This story is fiction and deals with school strappings. If such a subject is offensive, uninteresting or if you are a minor (i.e., child) please leave now.

This work is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission. Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice.

The author would appreciate your comments -- pro and con, including constructive criticism, and suggestions. E-mail: YLeeCoyote@mail.com

Unusual School Day
[490 words]
by
Y Lee Coyote

I did not know where or when I was. Everything was so strange; not like the 2007 that I knew. Almost everything was made of wood - there were some metal doodads about but nothing of plastic or other twenty-first century materials. The room had a mess of double school desks and chairs from a century ago matching the wooden plank floor. There was even ink in the inkwells. A hurricane lantern was on the teacher's desk at the front of the room. There was a dunce cap on a stool in the corner. The flag had only forty-six stars.

A bell rang and a batch of kids came in. They were in old style clothes. It was then that I realized that I was also. The teacher called for order. Everyone sat absolutely still with their hands clasped on their desks. I quickly did the same. The teacher was pacing in the front of the room. The stick he was swinging made me fearful although I didn't know why.

The teacher started to quiz the class. He went sequentially down each file asking a question of each pupil. A wrong answer got prompt punishment. The errant boy (the girls all had the correct answers) was summoned to the front and had to drop his trousers and bend over. Since none of them wore drawers, they were bare. The girls hid their giggles behind their hands. The fearful stick was used twice or thrice on each of the unfortunate lads. It left fearful marks. Each cut made me flinch.

A nurse came into the room for a height and weight check. I had not noticed before but there was a scale at the back of the room. The nurse carefully recorded everyone's height and weight on a set of charts. "Everyone has done very well. You all are now within your proper weight range for your ages and heights." She paused. "All save one!" I knew that one was me. I was very overweight. "Not only did Turan not lose the ten pounds as scheduled but he GAINED three pounds."

I was summoned to the front. I dropped my trousers and bent over. I wondered why I was not wearing any underpants. I screamed at the first cut and jumped up. Two boys were directed to hold me in place. The teacher started again. I yelled for each cut as it seared my flesh. I cried in the corner. I had to stand there for hours until school was over showing the angry track marks.

As I left, the others taunted me: "Fatso got it again." They ran circles around me and slapped my sore ass. They were far too nimble for me to catch.

The bell was ringing again. Mother was shaking me. "Billy, getup and shower. Your Weight Watchers® meeting is in an hour." I groaned. "Now move it unless you want a spanking." I ran to the bathroom.

The End

© Copyright A.I.L. July 27, 2007

The writer certainly captured the atmosphere of the ancient schoolroom (set me wondering, being an ignorant Brit, what era did the US have only 46 states?) and the constant fear of corporal punishment. The style of writing was a little terse for my taste, short punctuated sentences which failed to really conjure up any atmosphere in my opinion.  Given that the writer began with 'unlike 2007', the conclusion was somewhat predictable. Yes nice enough.

This made me laugh out loud.  Anyone who has ever been on a diet will commisserate with the protagonist.  Perhaps if Weight Watchers incorporated corporal punishment at its weigh-ins, or what they are called, more weight would be lost - or perhaps less by those who are bottoms.  A unique plot-line and well done.

I was wondering what happened when the story skewed off into the seemingly unrelated issues of nurses and weight, so I re-opened the picture and sure enough -- there in the upper left hand was a scale.  I like clever.  Most writers, I think, would have focused completely on the school scenario, but the author took a random element and ran with it, creating a nice little deviation from the norm.  Very nice.

The one issue I had with this story was the mention in the disclaimer that it involved school strappings, yet the descriptions and use of the word "stick" had me envisioning a cane or switch.  It's minor, and didn't detract from my enjoyment much, but it stuck in my head throughout most of the reading.  All in all I thought it was very well done.

This story fits the category and requirements perfectly and I like how the author incorporated the old scale at the back of the room in the picture. I also like the old-fashioned scenery the author sets up and parts of it were very realistic. The cruelness of the other boys for instance, and the descriptions of the pain while being caned.

Other parts were not so realistic...would the boy really have noticed how many stars were on the flag? Why would he be surprised that he didn't have any underpants on, when he'd seen all the other boys didn't and he was dressed the same. I did like the wrap up at the end, when the boy wakes up. Obviously he has a lot of fears and issues about his weight that were causing him to have dreams like this. I've had really realistic dreams like this too.

Cute story...kinda like a time warp.  The picture goes perfectly with the story.  I also liked that it was just a dream at the end.  Nice story.  Perfect reading for a hot summer afternoon.  LOL