[Note: This is a follow-up to "The Desk". Read that first if you haven't done so already.]
1
Chloe walked nervously up the garden path. It was a detached house on the edge of town, in one of the nicer suburbs. Despite the sunshine, she was glad of the long coat which kept away the breeze that whistled through the trees.
And, of course, it also was glad that it covered up what she was wearing.
...
The shop she had been told to go to was easy to find - less easy to park near, though - and was an old-fashioned clothing store. Not somewhere you'd just grab something off the rail, pay, and go: assistants clamoured round to fetch and carry, and to "help you decide".
Chloe had whispered to one woman - smartly dressed and middle-aged, as they all were - about uniforms in adult sizes": the woman had nodded discreetly, then accompanied her through a door marked "Staff Only" to a storeroom around the back. She found herself amongst piles of uniforms - boys' and girls' - wrapped in cellophane. She nearly tripped over boxes of caps and berets. And, on one wall, she gasped as she saw a row of canes, tawses and paddles stacked neatly on separate shelves.
The assistant measured her all over, then went searching through the stock. Eventually, she placed a pile of goods on top of some boxes:
"Here's the basic outfit: dark green pinafore, matching belt, white long-sleeved blouse, beret, tie, long green socks. Is this what you were looking for?"
"Umm... yes, I guess..." Chloe spluttered.
"Would you like to try them on? I'm afraid we don't have a fitting room in this part of the store - but I'll make sure you're not disturbed." The assistant went over to the door and bolted it.
"...erm... would you mind, ah...?"
The assistant's tone took on a slightly more commanding air. "Come now, there's only the two of us here. Hurry up now!" Chloe reacted to her command instantly. She pulled off her boots and stripped off her jeans and T-shirt, leaving her in only her white bra and thong.
"I think you'll need the regulation knickers with this outfit as well. Those ones won't go with it at all, will they now?" The assistant opened another box, and pulled out a pair of full elasticated nylon knickers, dark blue with green trim. To Chloe they looked uncomfortable and itchy. Yet she silently nodded, and pulled down and stepped out of her own white thong. The assistant crouched down, and held out the knickers in front of her knees. "Come on now, step into them."
Chloe did as she was told. The assistant pulled the knickers up over her knees, up her thighs - they were tight as well as itchy! - and into place. She patted the side of Chloe's thigh in satisfaction. "A perfect fit." It didn't feel perfect to Chloe - she would have preferred a size bigger, maybe? As if reading her thoughts, the assistant continued; "They'll show off your bottom really nicely. Shall we try the rest of the outfit now?"
Under the gaze of the assistant, Chloe pulled the socks up her calves; pushed herself into the blouse and buttoned it up; pulled the pinafore over her head and put her arms through; then wrapped the tie around her neck. She fumbled inexpertly with the knot; it had been many years since she had last had to wear one. The assistant intervened to tie it for her. "You'll have to practise this at home. If it's not done properly it ruins the whole look." Finally, Chloe pulled the beret onto her dark red hair.
The assistant disappeared behind a rail of blazers, and wheeled out a full-length mirror. "I think you look rather fetching, don't you?" she smiled. Chloe gasped. It was like going back in time. Although the uniform was nothing like the one she had to wear for school - it had been traditional, but not this traditional - it was as if the teenager she once had been had stepped back out of the shadows. Take away the hair dye, and maybe...
The assistant interrupted her thoughts. "Do you have suitable footwear? Black plimsolls or low heels?" Chloe nodded. "Very good. And the finishing touch..." She rummaged around in another box, then came in front of Chloe and pinned a badge to one of the straps running down from her shoulders. She stepped away and Chloe read the word "Prefect". "Unless, of course, such a privilege gets taken away from you for bad behaviour..." The assistant gave a giggle, then stood behind Chloe and put her hands on the younger woman's shoulders. "Do you think this will please whoever it is told you to buy this?"
Chloe thought for a moment. "Yes... yes, I think it's what she had in mind."
The assistant raised an eyebrow. "She?" Chloe could feel herself blushing. "No, don't worry, we cater for all tastes at Trimley's. You'll take them? Good. If you'd like to change back into your other clothing, I'll just add this up for you... "
2
And that outfit was what she had on now: minus the beret for the moment, and with the addition of the light brown raincoat and a pair of black kitten-heeled court shoes she'd bought years ago but never really worn. She'd wondered whether to add a little make-up, but decided that would be against the "rules".
She hesitated for a moment. She'd had to drive around the area four times before eventually parking up just down the street, shouting at herself to pull her act together. Well, now it was inevitable. She came up to the door, found the bell, and pushed it. She looked around to see if anyone was around: finding nobody, she retrieved the beret from a pocket of the raincoat, and pulled it on her head.
The door opened; Mrs Petrescu's head popped around it, and summoned her inside. "How nice to see you, Chloe; let me take your coat." The headmistress was dressed as severely as she ever was at school, in a white blouse, red and black tight tartan skirt, and black sandals. She hung Chloe's raincoat up on a hook. "My, Trimley's did you proud, didn't they? Twirl around, let me see you." Chloe pirouetted in a way she'd been taught long ago at ballet class. "Excellent! The shoes didn't come from there though, did they?"
"No, Ma'am" replied Chloe meekly. "I already had these."
"Won't you come on through to the sitting room? I'm sure you're feeling nervous, just as you were the other day in my study, but let me put you at your ease." They walked through into the sitting room, tastefully decorated and comfortably furnished, and the headmistress motioned for Chloe to sit on one end of the sofa. She did so, instinctively rearranging the skirt of her pinafore: when she sat down, it pulled up and exposed her knees and the top of her long socks.
Mrs Petrescu sat on the other end of the sofa; "Would you like some tea, my dear?"
"Yes, please, Ma'am." Some tea would help, she thought; her mouth was dry and she was surprised that she could still talk.
The headmistress reached over to an occasional table; on it was a small silver handbell. She picked it up and jingled it. A door opened; and Chloe's jaw dropped.
"Yes, Madam?" Another woman; perhaps in her early thirties, with bobbed brown hair. But also in uniform - a beige T-shirt which read "St Peter's Hockey XI", dark green pleated PE skirt, long dark green socks and black rubber-soled plimsolls. Chloe recognized the face; not to mention a body she had sometimes dreamt that she was entwining with...
"Tea for all of us please, Angela. "
"Very good, Madam." The pleated skirt bellowed as she turned and walked back to the kitchen.
Chloe spluttered. "Wha... ah... wasn't..."
Mrs Petrescu smiled at her. "Don't stammer, girl. Your recognize Miss Doyle, the gym mistress? She does look rather fetching in that outfit, doesn't she? She's become rather a regular Sunday visitor. You don't mind that she's here?" She looked at Chloe in a way which very firmly gave Chloe to understand that it didn't matter if she minded or not.
"...No, not at all."
"I must stress at this point that you are still covered by the form you signed in my office. I certainly would not want any details of this afternoon passed around the school. And yet... you asked to come here, you have arrived voluntarily: so I hope I am correct in my instinct that you are able to be trusted. Is this so, Chloe?"
"Yes, of course, Ma'am" replied Chloe quickly.
"Good. I see you have designated yourself as "Prefect". That's a high standard to live up to. Ah, here's the tea." Angela came in carrying a tray with a silver teapot and three china cups, and set it down on the table. "Milk and sugar, Chloe? ...Do sit down, Angela." The third woman sat in an armchair across the room. Her short skirt showed off much of her muscular, but still - to Chloe's eyes - attractive, thighs.
"Milk, no sugar, please, Ma'am". Mrs Petrescu poured out the three cups, and handed Angela and Chloe theirs. With a pair of tongs, she delicately popped two lumps of sugar in her own cup, before picking it up and settling back on the sofa.
"I take it you are free for the rest of the day, Chloe? No partner to return to?" Mrs Petrescu probed.
"No, Ma'am, though I will have to go home and feed the cat later. I've been single for... nine months."
"Before that? Boyfriend, girlfriend?" The headmistress sipped her tea silently.
Chloe felt herself blush slightly again. "Boyfriend for three years. I haven't had a girlfriend since University."
"Tell me about her."
She shifted about in her seat; she had to take a sip of tea to regain her calm for a second and clear her throat. "My roommate, Nila: she came over to study from India. One night she said she couldn't sleep - she was used to sharing a bed back home, and would I mind letting her in mine? And once she was in... and she started touching me..." Chloe's voice trailed off.
Mrs Petrescu broke the silence. "Yes, Chloe? Continue."
"...I'd not been touched there by a woman before, only a boy back in school. She seemed so in control - she showed me what to do, how to... 'pleasure her', as she called it."
"And you shared beds from then on?"
"She graduated and returned to India six months later. I cried, a lot... and we promised to keep in touch, but never did." Chloe's eyes gazed off into the distance.
"A shame. But I see by your demeanour that the memory still excites you... do you masturbate when you think about her?" Chloe visibly jumped, spilling some tea into the saucer underneath her cup. "Put the cup down now, I don't want any stains on my furniture. If you tell me 'No', I shall know you are lying to me."
"...Yes, Ma'am. I often think about her when I'm.... I'm..."
"Masturbating. Don't go coy on me! You have toys?"
"Masturbating. I have a small pink vibrator."
"When did you last use it?"
Chloe's eyes became even more sheepish. "Last night. I was... I was looking forward to today, wondering what it would be like."
"Heavens, you mean you had me in mind whilst performing the action? How disgusting!"
