by Susan Thomas
"What is this?"
His tone was accusatory. What had his attention were brown bars wrapped in a single layer of what looked like greaseproof paper. He knew instantly they were bars of hash to be sold to other students. He had been certain there was something not right about Alice... she was a drug dealer.
Alice stepped forward to peer at where he was pointing. "Chocolate, from home. There is an artisan chocolate maker where I come from. I love his chocolate so I brought some bars with me. I am going to treat myself to a piece if I pass tomorrow's quiz."
"I wish to try a piece." Mark didn't believe the chocolate nonsense. There was no maker's packaging - no Hershey or Cadbury label and the bars were way too thick. What a lame deception it was.
Alice hesitated, she thought Mark very rude, but he was her supervisor and she had no wish to make him her enemy over a single piece of chocolate. She picked up the thick heavy bar and tapped it sharply on the edge of the desk; a piece broke off and she handed it to Mark who tasted it cautiously.
"It's chocolate!"
"Yes, what did you think it was?"
"Just checking. Make sure your light is out by 10:30."
Mark strode down the corridor, angry that he had made a total fool of himself. Well it altered nothing. There was still something not right. Why was a bright British girl supposedly from an Anglican church here in this college? It made not one scrap of sense unless she was up to something, or... an idea came into his head... unless she was in hiding.
---oOo---
Alice was surprised the next morning that Zoe, her neighbor, asked to partner her to study for the test. Zoe was a tall elegant girl from Texas who had beautiful long blonde hair, a figure to die for and the ability to wear clothes as if she was a model on a cat walk. Alice thought of herself as reasonably pretty with a pleasant figure; she knew that she looked okay in her clothes but certainly not at model level, and she didn't even bother with much make-up as her coloring was quite good. That the elegant Zoe should wish to partner someone like her was a new experience for Alice.
Alice was surprised again when Zoe said she was going to chapel and decided to go with her. Chapel was at 7am; breakfast began at 7:30, the last time for entrance being 8:30 and classes began at 9am sharp. There were no classes yet but all other times prevailed and they had until 2pm to learn the manual to pass-standard.
Alice was surprised for the third time that she felt at home in the simple service. Alice allowed everyone to assume that she was as Christian as they were and some of the girls were deeply religious, even planning service in the mission field. In fact she had started to go to church in England for other reasons and found she was most at home in the company of believers, but without actually having a strong belief herself. It gave her a constant feeling she was deceiving everyone.
They went to breakfast chatting and Zoe told her that she came from a really strict home; her much loved father likely to take a belt to her bottom if she misbehaved. Alice just listened and told Zoe nothing at all about her own background other than to say it was always raining where she came from in Lancashire.
The two girls worked very hard all morning, learning, testing, re-testing until they began to feel that they could pass and avoid another sore bottom. As it neared lunch, Alice kept an eye on the time. Being late was one of her major faults. When she was at school one teacher had even given her the nickname ‘The Late Alice Watson’ but here at this college being late for anything at all was quite likely to end with a sore bottom, and Alice had already decided that one was quite enough thank you. In that sense the college was already working for her.
"I think we'd better go soon, Zoe. Lunch has already started."
"Let's just finish going over this section on grade targets."
Alice agreed but finally she said, "Come on, look at the time," and the two girls set off fast. As soon as Zoe swiped her card there was a ping and she groaned. Alice, behind her groaned too even before she swiped her card.
A senior nearby chuckled sympathetically. "OK ladies, who is your supervisor?"
"Mark Accourt," they spoke together.
"Oh well that's not so bad then. He will probably just use his hand. It's the lady supervisors you have to worry about especially Miss Brannigan. They all spank harder than the men."
As they ate, Zoe mimicked the causal tones of the senior, "Oh that's OK then. We're going to get our bare butts spanked by a strange man but he'll just use his hand. No sweat."
Alice giggled but she wasn't keen on the experience to come and if they failed the test it would be accompanied by a double dose of the hairbrush spanking... a scary prospect.
After lunch was the test which was in the common room. Three senior girls had put out student chairs with a movable work surface. The ten freshmen sat nervous and quiet at the chairs and got out their pens.
"OK ladies." Mark was brisk. "The seniors will put the test papers face down on your work surface. When I tell you to turn over you will have exactly ten minutes to answer the twenty questions. Some are multiple choice, some you must insert the correct answer. Eighteen is the pass mark. You know the consequences of failure."
For Alice the giving out of the papers was frightening. She looked at the back of the paper almost trying to see through to the questions underneath.
"Turn over your papers and begin." She turned over and began working through the paper as fast as she could. She finished quickly and went back, checking her answers carefully.
"Pens down, ladies. Seniors, gather the papers and use your answer sheets to mark quickly."
The seniors scurried around picking up the papers and went through marking with red pens. They then took them to Mark while the ten freshmen sat with beating hearts and crossed fingers. Mark could be seen putting them in some sort of order and that in itself was scary. How many had failed?
"Kathleen, stand up. You scored the lowest score last time with a three. You got the lowest score this time so I suggest you go back to the manual, but you did get eighteen."
It took several seconds to realize that if Kathleen had the lowest score and had passed then they all had passed. Mark read out the scores and six of them had full marks. He told them somewhat reluctantly that it was the first time it had ever happened. Alice, Zoe and Melissa (to her delight) were among the six. He then announced he would be coming around to set their grade targets starting with Alice, and that Alice and Zoe would be disciplined for being late to lunch.
Chapter 3
The Rev Charnock Amos Jones (1869 to 1959) believed that strong, consistent goal setting coupled with corporal correction was the way to achieve the highest standards in life. At first he only used those methods with boys and young men, but after his marriage he became convinced that young women could also benefit from his methods and he raised funds to establish the existing college which opened its doors to the first students in 1910.
Extracted from: Introduction to the Student Manual, Charnock Amos Jones College for Young Women.
Alice and Zoe were not as euphoric as the others because they still had a spanking to come and Mark had not told them he would only use his hand. The prospect of another dose of the hairbrush on their already sore bottoms was not in the least attractive. Melissa was like a dog with two tails and hugged and kissed Alice for helping her. He had not told them to wait in their rooms so they hung around in a group outside Alice and Zoe's rooms and chatted happily. Mark, it seemed, was in no hurry to arrive.
Mark delayed because he was fighting with himself. He was disturbed by how disturbed Alice made him feel. He simply didn't understand it. When he analyzed the situation, Alice had done nothing wrong at all. She had been polite, tried hard to get to grips with the student manual and helped others to do so especially the over-nervous Melissa. She hadn't even made a fuss about the room search and the chocolate... the memory of that made him blush. Yes, somehow he was disturbed by her. Just why was she here? There was no natural link between an Anglican church in Lancashir
e and the Charnock Amos Jones College. The Anglican Church was even opposed to corporal correction... foolishly so in his view, but that wasn't his business. She was also very bright and when he did an Internet search on Lancashire he found many good local universities she could have gone to: Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster just to start with.
He took himself severely in hand. It wasn't good enough to think like this. The girl had done nothing wrong, he must be professional. So he strode purposefully toward Alice's room, the other students scattering like sheep in his path.
"Well done Alice. You avoided another spanking and helped the whole house achieve a pass. That is the first time ever. The girls don't normally team work, though clearly it paid off."
"Thank you sir."
Mark swallowed his irritation. "You don't need to call me sir. My name is Mark. Now shall we get your tardy spanking out of the way?"
"Yes please sir."
While they were waiting, Alice and Zoe had gone into the bathrooms and taken off their trousers and underwear, just putting on a skirt. So now when Mark pulled out the chair and sat down she went immediately to his right side ready to be spanked. It was then she realized that he didn't have his hairbrush with him, and breathed a sigh of relief. She placed herself over his lap without waiting to be asked, and he must have realized she'd prepared and just lifted her skirt exposing her bottom. Alice realized how right the seniors were, this was much more modest and less fuss.
"You're not yet nineteen are you Alice?"
"No s-s... no, Mark."
"Very well I am going to give you eighteen hard smacks to help you remember the importance of time keeping."
Smack! His hand landed with a good hard crisp smack on her bottom and Alice cried out.
"I hope this discipline will help you to be punctual in future," said Mark as he delivered further smacks. "Punctuality is essential to success in any walk of life and is simply good manners even if only with family or friends." He punctuated his words with more smacks. "You will learn much in your time here, but to do that you will need to be punctual in all things."
After a final flurry of spanks he pulled her skirt down over her hot bottom. The spanking had reignited the hairbrush spanking of yesterday. In an unprofessional way he patted her bottom gently as a signal she could get up and was horrified he had done it. Alice said nothing, but stood wiping the stray tears from her wet eyes and rubbing her bottom over her skirt.
"Right Alice, please sit down and let us discuss your target grades."
"I'd rather stand if you don't mind sir. I'd be very uncomfortable sitting."
"Alice, if you call me sir again I shall have to take it as a sign of disrespect and discipline you."
"With due respect I fail to see that using 'sir' is disrespectful. Also if you think about it, calling you Mark when you get to spank my bare bottom pretty much whenever you think I am out of line is rather odd."
Mark controlled the anger that sprang up inside him. Why did this girl get under his skin so easily? "Your family, school and church didn't spank you ever?"
"No sir. Spanking is pretty well dead and gone in the UK. Mostly it is against the law."
"I see. Well in our affiliated churches, parents, teachers and ministers often spank. It is like your father, do you see? Your father has no doubt told you off one minute but hugged you the next. You can have a perfectly warm relationship with the person who also sometimes disciplines you."
"I don't have a father."
Mark sighed. "Very well look at it like this; I am not just your disciplinarian, I am also your counselor and your advocate. Suppose you have a problem, not your fault, with one of your class tutors then I help you and mediate for you. Suppose you have a personal problem, I am there for you... totally. Our relationship over time will be far more wide ranging than just spanking you when you do something wrong."
"OK I'll try and call you Mark."
"Good, now I have looked closely at these A-levels of yours and at the aptitude and intelligence tests you took with us, and you are clearly an intelligent young woman. I cannot see any way but to set your target grades as straight A in all classes."
"I think with some of my classes I will struggle to achieve A."
"Then young lady you will be disciplined, for you have the ability. You will have to work hard. I shall monitor your progress at our weekly meetings and if I think you are slacking you will be disciplined. You can do it. That is how this college works."
"Yes sir."
Mark swallowed hard and decided to say nothing. "Now do you have any issues that you need to work on? Remember it is better to have any problems out in the open, it is by far the best way of dealing with them."
"Yes, I am very bad at time keeping. Ironically that one I just got wasn't my fault but usually it is me. One teacher at school used to call me ‘The Late Alice Watson’.
"Indeed, had I known that I might have used the hairbrush, though to be fair you were late by less than a minute. I shall monitor that issue most closely and if you are so much as thirty seconds late..."
"Sir Mark produces Mr. Hairbrush. I get it. Oh that's it, I'll call you Sir Mark... how's that?"
Mark gulped and decided his problem with Alice was that she was British. She simply hadn't been brought up in the same strict church background that he had. They were virtually speaking in foreign languages to each other. There was no reason why she couldn't call him 'Sir Mark' if it was easier for her.
"Very well Alice."
"Excellent, and the next time I take tea with Queen Elizabeth I'll ask her to make it official."
"Do you really take tea with Queen Elizabeth?"
"As often as you take coffee with your president."
Mark felt a fool again. How did she constantly put him out of sorts... but he was sure that she hadn't meant it. This must be British humor and he tried to relax. She was trying hard, it was just him; he was the one that hadn't understood. "Anything else to declare, Alice?"
"Yes, and it is peculiar. Sometimes I get this overpowering reluctance to start a piece of work. I just can't do it. I will find any number of other tasks to do and then tell myself I am busy. The really stupid thing is once I start I work hard... it's just the starting."
"Odd, very odd. In our weekly meetings I'll go through all the pieces of work you should start and ensure you have actually done so."
"And if I haven't... Mr. Hairbrush?"
"No not necessarily. Not starting isn't a problem if you still have time. No I will just make sure you do. If it needs the hairbrush then so be it, but it may not come to that."
"Thank you Sir Mark, that will be most helpful."
Chapter 4
The smart of corporal correction is a most excellent stimulus to greater effort. - Reverend Charnock Amos Jones.
Alice could hear Zoe's spanking next door, but it was the same brisk eighteen hard smacks she had received and was soon over. There would be no more discipline today and now Alice was free for a while to think about her situation. Mark puzzled her. He seemed very uptight with her all the time, more so than with other girls. It seemed to her as if he didn't like her for some reason but she couldn't think how she might have upset him. She hadn't wanted to call him Mark because to her any man that spanked you was definitely an authority figure. Now he was saying that spanking was simply an aspect of a caring relationship like a father, except of course she had never had one so couldn't quite grasp it.
It was the spanking that troubled her most. She had considered the discipline most carefully when applying. It had frightened her but at the same time seemed necessary, and she had even read Charnock Amos Jones' book, The Education of the Young Christian Woman. He seemed to her to have a more realistic grasp of things than the psychologist's work she had read; that man said that all punishment was wrong and only sweet reason and discussion was of use. If that was so why did people do things like speed, park on double yellow lines and drink drive? They had all the sweet reasons pumped into t
hem but still did them.
She had also been bothered, very bothered in fact, about having to bare her bottom. She had read the Rev Jones' comments on that. "The young Christian woman must prepare for her correction by removing clothing beneath the waistline. It is advisable that all clothing below the waist be removed completely as it can become an encumbrance during the chastisement. Some modest young women may believe that baring is immodest but not the good Christian young woman; she should not flinch from baring herself for her correction as this is not immodesty." In the end that particular difficulty had been outweighed by all the positives. In fact the college didn't seem to bother with complete removal below the waist, just baring was OK.
Now she had actually been spanked she was troubled for different reasons. It had hurt as she had expected it would and she knew that absolutely she would be working hard to minimize further discipline. What bothered her was the strange feelings being over his lap had given her, being so helpless with her bottom bared had a sort of seductively attractive feel to it. What on earth did that say about her?
Zoe wandered in, her discussion now over. She rubbed her bottom but like Alice hadn't thought the spanking too bad. Soon there was a group of them that Mark had finished with and they started larking around in the corridor relieved that that the test had gone well and the meeting with Mark was over. They must have been making a lot of noise because Mark came out of a room and told them all to be quiet. They were quiet for five minutes or so but clearly got noisy again because Mark stepped out, his manner stern.
"Right ladies all of you go to the nearest blank piece of wall and stand facing it... nose right up against the wall. Put your hands on your head and if I hear one single sound out here I shall be visiting your rooms with both my hairbrush and belt."
