Chapter 10
Although Hope was unable to learn the reason for it, Margaret Thompson was suddenly retired from the staff without advance warning. One day she taught classes and punished students as usual, the following morning she was gone without a trace.
When Hope asked Miss Carter about it, the woman refused to explain.
"Suffice it to say, Hope, dear, that as of this morning, you are a teacher in full standing. Your record as an apprentice has been excellent and I am confident that the change we are making will raise the standard of the school."
"Why Miss Carter," Hope was stunned. "I had no idea. And to hear you say such things of me. Why it's just more than I could have dreamed of."
"There is even more involved than that, Hope. You have brought changes in this school, changes that will be to its credit in future operation. I now rate you and Miss Grey as the two best teachers we have here.
"Together, in your fairness and dedication, while still maintaining reasonable standards of discipline, you have shown that others have placed all emphasis on discipline with no regard for the teaching or welfare of the students."
"But, Miss Carter. I didn't mean to interfere. I had no idea. I have no right.. . "
"As a teacher," Elizabeth interrupted, "you have every right to do what you think is proper and endeavor to influence others. Teachers do not only teach, you know, they must learn as well or they cease to be teachers at all.
"Don't dare decrease your standards of discipline. The sound of the palm and the strap must continue to ring through the halls of this institution, but in future, punishment will be administered only when deserved, not for the entertainment of the teachers or of the headmistress."
Such an admission of guilt stunned Hope so that her knees went weak.
"Make no mistake, Hope," the woman smiled, "I shall continue as long as I live to feel a pleasurable thrill each time some attractive young ass is bared to receive punishment from me.
"The sweet sound of palm or strap on bare ass cheeks and the music of tears and pleas will always thrill me so that my twat will tingle. The sight of a bouncing red butt over my hot lap will never lose its thrill for me, but from now on, these things will be done with more fairness than has been shown here to date.
"This institution has you to thank for that beneficial change."
"Miss Carter, I truly don't know what to say," Hope was clearly still stunned by it all.
"Then I do and I shall say it. Go to your class at once and act like a teacher or I shall turn you over my lap with your pretty bare ass up and make you act like a naughty student."
With a little laugh, Hope thanked her again and scurried away to begin her first day as a fully fledged teacher. What a thrill it was as she walked into the classroom where silence reigned as the students awaited the arrival of the dreaded Miss Thompson.
The students remained standing even after she sat and went on watching the door until Hope told them to be seated. Then, with a growing feeling of confidence, she informed them that Miss Thompson was no longer on the staff of the school and that she was replacing her on the teaching staff.
There was a temporary silence as the students heard and tried to fully comprehend her words. Then, suddenly, a storm of applause broke loose.
For a moment, it was Hope's turn to be stunned by the spontaneous show of approval and delight at what they had heard. As soon as she was able to control her emotions, she stood and motioned for silence. As quickly as it had started, the applause stopped.
"I want to thank you, students, for your unexpected demonstration. I assure you that it is most cheering to me on my first day in charge of a class.
"I feel, however, that we must refrain from disturbing other classes with what must sound like quite unseemly noise. There are a few matters which I wish to make clear to you as I shall to my other classes.
"I feel it is my duty to contribute as much as I can to your education and general development. I shall be available to all of you after classes to answer any questions you may have or to assist in the working out of any personal problems you may encounter. Please do not hesitate to ask for help if you feel you need it.
"On the other hand, I shall expect and demand your full co-operation during school hours. This institution believes in the efficacy of corporal punishment and I do not disagree with that policy in the least.
"Punishment will be administered when it is deserved and only when it is deserved. It will be fair but it will be firmly administered. And now, let us get on with our work."
The students responded instantly with the result that by the end of the class, there had been no punishment administered and no students logged for later discipline. Hope had never seen as good a class, had never before tasted the excitement of working with students who wanted to learn and seemed to enjoy every moment of it.
By the time she left the room, seeing the happy faces of the students, Hope experienced a feeling that was as satisfying as the best sexual climax she had ever known. It was as if she had been transported to a new world.
For the remainder of the day, she followed the same pattern and found much the same results. Through the grapevine which functioned in some mysterious way, all the students in her other classes were aware of the departure of Margaret Thompson, but while the element of surprise was gone, they still expressed the same delight at the fact that she had taken the place of the dreaded and detested woman.
Going into her final class of the day, Hope had not found it necessary to administer punishment in even one case. There had not been any incident that even approached deserving any form of punishment. It was unheard of at the school and it thrilled her.
Within minutes of commencing the class though, she saw that she was going to be challenged. The girl, Mildred, was eighteen years old and a natural leader. Instinctively, she saw that Mildred was going to see how far the young teacher could be pushed and how she would react.
Taking her time, Hope reasoned that if she permitted the girl to get away with it out of any foolish desire to preserve a record of an entire day without punishment, she would be destroyed. All the good she had achieved would be wasted down the drain and the students would laugh at her.
Hope had no intention of permitting such a thing to happen. There was too much at stake.
At one point, a few minutes later, while she was looking toward Mildred and explaining a point in Greek History, Hope saw the young woman lean back sloppily in her seat, throw her head back and give a noisy yawn with her mouth opened wide and her arms stretching. That did it.
"Mildred," she called in a voice that was firm without the roughness of anger, "come to the front of the class."
The girl remained seated as if prepared to rebel. It neither surprised or frightened Hope. She was sure she would be able to cope.
Unblinking, Hope stared at the young woman and refused to speak again. In a few seconds, the girl turned away from the stare and shuffled to her feet. She was a beautiful young woman with a normally excellent carriage, but as she walked in defeat to the front of the room, her shoulders sagged and her head was bowed. She had tried and lost and knew that she was now going to pay the price.
When Mildred stood beside her desk, Hope ignored her as she addressed the class.
"I have made it clear that it is my intention to be fair and firm at all times. I appreciate the fact that in all my classes today, students have shown appreciation of that policy. Now that one has chosen to test it, I intend to demonstrate that my firmness can be as strong as my fairness.
"What I say is in no way intended as a threat, but rather, as a demonstration of my sincerity in both directions."
The class remained silent but it was obvious that they were impressed. With the exception of three sixteen year old boys, the remainder were in the seventeen and eighteen year age group. They were old and wise enough to understand what Mildred was trying to do and they realized that she had lost the battle.
"Now then, Mildred," she turned to the nervous looking young woman, "you will go to the usual place of preparation but instead of preparing in the usual manner, you will strip naked."
The girl winced as if she had been struck by lightning. For a moment, her eyes opened wide and her mouth followed it, but no words came out. Instead, she walked uncomfortably to the waiting chair.
Hope watched, fully prepared to have her order enforced if necessary. Hiding a sigh of relief, she saw Mildred move to unfasten her dress. After that, the battle was over. In a matter of seconds, Mildred stood naked and beautiful while the class stared at her lush, mature body.
Mildred was just a step short of nudity since she still wore long, black stockings which were held to her thighs, in an exciting caress, by brilliant red garters. Nervously, she bent her lovely body to remove them.
"You may leave your stockings in place, Mildred," Hope spoke clearly and firmly. "They seem to emphasize your maturity as a woman just as the spanking you will receive will emphasize the juvenile quality of your attempt to defy my authority."
With tears in her eyes, the young woman straightened up and left her stockings alone. Although still technically a girl, Mildred displayed the body of a most beautiful, mature woman.
Her breasts were as large as Hope's and stood out with the same proud firmness as if installed there by a sculptor who had fashioned them of alabaster from a model provided by the goddesses of Lesbos.
Her entire body conformed to the same form including the lush swelling ass that would soon turn from pure white to rich red and the patch of dark brown hair which stood out neatly at the bottom of her belly to crown the still hidden womanhood of her warm crotch.
Under different circumstances, Hope would have welcomed the well formed body into her bed and would have been gentle and loving with it. This time, though, she was prepared to give a demonstration of her ability to be severe when that quality was called for.
Pushing her chair back, she opened a drawer of her desk and checked to ensure that the strap she would want later was still there. Finding it, she closed the drawer again and got up to walk over to the waiting girl.
"Now then, Mildred," she said as she sat, "you have had your innings, I shall have mine. Come down onto my lap." It surprised her that she used a cricket term since she was not at all interested in the game, but it was a random thought of no importance.
What was important was that the beautiful young nude was surrendering her body without protest and with all the fight gone from her.
Wrapping her left arm around the firm young waist and raising her right leg a little to project the lovely butt even more prominently, Hope stared once more at the twin cheeks which seemed to pout in anticipation of what was to happen to them in a matter of seconds.
Looking toward the class, Hope saw that their attention at the moment seemed evenly divided between the big round hills of the ass which pointed up and the smaller, pointed hills of teat which pointed toward the floor.
She raised her right hand, brought the palm down in a loud spank and attention shifted to the ass. Again and again her hand rose and fell and soon Mildred was bouncing on her lap and crying loudly as she kicked her stocking clad feet which already had kicked the shoes away as they agitated.
Instead of moving her to mercy, Mildred's cries served only to inspire her to spank harder. The two hills of ass had turned a hot crimson color, but still she spanked on in frank enjoyment over which she felt not the slightest trace of guilt.
Rather, she felt a positive feeling of exhilaration. While her hand slapped the hot ass cheeks again and again, she assured herself that the spanking was well deserved and that it was fair to enjoy spanking such a lovely ass and to feel the heat of lust building in her quim and spreading all through her while bouncy ass cheeks entertained her across her lap.
Hope knew then that she had arrived at the acceptance of an acceptable philosophy regarding discipline. She was sure in her mind that she would never administer a spanking that was unfair, but equally confident that she would enjoy immensely, every spanking she administered from now on just as she was enjoying this one. Pausing for a moment to admire the exciting redness of the lovely, firm ass, she decided the girl had taken a full dose. Surrendering to the enjoyment of it, she applied another three spanks to each cheek before permitting the girl to get up and stand with her red butt facing the class.
But Hope was not yet finished. Instructing the weeping girl to bend over the chair with her ass arched toward the class, Hope returned to her desk.
Taking her time, she opened the drawer and withdrew the strap she was going to use to slap the message home to the still crying girl who bent in such a shameful manner over the chair. She saw the eyes of every student move from the red ass of the girl to the strap she held and felt assured that they realized that while she intended to be fair, she had no intention of being weak.
Hope walked back to the chair with all the confidence in the world. She was a teacher now and she had absolute authority over her class. If a student chose to receive a beating as Mildred had done, then it would be a severe one and it would be a long time before she went out of her way to get another.
Standing beside the trembling form of the girl, Hope bent to re-examine the flaming crimson cheeks. The strap, she knew, would sting like fury and cause the girl to scream in pain. That, she decided, was as it should be.
"Now then, Mildred," she said just loudly enough for the class to hear, "you have received your punishment for conduct which deserved punishment. What you are to get now is reward for daring to challenge me. This will inform you that I have won."
Beside her, she saw the girl trembling, her well beaten, hot looking butt twitching as if it still could feel the hard spanks.
"Move your feet wide apart, Mildred," she commanded with an authority that was not to be questioned.
The girl did move her feet apart, but not enough to suit the teacher. "Wider," she commanded. As she watched, with a barely hidden smile, the girl spread her feet and legs wider.
Bent as she was, Mildred was showing not just her curved ass, but also her whole quim to those who sat in three rows, at least. To the others, she showed her dangling titties, an exciting show in themselves.
Taking up her position beside the girl, Hope drew her arm back and delivered the first stinging slap of the leather strap. Mildred howled and kicked her feet. To those watching, Hope knew, the motion provided a most exciting exposition of butt, cunny and thighs as well as nicely waving titties.
Nine more times she brought the strap into stinging and noisy contact with the full ass. Mildred was screaming in a way that she knew could be heard throughout the entire school, but that, Hope thought, was exactly what she wanted.
It was not enough that the students should know she was kind, they must understand too that when aroused, she could be a stern disciplinarian.
When the strapping ended, Mildred had nothing to hide. The students in the class, as had the teacher, had seen all she owned including the tight, almost virginal slit of what was obviously a lovely cunny.
Hope sent her on her parade through the aisle with an emotion of complete satisfaction. The girl had challenged, she had replied with confidence and strength. Now, she told herself, I am a teacher.