and tears streaming down her face, a hurt, angry and scared Chris stared at her father, then turned and ran out of the room, slamming her bedroom door behind her. She fell into a heap on the floor and dissolved in sobs, which lasted several minutes. Finally she picked herself up and went through the motions of getting ready for school, even though all she could focus on was what her parents had already done to her... and what they would do when she came home.

As she finished getting ready she stalked downstairs and through the kitchen, refusing to even look at her parents, and slammed the door on her way out.

Her first class of that day was her most detested one – French. Their teacher, Madame Millies, was on a crusade to stop misbehavior in her class. Chris, despite how much she tried, just could not focus on the conjugations of the verb “aller”, and her thoughts kept drifting to the pending spanking she was getting that afternoon, and everything else that had transpired in the past twelve hours.

Suddenly she was snapped out of it by the teacher’s yardstick smacking down on her desk.

“Mademoiselle, perhaps you would care to recap what we just discussed?” came the nasally voice of the teacher.

Chris groaned. This was the second time this week she was caught daydreaming, which meant a detention. “Je ne sais pas, Madame,” she replied sullenly.

The wicked teacher’s face opened in a wide grin. “To the Principal Warren’s office with you, then,” she replied.

Chris’ brow furrowed. “WHAT?” she cried indignantly. “It’s supposed to be...”

But she was cut off. “Not anymore. No more detentions... all discipline is meted out by Mr. Warren himself.”

The evil teacher had by this time finished filling out the discipline form, and handed it to Chris, who nervously trudged to the office, thinking that she would never make it to the end of this day.

~*~

Ms. Summers, a lively young woman in her early twenties, welcomed Christy with a smile as she walked in the waiting room to the principal’s office, but wiped that off her face as soon as she saw the teen’s distressed face, and the paper she was holding.

“Uh oh, is that a note for Mr. Warren you have there?”

Chris, who had to date been a problem-free student, looked at Ms. Summers forlornly. She nodded, tears springing up once again. She held out the slip, and in a scratchy voice whispered “here.”

The woman sighed and took it. It was one of those brand new discipline forms that teachers had to fill – new because a table marked as “CP” had been added, and everyone knew what that meant.

“Aww... Well, wait a second, honey.”

She knocked on the principal’s office, and entered when invited. Christy remained behind and fidgeted nervously until she was called in.

“Christy Brimley, right?” said Mr. Warren. He was a rather tall, skinny black man with no hair at all and a bright smile. Usually. He was definitely not smiling right now.

The girl just nodded, unable to find her voice.

“Sounds like we have another problem on the very first day of the... new order. I really wouldn’t have expected this from you, a top student. If I’m not mistaken, your parents signed the new regulation form. Is that right?”

Chris blushed in shame, and nodded the affirmative once again. This time though, she pleaded. “Please... it... I... it was a mistake. PLEASE don’t, sir...” she was whimpering nervously.

Mr. Warren sighed as he stood from behind his desk. “Christy, girl, I am not keen to inflict punishment unto students just as you are not keen to receive it. And frankly, these rules are aimed towards more hot-headed people than yourself,” he admitted. “But a rule is a rule, and yours was a transgression.” Then he went silent, and produced a long and thin paddle with eight holes drilled into it. “It wasn’t a serious one, though, so it’s three swats. Do you understand?”

Chris’ heart leapt into her throat upon seeing that. Visions of being in Mrs. Richardson’s office on her graduation night surfaced. Her dad had promised her no more holey paddles, and she felt more betrayed than ever. She slowly shook her head ‘no’ and began to back away.

“N-n-no... please... not... not with that....” She slowly reached the door and was grappling with the handle, but with her nerves she couldn’t get it open.

“Brimley, don’t make this harder on yourself than it already is,” Principal Warren said as he walked around the desk, not threateningly, but with no signs of softening either.

Ms. Summers was more conciliatory though, and gently took Christy’s hand away from the handle. “Now, Chris, it’s okay. It’s more symbolic than anything. You get to keep everything on, and I must be here according to the rules.”

“Please, Christy, place your elbows on the desk now,” Principal Warren urged her on.

Chris sobbed. “H-he said no more paddles with holes... I can’t... pleassse....” She looked up beseechingly in the secretary’s eyes, hoping to see some compassion, but not really expecting it either. She kept trying to free herself from the woman’s grasp and get away, but she wasn’t succeeding.

Principal Warren raised an eyebrow. “Who said that? This is what we use here, Christy.”

“D-daddy did. Please sir...” One hand involuntarily went to her bottom and she trembled, beyond trying to escape, but not quite ready to willingly put herself over the desk.

The man sighed and nodded. “I take it you are no novice to corporal punishment, then. I’m sorry, but this is what we use. I think it will still be better than you getting across my lap like a child, Christy. This is more adult and more impersonal, because you see, there really is nothing personal.”

He then pointed at the desk again. Ms. Summers gently pushed the girl towards the desk. “Now, Christy. Don’t make Principal Warren add a fourth swat, okay?”

The teen sobbed, the tears steadily falling down her cheeks. But she could tell she wasn’t going to get out of this. And she didn’t know how she was going to take three swats, let alone four, so she finally allowed herself to be directed into the position she knew all-too-well, although her shoulders were shaking with violent sobs, and she was trembling all over.

Ms. Summers retreated and stood cross-armed by the door as was required of her, while Principal Warren positioned himself left of the girl. He placed the wooden blade on her skirt-covered backside, then lifted the paddle and smacked it down on the centre of her buttocks. He seemed to consider the girl’s very small frame, but he did hit reasonably hard.

Chris had certainly had worse spanks in her life, but the emotional stress took its toll, and made it seem far worse than it truly was. “Ahhhh!” she wailed pitifully as she dug her nails into the wood of the desk, not caring if she left marks.

Principal Warren seemed to understand that the girl’s distress went beyond the physical pain, so he looked at Ms. Summers and shook his head. The pretty secretary shrugged sadly, and the man turned back to Christy. He pressed down on the small of her back and applied two rapid swats on the same spot in less than five seconds.

Christy’s breath came in short spurts, sometimes interrupted by choked coughing. Shame, pain, and anger had her completely trembling and nearly incapable of moving. The pain was not that bad, quite honestly. She had surely been put through far worse more times than she could count. But adding the factors up? It was enough for her.

 “Okay, Christy, we’re done,” said Principal Warren as he retreated.

She slowly stood, but had to support herself with one hand on the desk. She wanted so much for someone to comfort her, but the last people she wanted to see was her parents.

Her wish was partly granted when Ms. Summers gently rounded her shaking shoulders with an arm, and offered her a tissue. The young woman instructed her to say goodbye to the Principal, something Christy was all too happy to do, and then brought her to the waiting room again as Mr. Warren shook his head and put the paddle back into a drawer.

“There, there, honey,” the woman cooed. “Well taken,” she lied.

Chris knew that the sweet woman was stretching the truth for her, but it didn’t really matter. Once again, the girl dissolved into tears.

“I hate my parents. I HATE them. How could they DO that to me? It’s ALL their fault. ALL their fault....” she sobbed.

She didn’t want to go through the rest of the day. She was too embarrassed, for one, two, her head hurt, and three, she knew she wouldn’t be able to concentrate any better now than she had when she had first gotten in trouble.

“Don’t say that, now,” Ms. Summers gently admonished. “I’m sure they do what is best for you, and you know what? You aren’t even the first. Remember that boy at the assembly, yesterday?”

Chris nodded her head, sullenly.

“Well, he seemed to believe it smart to make a big show of his ideas early this morning, practically shouting against teachers and the school in general. He was paddled six times.” The woman said this very seriously, while she signed the discipline form and then offered it to Chris.

“Wow...” Chris said softly. Her face burned in shame as she looked at the discipline form – her first ever to have to sign. But sign it she did with her right hand, while she gently rubbed her bum with her left.

After this was completed she held her head with her right, wishing that the entire day could just end. Ms. Summers sighed and filed the form away in a folder, then stood again and went to give the girl another brief hug.

“Come on, back to class with you,” she directed her gently to the hallway. “You can have ten minutes to yourself in the bathroom. And I don’t want to *ever* see you in here again unless it’s to say hi to me, okay?” she smiled.

Chris smiled gently in return. “Don’t worry, I don’t intend to come back otherwise. And... I... thanks... for being so patient and everything.” With that, she slowly walked on to the restroom.

~*~

The rest of the day passed slowly, and Chris had to work hard both as staying still in her seat and at keeping alert. But before long the day did end, and she found herself walking home. But as she walked, her bookbag bouncing against her sore rear, her anger flared once more.

Coughing in the cold winter air she finally found herself at her house, entering the building much the same way she had the day before. “WHERE ARE YOU?!?!” she yelled hoarsely.

A few seconds later, Haley came out of his study and Carly bounced down the stairs, both worried anew. Soon they saw Christy and understood something was very wrong, and since she had a spanking coming, how could it not be so. They both just wished she would present herself with a better attitude about it.

“Welcome back...” Haley said, taking his reading glasses off and crossing his arms.

“HOW COULD YOU!?!?” Chris screamed, breaking down into sobs yet again. “DAMNIT! You PROMISED! You PROMISED ME! I HATE YOU!” She was shaking hard and could barely see straight.

Haley was taken aback and, frankly, quite hurt by yet another outburst. And angry, too. Carly looked calmer, but was actually quite ticked off as well.

“Hey, don’t you *dare* take that tone with me, young lady!” he said, raising his voice.

“Chris, I thought we were over this?” Carly said. “If you want to talk, this is so not the way and you’ll end up getting in even deeper trouble.”

Christy just stood there, holding onto herself. “Why didn’t you tell me that they weren’t giving detentions anymore? WHY?”

Haley tensed down a little, but still shook his head vigorously and opened his arms. “Maybe because you didn’t even let us speak this morning?” he said.

“Did they tell you today?” Carly asked innocently, not having a clue what she was saying.

Christy turned to her mother. Her dad’s words had hit her, but she couldn’t just get over everything that had happened lately in a heartbeat. She still was quite angry with her parents, and her mother’s comment was more important at the moment.

“Yes, MOTHER,” she said, trying hard to mask the sarcasm. “I WAS told today in school... after I got in trouble! It WOULD have just amounted to a detention YESTERDAY....” Chris was trembling, a mix of wanting to be consoled and wanting to literally push her parents around for hurting her so badly.

It took a few seconds for that last bit of information to register in the girl’s parents’ minds, but when it did, their hearts both sank. Haley sighed and sat on a chair in the living room, and as much as Carly would do the same, she approached her distressed daughter, not touching her though.

“You were paddled on the first day, Christy? What happened?”

Tearfully Chris began her tale of how she was too upset over her upcoming spanking that afternoon, and not worried enough over a thirty-minute detention, to care about conjugating French verbs, and how Madame Millies had been all-too-happy to send her to the principal’s office.

By the time she was through, both Haley and Carly were shaking their heads. They’d been listening with a strange mixture of anger, disappointment... and guilt. As much as the girl’s behaviour wasn’t excusable per se, it was still obvious they were the cause of it all happening.

“Well...” Carly said after a long pause.

“Did that hurt a lot?” Haley asked though.

The anger started to boil up in their daughter again at his innocent question. “I’ve never been to terrified in my LIFE!” Chris nearly yelled.

“I already said to lower your voice, Christy,” he replied in the softest tone he could muster, and given the circumstances, that wasn’t too soft.

Carly frowned, though. “Chris, you’re not usually scared of a paddling... and the policy is no more than six swats... what was so bad about it?”

Huge sobs engulfed the girl’s slim frame. “Maybe the fact that he used a freaking HOLEY PADDLE?” Chris said accusingly. “You promised me! You promised!”

Carly’s jaw dropped and her hands flew to her mouth as she heard that, and Haley’s eyes went wide like saucers... but any reaction was too late, and they could just stare as she ran out of the room. She went up to her bedroom, where she flopped down on her bed. She lay there on her stomach, clutching her stuffed moose Cocoa, and sobbed heavily.

“I... we didn’t know...” Haley said, mostly to himself.

“I knew we should’ve asked to see the damn thing,” Carly snapped under her breath.

It took them a good while to recover, and when they eventually did, they started to ascend the stairs to Christy’s bedroom. The door was open, so in they went, and Haley sat on the bed.

“Hey? Chris, we... we didn’t know,” he simply admitted.

Chris was still trembling and sobbing, and Cocoa’s soft brown fuzz was now quite soggy. Slowly she turned. She still couldn’t make up her mind whether she wanted to be comforted or whether she wanted to give her parents the cold shoulder.

With her eyes downcast, unable to make eye contact with either parent, she choked, “Why didn’t you ask? Why couldn’t you....” Here she squeezed her eyes shut and just sobbed, unable to come up with the words she needed to say.

Haley felt his heart break at such sincere, straightforward question. It sounded so obvious now that they should have asked. Why hadn’t they?

“They told us it was a paddle,” Carly said, “and in our schools they used to have flat paddles, like in most schools anyway... we...” and she broke off, looking away.

“Sorry, Chris,” said Haley, “we just assumed and didn’t talk this too in-depth.”

They sat on the bed, and since Carly wasn’t confident on touching Chris yet, she began to idly play with Cocoa’s horns instead.

“You promised... and I didn’t even know I was going to get paddled. It was so unfair! And now you’re going to be even madder ‘cuz I got in trouble in school.... This is the worst day of my LIFE!” The girl curled up into a ball again, wishing everything could just go away, but knowing it couldn’t.

Haley kicked himself harder than he had ever before, and exchanged a meaningful look with his wife. She too was clearly miserable over this, even though the thing itself didn’t change.

“Chris, baby,” the man said, “we’re not any madder than we would be if you got a detention. And since you’ve been paddled, we won’t punish further for that... but, do you believe us when we say we didn’t know?”

“Chris, really, we were NOT trying to set you up!” Carly said.

The girl sniffled but nodded. “It hurt...” she whimpered pathetically. And it had hurt. Physically, but most of all, emotionally.

This time Carly didn’t resist, and she threw her arms around the girl, not caring one bit if she didn’t want to be touched. She broke the hug a second later, though.

“Hurt lots? How about we send Dad away and see if you’re alright?” she cooed, now starting to be a little concerned – but well knowing it was crocodile tears.

Chris finally didn’t mind her mother’s touch, and was quite thankful for it. And she forced a small smile and nodded with her mother’s suggestion. She knew it hadn’t been the worst spanking in the world by any means, at least physically, but her heart was doing her thinking right now, and not her head.

“Okay,” Haley said, and he stood. He turned at the last moment to caress Christy’s hair, though he didn’t want to do more. He was still genuinely upset over the whole thing, and didn’t feel too expansive with her yet.

When he was gone, Carly hugged the girl again. “You were spanked over clothes, right?”

Chris nodded the affirmative. “Y-yes ma’am,” she whispered.

“At least that bit was true,” Carly mumbled. “When did that happen?” she asked as she motioned the girl to her feet and pointed at her skirt.

“F-first period.” Chris took the hem of her flower-print skirt and slowly lifted it in the back, as she had so many times before. She turned away from her mother, so that she could easily slip her panties down in back to see what marks remained.

Carly did so and asserted the damage. The girl’s whole backside was pink, without noticeable bruising or welts. She placed the back of one finger on the skin to know it was still a bit warm.

“Okay,” she said, replacing the panties. “It’s not too bad... but I’m sure it felt bad,” she quickly corrected herself.

Chris nodded and shuddered. “I... I know it wasn’t technically so bad, but it’s not how it felt....” the teen said tearfully, nearly repeating what her mother had just said. She looked down as she let her skirt fall back over. Unsure of what to do or say she just turned. She had no idea where she stood with her parents, now, and just wished this horror of a day could end.

“Haley?” Carly called, then she took the girl’s hands as the man re-entered, and spoke to her. “Chris, we can’t say ‘we’re sorry’ enough... it didn’t bruise at all...” she repeated for her husband, who nodded, “... but, we’ll think this thing over.”

“You’re not in trouble for being punished in school,” Haley said. “Tonight we’ll deal with the other one, though, okay?”

Chris gulped but nodded. “Yes sir,” she replied in a subdued manner. She wasn’t looking forward to this evening, but at least she wasn’t getting spanked again for what had happened at school!

“Good. Do you want time to yourself?” Carly asked.

Chris quietly nodded. She did have some homework, and while she had mostly forgiven her parents, she still was hurting by what she saw as their lack of responsibility.

“Okay...” Haley said.

Carly rose from the bed and kissed the girl’s forehead and wet, tear-streaked cheeks... several times. “Call you for dinner.”

Her father ruffled her hair and they quietly walked out, and downstairs, an ominous silence looming over them. It was quite obvious they’d made a mistake. Christy had her faults, and they still believed in the overall thing... but this was getting out of hand. They eventually locked away in Haley’s study, where they spent a good couple of hours talking, and making new decisions.

~*~

On her end, Chris spent her hours finishing the little bit of homework she had that was due the next day. She had a project due the next week, but found concentrating impossible, so she instead curled up on her bed, thinking, where she finally fell into a fitful sleep.

Carly’s hand gently shook her awake at seven in the evening. Christy slowly became aware of her surroundings and tried to give a smile.

“We called, but you didn’t hear. I guessed you were sleeping,” Carly said, returning the smile. She’d have wanted Haley to go up and do this, but he wasn’t feeling up to it yet.

“Sorry,” Chris said simply with a bit of a shrug.

Her mother collected the girl’s lithe body and hugged her tight, keeping her on her lap and rocking her. “We’re sorry, Chris, believe me. We should have been more careful about this...”

Chris hugged her mother back equally tight, needing this reassurance more than anything. She knew her mother needed to hear that it was alright, but she just couldn’t quite utter those words. Instead she just whispered, “I know you’re sorry, Mama.”

On any other day Carly would have seen defiance in Christy’s words, but instead she just sighed and nodded. “Well, let’s see if we can make it better.”

She stood, and only after moving a couple of steps she realised she was still carrying Chris – and that however small, she was too heavy! She ‘oof-ed’ and set her back on her feet.

“Oops. Come downstairs. Dinner’s ready and we need to talk.”

Christy smiled a bit at her mother’s goof, and followed her down to where the table had already been set and food put on the table. She sat nervously (and rather uncomfortably) and looked over the simple, but homemade spaghetti and meatballs. She wasn’t terribly hungry, despite the fact she’d had no breakfast and had barely eaten any lunch. But she knew this was more for discussion purposes than eating, anyway.

Sure enough, not five minutes into the dinner, Haley turned off the TV on the opposite wall and addressed his daughter, not before taking a deep breath and re-thinking things through yet again.

“We do still believe that you could benefit from spankings at school, Chris... but knowing how they’re given, and how we’ve erroneously gone about this, we decided it’s not acceptable anymore. So, we’ll have to give it up.”

He didn’t sound happy or cheerful, but rather sterile, as he reported the information. He did look at her reaction though.

The relief plastered on the girl’s face was quite obvious. She didn’t exactly break into a grin, but she felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders. More than that, she felt like she could truly forgive her parents now, without trouble. A faint smile crept through and a silent tear of thanks slid down her cheek.

“Thank you, Daddy,” she whispered. “Thanks, Mama.”

Haley nodded and returned the smile, feeling just as relieved for a moment. He wondered if having Christy’s forgiveness wasn’t more important than doing the right thing, but then realised that probably *was* the right thing.

“Christy, though,” Carly spoke after a few seconds. “First off, you’ll go see Principal Warren tomorrow morning and speak to him. He made this possible too, and would have wanted things to go differently in the first place. Also, we want you to know that when you’re given a detention in school, you might still be subject to spanking at home as we see fit. Nothing changes there.”

The teen gulped and nodded. Now that she needn’t fear the paddle kept in her principal’s drawer, she really had no qualms about visiting him.

“I understand, Mama,” she replied. “I... I’ll see him tomorrow... and... I understand about your punishments,” she replied while biting her lip.

“Glad to hear that,” Carly replied with a small smile, and her hand squeezed her daughter’s sympathetically across the table. “When you’re finished here, you can go up to your room and wait for your father. We still need to deal with your complete lack of respect this morning.”

She said that not firmly, but not softly either, as though to make her understand that even though she was right and they were wrong on school paddling, things weren’t completely changed between them. Haley locked his eyes in Christy’s to see her reaction.

The girl stiffened nervously, but nodded. After clearing her place she made her way up the stairs once more to wait for her father, as she had far too many times for her to count.

A few minutes later, Haley stood and walked up stairs. He knocked softly on Christy’s bedroom and entered. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, but he held no implements in his hands.

The girl was kneeling on her bed, and looked up anxiously when she heard her father approach. It brought some relief to see no implements, but it didn’t mean that none were forthcoming. And even if there weren’t any used, it did not mean it would be much less of a spanking.

Haley sat on the bed and brought Chris close, rubbing her back, half-hugging her. He too realised they’d been in that same situation many times before, and though this was a relatively ‘light’ one in his mind, he knew how a spanking never seems light when you’re about to receive it.

“Do you realise that this punishment has nothing to do with the school incident, but only with how rude you have been this morning, Christy?”

Chris forlornly nodded her head. “Yes, Daddy.”

“Good. I want that to be very clear, my girl.”

He didn’t say more, just helped her over his lap from her kneeling position on the bed. Chris lay her head on her hands and tried to relax, not exactly succeeding, as he raised the hem of her skirt and pulled her panties down to mid-thigh. Any signs of the paddling had vanished, on the outside at least. Soon Haley’s hand was smacking down crisply on her upturned cheeks – harder than usual.

Christy yelped from the onset of the onslaught, the hard smacks on her still-tender backside being quite more than she was used to from a hand-spanking. Her whimpers were steady as the sting built, and the girl squeezed her eyes shut tightly.

“We might be wrong, Chris... smack!... and facts proved you right...” Haley said as he kept his palm rigid and peppered her nether cheeks at a slow, hard pace. “But that never... smack!... EVER... smack!... gives you the right to speak to us like that.” He moved on to her sit-spots as he scolded.

“YIIiiii-oooww!” Chris shrieked as the attack was shifted to her tender sit-spots. “I’m sorrreeeeeee!!”

“I hope so, Christine, because next time I will take the hairbrush to your bottom, like your mother always has for rudeness,” he explained as he spanked on. “You’re getting my hand tonight merely because you’ve been paddled at school.” Her whole backside was glowing red by now.

Christy was sobbing yet again by this time, and was involuntarily squirming quite a bit. She was, deep down, quite thankful that she *wasn’t* getting the brush, but it still stung like the dickens.

It didn’t go unnoticed on Haley’s side either, but he still kept it up. He circled her waist with his free arm as she started squirming out of place, and lay down hard and slightly faster smacks on the start of her sit-spots and full thighs, reddening those too.

Only after a full minute of this open-handed assault did he stop, and released his grip on the girl.

She lay there, half expecting another flurry of smacks, crying hard and blubbering. “I’m sorry... Daddy... please...”

“We love you, Chris...” his hand descended again across both cheeks, once. “... and when you doubt us, you must tell us...” SMACK! “... not lose control like that. Is that clear?” He rested his hands on his lap for good now.

Chris yipped with each unexpected smack, but she nodded her head violently. “I won’t, Daddy... I won’t... I swear... I’m sorry...”

“I believe you, Chris.” He helped her up as he said that, enclosing her in a tight hug. “And again, try to forgive us... take all the time you need, though. We don’t expect you to just forget about this,” he said rather bitterly as he stroke her chestnut hair.

Christy pulled away at his tone, though, not sure if he was upset with himself or with her. She hurried and said, “Daddy... I... I have forgiven you and Mom. I... you aren’t... aren’t mad at me still, are you?” She looked up at him with eyes filled with concern.

He quickly shook his head. “No, honey, we’re not. We’re mad at ourselves for making a mistake, and we understand it might take you some time to get this behind you... but I’m glad you forgave us already,” he finished with a smile and a kiss to her forehead. He intentionally didn’t say how long it would take them to forgive themselves.

“If... if you hadn’t understood, I... well, I don’t know. But you did, and...” She flung her arms around Haley. “That’s all that matters.”

Haley nodded and held her tight. They stayed like that for a little while before he broke the hug, smoothing her skirt back over her well-spanked bottom. “Go and say goodnight to Mom, then go to bed. We’ll be at school half an hour early, tomorrow.”

Chris nodded and did as instructed before climbing into bed. She was still quite tired from the stress of that lengthy day, but she made sure before falling asleep to thank God for giving her such understanding and loving parents.

– The End –

This story does not necessarily represent the authors’ point of view about anything. It is simply a work of fiction. The characters herein portrayed are invented and do not resemble reality to the best of the authors’ knowledge. This account is entirely fictitious. Any similarities to other persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

This story is written for the sane amusement of adult readers. It does not intend harm and does not promote violence of any kind, including spanking. No offence is meant to any group, ethnicity or individuals.

The authors do not necessarily endorse the non-consensual disciplinary spanking of actual children and/or teenagers.

Copyright © 2004 Haley Brimley, Christy. Contact for information and/or feedback.