by Rachel Burns
“It’s her own father. It’s his right to take his daughter in hand as he sees fit, and I will repeat that it isn’t any of your business.”
“But what if she gets sick?” Rachel protested.
Scott rubbed his temples again. “All I hear is you asking for another round.” Why was everyone so worried about Brianna’s health? Working outdoors was the best thing for her. That girl needed a little coloring on her cheeks. Oh well, he thought, her other cheeks will be getting some coloring too.
“I’m sorry, Scott.”
He nodded and went back out into the hall. Brianna’s father was still going at her. He was going overboard.
Scott should put a stop to this.
Jennifer peeked out of her room and looked at Scott. “Scott, I’m scared.”
“I’ll take care of it.” He went to his room and put his brush away. When he returned, he saw her father leaving, carrying away crates with empty water bottles.
All the girls were storming into the bathroom. He guessed that was where Brianna was. She was probably sick after that beating. He heard the shower running. He’d let the girls take care of her. If she needed real medical care, then they would call him. He went back to his room and waited. No one came so he decided to check on her again. That was really some beating that she’d had to take. He heard the girls. They were still in the bathroom. He leaned against the wall and listened.
“Brianna, sit still, or we will have to cut your hair.”
“I am trying,” she answered sweetly. Scott chuckled a little under his breath.
“I’ll bet you wished you would have just let Scott spank you, and it could be over with.”
“No, that’s okay. I would rather my father do it.”
“Are you crazy. Scott isn’t as bad.”
“Still. I would rather he didn’t” she answered shyly.
“Why?”
“I have never been with – I mean I’m still a – No one has seen me that way except my parents and doctors.” She stumbled over her words.
“You’re still a virgin. Is that what you are saying?” That voice sounded like Gretchen, Scott thought.
“Of course, I am. I just kind of figured my husband would be the first to see me that way. That is if I can find someone who will have me.”
“Brianna, you don’t have to worry about that. Once you transfer to a coed school, they will be standing in line just to get a date with you.” That was Karen’s voice. “That really won’t matter to the man who will love you.”
Scott moved away. He figured their talk was private.
Chapter 6 – Take Responsibility For Yourself
Scott made his presence known on the floor by walking up and down the hallway. All the girls seemed to be in Brianna’s room. They were giggling mostly. At six on the dot, Mr. Banks knocked on Scott’s door.
Scott was surprised to see that he was still here.
“I have written permission from the Dean to take my daughter out to dinner.”
Scott stood up and read the paper, surprised that this man could chew the Dean out and then get permission to take his daughter to dinner. He was surprised that he would want to because he still looked mad. “Yes, sir. Everything is okay. Have a nice time this evening.”
“I’m warning you, if my daughter ever has to lift anything heavier than a schoolbook, you will have me to deal with.”
Scott nodded at him. Normally, only his own father talked to him that way. “Yes, sir,” he answered promptly. His accent just sounded so much like his own father’s.
Mr. Banks left and went back to Brianna’s room. Scott peeked out at them. He wanted a chance to see how Brianna was doing, but if he was going to take her to dinner, then it couldn’t be that bad. He saw her father carry out more crates. The girls seemed to spill out of her room as her father went in and came out again.
Scott eyed them all as they went to their own rooms. He wondered if anyone had gone to supper this evening. He moved towards Brianna’s door. They still had a matter to discuss.
Brianna stepped out of her room, and their eyes met.
“I realize that we have to have a little talk, but can it please wait until after he is gone?” Brianna asked, begging with her eyes.
Scott couldn’t believe his eyes. He had expected her to be a wreck, and she was standing in front of him with the regal air of a queen. Her hair had been swooped up on top of her head, and she was wearing an olive green dress that looked fantastic with her green eyes.
He had never seen so much of her before. Her shoulders were hardly covered at all. Just the spaghetti straps from her dress were there. Her arms were completely bare, and the skirt was shorter than anything he had ever seen her wear before.
He gathered his wits. “Come to my room after your visitor is gone.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Brianna, are you ready?” Mr. Banks entered the floor with two more crates of water. He brought them into her room, and then he left with her.
Charles Banks smiled cruelly as he held the chair out for his daughter.
She sat down without cringing. He sat across from her. People were staring at them. He figured that they thought that she was his date. She sure did look older all dressed up like that. If only she acted that way, he mused.
“Brianna, your mother and I try not to worry about you, but then I come to see you and see you doing something that could so easily cost you your life. I don’t understand. Why did you do it? And please don’t answer that you were afraid of a spanking. I raised you to take what you have coming.”
“Yes, sir. I know that, and that wasn’t the problem. I just didn’t want him to see me half naked, and for a punishment, I didn’t feel I deserved. It was avoidable. I gave it a try. I had to at least try, and it worked until you showed up – Sir.” She added the ‘sir’ knowing that if her father didn’t like her answers, she could easily end up over his knees again.
Charles was nodding. He knew that she had never had anything to do with boys or men. He understood her dilemma. It had been hard for her at the hospital too. Her doctors had mostly been male. Brianna was shy as she should be at her age.
“Brianna, it wouldn’t have been worth losing you. I understand that you are shy around the young man but if anything had happened, –”
He had tears in his eyes. “Brianna, the doctors said that you can lead a normal life if, and this is an important if, if you follow their guidelines. You clearly didn’t and at a time when you were already feeling weak. You know better than anyone else that emotional stress has a very big effect on your physical well-being. Remember when Grandma died. We almost lost you too.” He dabbed his eyes with his napkin.
“We need to know that even if you aren’t under our watch, that you are properly taking care of yourself. If we don’t, we will yank you out and lock you up at home. Believe me, I will do it before I let you carelessly throw your life away.” He was mad at the end again and speaking loudly.
She sat perfectly straight on her chair, but her head was hung in shame. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I was just feeling really well at the time, and I swear that I wasn’t at all dizzy today.”
“You mean because it is so unheard of for you to be feeling good or even great, and then just pass out from one second to the next.” He brought his fist down on the table.
Brianna didn’t dare look around, but she was certain that the entire restaurant was staring at them. The waiter hadn’t even brought forth their menus yet. He was avoiding her father too.
“Do you have any idea how much your mother has been worrying about you?” Charles asked his daughter.
“I can imagine, sir.”
“No, you don’t have to just imagine it. I’ll tell you. She worries about you constantly. She wanted to drive here and bring you home herself. But I, fool that I am, said that our little Brianna has a head on her shoulders. She will know how to take care of herself.” He shook his head disappointed.
“Let’s go back to Tuesday, sha
ll we?” He continued without waiting for an answer. “We get a call from school hearing that your heart rate is dangerously low. What happened after that?” He leaned back in his chair and stared at her.
“I umm – went to supper and then back to my room. I did my homework and corrected my paper because the teacher wanted it the next day. Then I went to bed.” She left out her fight with Scott.
“And at what time did you go to bed?” He asked calmly, but she could see the lava under the surface waiting to erupt.
“It was around midnight.”
“Oh really, and then you woke up at eight?” He was still pretending not to be mad.
“Umm, not quite. It was a little after six.”
He nodded. “That’s what I thought. So then you went to breakfast and class?”
“Not exactly, Sir. The nurse wanted to check my heart again. I went to the nurse’s office. She checked on my heart, and it was just fine. Then I went to class.”
“Breakfast?” He laid his fingers on his forehead. She was giving him a headache.
“I didn’t manage it time wise, but I went straight to lunch after classes.”
He smiled and nodded at her in a sarcastic way. “What exactly did the nurse say?”
She was hoping that he wouldn’t ask that. She looked down to the floor.
“Bingo!”
He made her jump.
“Sorry, sweetheart, but out with it.”
“She said that my heart was fine, but that I looked a little pale. She said I could decide for myself whether or not I wanted to go.”
Charles said nothing. He called the waiter over.
Brianna took the menu from a waiter who gave her a look of pity.
They ordered, and her father told her this and that, mostly news from home. She almost could have relaxed, but she knew better.
After the meal, her father paid and escorted her out to the car. He opened her door, and she thanked him as she got in. He carefully closed the door.
She watched him walk around the car. He was as mad now as when she cut her own hair as a seven year old. He had said back then that she was getting the licking of her lifetime. It took eleven years, but she had finally topped that.
He jumped in and started the car. He drove her directly to school. Oh no, he was going to spank her in her room again, she thought. He parked in front of her building. The patch that she had been working on was right in front of her nose.
“Brianna, before you go in, I want to have a word with you.” He sighed, “You feel that you didn’t deserve that spanking, and that the others had made things difficult for you. But it was you who decided to stay up until midnight and to go without breakfast; then again you chose to go to class when you weren’t up to snuff. That is the main reason you got a ‘C’ because of your own bad choices. Believe me you deserved that spanking. If I ever find out that you tried to get out of a punishment again, I will visit you. You know exactly what I mean.”
“Yes, sir, I’m sorry, sir.” She sobbed next to him in the car. When he put it that way, she sure did feel guilty of something.
He reached over to his daughter, hugged her and told her how loved she was. He begged her to take better care of herself. She promised that she would and apologized again.
She got out of the car after a while. Her father had tears in his eyes. He would be flying back home because she wasn’t coming with. She stood on the curb and waved as he pulled away.
Brianna went into her building. It was half past eight. She went to the bathroom and washed her face. Stephanie was also in there. “So how did it go?”
“He made me feel terribly guilty about everything. He laid it out so that it was very clear that I was in the wrong and immature.” She wiped her tears away and looked at herself in the mirror. “It doesn’t matter. I have to tell Scott that I’m back. I wasn’t finished with my punishment when my dad showed up. The Dean made it clear that if I stopped for whatever reason, that I get the original spanking. Oh well, my backside is already so red at least Scott will know where to hit.”
“If he makes you finish the garden work, I’ll help you.”
Brianna turned to Stephanie, who was her total opposite. Stephanie was the outdoorsy type. Her hair was cut short like a boy’s. She would rather be outside playing sports than inside studying. “Thank you, but I don’t want you to get in trouble for interfering.” Brianna smiled at her and then went to Scott’s room.
She was still standing in front of Scott’s door when Stephanie came out of the bathroom. She gave her the thumbs up sign and disappeared into her room.
Brianna got up enough nerve and knocked on his door.
“Come in.”
She opened the door and stood in the doorframe. “Sir, I’m back from dinner.”
His head jerked up to look at her again. Brianna was still wearing that amazing dress. She even had diamond earrings on and a diamond necklace. She also looked like she had been crying. Had her father had another go at her?
“Come in and close the door.” His room had a couple of chairs. He motioned for her to sit in one. She did so very beautifully. She arranged her skirt so it wouldn’t ride up, and she pressed her knees together and crossed her ankles, just like a Miss America contestant would.
Brianna was somehow elegant.
“Brianna, you still owe me half an hour.”
She sighed relieved. “Yes, sir, I do. How did you want to – continue?”
“How do you feel about working on Sunday?”
“I can live with that,” she told him, eagerly.
“The problem is that your father threatened me. He will do God only knows what to me if you lift anything heavier than a textbook.”
Brianna tried to hide a smile. “Well, my book bag is rather heavy so I think we could go by that weight. None of the plants weigh more than that.”
“He also seemed to be very bothered by the heat.”
She nodded and bit on her lip a little. “Church is from nine to ten. It got out a little early last week. Tomorrow right after church?”
He was surprised that she had gone to church last week. He hadn’t noticed that she was gone. “Good, I’ll be there.”
“I can’t finish it in half an hour. I, of course, will finish it, but I need at least an hour.”
“Well, coincidentally, every other girl on this floor has discovered her hidden interest in gardening. They all signed up on the list. You will probably get help after the first half hour.” He handed her the list.
She looked at all the names on the list. There had been eight lines on the page, but the others had just added their names underneath and then on the back when they had run out of room. “That was really nice of them.”
He watched her fingertips stroke over the paper.
“Would it be okay if I could keep this?” He saw that she had tears in her eyes. She was moved by what the others had done. Daddy’s little princess had a way of wrapping everyone around her little finger.
“Sure, keep it. Brianna, I want you to take your punishment seriously. I’m sorry that your father is a bit oversensitive, but that has nothing to do with this punishment.”
“Yes, sir, I realize that.” She raised her eyes back to him.
He was starting to get mad at her again. “I would be within my rights to spank you right now, but you probably aren’t up to that right now anyway.” He was going for blood, and he knew it.
“Yes, I realize that too, sir. I do appreciate this second chance. Thank you, sir.” She stood up to leave.
“Sit down. I didn’t say you could leave yet,” he barked at her.
She sat down again. “Yes, sir?”
“I am warning you. You have had liberties at this college that no one has ever had before, but it ends here. There will be no more special treatments. Even your father won’t be able to save you. You will be spanked the next time you screw up no matter what.”
“Yes, sir, I understand. And my father has nothing against the trad
itional punishment forms. He wouldn’t give you any problems.”
“Fine you can leave now, but I am warning you. No fussing, you promised.”
“My word is good. I won’t fuss, but I don’t plan on ever getting into trouble again.” She gave him a hopeful smile at the end of her sentence.
“That is always the best way to go. Good night, Brianna.”
“Good night, sir.” He watched her leave. He hoped that she would goof up soon so he could get her first spanking out of the way. There was something about taking a girl over his knees that gave him the feeling that he had to protect his little girls. He was starting to see Brianna as a woman. Which was odd, because she was so tiny.
There was a lot of noise early the next morning. All the girls got up at the same time. Scott peeked out to see what was going on. They were jabbering and getting dressed up.
Fine, he thought. He shaved and took a quick shower. He went out to see what they were up to now, hoping that they weren’t doing Brianna’s work for her.
Scott stepped out and noticed that the girls were gathering in the lounge. “Good morning, Ladies. Do you all have plans this morning?”
“We’re going to church,” Hannah answered him.
“Who’s all going?” He smelt a rat.
“Everyone but Jennifer. She is going to go for a walk on campus while we are at church.” Hannah smiled at Scott. They were irritating him, she thought. This was actually fun. He couldn’t say anything about them going to church.
Scott nodded and left, but he was back in a flash. He had changed into church clothes himself. “I’m sure you don’t mind if I come along?”
“Of course not.” Hannah was having trouble not laughing. She had to turn away from him. Once everyone was ready, they all left for breakfast. The girls all talked softly as they walked across campus. Whatever they were up to, this was something he hadn’t seen before. This was a new challenge. He had locked his room and checked it twice before he left. If only he knew what they were up to, he could better prepare himself. He would keep his eyes open.