It's not a big deal, everyone fails inspection at least once,
Phoebe told herself repeatedly. Knowing for a fact that her feet didn't pass inspection weighed heavily on her. It, ironically, improved her focus in her next few classes as she desperately tried to take her mind off of it.
The day seemed to pass faster for once, though Phoebe wasn't happy about it. She wanted as much time between now and her punishment at the end of the day, even if it was just an illusion. First history, then twentieth century literature, then computer literacy went by in a flash. Phoebe somehow managed to both focus deeply and retain nothing through all of them.
Whenever she didn't have something else to think about, her thoughts kept drifting back to the end of the day, where the president of the Foot Inspectors would call out her name over the PA system to usher her to whatever this month's punishment would be. She couldn't decide what she dreaded more: the punishment itself, or the embarrassment of being called out in front of the whole school for having dirty feet.
The latter was at least a known evil, one she could prepare herself for. She knew that, ultimately, nobody who really mattered would think less of her for it. Sure, some girls giggled when someone got called out of one of her classes in the past, but most people reacted like her; just looking ahead and pretending nothing out of the ordinary was happening. She never felt any amusement when it happened, only an uncomfortable pity.
The punishment itself would be a mystery until it happened. The F.I.s are in charge of those, and they have a shocking amount of leeway for the only school in the area that doesn't even give spankings. She had seen a few given out when they decided to do them publicly, like having them sit in those medieval stocks in the lobby with their failing soles exposed to any who walked by. Often, she couldn't even tell why they failed from a glance.
With her morning classes done, it was time for lunch. Most of her close friends had the same lunch period. After buying her lunch, which could generously be called pizza, she took her usual seat at their table. Phoebe caught them mid conversation about their inspections, the last thing she wanted to think about.
"Ugh, I hate getting Beth as my inspector! They really need to make a rule that the F.I.s have to keep their nails short. She could at least be gentler about it!" Max vented. Her feet were deathly ticklish. During their pedicure get-togethers, she was always a twitchy, giggly mess.
"Consider yourself lucky..." Amanda responded flatly. "I had Kaylee for mine, and I forgot to trim my toenails. I reeeealy hope they don't make us touch each other's feet today." She said with breathy disgust. Amanda always had a foot-phobia, and at the worst possible school to have one. She got better through exposure; she could tolerate the sight of a bare foot now, but touching them was still out of the question. She still always sat out of their pedi sessions.
"Come on, you don't know that she failed you!" Tabby said, with her usual chirpy optimism.
Amanda just raised an incredulous eyebrow. Kaylee was the hard-assed, busy-body president of the F.I.s this year. She was probably behind half the failed inspections this year. They all knew she would absolutely fail someone for overgrown toenails.
"Oh! Phoeb! I didn't see you sit down! How'd inspection go?" Tabby asked.
"Uh... fine, I guess..." Phoebe deflected. Tabby didn't press the issue, but was clearly unconvinced.
"Who ended up being your inspector?" Max inquired, unable to read the room as usual.
"Rhiannon."
"Ugh, I'm jealous. She's
super
lenient."
"Yeah..." Phoebe trailed off.
"I don't know about that, she's the one who failed me in September. I thought I did well up until she smelled them." Amanda replied.
"I mean, she has a sensitive nose, but that's easy enough to avoid. Just need to remember to lotion up!" Max said.
Amanda looked at another table across the cafeteria and narrowed her eyes curiously. "Are all the F.I.s barefoot today? I thought it was just mine."
Phoebe looked the same direction. Sure enough, a few F.I.s where sitting there, all in bare feet. One had her feet underneath her, toes on the ground with her stretched soles facing behind. They had a faint grayish-brown to them everywhere but her pale instep. Phoebe wasn't sure why they would all be going barefoot, but it seemed especially weird that they would let them get dirty. It would be easy enough to wipe them down every now and then.
"Huh, weird." Tabby said. "Maybe they're trying to lead by example? There were a lot of failures last month, they could be trying to show everyone what nice feet should look like?" She mused.
