When Abbi finally emerged from the locker room with Coach Carter in tow, all eyes seemed to be on her once again.
The Sophomores were clustered on the bleachers, still atwitter. The Juniors were gathered by the main doors, standing stiff and sullen.
"Ok kiddos, good session, well played and all that. You are dismissed, have a good rest of your weekend!"
The Juniors went for the door like the building was on fire. The Sophomores were excited to be released but not in the same kind of hurry.
Abbi started after her friends but felt Coach Carter's firm hand gripping her arm.
"Except for you, Miss Abbigail."
Eyes again.
Everyone's eyes on her, again. Abbi didn't like being the center of this kind of attention. The Sophomores stopped in their tracks and turned to see what they could do to save their friend.
"Not a chance, kiddos, not a word. She stays here with me, no whining or talking back, or you are all heading to the 3rd floor, understood?"
The shocked exterior looks were nothing compared to how electrified Abbi felt on the inside.
Dread, Abbi thought. It's called dread and I hate it.
"Go, please. Don't get in trouble again on my behalf."
"Well said, Miss Abbi," Coach Carter said. It was the first praise she'd gotten from the laconic Coach, and she didn't like it one bit.
The Sophomores hesitated, with Kamilla looking downright distressed.
"Go! I'll be fine."
They left. Coach Carter steered her back to his office, a sneer curling on his lips.
"Why are you doing this?" Abbi pleaded. She hadn't talked back to anyone in a while, and it made her scalp tingle, but the scope of the injustice she was about to face made her defiant.
"Because you are a brat."
"What?" Abbi hadn't expected an answer. His blunt and plainly wrong assessment of her was astounding.
"And you deserved to be punished. All brats must be punished."
"I'm...I'm not...I, I, I..." Abbi stuttered. She felt tears welling up again but refused to cry just yet.
"Don't talk back, Miss Abbigail. You are already in deep, deep trouble with me."
"Oh, no," Abbi choked. "What did I do?!"
Coach Carter crossed the threshold of his office pulling Abbi behind him.
"Stand facing the wall while I get the cuffs."
He didn't give her a chance to comply, instead he pushed her in front of the far wall, kicked her feet apart and put her hands behind her head, all a little more forcefully than Abbi felt necessary.
"I'm going to hurt you now, a lot."
Abbi stood speechless and trembling.
This is a game, Abbi reminded herself. Game time, for real though.
"I'm going to hurt you because you deserve it. And I'm going to like it. Hurting you."
Dang, he sounds serious. I better figure out his thing quick.
"Well?"
"Yes, Coach?"
"What do you have to say about that?"
Abbi stalled, trying to get the gears meshed and ticking before she started incoherently begging.
"Miss Abbigail?"
Does he want to play, or does he want to force me to say the safeword? I thought that was a big no-no for the teachers.
"You are a brat. I'm going to hurt you because you are a brat."
Oh boy, this is new and scary, and I don't have a clue what to do.
"What do you have to say for yourself?"
The Coach went over to the metal supply cabinet that sat between his spotless desk and Coach Reagan's messy workspace. The supply cabinet! She'd forever after associate the sight of the ubiquitous tall gray aluminum box and the sound of the two doors creaking open and slamming shut with a sore butt.
"I, I, I...why don't you pick on Delilah? She was bullying me the whole game."
Abbi risked a look over her shoulder. The glimpse of the inside of Coach Carter's bondage supply closet was not encouraging at all.
"Deflection and misdirection. Not going to work."
The Coach returned, dangling in front of her four leather and canvas manacles that looked like they were stolen from Arkham Asylum.
Why not just go ahead and put me in a straitjacket for this craziness?
"These are staying on until I release you from detention."
"I can't go to the 3rd floor, please!"
"You're not," said Coach Carter as he grasped one of her arms and guided it behind her to put on the first manacle. "You'll be suffering here with me until I think you've learned a lesson."
"What are you going to do?" Abbi hated begging this man for anything. Begging so soon and only for some sense of his plans for her seemed like a bad start.
"I'm going to tie you to one of the locker room benches, stick a hook up your ass and whip your butt until it's redder than a Santa Monica sunset."
The Coach muscled her other arm into place, buckled the manacle, and locked them together. This guy's bad cop routine was solid. Now all Abbi needed was a good cop, right?
Wait, a hook?
"A hook? An anal hook?" This was a far greater escalation than when the Coach started calling her Miss Abbigail. She'd gotten quite fond of gentle ass play; skewering her bottom on a hook was a whole new level.
"You know about anal hooks, eh?" Coach Carter kneeled to put on the ankle restraints. "You brats, you all look and act so innocent. But you know stuff, don't you? Stuff you know you shouldn't know."
Abbi thought she might need a map to figure out that sentence, but she got the gist. He seemed dead set on putting her through some scary hard bondage.
"Too bad I don't have time to tie you down properly with rope, but these restraints will do the trick just fine."
"You're so mean," Abbi whined. This was undignified, but it was the only thing that came to mind. "This is so unfair."
"Life isn't fair, little girl, get used to it."
"What can I do?"
"Do? Shut up and take it." The first ankle shackle felt heavy. Added to the discomfort of having her hands cuffed behind her, her sense of exposure was changing quickly from unsettling to unnerving.
"Can I like, change your mind?"
"About what?"
"About me, being a b-b-brat." Game or not, his harsh words had already begun to sting.
"Hah! No."