I wrote this story some time ago, but I don't think I ever posted it publicly.

I am not in favour of real life corporal punishment of schoolchildren. If you don't want to read about such matters in fantasy or fiction, please do not read what follows:

"Come on, Di! You know we need you for the team!" Anna De Courcy, Diana Sellars's best friend, spoke in her most persuasive tones.

Julia Wharton, who had less patience than Anna with Diana, chimed in "And, anyway, Diana, there's nothing special about that bottom of yours! We've all had the slipper!" There was a chorus of agreement.

"You won't break, you know!"

"You're being selfish, Diana, why shouldn't you get the slipper like anyone else?"

The fifteen year old Diana had been expecting sympathy from her friends. After all she'd only been out of bounds so as to buy food for a midnight feast when everybody could join in. She had told the other girls what had happened. She had been caught in the village by Miss Pollard, who had escorted her straight back to the headmistress, Miss Masterson.

It had been the first time Diana had ever been to the headmistress's study. The tall fifteen year old had started to cry quietly to herself as Miss Masterson had given her a real talking to, culminating the tongue-lashing by awarding the naughty schoolgirl 500 lines to be handed in a week's time and three hours supervised detention for the next afternoon. Saturday was a half day at the school.

Diana had never been in serious trouble before and had never had to do more than 50 lines at a time. She knew that the enormous imposition would take up all of her leisure time for the next week. But it was the detention which worried her more. The school was playing an important netball match tomorrow and she was in the team. Tearfully, she had asked Miss Masterson if her detention might be postponed. The headmistress had refused.

Finally she had offered Diana one alternative. If the schoolgirl would accept a slippering the detention would be reduced to one hour and would take place on Monday afternoon. Her lines, too, would be reduced to 200. Diana had refused. But now all her friends were angry with her and were telling her that she'd made the wrong choice and had let the side down.

"If I'd been given the choice of the slipper, the last time I was sent to Miss Masterson, I'd have taken it!" said Claire, a small but well-developed blonde girl. There were a few laughs. The last time Claire had been sent to Miss Masterson she had been caned! The girls all remembered how Claire had had to stand up in all her classes for the rest of that day. No doubt she would have been grateful for the option of a slippering!

Claire was the only girl in their year who had had the cane, and after seeing her reactions the others would do their best to avoid it; but they had all, except for Diana, had the slipper either at home or at school and they felt that she was acting like a spoiled little doll in turning down her one chance to play in the match. Even Anna had received her own first slippering just the week before.

"Oh! Diana!" said Anna, "It's horrid getting the slipper, of course it is, but it's over in a couple of minutes. You know I got the slipper last week from Miss Pollard and I hated it. But ten minutes afterwards it was all over and forgotten. If you go back to Miss Masterson now and tell her that you've changed your mind and that you'll take the slippering you'll have forgotten all about it by the time of the match tomorrow. Did she tell you how many whacks you would get?"

"Twelve, over my knickers," said Diana quietly, blushing and lowering her eyes.

"There! That's not so bad!" said Anna - rather hypocritically as her own slippering had been six whacks over her school skirt. "Come on! Go and see her and get it over!"

Diana looked at her friends. She was always easily influenced, but she was really scared at the prospect of bending down, revealing her teenage knicker-clad bottom to the eyes of her angry headmistress. And then - it would hurt! Diana had never been spanked and she was a physical coward. She knew that Miss Masterson hit a lot harder than Miss Pollard - whatever Anna said.

The tall girl's hands went subconsciously to the seat of her blue school skirt as she tried to make her mind up. She chewed her lower lip nervously, her pretty schoolgirl face a picture of indecision.

But Diana had a desperate need to be liked. She could not stand the condemnation of her friends.

"OK, then. I'll do it. I'll go to her now!"

There was a chorus of thanks and good wishes. Diana walked off slowly, perhaps hoping that Anna would say it had only been a test and that they didn't want her to go through with it after all.

But there was no recall and Diana walked slowly down the empty corridors to the headmistress's study. She paused outside the door. Again her hands went to the seat of her skirt and she rubbed the blue material gently. She was wondering what her bottom would be feeling like in a quarter of an hour's time. She tried to mentally prepare herself before knocking on the door.

Diana resolved that she would take her punishment with dignity. She had broken the rules of the school, she had been caught and now she would pay the penalty. She would accept it with dignity like the great heroines of history - Boadicea, Anne Boleyn and Mary, Queen of Scots. But it was such an undignified punishment! Well! She had to go through with it now. She knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Diana walked in and closed the door after her. She stood silent in the presence of the headmistress.

"Well, Diana, what is it, girl? Speak up!"

"Please, Miss . . . I'll take the slippering . . ."

"Oh, you will, will you? Well, that option's not available any more. You turned it down. You will go into detention at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon."

Diana was thunderstruck. After all her fears and all her resolutions she wasn't going to be slippered after all! Her friends would never believe her - they would think that she'd chickened out again. She just stood there, but tears started to fall from her large blue eyes. Either Miss Masterson had pity on her or, possibly, she was following a prepared path:

"Very well, Diana. If you are really so important to the school netball team I shall not be unreasonable. Your detention will be reduced to one hour and transferred to Monday and you will take a slippering. But you have messed me around and your change of mind will cost another six whacks. It will now be eighteen whacks! What do you say, girl?"

"Yes, miss, I'll take the slippering", Diana mumbled, "thank you, miss!" She felt that she now had no choice. She would probably have agreed if Miss Masterson had told her that she would be caned!

"Very well! You will report here at 2.45 tomorrow afternoon, wearing full netball kit. You may go now."

Diana was shocked: "But . . but I thought . . . you would do it . . . now?"

Miss Masterson smiled, grimly. "The only reason for the alteration in your punishment is the netball match. Well, young lady, you may play if you will - but with fresh red slipper marks on your naughty bottom cheeks!"

"But, miss, that's not fair . . ."

"Diana! You don't learn your lessons, do you? I'm only doing this as a concession to you! But you still argue! Well then, you can report here at 2 o'clock, not at quarter to three, and in full kit, remember!"

This time Diana didn't argue. She just turned around and left the room.

When she rejoined her friends Diana's dismal appearance led them to conclude that she'd already had her slippering.

"That wasn't too bad, was it, Diana? And it's all over now!"

Anna tried to be sympathetic: "I bet you're still sore, Di! Do you want me to rub some cream on you - it'll stop the stinging."

But Diana broke down in tears and told them what had happened. They comforted her and were sympathetic, but there was some schadenfreude at the thought of the spoiled goody-goody getting eighteen whacks from the headmistress's slipper. Only a few girls, such as Claire, had taken that many strokes from Miss Masterson and she still remembered how much that had bloody well hurt!

The next day, in morning school, Diana was aware of how the other girls were gossiping and giggling about her. She tried to keep a stiff upper lip, but it was hard. The news was now all over the school and at break time girls came up to her offering her a cushion to sit on and teasing her by imitating the whacking sound of a slipper landing on her knickers. Her friends did their best to support her, but time after time she felt her hands stealing towards her bottom in anxious anticipation.

She had to leave her friends before the end of lunchtime to go to the changing rooms. Miss Atkinson, the Sports mistress was there. She knew why Diana was changing early and was sympathetic, up to a point:

"I'm sorry, Diana, but it is your fault, you know. I've never known Miss Masterson to punish a girl who didn't deserve it. And playing netball afterwards is probably the best thing to take your mind off the sting. It's going to hurt, but you'll get over it, you'll live. I got the slipper - and the cane - at school when I was your age, so I do know what I'm talking about, dear, the important thing is to learn a lesson from this."

Diana was pleased to escape from the well meaning reminiscences as soon as she was changed. She walked to the headmistress's office. It was just before two. She knocked and went in.

The headmistress checked that Diana was wearing full netball kit and then told her to stand in a corner of the room, facing the walls. Diana had to put her hands on her head. She felt the headmistress lean down and pick up the hem of her short netball skirt. She lifted it and pinned it to Diana's white top. Now the schoolgirl's maroon knickers were on full view.

"You will stay there like that until I say otherwise! I intend to slipper you at the time I originally set, a quarter to three, just before the start of the match."

Diana felt that she was blushing and pushed her face as far as possible into the corner. At least no one but the headmistress was witnessing her humiliation. Then there came a timid knock at the door.

Suddenly Diana remembered something she had forgotten. Saturday afternoon at two o'clock, when school had finished for the week, was a common time for girls to be sent to the headmistress for punishment!

"Come in!"

Diana cringed in the corner, wishing that the earth would gape wide and swallow her.

A fourteen year old girl entered the study. It was not the first time that Susannah Littleton had been sent for the slipper and the mischievous little girl entered the room with a cheeky smile on her face. She knew that the next few minutes would not be pleasant, but it hadn't hurt too much the other times and she didn't expect this time to be any different. She was, however, rather surprised to see the tall girl standing in the corner. But the way the older girl's skirt was pinned up, revealing her knickered bottom, made the purpose of her visit rather obvious.

Miss Masterson took note of the naughty girl's cheeky grin. She didn't like it when girls returned for punishment too frequently. She would wipe that smile off her face soon enough!

First she asked Diana to turn around.

"You've never had the slipper, have you Diana? Well, it should be instructive for you to witness some punishments before your own bottom receives its warming.

"First, fetch me the slipper. It's on the top of that cabinet."

Diana saw the "slipper" - actually a large black slip-on plimsoll - and passed it to the teacher, trying to avoid the eyes of the younger girl who, she realised, was staring curiously at her. A cane was lying on top of the cabinet next to the plimsoll. As she saw it Diana felt that, bad as things were, they could have been much worse.

Miss Masterson turned her attention to Susannah.

"Bend down, Susannah, and hold onto your legs as far down as you can. You are becoming altogether too regular a visitor here. I shall try to discourage you from wanting to pay further visits! Twelve strokes, I think, Susannah."

Diana, watching the bending girl, saw no sign of a reaction, but Susannah was actually a little worried - she had expected no more than eight whacks at most; last time she had got six, and that had been bending over the desk.

Susannah was soon more worried, still. The headmistress had rolled her blue skirt up, well she had expected that. But then she felt the teacher's hands on her navy knickers, pulling them down!

"Oh no, miss. Not on the bare!" Taken by surprise Susannah's voice was high-pitched, almost a squeak.

"Oh YES, miss! Not smiling now, are we? You've been asking for this and I intend to give you exactly what you deserve! And I advise you to stay bent down, unless you want extra." The teacher pulled the knickers down until they were clear of the girl's bottom.

Diana felt great sympathy for the naughty girl. She knew that her mere presence there as the girl was forced to display her naked buttocks was aggravating her punishment. Despite her sympathy she could not resist gazing at the bared behind. It was so small, so white. What would the headmistress's slipper do to it? She, and Susannah, were soon to find out . . .

Diana watched as the headmistress drew the slipper back and then whipped it forward and down onto the white flesh of the fourteen year old girl's bottom. The force of the stroke almost caused Susannah to topple forward. Diana was horrified at the force the headmistress was using. It was much harder than she had expected - and this was the punishment of a girl in the year below her own. Her punishment might be even worse.

Outside the door of the headmistress's study two naughty schoolgirls also heard the loud sound as the slipper smacked into Susannah's bottom and felt their spirits drop even lower. It sounded frighteningly loud, even through the wooden door. At least there had been no answering yell from the fourteen year old . . .

But Susannah had only just restrained herself from crying out. The girl had twisted her head round and Diana saw the expression of shock on her face as she looked back at her chastiser. This was hurting a lot more than Susannah had expected. A bright red stain slowly spread across the pale flesh.

Miss Masterson was only starting. She walloped the slipper down, again and again, on the exposed bare flesh. By the time the fifth stroke had made its stinging contact Susannah's resistance was fast disappearing and she gave vent to a shrill cry of pain.

"Stay still, girl! Straighten your legs!"

The schoolgirl did her best to obey. She straightened her legs, displaying her now reddened bottom as a tempting target, but was unable to stay quite still. Her little bottom weaved from side to side.

The teacher paused for a moment. She knew that she was now beginning to get through to the silly little girl and she wanted the next stroke, which would mark the half way point of the punishment to really sting. She studied the red, squirming bottom. She had made a good start, but the real punishment was still to come.

She took a firm grip on the plimsoll and took a step back, before stepping forward again and lashing the slipper down with full force for the hardest stroke yet. This time the reaction was dramatic. Susannah yelped in pain and leapt upright, several inches into the air. She almost fell over as her knickers dropped to her ankles, unbalancing her. She righted herself, kicking her knickers off, and twisted round to face the teacher, her hands tenderly cupping her outraged bottom cheeks. Diana saw that Susannah had started to cry. She looked like a little girl now, not the smart-aleck teenager she had appeared when she had entered the room.

"Please, miss, no more!" pleaded the teenager, "Please! It really hurts!"

"It's going to hurt a lot more before I finish, lady! A slippering is not meant to be a pleasant experience. And I meant what I said earlier. If you don't get yourself bent down again right now, you will get extra strokes."

"Oh, please miss, no. Please. Have a heart, I won't ever smoke again. Ever!"

The headmistress was implacable. "Bend over, Susannah, unless you want four extra whacks!"

The formerly rebellious teenager sniffed back a tear, grimaced and made up her mind to it. Slowly she turned round and leant forward again, presenting her smarting bottom to further ministrations from Miss Masterson's slipper.

"Well done, Susannah. You're being sensible. And remember - this is your last chance. If you stand up again, or try to put your hands in the way, you will get extra strokes."

With that the teacher adjusted Susannah's skirt, which had fallen back down again, and resumed the punishment. Each stroke seemed, to the watching Diana, to be just as hard as the earlier ones, and each stroke brought frantic wrigglings and loud cries of genuine pain from the bending girl. Outside the room two waiting girls looked at each other in horror.

Diana counted each stroke as it smacked home, dismally reflecting that soon she would be in Susannah's place. The fourteen year old was reacting vociferously to each whack but she was evidently determined to stay in position for the whole of her punishment. But Diana was shocked when Susannah jumped up again after only eleven strokes. Had the girl miscounted, or had the cumulative effect of the slippering broken her resolve?

Whichever was the case the spanked girl danced around the room holding her bottom and sobbing loudly. Miss Masterson ignored her.

She beckoned to Diana. "Come over here, Diana. Pull out that chair and sit down!"

Wonderingly, Diana obeyed. She was not about to ignore the headmistress in her present mood.

Now the teacher turned to the weeping girl. She caught hold of her and pulled her face up to look her in the eyes.

"I told you that you would receive twelve strokes, and so you will. This behaviour does not impress me at all. You must learn to accept the consequences of your behaviour. As I can't trust you to stay in position by yourself, you will go over Diana Sellars's lap and she will hold you in place. You will receive the one remaining stroke of your punishment, plus two penalty strokes."

Susannah's will to resist seemed to have been broken. Obediently she lowered herself across the older girl's lap, still sobbing pitifully.

The teacher pulled Susannah's skirt up once more and Diana's eyes opened wide at the close-up sight of the poor girl's bottom. It glowed so bright a red that Santa Claus, had he been given the choice, would have selected Susannah's bum rather than Rudolph's nose to guide his sleigh.

"Hold her tightly, Diana. If she gets up again it'll be your bottom that pays for it, not her's!"

Diana was grateful that Susannah was small for her age, but the girl was obviously in real pain and she wriggled like an eel.

The fifteen year old winced as the slipper came thudding in again onto the younger girl's bottom, evoking frantic yells and wild writhings and squirmings. If anything the last three whacks, now that Susannah was securely held, were even harder than their predecessors.

Finally it was all over. Breathing somewhat heavily, Miss Masterson looked at Diana.

"All right, girl. You can let her go now."

Diana released her grip. The fourteen year old girl, still writhing, fell to the floor and rolled over and over, crying like a baby.

Miss Masterson watched impassively for a moment and then walked to her and grasped her long black hair, now wildly disarranged.

"Stand up, Susannah, it's all over."

The spanked girl stood up, although her shaking legs looked as though they might give way. Tears were still cascading from her eyes.

"Put your knickers back on!"

Susannah stumbled over to where her discarded knickers lay and slowly eased them up over her sore and swollen rear. Her school skirt fell back into place.

"I hope that that will serve as a lesson to you Susannah. I don't want to see you sent here for punishment ever again. But if you are, you can rest assured that next time will hurt a lot more . . .

"Now go out and tell Caroline Webster to come in. Then wait outside with Tara Henderson. I want to see all three of you together in my office when you've all been dealt with.

"Diana, stand up and return to the corner!"

On shaky legs Susannah tottered from the office. Her place was taken by the second of the afternoon's victims.

In contrast to Susannah, who had entered the study with a cheerful, cheeky grin on her face, Caroline could not have looked more serious or sad. Caroline was only twelve years old and, like Diana, she had never been spanked before. She had heard the awful sounds of Susannah's ordeal and had just seen the transformation a slippering had wrought in the lively teenager. She was terrified at the thought of her bottom receiving similar treatment.

She stood with her arms at her side in front of the headmistress's desk. She did not take any notice of Diana's presence, too concerned at the thought of what was in store for her bottom.

Fortunately for her, Miss Masterson had no intention of punishing her with anything like the same degree of severity she had considered appropriate for Susannah.

"I'm sorry to see you here, Caroline. You know that I am going to slipper you. It's going to hurt, but it is for your benefit and I hope and expect that you will learn an important lesson from this afternoon' experience.

"Now, bend over my desk and grasp the other side."

Caroline was two years younger than Susannah, but she was taller than the older girl and was able to reach the edge of the desk, although she had to stretch a bit to do so. She took a tight hold.

Diana saw the girls blue school skirt tauten over her rear. Evidently Caroline, like Anna, was to get her slippering over her skirt.

Miss Masterson delivered six sharp blows with her slipper in rapid succession. Caroline squealed at each whack, but stayed in place. When she was told to stand she jigged up and down on her feet, rubbing her burning rear through her school skirt. She was not crying, but Diana could see that she was just on the point of tears.

"Go and wait outside the study, Caroline, and send Tara Henderson in to see me."

Her face blushing bright red, Caroline left the room.

The next girl was, once again, a contrast. Caroline had been one of the youngest girls at the school and Tara was one of the oldest - nineteen years of age. Miss Masterson delivered a long lecture, telling Tara how disgusted she was to see a senior girl sent there for punishment.

"I expect a young lady of your age to have learned how to behave and not to be sent to me for disgraceful behaviour, as you have been! I am appalled that any girl at this school, let alone a senior, should act as you have done."

Tara let the headmistress's words wash over her and just stared straight ahead impassively. She knew that she wouldn't be leaving the room without a very sore bottom and she just wanted the headmistress to get on with it. Miss Masterson continued:

"I don't like using the cane, Tara. You will be the first girl I've had to cane this year. But you have left me no choice."

Diana noticed a slight tremor pass over Tara's face as the teacher mentioned the cane, but it was soon gone and the girl stared out impassively again.

"Diana! Fetch me the cane. It's on the cabinet, next to where you found the slipper."

Diana did as she was told. Tara darted a vicious glance at her. Diana realised that the older girl was by no means keen to have her as a witness to her punishment. The teacher motioned to Diana to return to her corner.

Miss Masterson tested the cane by slashing it viciously through the air. The "whirring" sound produced was astonishingly loud. Diana's mouth opened in shock. Tara remained standing still and looking forward, her expression unchanged.

"Very well! bend over my desk, Tara, and grasp the other side."

The tall blonde girl had less difficulty than Caroline had had in complying. Miss Masterson took hold of the sixth former's skirt and rolled it up out of the way. For a moment Diana wondered if the teacher was going to pull the girl's knickers down as she had Susannah's, but instead the teacher stepped back and stood for a moment regarding her target. Tara was a tall girl with a full, womanly figure and her large bottom was generously curved. Miss Masterson tapped her cane across the tightly stretched knickers and watched the involuntary wriggling as the schoolgirl awaited her first stroke of the cane.

The teacher pulled back the cane and whipped it down with as much force as her earlier practice stroke - ignoring the fact that this time the target was not thin air but vulnerable human flesh.

The cane smashed into Tara's nineteen year old rear with tremendous force, producing a noise like a pistol shot. Diana saw the long, slender cane dent deep into the girl's resilient flesh before bouncing back again.

A shudder ran through Tara's whole body as the awful sting bit in, but she controlled herself, merely giving vent to a rather un-feminine grunt. The headmistress drew back the cane for another, equally violent, stroke, producing a similar result.

The force of the strokes horrified the watching Diana. It was as though the teacher intended to bury the cane deep in the flesh of the bending girl. The fifteen year old couldn't help admiring the courage of the older girl. She realised that Tara's thin school knickers could provide no protection against the intense sting that cane must be causing. In any case Diana could see that the tip of the cane was digging into bare flesh on Tara's right flank, unprotected by even the thin school knickers.

After the fourth stroke the teacher paused for a moment. Cane in hand, she walked around the desk. Glad of any respite, however short-lived, Tara wriggled her bottom cheeks urgently, trying to dissipate the awful sting. She knew her headmistress too well to hope that her punishment might be coming to an early end.

The nineteen year old's face was masked by her long blonde hair. Miss Masterson brushed it aside, cupped the girl's chin with her left hand and lifted it up. Tara's eyes were pressed tightly shut but tears were squeezing their way out - evidence of the fact that, despite her bravery, the caning was really hurting the nineteen year old. Miss Masterson smiled.

"It hurts, Tara, doesn't it? And I've saved the best for last! I'm going to make the last two strokes ones that you won't forget for a long time. I don't think you'll be feeling very like sitting down for the next week or so!"

With that she dropped Tara's head and walked calmly back behind the bending girl. Diana saw her large bottom tense in a vain preparation for what was coming. The teacher raised the cane high over her shoulders and brought it lashing down through the air. It made an incredibly loud whirring sound as it whipped down. Diana could see that it wasn't aimed for Tara's rear end, but for thin air - but Tara couldn't and she squealed loudly in anticipation.

Miss Masterson smiled again and darted a glance of triumph in Diana's direction. Then she raised the cane again and whacked it down again, but this time in good earnest across Tara's quivering behind. The girl's will had almost been broken now and she screamed loudly as the pain bit in. She would not have supposed it to be possible but the headmistress had kept her word - that stroke had hurt even more than any of its predecessors. She squirmed frantically over the desk, almost standing up, but somehow controlled herself and remained in place. The teacher nodded approvingly and drew back her cane.

"Just one more to come, Tara. I think we'll try to get it right on top of that last one!"

"No, miss, please, no. Ow . . . ow . . . oww . . . oh! Not there, no, pleeease!"

Miss Masterson was not inclined to be merciful. Tara's large bottom could take a sound caning and she intended to make sure that her "six of the best" were, indeed, the best she could muster. The sixth stroke was the hardest of all and it landed just half an inch below the marks left by the fifth. This represented excellent aiming on Miss Masterson's part, considering the way the tall girl's bottom was bucking and weaving! Tara gave vent to an ear-splitting shriek that terrified Diana. Outside on the playing fields the girls who heard it thanked their lucky stars that it was not their own bottoms being spanked.

Miss Masterson stood back.

"Stand up, Tara!"

The teenage schoolgirl obeyed. Her school skirt fell back into place as she did so, covering the ravaged area, but the tall girl immediately put her hands up under the skirt, rubbing herself cautiously, exploring the tender, swelling weals.

"Hands outside your skirt!"

Tara obeyed, but continued to try to comfort her blazing bottom through the material of her blue school skirt, moving her weight from one foot to the other in her intense discomfort. Miss Masterson opened the study door and beckoned the two other girls in.

Three girls with freshly spanked bottoms stood in a row in front of their headmistress's desk. Susannah and Tara were both still in tears and, although Caroline appeared to have recovered her equanimity, her hands were still pressed to the back of her school skirt. Miss Masterson walked back to her seat, unconcernedly let the cane drop with a clatter next to the plimsoll on her desk, and then made a great parade of smoothing her skirt and sitting down with every appearance of pleasure and relief. She knew very well that for at least two of the girls in front of her "sitting down" would be a problematic exercise for some time to come.

After a short lecture the headmistress presented the girls with an interesting choice. Diana had seen their punishments - if they wished they could remain in the study, standing in disgrace hands on head, until it was time for Diana's slippering which they could then witness in their turn.

But both Susannah and Tara turned down the offer immediately. Susannah just wanted to be by herself and to cry away her shame and humiliation. And Tara was looking forward to lying face down on her bed with her knickers down. Her study mate, Andrea, should be there - together with a jar of soothing zinc and castor oil cream that she had bought in anticipation!

Caroline, who had almost recovered from her own slippering, would not have minded seeing Diana's punishment, but she did not want to be the only girl to say so, and she went along with the others. The three girls went out, leaving Diana alone with the headmistress once more.

"Well, Diana!" she said brightly, "Now you have a better idea as to what to expect! Now face the corner again and stand there, hands on head, until I tell you to turn round."

Time passed slowly for the naughty fifteen year old as she stood there in disgrace in the corner. She seemed to have been standing there for ages but then the old-fashioned clock in the study chimed for the half hour. She had only been standing there for a few minutes and there was still a quarter of an hour to go before her slippering was due to start.

From time to time she heard happy sounds from the schoolgirls at leisure in the grounds. Their happiness seemed to make her present situation even worse. She wondered if Anna was out enjoying herself or if she was thinking about her. Diana's position became intensely uncomfortable, her arms began to really ache, but she didn't dare to move her clasped hands from her head for fear of painful consequences. The only item of interest was when a fly landed on the wall just in front of her. Diana tried to amuse herself by guessing which way it would crawl; but it soon flew away and Diana was left to her boring discomfort.

Poor Diana started to cry quietly to herself as she stood there, thinking about what had happened to the other girls and what was in store for her own bottom. She was not sure that she would feel very much like playing netball afterwards. But if she didn't play, or played badly, the whole thing had been in vain and she might as well have accepted the detention as she'd first intended. Mentally, she cursed her persuasive friends. It was all very well for them! They weren't standing here with their knickers on show in the presence of an angry, and very fit, headmistress! And that awful cane was still on her desk. Why?

As she stood there, the unhappy Diana wasn't sure whether she wanted the clock to chime again quickly, or not at all.

Time passed at its normal pace, ignoring the wretched Diana's thoughts, and suddenly the clock chimed. Diana jumped; it was her turn at last..

The headmistress rose and walked into the centre of the room.

"All right, Diana! Take your hands off your head and walk over here, facing me."

As Diana obeyed, her hands went protectively to her soon-to-be-spanked behind, rubbing her bottom cheeks through the skimpy netball knickers. The headmistress saw the tears in her eyes.

"I don't know why you're crying, young lady. You'll have something to cry about soon enough, I can assure you!"

Diana sniffed and blinked heavily, rubbing the tears away with the palm of her hand.

"Very well! Bend over the desk, like Caroline and Tara!"

Diana did so, aware that the slipper and the cane were lying just to her side as she did so. At fifteen Diana was fully as tall as the nineteen year old Tara and, like her, she had no difficulty in grasping the edge of the desk. The headmistress made her move her legs until her bottom was in the ideal position for punishment.

Diana's maroon knickers were tightly stretched across her ample bottom. Her long, athletic but feminine, thighs twitched nervously. The whiteness of her large, rounded buttocks was accentuated by the contrast with her brightly coloured knickers. She felt the headmistress lean down and pick up the slipper.

"Eighteen strokes, Diana. And I want you to stay in position throughout. If you don't you will get extra. Remember what happened to Susannah . . ."

With that the headmistress hefted the plimsoll and drew it back before smacking it down hard onto the girl's bottom cheeks.

WHACKK!!

Diana wriggled as the plimsoll smashed down onto her right buttock cheek. Even after what she had witnessed earlier she was taken by surprise by the sheer force of that blow, which knocked her whole body forward onto the unyielding desk. In fact, though, the headmistress was using no more force than she had when punishing the fourteen year old Susannah. Miss Masterson waited until the girl's long legs were still and then whacked the slipper down again, just as hard, onto the other buttock.

"Oww!"

Diana's bottom was already stinging unpleasantly and the tears had started to flow again. She was only too aware that her punishment had only just started - there were an unimaginable sixteen strokes still to come!

The headmistress continued to wallop the slipper down on alternate sides of Diana's curvy behind. The fifteen year old had done her best to suffer in silence, but she had never been spanked before and the cumulative effect of the slipper whacks was beginning to really hurt. By the time the teacher had delivered six strokes Diana was already howling in pain and yelling at each new whack.

Miss Masterson was not inclined to reduce the girl's punishment. The slipper would not do any permanent damage - just leave her with a very sore bottom and a few bruises. Diana was a bit of a cry-baby, but that was no reason for punishing her less than she would any other girl in the school.

She paused for a moment and looked at the girl's juddering bottom. Already, after only six whacks, it was no longer so easy to distinguish between the netball knickers and the surrounding flesh, which was now a bright scarlet. Miss Masterson decided on a small change of tactic. She would aim the next few whacks at the right buttock alone.

The change was a very painful one for Diana. After the tenth whack - the fourth in succession to crash into her wickedly smarting right bottom cheek - it became too much for the naughty youngster. Despite her knowledge of the consequences she lost her grip on the desk and jumped upright. As Susannah had done earlier she twisted round to face her punisher, her hands going behind her back, her fingers splayed out, trying to comfort her burning bottom.

Miss Masterson was prepared to give Diana a chance. It was, after all, the first time she had been sent to her for punishment and she had already received quite a sound slippering.

"Come on, Diana, get yourself back over that desk. I know it hurts, but you're over half way through now. You've taken ten and you've only got another eight to go. It will soon be all over. Now, bend down again over the desk!"

Diana was sobbing loudly and didn't answer the headmistress, just shaking her head violently. Miss Masterson took a step towards the weeping girl and Diana backed away. Miss Masterson was a patient woman, but this was too much. She had her own work to do that afternoon and the netball match, the reason for this performance, would be starting soon. She returned to her desk, ignoring the tearful teenager who was shaking as she continued to rub her tender behind. The headmistress picked up the phone and asked Miss Atkinson to report to her study. Then she sat back in her chair watching Diana's wrigglings.

"Silly little girl," she thought.

There was a knock at the door. The sports mistress entered.

"This girl is refusing to accept punishment, Miss Atkinson. I would be grateful if you could hold her over your lap while I deliver the remaining part of her punishment and additional whacks for this disruption." It seemed that Miss Atkinson was going to fill the part taken earlier by Diana during Susannah's punishment!

Diana allowed the gym mistress to grab her, she knew that there was no further point to resistance. At least she had obtained some respite for her poor bottom. But how many extra strokes had she earned for herself?

Miss Atkinson sat on a chair in the centre of the office, where Diana had sat earlier, and pulled the crying teenager over her knees. The strong young gym mistress had no difficulty in holding the wriggling girl firmly in place.

Miss Masterson rose from her place and walked over to announce Diana's fate. She walked around and grasped the girl's short blonde hair. She pulled Diana's head up to look into her eyes as she spoke to her:

"Well, you are a silly little girl, aren't you? You only had eight strokes to come and now you have refused punishment, wasted my time and wasted the time of Miss Atkinson. The minimum number of extra strokes that I can award you is six. That means you have fourteen still to come!"

Diana broke her silence. "Oh, no please miss. Not so many. I can't take it. No, please! Please! I'm sorry . . . oh, please," she blurted out hysterically.

Miss Masterson dropped the girl's head and walked back around the chair.

Before she could raise the slipper again, Miss Atkinson spoke:

"Excuse me, Sophia, may I make a suggestion?"

The headmistress nodded.

"I see that your cane is lying on the desk. Perhaps Diana could receive two or three strokes from that? I don't think she'd be getting off too lightly and the punishment will be over more quickly and with less effort."

Miss Masterson nodded again. This was a very sensible proposal. She exchanged the plimsoll for the cane and addressed Diana once more.

"Diana, Miss Atkinson has interceded for you. Rather than fourteen whacks from the slipper you will receive two strokes of the cane. Your punishment is nearly at an end."

Miss Atkinson compressed her lips. Diana's punishment would be over more quickly, but its effects were likely to be more long-lasting now. She was not sure if she had done the girl any favours.

Diana's knickers had began to ride into the cleft between her bottom cheeks and, before continuing, Miss Masterson leant down and pulled the rest of them up so that the girl's bottom was, effectively, bare.

The headmistress drew her cane back and delivered a hard stroke across the under-cheeks of Diana's reddened buttocks. It was not so hard as the ones Tara had felt earlier, but it hurt like hell as it burned across the fifteen year old's tender rear. As it landed a strip of scarlet flesh turned momentarily white, but soon darker red lines were seen on each bottom cheek. The girl howled desperately in pain and struggled frantically across the gym mistress's lap, but she was held too securely.

Miss Masterson paused before delivering the last stroke, watching the contortions of Diana's punished behind. Then she released a real humdinger of a stroke - as hard as any she had delivered that afternoon.

It landed right on top of the previous one and Miss Atkinson had to use her best efforts to hold the agonised girl in position. Diana ululated in anguish, sounding like a wounded Indian brave rallying his tribe. Miss Masterson replaced the cane on the desk.

She allowed Miss Atkinson to continue to hold the squirming teenager for a minute or two until her howling had eased off. Then she beckoned to the gym mistress who released Diana and gently set her on her feet.

The weeping girl hopped from foot to foot, her fingers tenderly exploring the raised stripes decorating her reddened bottom. Miss Masterson asked her to stand still as she unpinned her skirt. Then she reminded her that she was in detention on Monday and that she had 200 lines to do. Finally she asked Miss Atkinson to take her off to the netball match - it was just about to start.

When she had the office to herself again, Miss Masterson replaced the slipper and cane on top of the cabinet and sank into her chair again. Now she could get on with her work, having done her duty by four more naughty girls.

Diana was hurried along the corridor by Miss Atkinson, each step hurting as her knicker elastic rubbed against the weals raised by that awful cane. Unlike the other girls she was not even given the opportunity to visit the washroom to tidy herself up after her ordeal. When they reached the playing ground her team-mates knew from her tousled hair and tearstained face that Diana had finally received her long delayed spanking.

And as she played it became even more obvious. Diana threw herself into the game and the adrenaline started to flow. As she ran her skirt flew up and the spectators saw her reddened bottom. For the first quarter every time the play slowed down Diana's hands went back to try to comfort her outraged rear.

But she played well and scored four goals. After the match she was feeling a little better and the worst of the stinging had gone. Miss Atkinson had been right, playing netball had done her good. Her team-mates were very grateful to her but Diana was never certain that she'd made the right choice.