Have a Heart 1

by Rachel Burns

  Charles had to cover his mouth so she wouldn’t hear him laughing. Yep, he really did like that boy. Writing lines, why hadn’t he ever thought of that?

  “Then I suggest you don’t make any mistakes.” Eva had heard enough. “Now I want you to get your sorry butt up, get washed and dressed. If you look at the time, you will see that lunchtime is approaching. I want you to eat a decent lunch and then to write out your punishment perfectly and then get back to studying. You know, the reason we send you there. Have I made myself clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Very clear.”

  Her father enjoyed this rare opportunity of not being the strict one. “Good, Brianna. We love you, but we expect better behavior from you.”

  “Yes, Daddy. I love you, Daddy. And you too, Mama.”

  “I love you too, Brianna.” Her mother spoke softly again, like she usually did.

  “Goodbye.” Brianna was still sniffling.

  “Goodbye,” they answered in unison and then hung up.

  Charles jumped up and took his wife in his arms. “You were amazing. I think she saw the light.”

  Eva covered her face and bawled into her hands. “I hated doing that, but it was like she pushed me to it, but at the same time I’m so worried that those could be my last words to her.” She sobbed into his chest.

  “No, darling, you are seeing it all wrong. Your words insured that we will see her again.”

  He led her up to their bedroom. He wanted to show her just how pleased he was with her.

  Brianna laid on her stomach in bed and put the cap back on her pen. She truly couldn’t sit down. Her bottom was swollen, and it still hurt like the dickens. She had yet to see Cathy. She probably hated her after a spanking like that.

  Brianna went down to lunch very late, almost too late.

  She spotted some girls from second year. They were whispering about something as she approached the table.

  Hannah lit up when she saw Brianna. “Hey, you and Scott come from the same home town, don’t you?”

  Brianna blushed. She wasn’t sure how to answer that. “I guess so.” She hovered still not sitting.

  “How well do you know him?”

  “Um – well? I don’t know. We go to the same church, but I didn’t realize that until Christmas when I saw him there.” She still hadn’t sat. She looked over her shoulder to see if he was watching from the disciplinarian’s table. He wasn’t there, thank goodness. She still had to give him his phone back; talking to him couldn’t be avoided for very long.

  She sat and tears came to her eyes, and then jumped up again. The other girls all stared at her with their mouths open.

  “They really should have high counters in here that we could eat at for such occasions.” She tried to make light of the situation.

  The girls exchanged looks. “Even Paris had been able to sit the next day after her caning, however uncomfortably. What did he do to you?” Rachel asked.

  “I’d really rather not talk about it.”

  “It’s hard to believe that someone would want to marry him,” Hannah stated.

  They all looked at Brianna expectantly.

  Brianna didn’t really understand what they were talking about.

  “He has a girlfriend back home. We were wondering what she was like.” Hannah cleared things up for her.

  “Sorry, I don’t know. I never met one or heard talk of one.” Brianna finished her meal quickly in standing and hurried back to her room.

  Brianna grabbed his phone and brought it back to him.

  The door had been open so she cleared her throat to get his attention. She held it out to him without saying a word.

  “Well, normally I would say ‘Where I come from people say hello when they talk to someone’ but you know that.”

  She fought not to burst into tears again. “Hello, sir. I just wanted to return your phone.”

  He stood up and took it from her.

  “Goodbye.” She practically ran from his room back to her own to cry.

  Brianna forced herself to stop. She still had homework to do and studying and a thousand lines to write. Brianna broke out in tears again.

  She thought about Scott having a girlfriend. She didn’t like the thought of him seeing so many girls half naked and hitting them when he had a girlfriend. It felt like he was being unfaithful to her.

  What did she care, she asked herself?

  She decided to stay away from him as much as possible. Cathy would get some sort of summer job, and Brianna had already talked to her parents about giving piano lessons at church. A few kids had already signed up.

  Brianna would insist on staying away from Cathy’s house. Cathy would just have to understand.

  She went back to getting her homework finished.

  Chapter 19 – Exploding Frogs

  They were all gathered in the lounge, waiting. Scott was getting their grades. A couple of girls were really worried about getting caned. Maureen had been caned at the end of the trimester when Brianna wasn’t there.

  Brianna was glad that she couldn’t be caned because he hadn’t expected anything from her. Still, she felt sick to her stomach. Witnessing something like that was just terrible. Cathy was cuddled up next to her. She had her head on her shoulder.

  “Are you worried?”

  “No, he didn’t expect anything from me. I was just here for a trial, with no pressure. You?”

  “Yep. I’ll make his life a living hell if he does.” She smiled thinking about it. “Rat poison, itching powder and thumb tacks.”

  “What?” Brianna asked her.

  “Sorry, just making a mental shopping list.”

  The door opened, and they all jumped. He looked pissed. “Four of you, four!” He stormed past them and went to his office and came back with his cane. It looked like he really meant it. Brianna held onto Cathy. She wouldn’t let him hurt Cathy.

  “Brianna, come here. I want you to stand right here.” He pointed to the spot right next to him, using the cane to point.

  She was shaking in fear. She wanted to protest, even telling herself that she didn’t have anything to lose because the caning was public anyway, but years of having obedience drilled into her made her feet move.

  Brianna looked up at Scott with tears in her eyes. She had been doing so well. She must have really bombed on a test, but which one?

  “Stephanie, stand next to her.” Stephanie also looked confused. He continued to line them up. They were all confused when he called the fifth girl and kept going.

  Once they were all lined up, he moved back to Brianna. “Straight A’s, and the best grades on campus.” Brianna sighed relieved. He moved on, and the grades got worse as he did. Cathy had gotten a ‘B’ in economics. He moved on to the last and said their grades.

  The girls were all crying and holding on to each other. One girl, in second year, had been with them in economics with them.

  He made other girls sit down and told the first girl to be punished, Paris that she should drop her jeans and panties. He was hopping mad so she listened right away.

  Scott instructed the next girl, Karen, to hold her hands tightly. “If you let go, you get an extra for each time when it’s your turn.”

  He had her lie over the table. Scott raised his cane and brought it down. The girl holding her hands let go and brought her hand to her mouth in shock. Paris’s hands flew back to her injured bottom.

  “Karen you get eleven now. See that it doesn’t turn into twelve.”

  “Paris, give me your hands. I’ll do it better.”

  Paris, who was shaking like a leaf slowly gave her hands back to Karen. Scott brought the cane down in the exact same place. Karen was really being tested on her ability to hold onto Paris.

  After Scott finished with Paris, he instructed her to right herself. She whimpered and shook as she pulled up her panties and jeans. She fell into a chair sideways and just sobbed.

  Karen had to drop her jeans and panties and lean over the table for her eleven
. She had been able to hold Paris even though Paris had really tried to get away. Gretchen took hold of her hands and held them tightly.

  Scott went about it the same as he had with Paris. The first two landed in the same spot. Then he moved clockwise making sure that her entire bottom was equally reddened.

  Brianna felt like she needed to throw up again. Cathy was holding onto her tightly. Brianna started to push away and gulp for air.

  Gretchen was already bawling as she let her shorts and panties fall. She leaned over the table and gave her hands to Maureen. “Please, don’t do this. I’m just not as smart as the other girls. I’m sorry.” She sobbed and begged him to stop. He kept right on, as if she hadn’t said anything.

  Brianna pushed away from Cathy who was clinging to her again. She ducked under Scott’s swinging arm and ran into the bathroom. They all heard her throwing up.

  Scott met Cathy’s eye. He moved his eyes so she knew that she should go after Brianna.

  Cathy jumped over the backs of their chairs. She raced into the bathroom and threw her arms around her friend. Brianna hadn’t made to the bathroom on time.

  Cathy started cleaning up. She was so much like her mother that way. She had a need to care for people and cleaning up after others didn’t really bother her. It was just a job that had to be done.

  They could still hear Scott going away at on some girl’s backside.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Brianna whispered.

  “Hey, that’s all right. Has this happened before?” Cathy had heard the other girls say something like ‘not again.’

  “Every time.”

  “Really, but believe me your own bottom looked a lot worse a couple of weeks ago. They will be sitting tomorrow on the way home. You couldn’t have.”

  “Maybe if I’d had siblings and seen them getting it, I wouldn’t be so emotional, but I just never did.”

  Cathy told Brianna a story about when Scott was around thirteen. “He and a couple of friends were out behind the barn. They had each caught a frog. Now this was around the fourth of July. Each of them lit a firecracker and stuffed it into their frog’s mouth. The frogs exploded, and everyone came running. I have never seen my father so mad. He sat down on the wood pile and lowered Scott’s pants and underwear and went at him with his belt. Right in front of his friends.

  “My mom tried to pull them away, but the sound of Scott screaming scared them, and they tried to run away from her, fearing they were next. Well, she got them into the house and called their parents. They were relieved to be away from my Dad. You are the only visitor child who ever got spanked at our house.”

  “What an honor.” Brianna was starting to relax because there was no more noise coming from the lounge.

  “I remember thinking that it was really funny that Scott got it back then. I enjoyed the show. He thought he was so grown up being the oldest and all. My sisters watched too, and they were rolling on the ground with laughter until my dad threatened to give them a taste of the same.” Cathy was really grinning when she thought about that.

  Brianna couldn’t imagine that being funny. Seeing someone else get hit wasn’t funny to her.

  “Can you stand? I can get you fresh clothes and your shower stuff.”

  Brianna nodded.

  Cathy walked her to the shower room so she could get undressed while she waited.

  Brianna could hear Scott and Cathy talking in the hall. They were bickering about something.

  It surprised Brianna that the others didn’t know. It was so obvious that they were brother or sister.

  Brianna heard the door, and Cathy whispered, “Then get a new job.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  Brianna believed him. His girlfriend couldn’t be okay with this. Tomorrow morning her parents would be here, and she could go home and have a break from him.

  Seeing him in Fall would be soon enough for her.

  Brianna sat with her parents at church on Sunday. The service was just about to begin when Cathy and her family slid into the pew next to them. Brianna had been sitting in the middle of her parents, but she asked if she could move, so she was next to Cathy.

  Her father stood up and help her move next to her friend. He gave her a warning look telling her that monkey business wouldn’t be tolerated. Brianna even nodded.

  Scott hadn’t seen her in a week. It was hard for him not to stare. He sat next to Cathy so he could be as close to her as possible.

  She had been sleeping when he came in with her report card. The next morning she had avoided him like the plague. He had the money to just quit and go to graduate school in Fall. Someone had deposited a lot of money in his account around the time he had saved Brianna’s life.

  He had gone into the bank to ask about the error when he was informed that no mistake had been made, and that the money couldn’t be returned because they weren’t allowed to tell him whom it was from.

  He had replied, ‘Fine, I’ll talk to Mr. Banks myself then.’ The looks on their faces told him he was right. He just found out about that a couple of days ago.

  He would talk to Mr. Banks right after church about returning the money. Saving Brianna wasn’t something that he needed to be rewarded for. He had been very glad to do that. He would do it again if he had too.

  The girls behaved all through church. What other choice did they have seated behind the two men who would take them over their knees if they weren’t?

  Scott enjoyed listening to Brianna sing. He imagined the two of them sharing a hymnal and singing together at church. He thought more about that then what he listened to the sermon.

  Brianna pretended that he wasn’t there. But she did peek over once to see if he had brought his girlfriend with. Nope, Sharon was sitting beside him. Brianna smiled at her.

  She would be giving her first lessons after church. A little girl who wanted to sing just like Brianna did. She was looking forward to that.

  After church, when everyone went to fill up on donuts, Brianna stayed and waited for her first client. She spoke with the girl and her mother, and then they sat down and started.

  Scott got himself a donut, and then he looked for Brianna. He couldn’t see her anywhere, and she wasn’t with Cathy.

  He was starting to worry about a boyfriend when he heard her in the sanctuary. She was sitting at the piano with a little girl. They were singing. It was so adorable.

  He really hoped that they would be able to have children. The idea of having a child with her green eyes was pulling at his heart. He gave himself a shake. Her health was the most important thing. Still, it would be nice.

  It had been over a month, and he only got to see her at church. Afterwards she gave kids lessons.

  He could kick himself because she was doing it because it had been his idea. He wished he had never mentioned a summer job.

  Scott needed to talk to her. He was getting restless like a teenager.

  He had even had his parents invite her family over for a grill party, but they couldn’t come. They had needed go up to Minnesota for a check-up at the Mayo Clinic. He missed her so terribly.

  Everyone teased him about it too. Next year at this time, blah, blah, blah. That is if she would even have him.

  He was on pins and needles waiting for the results from the clinic. Cathy talked to her for two long hours on the phone before she told him that she had checked out just fine.

  He was pouting, and he even knew it. He started thinking about what they could do on a date. She would be a dinner and a movie type of girl. They couldn’t do sports or anything like that.

  He was working too, and if she ever did come over, it was when he wasn’t there. He begged Cathy to lie to her and tell him that he wasn’t at home so she would come over. Cathy refused, and Brianna was busy teaching children to play the piano.

  She was afraid of him. The last time he had seen her; he had made her throw up, again.

  He was laying on his bed and looking up at the ceiling. He really did
feel like a little kid, now that he was living at home again.

  Maybe he should just go over to her house and tell her what he felt for her. Then he remembered her avoiding him. She was getting really good at it. Too good at it.

  He could hear her talking. He jumped to his window to listen. She was telling Cathy that her parents were going to let her learn how to drive now as a birthday present.

  “When is your birthday?” Cathy asked.

  “Tomorrow. Will you come over after work? My parents always make a really big thing about it. I even get to have a piece of cake.”

  Scott swallowed hard. She was so excited about something that was so normal for everyone else. He felt so sorry for her. He wanted to hold her and make everything better for her.

  “Sure, I’ll come. Glad too. But I don’t have a gift for you.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I have enough stuff. Just come over. That means the most.”

  “Sure, but wait you should come in and say hi to my parents. They ask about you all the time.” Cathy looked over her shoulder up to Scott’s window.

  Scott looked down at himself. He was still in his work clothes. He was dirty and sweaty.

  Damn it, but a chance to see Brianna was a chance to see Brianna.

  He darted down to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water. They were just coming around the corner when he leaned against the counter like he had been there the entire time. Her mother was with her.

  “Hey Scott, where are mom and dad?” Cathy asked.

  “I don’t know. I just got home. Hello, Mrs. Banks. Hello, Brianna.”

  “Please call me, Eva.” Eva beamed at him. She’d be forever thankful to him.

  Brianna looked at her mother surprised. Even Cathy called her Mrs. Banks. His saving her life had probably changed such rules.

  “Hello, Scott.” Brianna didn’t want to get another scolding from him about greeting people. She stepped closer to her mother. Cathy returned with her mother.