BEXHILL SCHOOL

Angie stood by the window of the Common Room listening to the sounds of Alexia playing the opening bars of Brahms Piano Concerto as they floated in from the Music Room next door.

'Very sedate, for Alexia,' thought Angie, rubbing her recently-tawsed bottom. Then she heard the jangle as her friend ran her forefinger along the line of keys, followed immediately by the crashing sounds of Alexia's jazzed-up makeover of the master's work.

"Go, Alexia! Go, girl, go!" Angie cried, jiving to the infectious music. Music which abruptly stopped and was followed a few moments later by the unmistakeable swish and crack of a cane against a bare bottom.

"Yeowch, you poor thing!' Angie muttered to herself as she counted out the 12 strokes.. Then the Music Room door opened and closed and Alexia appeared in the Common Room, red-faced but not crying, hands clutched to the seat of her skirt. She managed a grin to her friend.

"Wow!" she hopped from foot to foot, trying to ease the blaze in her backside. "That, Angie, in case you didn't know, was Brahms' solo for rattan cane, a little-known work but highly appreciated in some quarters."

"Hind-quarters?" said Angie, throwing her arms around her friend.

"Maybe not. Come on, you invited me for a sleep-over, so let's to go to your place and look at our trademarks." 'Trademarks' was the Bexhill slang for the visible evidence of recently-undergone punishment.

On the way home in the bus, Angie was subdued.

"What's the problem?" Alexia asked. "He didn't tawse your tongue, did he?"

"It's just that I know what's going to happen when I give mum the Discipline Report to sign."

"What's th problm? Won't she sign it?"

"Oh yes, she'll sign it all right, but only after she's spanked the living daylights out of me."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a rule in our house that if we get whacked at school, mum or dad thrash us when we get home. Something to do with solidarity with the school or something."

"Oh my God, you poor thing!"

And so it happened. As soon as her mother smilingly asked what sort of day the girls had had, and Angie had sheepishly produced the Discipline Report, her mother had told Alexia to go and wait up in Angie's bedroom, as she had 'some business to conduct' with her daughter. It was at that point that Angie asked her mother whether Alexia could stay and watch, to provide some moral support. Her mother hestiated for a moment and then said:

"Well, I suppose so. Stand there, Alexia. Now, come here, Angie. Over my knee, please. Let's get this over with."