The Petworthy Finishing School Ch. 03

"As you were, young ladies," the Administrator called over the dining hall as she moved over to the line of girls who now looked back with trepidation. The Administrator was a middle aged woman with long dark hair and the thickness that befitted a handsome woman of her age. Mitten had not seen her before. She wore a relatively modern dress with a masculine collar and an immodest neckline. She pulled one of the empty wooden chairs away from the table and sat it in front of the line of girls, facing out towards the rest of the students enjoying their breakfast. Mitten was mesmerized by the scene. The woman asked one of the black hostesses a question in her ear, to which the black girl nodded and ran back to the kitchen. She then stood next to the line and addressed the girls in a normal tone of voice. Each girl turned their head to face her without losing their attention position. The woman spoke without any apparent anger or sense of indignation. When she finished the lecture, she asked the girls a question and they all quietly nodded with a inaudible but understandable 'yes, ma'am'. She took the first girl, a tall girl with long black hair, by the elbow and led her to stand at the left side of the chair. She sat down and motioned for the girl to proceed. The girl made a face of embarrassment and reached under her skirt and pulled her briefs down to her ankles and then laid across the woman's lap. Wrapping her left arm around the girl's waist, she lifted the uniform skirt over the student's back. As she did, the other girls apparently from a previous instruction all moved to line up at the left of the chair. As they did, they were all privy to see their predecessors chastisement...one that they would soon be sharing.

With a loud swat, the woman began spanking the girl's bare bottom with her hand. The smacks were hard but as was common with bare handed swats, they were only the preamble to the punishment. As she continued the spanking of the first girl, who was only making faces but not crying, the black dining hostess returned with a large wooden backing spatula in hand. She stood quietly without interruption while the woman continued to spank the first girl. When she was completed her warm-up, she turned and accepted the spatula from the black girl. Raising it high she brought it down with a pronounced smack on the long haired girl's already pinker fanny.

"OW!....OW!...OW!...OUCH!...AAHH!....OW!....OW!...."

The sounds filled the dining hall over the conversations of the other students. The blows to her bottom came swiftly and steady, and the girl's protestations were genuine but measured. They hurt but Mitten sensed that this girl could endure a lot of pain from spanking. When the first girl's punishment was done, the girl climbed off of the woman's lap, stepped out of her underwear, picking them off the floor. She moved back to the original place she stood in front of the dining hall this time with her back turned. She dropped the underwear on the floor and reached down to pull her skirt over her bare, reddened, angry cheeks. As she did this, the second girl climbed into position on the woman's lap and the entire ritual was repeated. For the entire meal, the Dining Hall was filled with the sound of the girls' punishment, the loudness varying from girl to girl and their individual pain thresholds.

Mitten was finished with her meal. When completed the girls were to bring the scraps to the front to be dumped in a bin. This required her to walk past the ongoing punishment. However, she knew that if she were considered lollygagging, she might incur a reprimand of her own. So, sighing reluctantly, Mitten rose and walked carefully with her tray to the front. She looked directly into the face of the student being spanked with the spatula. It was Emily and she was fully engaged in a weeping, sobbing bawl as the administrator seemed to be working her bottom with particular vigor. Each swat came down harder and caused Emily's body to lurch in shock from the pain. Mitten moved on to dump her food scraps but she was terribly curious.

In the short time that she had spent with Emily in the showers that morning, she could tell that her desire to do the right thing would rival her own fastidiousness in the matter. So it seemed incongruous with the character she had seemed to reflect to her in the morning. Now she was, not only caught up in and being punished for, what could only be called, sophomoric foolishness, but she seemed to be receiving the most severe of the punishments reserved for that of the instigator or ring-leader. When she finally arose from her spanking there was a knowing look in Emily's face that simply perplexed Mitten. She would have to find out more about this girl who's mother was an alumni of the Petworthy Finishing School for Girls.

~~~~

All of the girls of Roosevelt Hall gathered in a lecture hall with stadium seating. As they new students entered the gallery looking down on the stage, they were handed a leather bound journal with a tie on the outside. Each girl found that there was a row that was designated for each of the wings in the building.

Mitten found herself following Soo Jung Ho down the stairs to the very front row. Being in the front row was a comfortable place for her because she had always excelled in her studies and always was in positions of favor with her teachers. It was clear that Charity wing was put in the front row because of their best performance in shower times. That was the conversation that Mitten could hear behind her in the next row.

It took a few minutes for everyone from Roosevelt hall to come in and settle. When they did they could take a minute to survey the small stage area behind the lectern. There was essentially the equivalent of a saw horse though the main bar across the top was padded. There was also an ornate piece of furniture that had four unusual seats, two at knee high level on one side, and two about breast high on the opposite. Between them a fifth bench type cushion was about eight inches above the breast high ones. It had black leather that shined in the light on the cushions and the dark mahogany would was varnished to luster. Those items were on each side of the lectern, behind which was a row of about a dozen open chairs. A older man, in his fifties, Mitten imagined, strode out with a serious countenance. There was no politeness in his way. Following him was dozen girls...upperclassmen...who walked with proper posture and stood, one in front of each chair. When the man walked out, the room fell hushed. In one of his hands was a set of notes and papers. In the opposite hand, he managed to hold at least four separate implements for spanking. Mitten could make out a paddle, a crop, a cane, and a wide handled hairbrush. Soo Jung Ho looked at her uncertainly.

Like Emily appeared and Mitten tried to be, Soo was a student who wasn't at Petworthy for anything other than being excellent. When they received their three swats earlier that morning, it seemed that Soo's cries were almost forlorn as if she couldn't conceive of why she was being disciplined. Mitten certainly knew and would do everything she could to avoid such a display again. At a nod from the man, the girls standing behind him sat properly in the chairs.

"Come to attention, ladies," he said in a gravelly deep voice. It sounded tired and alluded to the fact that he had probably done this many times before. "My name is Mr. Rafferty. I am the Dean of Discipline here at Petworthy. Welcome to your first day of classes. This assembly will be considered your first class. Whatever you hear will be expected to demonstrate and explain throughout your career here. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sir." The lecture hall needed no prodding to bring the right response up to him. His demeanor and his role at the school were as foreboding as Tokamada's at the Inquisition.

"As I know all of you have learned first hand...some more than once...corporal discipline is a frequent, regular part of school life here. So far you have been given explicit instructions on how to receive them. Today's lesson will be to demonstrate proper positioning and etiquette for accepting discipline. Failure to learn this will, of course, result in further discipline and a reduction in your grades.

"All of you should have received a journal as you came in to the lecture hall. Please do not write in it until you have learned its purpose. This journal is a spanking log. When you are corporally disciplined, you are to record the date, time, class, reason for the punishment or discipline, who administered it, how it was administered, and its severity. You may now write down those notes on the first page as a legend: date,...time,...class,..." He coughed slightly. "...reason,...who did it,...how you were spanked,...and, finally, how severe. Ladies, please don't test us in this. Each faculty member logs every corporal discipline issued on this campus. Your logs will be regularly checked for accuracy. Discrepancies will be treated as willful disobedience to our policies here at Petworthy." There was tangible restlessness throughout the auditorium though no one spoke out of turn.

Mitten flipped open her book and wrote down the notes for a legend on the first inside left page, instead of the opening page which she imagined would be her title page. After writing down the notes, she wrote the words, 'Spanking Journal, Lavinia Wordsmith, Fall Semester, 1921'. Her perfect handwriting was graceful and leaned to the right just enough to be written at an economical pace while still showing the care of good penmanship. "Don't do it now, but I want all of you to write down your previous punishments since your arrival here. These are the only entries that will not be held against you if they aren't accurately recorded. These are to be used as exercises. However, from the moment you leave this room, every time that you find yourself spanked, we will expect to see this log reflect it. You will carry this log with you at all times. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir," was the harmonious response. Mr. Rafferty turned and gestured to the first girl at the end of the row, who quickly rose and picked up the chair, carrying it to the front of the stage.

"The most common form of spanking you receive will be over someone's lap. This will often occur in what we call a warm-up discipline. As some of you have experienced, this is a bare handed spanking that is not severe and is designed to soften or 'warm' the gluteus muscles for the punishment that is intended."

The girl stood at the Mitten's left of the chair, hands folded behind her. She was a blonde with something of a Dutch-boy hair style. Actually, Mitten noticed, all of the upperclassmen had short hair styles. Mr. Rafferty sat on the chair as he continued to address the class.

"This position is referred to as OTK or "over the knees. When punished this way, you are to stand on the side of the administrator's strong hand, usually the right side as in the case with me. When he or she gestures for you to mount their lap, lay with your stomach over the opposite knee and extend your arms to the floor."

The girl followed the instructions as if she had done it many times before. Her bottom was saddled over Mr. Rafferty's right knee. He lifted the skirt she wore by the hem and pulled it over her back. "One of the things we will be looking for is a supple back. If you arch your back not only does it reflect defiance but it will make your punishment more difficult and painful than we intend."

As if choreographed, the blonde girl relaxed her back, causing her bottom to jut out farther. Mr. Rafferty caught the girl's underwear, and slid them down past her cheeks.

"While being spanked, reaching, excessive kicking, and thrashing about will be perceived as defiance with all the proper consequences." Mr. Rafferty began lightly spanking the girl on her cheeks. She visibly responded but held her position as instructed.

"When receiving more severe spankings, it is particularly important that if you cry out that you maintain respect and relative stillness even under difficult situations or extreme pain." As he was speaking her stopped spanking the blonde with his bare hand and reached into his jacket pocket to produce the hairbrush. He gave the girl no warning and brought the flat of the wood hairbrush across the girl's nearest cheek.

"OOWW!" Her cry was clearly heard throughout the auditorium. He gave her three more swats, each issuing a sincere yelp but not surrendering her submissive posture. The girl got up, quietly thanking the dean, as pulled her underwear back up under her skirt. Mr. Rafferty, rose and allowed the girl to return the chair and sit back down. The second girl was bade over along with the third girl. The Dean then demonstrated spankings from a standing positions using the chair as the support. With the chair facing out towards Mitten the girl first faced the away from the audience, where she was bent at the waist with her hands on the seat, and spanked by hand and then with a small paddle. She was then instructed to turn the chair sideways and hold on to the back of the chair. This required her to bow less and keep her feet wider apart. He spanked her again with four swats. After this, he bade the second girl to take her place.

Mr. Rafferty explained two complex positions on the chair. The first was for kneeling. The girl removed her shoes and socks after his instructions. She knelt on the chair facing the back and her bare feet facing out. The Dean then leveled the thin cane on the bottom of her left foot. He gave the girl three smart whacks with it and then repeated the procedure on the second,bringing the girl to tears by having her lean forward, raising her skirt, lowering her panties and delivering the cane to the girl's fair-skinned bottom, leaving brightly visible streaks across her cheeks.

For Mitten the procedure of instruction was both thrilling and terrifying. None of the girls up there appeared to be in trouble. They were all upperclassmen and they all were apparently volunteers. They were more than cooperative to their own chastisement as Mr. Rafferty went through each girl. All of the spankings were painful though and Mr. Rafferty was clearly not a man to be trifled with. Mitten carefully took notes on a separate sheet of paper that wasn't in her log.

It took Mr. Rafferty over an hour to go through all of the accepted positions for spanking and for cornertime/time outs. The most athletic of the positions was also one that left the student being punished uncommonly vulnerable and exposed. Near the end of the presentation, the Dean had an athletic looking girl with shorter brown hair take a position kneeling at a 45 degree angle on the chair. She then was required to reach to the floor with her hands. This left her virtually immovable and her bottom high in the air for punishment, which Mr. Rafferty demonstrated with a strap on the girl.

The final positions were called Judicial positions. These were positions for extreme punishments. For these the girls were stripped completely naked, which they seemed to do with giddiness. The first was strapped to a table on her hands and knees and her head was pushed down through a hole in the table and locked into a stock there. That left her restrained and helpless to the caning that Mr. Rafferty leveled against her helpless fanny. The second girl was essentially bent over and tied down over a sawhorse although this was cushioned for the victim's regular comfort. The final two demonstrations were particularly violent and the girls were screaming for mercy. After he completed these two demonstrations, Mr. Rafferty addressed the girls sternly. "Ladies, if you are ever brought to this point of discipline without volunteering as these fine girls did, there is something desperately wrong with your behavior and it is probably the harbinger of your expulsion. Please don't test me on this."

The class was finally released and all the girls of Roosevelt Hall started to move out of the building. As they left into the cool fall air, the girls that Mr. Rafferty had used for his demonstration were standing outside, facing a wall on their toes, hands behind their heads. The two nude girls were just arriving to stand in the line as well. As second school administrator who I didn't know was there tending the girls in time out. When one of them wobbled on her toes from the length of time the discipline required, the man would come over and smartly slap that particular girl's already raging butt with blistering crop.

All Mitten could think about was why anyone would want to volunteer for such a task. Why would someone willingly choose that? It flew in the face of everything that she understood. What was the point of staying out of trouble in the first place? In church, Mitten showed her love for God by obeying Him. Mitten was convinced that she could be the most obedient student at Petworthy School.