BEXHILL SCHOOL

Prefects tanning 1

 

For the first part of this story, see 'Receiving end'.

 

After the thrashing the Deputy Head had just given me, I made my way to the door of his study, avoiding the smug eyes of the Vicar's wife, who had no doubt enjoyed the whole spectacle. I trod as quietly as possible, and then quickly opened the door. Just as I had expected, two Juniors were hovering outside in the corridor, their expressions betraying their shock that they'd been caught in the act of eavesdropping. They tried to scurry away, but I swiftly closed the study door behind me and hissed at them to stop. They turned round, nervous and bashful. I recognised them both.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed that little entertainment," I said harshly. "Since whackings obviously interest you, I'll arrange for you participate in one, not just listen. Now, get lost!" 

They were visibly pale as they trudged miserably away. Now, at last, I could massge my blazing backside as I made my way to my room. When I lifted my skirt, slipped down my knickers, and examined the damage to my bum, my determination to organise a 'Prefects tanning' was reinforced. The two eavesdroppers would be on the top of the list.

The concept of a 'Prefects tanning' originated with the brother of a Head Girl several years earlier. He had been at a very posh school where a self-electing group of around twenty prefects virtually ran all aspects of discipline. They were allowed to use a really fearsome cane, supple but ridged: apparently it's called a 'Whangee'. Of course we were not allowed to use them at Bexhill, but from all accounts they make the effects of a Dragon cane feel like a feather duster. Of all the punishments that the prefects could hand out at that school, the most dreaded by far was a 'Prefects tanning'. The victim or victims, who might have done something as innocuous as sit on a wall reserved for the prefects, would be summoned to appear at the Prefects' Common Room at a certain hour, 'wearing old trousers'. That phrase was the killer: it meant that the boy or boys were to be subjected to a 'Prefects tanning', in which each prefect would take it in turn to swipe the wretch's bottom with a Whangee, until the seat of the youth's trousers was shredded. Hence the instruction to wear an old pair. It might take anything from twenty to forty full-force strokes before the trousers tore. The condition of the bottom which they enclosed didn't bear thinking about.

The then Head Girl had surreptitiously introduced a version of this punishment to Bexhill. Only she was allowed to use a cane, and that was just a Junior (and certainly not a Whangee) but there was nothing to stop the other prefects from having at least a theoretical interest in joining the Pony Club, so it became traditional for all prefects to acquire a riding crop. These were only used on human backsides in the rare event of a Prefects tanning.

I summoned a prefects' meeting for eight o'clock that evening. Word had spread about my caning, and my colleagues were sympathetic, especially when I showed them my 'trademarks'. I told them that I felt a 'Prefects tanning' might be in order, encompassing the two voyeurs and the four other Juniors who had now been identified as the source of the high jinks in the town. The most recently elevated prefect was sent to 'invite' the six girls to attend the Prefects' Common Room at the same time the following evening. She was instructed to to ensure that she used the phrase 'wear an old pair of knickers'.

The victims would have almost twenty-four hours to savour what was coming to them.

 

To be continued