Fiona was dragging her feet as she headed towards the headmaster's office. First day of school for the new year and she was already in trouble. It didn't bode well for the year ahead. Maybe she'd been a little rash sticking up for her point of view so firmly. Still, she was in the right, she was certain, and even if she wasn't she was entitled to her opinion.
Mr Benson, the Headmaster, felt exasperated when Fiona turned up with her note. He'd known she was going to be trouble this year and had already made plans for handling her. He mentally cursed parents who stupidly retarded a child's development. Their hearts might be in the right place but their heads were up their asses.
"Fiona," he said non-committedly. "To what do I owe the dubious pleasure of your company?"
Fiona blushed as she handed him the note from Mrs Severs.
"Ah, it's probably all in here," she mumbled.
"I'm sure it is," agreed Mr Benson, "but before I read the note why don't you explain what happened."
Fiona sighted. "We were in science and Mrs Severs was going on about Climate Change and how man is responsible and how we're all doomed unless we do something. I started contesting the points she gave to prove Climate Change, pointing out that the examples she gave were naturally occurring events that have happened in the past and would happen in the future. Perfectly normal parts of the weather cycle. She started quoting statistics and I started pointing out that they were cherry picked and that some of the statistics she used had been proven false.
She started getting rather personal and I have to admit that maybe I was a little rude in my reply, so she sent me here."
"I see. How rude, if I may ask, was your reply."
"I may have said something along the lines of how an ossified acolyte, worshiping at the altar of climate change and ignoring any evidence that negates her politically correct dogma, should not be teaching science to immature minds. I think I said she should save it for Religious Instruction and then reminded her that teachers weren't supposed to teach religion at schools."
Mr Benson bit his tongue to stop himself laughing and opened the note. He had to admit that Fiona's explanation matched the contents of the note, namely resistance to learning and disrespectful language. Damn it, he was not only going to have to discipline Fiona but he'd have to talk to Mrs Severs as well. She should know better than to try to debate with a student, especially one who was smarter than she was.
"You do know that I generally get a few days of peace at the start of a new year?" Mr Benson remarked. "It normally takes a while before recalcitrant students start acting up. First class on the first day is some sort of record."
Fiona blushed and kept her mouth shut.
"It's a pity that your parents didn't let me jump you a year or two in your schooling. If they had you'd have graduated last year or even the year before and would be off annoying the professors at some university. I know, I know," he said quickly, when it looked like Fiona was going to say something. "They think you'll be better off learning with your own age group. I think you'd be better off learning with your intellectual peers. You're eighteen. There will be other people your age at the university, whichever one you choose. You should be with them. As it is we're stuck with each other for the year."
He looked at Fiona, weighing his decision and decided to go with it.
"I have decided that having you attend regular classes will be counter-productive. I have no doubt you have already covered the year's syllabus and the classes would be a waste of your time and you'd be a disruptive influence on the rest of the class. There are a couple of classes that you will take, such as sports and physical education, but the rest you will be excused. Don't get your hopes up. You'll be working.
You will sit the standard graduation tests over the next week to see where you may need to brush up your knowledge. If required you will be given guidance in those areas. Your main time will be spent as an assistant teacher for the junior grades. You will find it an excellent way of grounding and reviewing what you know. It will also give you some sympathy for what teachers go through."
Fiona struggled to keep a straight face. Internally she was jumping up and down and cheering. She loved teaching things. She could handle being a teaching assistant, no worries. Pity about the sport and PE but as for the rest. . . She silently cheered.
"Yes, sir," she said as soon as she was sure her voice was going to be steady.
"I'll arrange for Mr Matters to give you the graduation exams and set up a course of study if it's considered necessary. You will see him first thing tomorrow. He will also arrange your teaching assistant duties."
"Yes, sir," said Fiona, no longer even trying to conceal her smile.
"Now we come to the matter of your disrespect to one of your teachers. While you may not agree with what they are teaching you that is no excuse for being disrespectful or using inappropriate language when talking to them. You must understand you can't be permitted to get away with this sort of behaviour or school discipline will become a laughing stock and discipline must be maintained if we're to educate the students."
Fiona's heart sank again. For a moment she'd thought she'd got away with it. She should have known he wouldn't let it pass. For that matter she had known. She'd just been hoping he'd let it slide. Not that Mrs Severs would. She wanted blood. She had a sudden shocking thought.
"Ah, I won't have to be assistant teacher to Mrs Severs will I?"
"I think we can spare you that, although it probably would be a fitting punishment. Now that you mention it, it probably would be a good idea."
Fiona gave him an appalled look. Either she or Mrs Severs would kill the other before the term was over, she just knew it.
"You're right," agreed Mr Benson, reading her face quite easily. "Probably a bad idea. The problem now is how to discipline you."
"Detention, I suppose," said Fiona with a sigh and crossed fingers.
"Penalty, remember," pointed out Mr Benson with a touch of sarcasm. "Insisting that you sit quietly and study for an hour or so, completely undisturbed, is not something that you would consider punishment."
Fiona blushed and bit her lip. She was about to offer other suggestions but Mr Benson cut her off.
"If I suggested an essay or a book report you'd probably dip into your bag and produce one on the spot. Perhaps writing out I will not call the teacher a, what was it, an ossified acolyte, a thousand or so times? A nice thought but no, I don't think so."
He sat and looked at her for a few moments, contemplating various items of mayhem that teachers were permitted to visit on students. Damn it, you could get away with kicking a recalcitrant boy in the ass, but not a girl.
"Go away and come back after final bell. All I can think of right now is how satisfactory I'd find it to spank you as an unruly child. Go, while I think up something nasty."
"I'd rather you thought up something now," protested Fiona. "Otherwise I'd be worrying all day about it."
"Maybe, but I don't think what I want to do right now is even legal, so you'll just have to be patient, won't you?"
"If you mean a spanking it's legal if I say you can. I'm eighteen so that means I can decide for myself."
"Oh, really? So you're saying you'd have no problems with dropping your panties and bending over the desk while I spanked your bare bottom?"
Fiona blushed furiously at the sardonic tone.
"Well, really, it wouldn't need to be on my bare bottom," she protested.
"Ah, I see. So you not only want to choose the punishment but specify how it is administered?"
"No. That's not what I said. You're twisting my words."
"Am I?" he asked, sounding amused. "Then you're saying that you do think it would be appropriate for a teacher to spank a female student on the bare bottom? If she's agreeable, of course."
"Not exactly. I just meant that a spanking would be acceptable if the student agreed. I just don't see why it has to be on a bare bottom."
"How about the fact that it permits the teacher to see the effect that the spanking has on the young lady's bottom? It is just meant to supply some needed discipline. A hard hand on a soft bottom could cause physical damage if you can't properly judge what happens."
Fiona blushed at the thought and Mr Benson continued.
"Plus there's the embarrassment factor. The knowledge that your bottom is bare and a man is looking at it has got to add some humiliation to the punishment."
Fiona's blush deepened. She hadn't even considered the fact that her head-master would be looking at her naked bottom.
"Changed your mind, have you? Why am I not surprised? Now run along and I'll see you after final bell."
"Wait a minute," protested Fiona. "I didn't say I'd changed my mind. You just took me by surprise, is all."
"Ah, so you're willing to be spanked?"
Fiona nodded.
"In that case, come back after final bell and if I haven't come up with anything better then I'll spank you."
"What? Why do I have to wait for final bell? Why not right now?"
"I could I suppose, but do you want to be bent over the desk, dress up, bottom on display, getting spanked, when one of the staff in the office sticks their head in the door?"
Fiona cringed internally at the thought. The news would be all over the school in a flash.
"All right," she said in a most put upon voice. "I'll come back after final bell."
"Thank you. Now instead of going back to your class why don't you take some time out? You can use it to determine which areas of your school work you might need to study to be able to pass all the graduation exams. Then start studying them."
Fiona left, disgruntled. Would he really spank her, she wondered? She almost felt like laughing. It would be something different if he did. Unlikely, though. He'd probably come up with something diabolical. He could be nasty that way. Still, he was fair. Maybe she could talk him into the spanking if he came up with something she didn't really fancy. In the meantime, she supposed she'd better go over last year's graduation exams and see how well she thought she'd have done. After all, you never knew. She might need to brush up on something.
Fiona fronted up to see Mr Benson a trifle late. She'd had a few things she had to attend to and she wanted to give the office staff time to leave. Eventually, however, she found herself standing outside his door giving a polite little knock. She entered on receiving permission.
"Ah, Fiona," said Mr Benson, looking pointedly at the clock on the wall. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten your appointment."
She humbly apologised without making any excuses.
