Maria and Rita Lopez were born on the same, exact day and it had been just over a week since they had celebrated their eighteenth birthdays. Their fathers were brothers, which made them cousins in a tight-knit Hispanic family. They had become best friends a week after birth and had never looked back.
In the fall of 1963, the two were in their senior year at Our Lady of the Peace Catholic High School (OLOP) and the confident cousins were feeling pretty good about themselves and their superstar status amongst their peers and the faculty. Both of them were very cute and they were excellent students. Neither of them had ever been in any trouble in their three years at OLOP High School, save a scolding by a nun or two along the way. Of the two of them, Rita was much more outgoing and her propensity to skirt rules was much greater than Maria's.
Stories of Sister Imelda Martinez's creative ways of punishing disobedient students had been passed down for years, but the two cousins and the rest of the first period calculus class had not seen anything too outlandish in the first three weeks of school. The only punishment dished out by the wiry nun thus far had been the paddling of a boy named Rico. Rico's incessant flirting with a disinterested Rita had landed the young man across Sister Martinez's desk with his britches at his ankles.
Five healthy whacks applied to Rico's underwear-clad ass was his penalty for disrupting the nun's lecture on derivatives. There was, however, one rather odd condition to his punishment: he was made to remove his polo shirt and hand it to the nun before assuming the position on the desk. None of the blows from the paddle came anywhere near Rico's bare back, and when it was all over, Sister Martinez sent him back to his desk bare chested and humiliated. When the bell rang to end class, the nun informed him that he could retrieve his shirt at the end of the day.
Along with the rumors of cruel and unusual punishment, came tails of the perverted, borderline sexual, nature of how Sister Martinez handled her students in private. Being a Catholic nun came with a certain amount of sexual frustration and none of the stories seemed all that far fetched as far as the current students were concerned.
First period had just begun and Sister Martinez was at the blackboard, scribbling out a problem from the previous day's homework assignment. She usually wore a traditional habit to teach in, but occasionally she would dress up in a conservative skirt and close-toed black pumps, which is what she was dressed in this day.
It was then that Rita spotted a hickey on the neck of her crush, Matthew, who was seated several seats in front of her. She was able to get the attention of her cousin who was sitting two rows away, but trying to convey her discovery through various gestures was not working. She gave up on the charades and etched a note, wadded it up and tossed it at Maria.
Just as the note took flight, Sister Martinez spun around and witnessed the ball of paper sail in the direction of Maria, who caught it and then froze like a deer in the headlights.
The angry nun was silent at first as her face reddened. Then she slowly made her way to Maria and stuck out her hand, into which the stunned Latina placed the wadded paper. After carefully opening it, she read what Rita had written and then flashed an angry glance in poor Matthew's direction. "To the front of the classroom, ladies," she snapped.
The two cousins' hearts began to race and their faces blushed, knowing what they were in for. Neither of them dared to make a peep.
"Rita," the nun barked, "shoes and socks off and face my desk."
"Yes, ma'am," Rita quietly replied.
"And you, Maria," she said after turning towards her cousin. "Shoes and socks off, and get on your knees under the blackboard. Hands on your head."
The two girls quickly got to work on removing their footwear and stockings, neither of them considering the absurdity of the nun's instructions. They both knew, however, that they would be spending the rest of the day barefooted, which was going to be humbling.
Once Rita's feet were bare, her heart sank when she realized that her toenails were covered in fire engine red nail polish. OLOP had a strict policy against painting one's nails any color that was not a light pink or a light, earthy tone. Sometimes even the pinks were deemed too flashy and disciplinary actions were taken.
Maria had a similar reaction to that of her cousin when she remembered that the two of them had pained each other's toenails the night before. She knelt down on the hardwood floor and tucked her toes, knowing that her efforts to avoid discovery of her illegal toenails were futile. Without thinking, she rested her toned ass on her heels only to feel a sharp whack on the soles of her petite feet.
"Ahh! Fuhhh..." she squealed, damn glad that she had not fully cursed.
"Up!" the angry nun demanded, holding the meter stick that had whipped Maria's feet.
"Off your heels."
"Yes, ma'am," Maria replied, and quickly rose up.
"Elbows out," the nun added.
Satisfied with Maria's new posture, she then turned her attention to Rita who was also trying to hide her toenails. "Let's see them," she demanded, pointing at the girl's feet with the meter stick.
Rita reluctantly uncoiled her stout toes to reveal the red polish, all the while staring at the floor boards.
"Not even close to within regulations," the nun barked.