BEXHILL SCHOOL

It had taken four long years, but at last Katie had achieved her ambition to be a Prefect. During those four years, Katie had been no saint: she had regularly had to grab her ankles, bend over a chair, or lie across the Headmistress' desk while her backside was spanked or caned in retribution for some misdeed or other. But throughout those painful experiences, she had clung to the hope that, one day, she would be made a Prefect and allowed to wield a cane herself. And now that day had arrived.

Actually, she'd been promoted a couple of weeks earlier, and had rushed off to buy a suitable rattan from the local shop which supplied such needs to the teachers and Prefects of Bexhill School. Realising that Katie was a 'beginner', they had recommended a flexible, medium-weight cane: a cross between a Junior and a Senior. 

"It will leave ridges," they told Katie, "but it will be unlikely to break the skin. Shall we give you a few tips on how to use it?"

Katie had been surprised at their frankness, but had eagerly agreed. For half an hour the shop-owner had shown her how to whack the living daylights out of a pillow laid across the arm of a sofa. By the end of the session, Katie could lay half a dozen strokes accurately and within two inches of each other across the long-suffering cushion.. She took the cane proudly back back to her house and awaited eagerly for the first transgressor. It had been a frustrating two weeks during which the entire community had seemed to be unusually well behaved. 

But at last someone had stepped out of line. Monica had been late down to breakfast on two successive days. The Duty Monitor had reported her to Katie. Katie had summoned Monica to the Prefects' Common room and barely listened to the girl's excuses, which were pathetically inadequate anyway.

"Very well, young lady, I think you need a lesson in punctuality", said Katie, flexing the cane and hoping it would not break. "Panties down please, and bend over."

Monica was no newcomer to the lash of wood against her bottom, but even she was surprised at the ferocity of that first stroke.