Mrs. McConnal X

Note From The Editor: The writer of this very nice story sent it to me and asked to remain anonymous. However, I have his e-mail address, so if you want to tell him what you think about his story you can email me ([email protected]) and I will make sure he gets your comments.

Chapter Ten: The Drill

We entered rehearsal that evening with me trailing a few feet behind Mrs. McConnal. I was moving in pain, so she was walking slowly. Several of the other kids were already there. The pair of us drew the eyes of everyone. Things got quiet. I knew everybody wanted to know WHAT had happened. They knew, far more than I had, how mad she was the night before. They knew we were going to have some sort of intense encounter after everyone left, but no one was sure what it would entail.

When they saw us enter together it must have registered with them all that we had been together the entire time. That would mean she took me home, but they didn't know that she had taken me to the emergency room. I didn't want them to.

Fortunately I had talked with Mrs. McConnal before we left her house about what I had to tell. How much would she tell anyone?

"Jeremy, I won't tell any of them, or any of the teachers, anything that happened between us from the time everyone left last night until the time we enter rehearsal tonight." She knew they were going to see my butt and I would have to answer a bunch of questions. But she wouldn't talk to anyone about it. I figured Mr. Jed knew about it, but he was accustomed to privileged conversations, and never talked with anyone else about it.

So there were some things I was not going to tell them. But I knew I'd have to answer for the two of us coming in together.

No one was stupid enough to say, "What happened?!" within earshot of Mrs. McConnal. I don't know what their fear was, it was, amongst the cast at least, not a subject broached in front of her.

But as soon as they got me alone, it was the number one topic of conversation.

As we worked until the first break I hung within earshot of Mrs. McConnal so no one dared to mention it to me while we were working. I knew I'd have to talk about it, but not while I was working.

But when break came I headed for the boys' room without coaxing. Without stopping when I entered I walked to within a few feet of a wall and turned to face the others. I dreaded it then. The last thing I would ever want to do was to show the other boys my blistered bottom and tell them what had happened. Now I realize that it was good therapy. It helped put behind me the truly awful, horrible, part of the experience and concentrate on what might have been pleasurable, were they not unattainable except for what is sandwiched between them.

I didn't have to respond except to answer direct questions. I did not have to elaborate on an answer. And when I was 'asked' to pull down my pants and show them my butt, I had to.

So, almost like in a court, "Did she paddle you last night?" No, but she spanked me this morning. "Well let's see it."

I turned around and pulled down my pants, my trousers immediately feel to the floor, as I knew they would from having assumed the position many times. I lowered my underpants to my knees and bent over, grabbing my knees, hoping that since everyone's attention was focused on how red my bottom was they wouldn't notice how red my face was also.

The responses were immediate and emphatic. "WOW! She really blistered your butt!" Yeah, I know. "No, man, there are blisters on the tips of your ass cheeks." I know. "She worked ALL OVER your butt!" I know. "How many licks did she give you?" I don't know. "THAT MANY?" "Man, I can believe you could never count as many licks as she must've given you." "I don't see how you can sit down on that at all." It hurts.

"What happened?" She hair brushed me. "No, man, tell us what happened!" "She took you home with her last night didn't she?" (Richard, the brain trust, just now figured that out). Yes, she took me home with her.

"Hay man, you were pretty fucked up last night. Some of us were afraid you were going to be sick." (I guess that was the best way a high school kid can say that they were afraid I was dying.) "That's why she took you home wasn't it? She was scared to leave you alone?" Yes. (I wasn't going to tell them about the hospital.)

"Did you sleep in the same room with her?" (It was Richard again.) She and Mr. McConnal kept an eye on me all night, if that's what you mean. (I knew that wasn't what he meant and it rubbed me the wrong way hearing any lewd remarks about Mrs. McConnal.)

A kinder voice asked, "You're OK now aren't you?" Yes. "Some of us were worried about you, kid." I was OK. "No, man, you weren't OK, either. And I'm not surprised she wore you ass out. You scared the shit out of her, man. She was afraid you were dying. She sent us all home early so she could take care of you." (She didn't tell me that. I didn't realize everyone had left early.)

That didn't do anything to lift my spirits. But the mood quickly turned back to the inevitable questions. "How did she spank you?" Hard, was all I could think of saying. It drew a laugh. "No. How'd she do it? C'mon man, you gotta tell."

So I answered, "She took me over her knee and spanked me with a hairbrush."

"Bare assed?" Yes. "She took you to spank land, didn't she?" Yes. "So what did you have on?" (I was hoping no one would ask.) Nothing. "NOTHING?!" "You were NAKED?" Yes. "Naked in front of Mrs. McConnal?" (Richard) Yes. "What did she have on?" Her gardening outfit. (Wasn't going to offer any more information than I had to.) "and what's that?" A flowered shirt and pants. "What kind of pants?" Khaki. "How long were they, ass hole?" (It was a friendly voice; we called each other names in fun all the time.) Short. "Above her knee?" Yes. "How far? . . . More that half way up her thighs?" (I was slow in answering.) Yes.

"Wowwwwww!" "You laid your dick across her naked thigh?" "God damn!" "Really?" Yes. "You laid your hard dick across Mrs. McConnal's naked thigh?" It wasn't hard! "It wasn't?" "How could it not be?" "You queer?"

No . . . no, I just . . . Man, she chewed me out so bad before she spanked me that nobody could've been hard after that. "Really gave it to you, huh?" No shit, did she ever. She was upset. she was real upset.

"So she just kept you around today?" Yes.

Somebody said we needed to be getting back to rehearsal. But before we broke up, and while I was still pulling my pants up so I couldn't see who said this, someone said to me, "Mrs. McConnal sure does love you, kid. You're lucky."

With my back to them I said, "Yeah. I am."

The rehearsal went uneventfully that night. We had all had enough excitement to last us a while. Now that I had answered all the questions they could think of asking I didn't feel that I had to stay so close to Pretty Lady. The boys were telling the girls what they had learned, and generally left me alone. As the evening went on several of the girls put their hand on my shoulder and gave me a sympathetic look. I gave them a 'cute little boy pleading' look. Some of them responded with a gentle hug, letting me bury my head in their bosoms. As long as I didn't return the hug with my arms, whatever happened was of their initiating not mine.

After we had done our scenes, Sally Ann came and stood beside me. (I wasn't doing any sitting down that evening, even on the cushioned theater chairs.) She stroked the back of my head while looking me in the eyes and said so sweetly, "Jeremy, as often as I've wished you would be spanked, I never meant for you to be hurt that badly. I really wouldn't have had you hurt that bad for anything." I didn't even want to hear the word 'hurt'.

"I know that, Sally Ann. It's not your fault," I told her. I remembered that she felt guilty for having brought my drunken condition to everyone's attention the night before. "As loaded as I was last night everybody was going to know it sooner or later. Don't worry."

"Did she take you to the hospital?" Wait a minute, girls didn't ask a boy questions about his spanking, not unless he was her boyfriend. I looked away from her. "Answer me." She wasn't laughing. She wasn't asking as a joke like the boys did.

Looking away from her i sighed, "Yes."

She took my chin and turned me to face her again. "Jeremy, you scared the hell out of us last night. Don't you have anything at all to say to me? I thought we were friends." she looked hurt. Oh, bless her heart, I never wanted to hurt Sally Ann.

She was right. She was my friend. I would have given anything to be her boyfriend, but I knew I was a child to her. Nevertheless, she was my friend. And I was hers.

"I'm sorry, Sally Ann. I really am." I was getting choked up. This was not good. I had to steady myself, get some control. "I didn't mean to scare you. I only meant to get drunk and stoned because I thought I had a Friday night off." My voice was still cracking. "And then I took some pain killers when Melissa called to tell me that I had to come up here.

"I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to cause trouble this time. I'm sorry." A few tears were falling now.

"You didn't mean to cause trouble 'this time'?" She couldn't believe what I had said. "But you did mean to cause trouble all those other times, right?"

I grinned and looked down not wanting her to see me blushing about that. "Well . . . I guess . . . Yeah." I looked back up, finally feeling the humor in what I had said.

She laughed. She was so pretty when she laughed. "You little scamp. I have to love you." She pulled me to her and kissed me on the forehead.

I did my best to tell her that I loved her but could only manage to open and close my mouth in silence a few times, and only then falling into an involuntarily sheepish smile. I couldn't talk, but I could reach around her and hug her for a second.

She hugged me back and said, "It's OK, Jeremy. Ease up on yourself. Give us a chance. We all love you. You don't have to prove anything to us."

I believed she meant it when she said it, but I didn't know if she'd mean it the next day.

But after this I knew I had to say something to the group as a whole. I was about to do some growing up. I asked Mrs. McConnal if I could speak to everyone for a moment before she dismissed us. Of course I could. She could always read my mind, she must have had a good idea what I was going to say.

I took a place front and center before them all. I hated doing this, too. I'd much rather be able to walk away and forget what had happened. But I couldn't.

"I owe you all an apology." I began. "What I did last night was very irresponsible. I should never have done it. I know I wound up upsetting several of y'all, and I'm sorry for that. I destroyed rehearsal, and caused you all undue problems and inconvenience. Please forgive me for that. Like I said I know it was irresponsible. And I promise I won't do anything like that to upset the proper working of this play again. And I hope you all can forgive me."

Now, I thought that was good. I thought I had said what needed to be said. It was what I was feeling, I was genuinely contrite for having disturbed our work and their lives.

"No. That's not it, Jeremy." It was Clark, one of the friendly voices behind me in the boys' room. "No, Jeremy, that's not what you should be apologizing for." He stepped forward, coming up to me. "We were afraid you were dying, kid. We're your friends, man. Don't apologize for having 'interrupted our plans'. Apologize for shutting us off, and for scaring the living hell out of us. You've been with all of us here for almost a year now. You've been with some of these people for several years. And as much as everybody likes you, you never involved yourself in any of our lives until this play. Apologize for keeping us away from you for so long and then for nearly keeping us away from you forever."

This was taking me completely by surprise. I had no idea how to respond to this. All I could think of was that I wanted to go away and be left alone.

Clark grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a shake. He being 17 to my 12, he was a lot bigger than I was. "You never showed us a human side of you until a little while ago in there." he pointed to the area of the rest room.

"That was my human side?" I said, holding my butt. Always a smart ass. But I was trying to be light about it.

Clark playfully shook my head. "You know what I mean, kid. When are you going to let us be your friends?"

I had no idea what he meant. I couldn't go out with them. I couldn't move in any of the circles they were in, I was too young. And I didn't have any circles they could move in. I didn't have any circles at all.

"I think you ought to let us in." he said in all seriousness.

After another few moments of moving mouth and no talk, I finally managed to say, "I don't know what to do, Clark."

Still with his hands on my shoulders he said, being sure everyone heard, "Well why don't we all think about it and see what we can work out?"

I nodded and turned a little to speak to everyone. "People, I am sorry for scaring you last night. I know it wasn't just an inconvenience. I know some of you were afraid I was in bad shape. And I guess I was. I'm sorry for frightening you. I really am. Please forgive me."

"Of course, man." one of the boys said. And then they all came to me, one by one, like a reception line, they guys telling me that I was OK/alright/cool, and the girls giving me a little hug and sometimes a kiss on the forehead.

Last came Sally Ann. Another hug (hooray!) and she added. "And don't you EVER do anything like that again, young man. You hear me?" I smiled and nodded. And felt like butter melting in a pan. "If you do I'll wear you out before Mrs. McConnal has a chance to." Gulp.

Our first stop on our way home was my house. We both went in and I headed up to my room to get some clothes and my books for school. I planned on taking fresh clothes for tomorrow and Monday. Mrs. McConnal called after me as I made my way upstairs (going up and down stairs especially hurt my bruised butt), "Bring a suit, too."

"What for?" I stopped and asked.

"I'd like you to go to Sunday school and church with Jed and me tomorrow."

"Do I have to?" I asked, making my real meaning clear.

She hesitated, maybe a bit irked, but then thinking better of it. "I'd really like for you to."

"You said I could spend all day in bed." I reminded her.

"And you can if you want to. But I'd rather you go with us." She was being sweet and asking something of me that required little effort on my part. So little effort, and it would probably hurt her if I told her, No.

"OK." And I went on upstairs and got my stuff.

As we drove to her house she told me, "That was very mature of you tonight, to apologize to everyone."

I had nothing to say.

"You're growing up fast, Jeremy. You're growing up real fast, precious."

Precious is something you call a girl, or a little kid. I'm not precious. But to her I was. And I wasn't going to argue the point.

It was great being in her guest bed again, all snuggled in among the covers, the horrors of this day placed a bit more behind me by having worked at the rehearsal. I quickly drifted off to sleep, the day's events fast slipping into a dream.
 

The End