Story: Practice Makes Perfect

First story in the Practice Makes Perfect mini series.  Amy's new music instructor (also her classmate) has an interesting strategy to help her remember to practice.

Practice Makes Perfect
by Breanna Carter

At the end of my freshman year, I was granted permission to be in the advanced orchestra the next year under the condition that I practiced hard over the summer and got private lessons. Well, I did half of what I agreed to. I practiced every night, literally, until the tips of my fingers were numb and I couldn’t press down on the strings anymore. I mean, what else did I have to do? I learned all these tricky rhythms. After all, it was nifty for a sophomore to be in the advanced orchestra, since most of the people in there were juniors and seniors who had played their instruments their entire lives.

The year began before I knew it and I was filled with anxiety and excitement about the new year. That was the year that my teacher decided to do a new thing. She told us that we were going to buddy up, preferrably juniors and seniors would be paired with the lowerclassmen, but since there weren’t very many of us, it wouldn’t be so possible. She told us that the person we would be paired with would kind of like a guide. They would let us know what we needed to practice and help us out with some tricky stuff. She paired us in the order of chairs we were in. There were 6 people in my section. I was fourth chair, which I was very pleased about. I was paired with the guy who sat in the first chair, our section leader. His name was Jeremy and he was a senior that grinned a lot and wore baggy jeans and T-shirts and had semi-long hair that fell down to his nose. It seemed as if everybody in the orchestra knew him well from his great sense of humor and awesome personality. Apparently, I was lucky to be paired with him. My friends told me so themselves.

Thus, the year began.

The beginning was easy. We practiced on the music to try out for allstate and played a couple of songs that weren’t too hard. It wasn’t until after allstate tryouts that I started having trouble playing. I wanted to cry sometimes because I couldn’t play the music. Whenever Jeremy and I were in the practice rooms as once a week we were assigned to, I felt bad because he played so well and I couldn’t do it. But he was always nice about it. He never insulted me, just showed me how to play it, told me where my fingers went, and played it over and over to drill the sound in my head.

“I can’t do it,” I whined one particular day.

“Sure you can. Look, just take it slowly.” He played the measures slowly then invited me to do with him, but it was futile. I couldn’t do it. We worked and worked and worked on that song until I felt the light of inspiration on me. He grinned widely and I was so happy that I finally got the song down that I jumped up and down for a moment and then we played the whole song, and I only messed up once or twice! It was so nifty. “Told ya that you could do it,” he said, punching me playfully and looking at his watch. “Holy shit!” he muttered.

“What?” I said.

“It’s 4:15. We must’ve missed the bell ring. How come nobody told us!” he said, immediately putting his instrument in his case while I stood there in utter shock.

“It’s 4:15?” I asked, my heart racing inside of me. Orchestra was the last class of the day and it was over at 3:30 and I caught the bus and... “But that means that I missed my bus..” I stammered.

He closed his case. “Missed your bus? Oh yeah. Forgot you were a sophomore,” he said, smacking himself on the head.

I, on the other hand was panicking. “How am I going to get home!” I muttered, wanting to throw my own instrument down on the ground and watch it smash into pieces.

“Hey hey now, it’s okay, little one,” he said, patting my head. “Where do you live?”

I pointed. “That way.”

“That tells me a lot.” He took my instrument from me and placed it in its case then said, “I’ll give you a ride home if you promise me that you’ll practice the other song and have it perfected by next week.”

“But I can’t..”

“Fine, you can walk.”

I gave him an evil look. “Fine, fine. I’ll practice. It’ll be perfect. You don’t mind giving me a ride?” I said, the excitement welling up inside of me. The only thing I could think was that this hott senior guy was giving me a ride home!

“No, it’s no problem. As long as you don’t live too far away.”

“I don’t,” I said, explaining to him where my neighborhood was.

“Oh, that’s awesome,” he said. “That’s by where I live.” He handed me my case then opened the door for me leading me out of the practice room and through the small hallway, then the classroom, and finally the outside hallway where our lockers were. I shoved my instrument into the locker and slammed the door shut. He then lead me outside into the bright sunlight where only a few students still mingled around outside. He stopped and talked to a few of them, introducing me as his “sophomore buddy” and then we approached a blue car. My mouth dropped. It was a really nice car. I didn’t know what kind it was, didn’t really care. He unlocked the doors with his automatic control thingy and I hopped inside and sat down on the tan leather. I oooed to myself as he cranked the engine and the loud music blared in my ears.

“Sorry,” he said. “I jammed on the way to school.” He turned it down a little and I noticed that it was a band I liked a lot. We didn’t talk much of the ride. Every now and then he’d make sure he was going the right way, ask me about my classes, and once he asked me if I took private lessons.

“No,” I replied.

“Why not? With a little of those, you could be great!” he said.

I shrugged. “I don’t want to, I guess.”

“Why not?”

I rolled my eyes. “I dunno. I don’t have the money, or the time..” but both of us knew I was just making up excuses. “Besides, the last teacher I had was bitchy.”

“Ahhh,” he said, nodding.

“That’s the house,” I said, pointing.

“Well hey,” he said, pulling into the driveway, “I’d be happy to give you some lessons, and it’s fine with me if you don’t pay me. I mean, you know, it’d be more logical seeing as I don’t have a degree in teaching. But maybe you could do that and next year you’ll be first chair?”

I smiled. “Maybe,” I said, bringing myself back to reality.

“Just think about it.”

I nodded and got out of the car.

“See ya later!” he said.

“Bye.”

The entire night I thought about what Jeremy had said. I mean, honestly, he and I didn’t know each other that well, and it was kind of strange being taught private lessons by someone who was only two years older than me. But he was really good at what he did, and maybe he could help me a little. I decided if he brought it up I’d go for it, and silently prayed that night that he’d bring it up.

And sure enough he did. We decided on a day that would be good for both of us and we stayed after school to work on the music that we’d gotten. And I improved tremendously. Not only did Jeremy recognize it, but so did my teacher. And the rest of the people in my section. The cool part was that midterms were coming up and with the beginning of a new semester comes new seating arrangements, and if I kept up the good work I was sure to make first or second chair, according to Jeremy. I didn’t see how I could manage to make first chair seeing as Jeremy was my teacher, but it didn’t matter. The thought of being second chair and sitting right next to him all the time was a very nice thought. My crush on him was growing more and more as the days passed...

“You gotta practice it, Amy. First stand is tough competition...”

“I know I know,” I said, having heard this lecture three or four times already. “I’ll practice. I’ve just been busy lately.” Right, if busy meant lazy. I hadn’t felt like practicing. I felt like watching tv for hours. I hadn’t even done my homework..

“Okay. Look. Tomorrow, I want this to be more together than it is now, okay? We’re going to have a lesson.”

I nodded. Yay! Another lesson! More time with Jeremy!

We went through the song two more times until Jeremy was too irritated with my lack of practice to go any further. He took me home, as always, and I promised that I’d practice hard and make him proud the next day. He smiled the most adorable smile and said I better then we left it at that.

The problem was, I didn’t practice much that night. I practice enough to get the first half sounding good, but the rest sounded terrible. I didn’t have it in me. I didn’t really care what chair I was anymore.

But Jeremy did.

That day in orchestra he told me that we’d have to go by his house to have the lesson that evening because the practice rooms were being used up. Apparently, one day out of the week the band students had private lessons in those rooms. It just happened to be that it was that night. I told Jeremy that I didn’t mind extending the date to a later time, but he said no, that it would be fine to have it at his house. It didn’t bother me that much. I didn’t want to argue, cause I really wanted to spend the evening with him, and at his house, that meant I could stay later if it called for it.

Oh, and it did call for it.

We walked through the hallway traffic and stopped next to some of his friends who knew me as “sophomore” or “sophy” for short. They talked for a little while, every now and then acknowledging my presence. I was shy enough as it was, but putting me around seniors made me even more shy. Some of his friends complimented on that, saying that seniors shouldn’t be spoken to by underclassmen unless they are spoken to first. We finally made it through the mass of people and ended up in front of his car. We spoke to each other the entire way to his house, and even sang along to some music. I was feeling more and more comfortable around him.

We pulled into the driveway of a small townhouse. He explained to me that he lived there with his brother who wasn’t there often because he had to work so much. He told me that his brother was a nurse at one of the hospitals in town and was going to start his training to be a doctor once he had the money. He could afford a much nicer house, but he was saving up. Jeremy was kicked out of the house by his dad at the beginning of the school year because of some personal issues concerning religion that Jeremy would rather have not talked about. But he lived with his brother now in the cozy townhouse, and his brother wouldn’t let him work but made sure that instead he finished up high school in good standings so he could get a scholarship. And Jeremy was doing just that.

I walked inside and Jeremy fixed us both a Coke and then he kind of showed me around, although there wasn’t much to see. The living room was small, and the kitchen was smaller, in a room next to the kitchen was a bigger room that was Jeremy’s. His room was filled with posters and it wasn’t exactly in the neatest condition, but it would do. There was a spiral staircase next to Jeremy’s room in the living room that led upstairs to another bedroom that was his brother’s.

“And that’s that,” he said, grinning and telling me to have a seat. I sat myself on the couch in front of a tv and he brought a chair into the middle of the room and sat a stand in front of me. “Just let me hear you, and then we’ll work on finding out where to sit.”

A nervous pit began to form in my stomach. I honestly didn’t want him to be angry at me... But I figured maybe the bit of practice I had gotten from class earlier that day would make it sound better.

I was wrong. I messed up the entire rhythm and played so many wrong notes. By the end of my playing Jeremy had a calm look on his face, but I knew that he was really disappointed inside.

“I thought...” he began.

I nodded.

“I thought you were going to practice this last night?”

“I did,” I defended.

He raised his eyebrows. “And it sounds like that? That wasn’t much better than what you played for me yesterday.”

I shrugged. “I guess that uhm, it didn’t help to practice.”

“Bullshit,” he said. “I guess you didn’t practice enough.”

“Maybe not,” I shrugged.

“Look, I’m trying to help YOU out by these lessons, Amy. I’m not doing this for entertainment or putting you down.”

I nodded.

“You promised you were going to practice.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“You were sorry last time you didn’t practice.” He paused for a moment. “Obviously you haven’t learned your lesson.”

“No, please Jeremy. I have. I really have. Don’t stop giving me lessons... please.”

“Oh, I’m not going to stop giving you lessons. But I’m going to teach you one that you’ll never forget,” he said, standing from the chair and moving the stand back. “Stand up.” I did as told, anxious. He sat down on the couch where I had previously been, right in the middle. “Pull your pants down.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

“Pull your pants down.”

“...Why?”

“I told you. I’m going to teach you a lesson that you won’t forget.”

I blinked again and stood there for a moment. I was snapped out of it whenever I saw the angry look on his face and decided to comply, still not aware of what exactly he was going to do. I unbuttoned my pants and unzipped them, then kind of stood there and stared at him for a moment.

“Fine, that’ll do,” he said, grabbing my left arm and pulling me over his lap. He pulled my pants down to my knees. It was then that the realization hit me.

“Wait, you’re not going to...?” my voice trailed off. He was going to spank me? I hadn’t been spanked since I was a kid! And I didn’t even remember it!

I felt his thumbs on the wasteband of my panties and felt them slide down my legs to where my jeans were.

“Nooooo!” I nearly screamed. “Jeremy... look... I...”

“Stop it, Amy. You promised me that you would practice and you broke that promise and now’s your time to pay for it. Now stop whining like a 5 year old.”

I gulped, swallowing my pleas.

He placed his hand down on my tingling bottom. “This isn’t the first time I’ve warned you on practicing.”

I nodded.

“I’m very disappointed in you.”

My bottom was still tingling, even as he lifted his hand and I felt the breeze for a split second then his hand smacked my bottom and I screamed because I wasn’t expecting it to sting so much.

“Owwwwwwwww!”

“Not so loud,” he said, the anger seemed to have gone from his voice. And for a minute, I thought he was finished. I was wrong.

SMAACK!!!

I whined again, not as loud as the last time. He didn’t give me a chance to breathe this time, but instead kept on spanking me rapidly. I heard him saying something to me but I couldn’t make out what it was because I was embarassed and in pain all at the same time. I never knew how much spankings could hurt, but I said nothing more than ouch or ow. After a while his smacks died down and my bottom felt like it was on fire. Finally he stopped and rested his hand on my still tingling, but now with warmth, bottom.

“I’m sorry,” I blubbered.

“Me too,” he said, rubbing my bottom slightly. I lay there regaining my composure for a few minutes. “Okay... here’s the deal. First, you play the notes without worrying about rhythm. For every note you miss, you earn yourself one smack. Then, you play the rhythm correctly without worrying the notes and for every mistake, one smack. Then we’ll do each over until you’ve done it perfectly then we’ll try them both together. I’ll give you your punishment after you’ve done both playing the notes and playing the rhythm each time.”

I nodded, actually kind of liking the idea. It was a comfortable position over his lap like this.

He stood me back up and I hurridly pulled my pants and underwear back up. I played the piece, still messing up from my nervousness, but making up for it whenever I did my rhythm. I had earned myself 50 more smacks. I asked if I could try again, and just compile them together and Jeremy said that was fine and I tried to breathe and steady my shaking hands. I sat on my still stinging bottom and tried again, this time earning 60 smacks. He stood up and walked towards me, then told me to sit my instrument down on his chair, and then he sat down in my spot. Once again I lowered my pants and he took down my panties and he proceeded to spank me 110 times as I tried to count in my head. I lost count after 20, beginning to kick and squirm being warned periodically to stop or he’d add more.

“Owwwwww!” I whined, trying not to let any tears fall from my eyes. “I’m sorryyyyy. I won’t mess up. Ow. Ow!”

I heard him say something but my mind was concentrating on the pain and wondering if it was close to being over.

Finally he ended with a loud and hardest SMACK! and let me up. I wasn’t in as much of a hurry to cover myself this time as my bottom stung greatly.

“Pull them up and sit down, Amy,” Jeremy commanded. “I want you to feel how much it stings whenever you sit down and think about that next time you neglect to practice.” I did as I was told and winced a bit at the pain I felt.

The next time I did a little better, making only 42 mistakes. I asked if we could make it only 40, so it could be a round number, and he said no, that 50 would be more appropriate. I shut up after that.

We repeated the procedure, my bottom still ablaze from the two previous spankings. This one was short and quick compared to the other two, but my bottom stung like crazy whenever I sat back down on it.

The next time I only earned myself 17 smacks, and how I managed that I have no idea. He emphasized on me how proud he was that I was improving and that if this had to be something we did every lesson than he’d sure do it. I protested by saying, “no that’s okay,” but he only grinned and turned me back over his knee to administer the spanking.

The next time went better and since I only made 5 mistakes he told me that we could skip that spanking and go onto the next round where I tried to see if I could get both the rhythm and the notes right. I tried my damndest, and messed up so badly that I looked at him with pleading eyes.

“See what happens whenever you don’t practice?”

“I-I’m sorry,” I muttered, not wanting to let these tears fall from my eyes. My bottom still stung like crazy and I had let him down so much.

He nodded. “You’ve done well today,” he said. “I didn’t count the number of mistakes you made the last time you played, but it was a good many and you know that. I think that I should send you home with a little reminder of what will happen next week if you aren’t prepared.”

He was going to go on and say more, but I nodded silently.

“Good girl,” he said and I stood up, already accustomed to this. I let my jeans fall to the floor then positioned myself over his lap and clenched my eyes tightly together as he lowered my panties and I could feel the gentle breeze once again. And as like the other times, I was unable to feel the breeze for too long because before I knew it, his large hand came pounding down on my tiny bottom and I squirmed and kicked and he kept spanking and spanking and before too long I began crying like a baby over his lap, too worn out to kick anymore and too ashamed to do anything other than cry. He finished up with two not so hard smacks then let me lie limply over him crying. I felt his hand lying on my warm bottom and he rubbed it to soothe me and get the sting out for me. I reached back to feel the warmth out of instinct.

“Shhhh, shhhh. Amy, it’s okay, honey,” he said, still rubbing my stinging backside.

I nodded softly while I sobbed into the couch cushions. We stayed like that for a few minutes until he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spanked you so much.”

“No,” I argued. “It’s okay. I deserved it.”

He didn’t seem convinced but in a few minutes I was picking myself up and he was hugging me tightly. I excused myself to the bathroom where I washed my face off then did something I had been wanting to do since the first time that evening he had spanked me. I tugged my pants and panties down and stared at my glowing red bottom. I felt the warmth for a minute then blushed and pulled my pants back up. I washed my face once more then limped outside. Jeremy hugged me tightly again and handed me my instrument that was already in its case then took me home.

“We’ll do the same thing next lesson,” I said, waving goodbye to him. Before he had the time to argue, I opened the door to my house and disappeared inside with a grin on my face.

Story: Drag Race

Misc Story.  Ashley and her friend go to a party, get drunk, then decide to participate in a drag race.

Drag Race
by Breanna Carter

I was ecstatic. Not only was I visiting my old city that I used to live in, but I was also allowed to hang out with some friends who were throwing a smashing party. Of course, Kevin didn’t know about the smashing party. But he had indeed agreed to let me hang out with my friend, Hannah. I was so ecstatic that it only took me about 15 minutes to get ready and run out of the hotel room waving goodbye to the guys that were already like my family. Here I was, 15 years old, not a worry in the world. My parents had died and I was an orphan for a while, that is, until I met Kevin and he said he wanted to take me in. Which was probably the best moment of my life. So he adopted me, and I hung out with him and his best friends, the guys he was in a band with. Those were the best days of my life, going on tour with them, just hanging out and being one big family. I enjoyed having a family for once.

Anyway, as I was saying, I skipped out of the hotel and nearly ran straight into Hannah. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed, tackling me in a hug.

“No, not quite, but close enough,” I smirked.

“I haven’t seen you in forever!” she exclaimed as she hugged me tighter.

“I know, I know. Loosen up, will ya? You’re going to suffocate me before we even leave the building.”

She blushed a little bit but let go. “I’m so happy to see you again, Ash. Are you ready for the party tonight?”

“You know it,” I said, grinning. She half-dragged me out of the very expensive hotel lobby, as the lady at the front desk told us goodbye and we grinned telling her bye as well.

“This hotel is grand,” Hannah said, jamming the key into her ignition.

“It’s cool having a rich guardian.”

“I bet.” I grinned widely as we drove into the sunset, arriving at Brett’s house before we knew it. “We’re here,” Hannah said. She smiled and opened her car door and I followed her inside the cozy house. I was hit by loud music, some kind of death metal stuff that I didn’t really listen to, or like for that matter. Brett met us at the entranceway.

“Ah, well hello,” he said extending his hand towards us. He wore super baggy jeans and a T shirt that had a weird Satanic picture on it and a band’s name that I had never heard of, but he was definitely very sexy. I shook his hand and blushed furiously cause he was so freakin’ hott.

“Brett, this is my friend, Ashley.”

“Heya, Ashley.”

“Hi,” I said, blushing a little more. We made our way inside the house. It wasn’t nothing compared to the house I lived in, but it was comfortable. Not too big, not too small, plenty of people were inside, most of them just talking, a few smoking, nearly everyone drinking. I declined every drink that was offered to me, not too keen on the idea of getting drunk off my ass and being dragged home.

The party was still going full blast whenever Hannah came up to me next to a few other super hott guys. “Hey,” one of them said, slipping an arm around my waiste.

“Hi,” I said shyly.

“Hey, Ash,” Hannah said, “we’re going to go down to the parkway, where they have all the drag races and stuff. Wanna come with us? We’re coming back by here later, so if you wanna stay, you can.”

I grinned. Me? Decline on an offer to hang out with sexy guys and my best friends? Hah, yeah right. “Hell yeah I wanna go,” I said, even though I was having a good time talking with some old friends and meeting new ones.

Hannah just smiled and the guy whose hand was around my waiste led me out of the door and outside where the music wasn’t as loud. “I’m Chase, by the way,” he said.

“Oh, yeah. I’m Ashley.”

I piled up in Hannah’s car with Chase and one of his friends, and the other guys, two of them, and another girl piled up in another car. We blared music the entire way there, good stuff this time, and talked loudly over it, but basically just sang along, Hannah and me being the only sober people in there.

Whenever we got to the parkway, I didn’t even know that’s where we were. I don’t know what I was expecting. Drag racing was illegal, it wasn’t like they were going to have checkered flags and a starting line and people sitting in stands rooting for their favorite car. And of course, nothing like this was there. In fact, it really just looked like people sitting down on the river front, talking and having a good time.

We hopped out of Hannah’s car. “We’re here?” I asked, looking around at the empty highway in front of me, and the people sitting on the grass gazing at two cars that were on the highway, a yellow one and a blue one. I didn’t know, nor care, what type of cars they were. Finally they sped by me, the yellow one in the front, the blue one trailing until it was almost the end, a few miles down the highway. There were yells and screams from the crowd and some other people who were closer by the riverfront began cheering too.

“Hannahhhhh,” a drunken voice said then fell onto Hannah in a hug.

“Hey, baby,” she said, patting the boy on the head. “How are ya?”

“Drunk,” he replied then stood up and grinned. “How are you?”

“I’m great. Guys,” she called to the group of people as we walked towards them, “this is my friend Ashley. I know some of you remember her...”

“Ashleyyyyyyy,” the drunk boy said then fell onto me in a hug.

“Uhm, hi,” I said nervously. I was about to say something, but was interrupted by voices approaching us.

“My car can kick your ass, dude.”

“No way, man, my car definitely is better.”

“Nope.”

“Yep.”

They stopped instantly as they arrived to us. “John says that he can beat me. Wanna take bets on it?”

Everyone started an instant chatter, looking around at the cars and telling which ones would win. Everyone put five dollars down on their choice of car, and some people put ten down. I, on the other hand, just stood there and watched.

“Have a drink?” the drunk boy said, shoving a sprite in my hand. It was against my better judgement, but I figured, what the hell. Hannah is the designated driver, I might as well. So I gratefully accepted the drink and took a huge gulp, which was the first mistake, seeing as it wasn’t sprite at all.

“Jesus Christ, what is this shit?”

“Smirnoff,” he smirked. “Yummy?”

I took another sip then grinned, pleased with myself. “Very yummy.”

I watched as the next two cars lined up and sped down the highway, the guy whose name was John actually winning, though most of the people betted against him. He seemed pleased with himself and so did his fans.

“... don’t you race, Hannah?” John asked.

“Why WOULD I race?”

“She knows her car wouldn’t do worth a shit,” someone says.

“Sure it would,” Hannah defended. “I just don’t feel like racing, that’s all.”

The guy shrugged. “Whatever.”

She kind of blushed a little and looked at me for some moral support. I drank the last sip of my drink and then said, “I’ll do it. That is, if Hannah doesn’t mind...”

Hannah smiled a bit, and blushed some more, obviously debating in her head on whether or not to let me drive her car. After all, I was underage, I only had a learner’s permit. I could probably have used some more practice, but it was better than those guys hassling her about it. Besides, I’m sure her car could race perfectly fine. I knew Hannah wouldn’t race it, though, cause she’d be a nervous wreck. She had always been like that.

“I’ll race you then,” the jerk guy who had said that Hannah was too chicken said.

I looked back at Hannah. “Fine,” she said, loudly. “She’ll beat you, too. Cause my car kicks ass!”

I giggled a bit and she threw me the keys. I started up the car, backed out carefully, looking at the crowd that was already cheering me on. Frankly, more people liked me than that annoying guy.

I sat at the starting line for a minute, next to him until he started counting down.

3... 2... 1....

We sped off. I was in the lead. I was winning. He got in front of me for a minute, but then fell back behind as I was flooring the gas. 80, 90, 100, 105, 110, 115.....

The next thing I noticed was the flashing lights behind me. My speed had increased to 120 and I looked beside me to see that nothing was there. I looked in the rearview mirror once more, and the asshole’s car was out of shit. My body began shaking like crazy and I slowed down, the lights still flashing behind me. Finally I pulled over and took a deep breath in. I had almost made it to the finish line...

“License and registration, please,” the officer said in a very unamused voice.

“Er, officer..” I said, fumbling through my head to make up an excuse. “I...”

“Hand me your license and registration.”

I looked through the glovebox trying to find the registration. I had no idea what the registration even looked like. “Uhmm... is this it?” I asked, handing up a sheet of paper.”

“Ma’am, is this your car?”

“Uhmmm, no sir,” I stuttered.

“Whose is it?”

“My friend's.”

“Where is your license?”

I searched through my wallet that was in my back pocket and found my learner’s permit then handed it to him. He peeked at me from over the permit.

“I need you to step out of the car.”

“I... um... please, sir...”

“Now,” he ordered.

Scared half to death, I complied, stepping outside of the car and meeting him face to face. He was a good 4 inches taller than me, and a bit chubby.

“Where is your friend?” he asked in the same stern voice.

“Uhmmm, back there,” I said, pointing to the group of people where I saw more sirens.

“Very well. Come with me.” I followed him to the car where we stood for a moment, he talking to someone on his walkie talkie and scribbling down stuff on a pad. I was almost to tears being so scared... but maybe they’d let me off easy. “... minor driving a --” he broke off and looked at me. “Have you been drinking?” he asked, sniffing the air.

“Erm..” I muttered. “I had a little..” I said, deciding that the truth would be better in this case. A breathalizer test would insure that I had indeed been drinking, and I’d get into more trouble that way.

Before he could say more, another police car arrived behind him and a woman stepped out. She couldn’t have been older than 30, long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail.

The male officer finished his sentence, describing the car to the other person and the woman said, “okay, hands on the car, legs apart.”

I shuttered a little bit as I remembered movies where people had been molested after an officer told them that. Once again, though, I complied, hoping that it would help me get off a bit easier. The woman padded me down, searching in my pockets and things then took my right hand and cuffed it, then took my left hand and cuffed it, too, and just like that, I was unable to move my arms at all. She opened the male officer’s back seat and halfway pushed me inside then slammed the door in my face. The noise from outside faded, but I could still hear the nervous ringing in my ears. My heart was still pounding inside my chest and I couldn’t do anything but sit there and refrain from crying. I had been arrested... Kevin wouldn’t be very pleased if he had to find out. But maybe they were just going to take me to the hotel and I wouldn’t have to tell him.

I saw the woman officer drive back past me, the drunk guy and the asshole in her backseat, both muttering insanely. A pit of guilt settled in my stomach, making me want to cry more. But before I had the chance, the front door opened and the officer chunked his notepad inside and plopped himself down in front of the steering wheel.

“Miss Ashley. 15 years old, drag racing and under the influence of alcohol. Were you actually trying to kill yourself?”

I said nothing. I felt bad enough as it was, I didn’t need this guy to make me feel worse.

He slammed his door shut and drove off, leaving Hannah’s car on the side of the road. “What’re we going to do about my friend’s car?”

“She’s getting the keys back, as she wasn’t drinking or racing.”

I nodded, relieved that she wasn’t in trouble. The officer didn’t speak to me the entire way there. Instead, we listened to the constant chatter of policemen on the walkie talkies, having rather interesting conversations I might say. If I hadn’t have been in so much trouble, they would have been indeed very amusing.

We arrived to the juvenile detention center at 12:30 in the morning. The officer opened my back door for me and escorted me inside, finally uncuffing me and such. I ended up in front of a desk where I was fingerprinted and photographed. “I need you to call your parent or guardian,” the monotone lady said then handed me a phone. My hands shook nervously as I dialed Kevin’s cell phone number, praying that he wouldn’t answer...

“Hello?” she sleepy voice answered. I noticed that it wasn’t Kevin, but Brian, his friend, instead.

“Hey, Brian,” I tried to say, sounding all cheerful.

“Hey,” he said, still half asleep.

“Is Kevin there?”

“Nope, sure isn’t. He downtown with the other guys.”

“Ohhh,” I said, then figured that since Brian was over 21, he might as well come and pick me up himself. “Well, think you can come pick me up?”

“Sure thing, kid. Where are ya?” I could hear his voice getting less sleepy and heard him get off of the bed.

“At the juvenile detention center place,” I said, yawning as if it was nothing at all.

“What?!?!?”

“Uhmmm,” I mumbled.

“What the hell happened?”

“I uh, kinda got into some trouble. Can you pick me up?”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.” The phone clicked in my ear and I handed the woman her phone back then sat down on the chair in front of her desk. I waited for what seemed like two seconds until Brian appeared behind me, hair messed up, eyes raging with anger.

“Hello,” the woman said, standing up and shaking his hand.

Brian nodded a hello and sat down next to me.

“Ashley’s gotten into a bit of trouble. Driving without a license, under the influence of alcohol, speeding...”

Brian glared at me, but I just gave a half smile back.

“Due to her cooperation and age, and the fact that she isn’t even a residence of this county, we decided to let her off with a warning, this time.”

I sighed heavily. Ahh, relief.

“I do not want to see this again, though,” she said, looking at me. “What you did was very dangerous. You could have killed yourself or someone else.”

I nodded.

“Don’t worry,” Brian said, “it won’t happen again.”

The woman smiled. “I’m sure it won’t.” She stood as if dismissing us so we did, too, then she shook our hands and Brian led me out of the door. He said nothing to me, didn’t seemed angry at all, though his clouded eyes showed me that he was still pretty upset.

I didn’t speak to him the entire way there, even after we pulled into the hotel parking lot and walked to the elevators. We finally arrived to our floor and he led me to his room where he unlocked the door and halfway pushed me in.

“What?” I said, referring to the fact that he was still pissed at me. “Come on, Bri, it wasn’t that big of a deal... I just wanna go to my room and get some sleep.”

“Sit,” he ordered, pointing to the bed, blocking the doorway so I could not get out.

I sighed loudly and plopped myself down on his untidy bed. “What?” I muttered.

“What in the hell do you think you were doing?!” he asked in a sudden yell.

“Uhmmm,” I said, trying to think of a good excuse in my head. “I was just driving for a little while... besides...”

“Besides nothing. You don’t have your license yet and you were going 120. 120!”

“That’s not... too... fast.”

“Not too fast? And you were drinking? What the hell were you thinking?”

“Uhmmmm, I was thinking that it would be fun...”

“Fun? Would it be fun if you ended up in a ditch and nobody knew where you were cause we all thought you were going to your friend’s house? Would it be fun whenever you killed someone, or even yourself? I don’t see any fun in this...”

“I didn’t know I would get caught..”

“Is that all your sorry for? Getting caught?”

“Well, I wish I hadn’t been...”

“You’re 15 years old! You can’t go ruining your life by drinking and driving. You’ll end up dead before you graduate.”

I ignored him and looked off at the wall, that wasn’t very interesting, but more interesting than looking at Brian who was still furious with me. “Can’t believe you, Ashley.” He stopped speaking, suddenly, then said, “okay, I’m going to punish you for this.”

“Que?” I said, Spanish for ‘what?’

“I’m going to punish you. I’ll punish you and whenever you tell Kev, I’ll tell him that I took care of it, but I don’ t know what time he’s coming home tonight and I’m not going to just wait, especially with the attitude that you’re having.”

“What attitude!” I spat out.

“That one,” he said, voice almost calm.

“This is stupid!” I screamed. “I didn’t hurt anyone, didn’t get arrested, I’m not in jail, you should just get over it!”

“Thank God that none of that happened. But it could have and..”

I sighed loudly then stood up. “No,” I said, looking him straight in the eyes. “I’m going to my room now where I can sit on my own bed and have a little bit of fucking peace!” I turned around and tried to storm out of the room, but Brian caught my arm.

“Don’t you use that tone with me and walk off while I’m talking to you!” he said. I tried to jerk away from his grip but he pulled me closer to him.

“Let me go!” I screamed.

Surprisingly, he let go. “I won’t have this, Ashley. If you’ll just do what I tell you, it’ll be much easier and...”

“Much easier my ass,” I said, trying to push past him again, but he stood right in front of me. I don’t know what I was thinking... but something inside me told me to... and I pushed him, hard. It didn’t hurt him any, couldn’t have. He barely moved back, but he moved back enough to give me a little space and get closer to the door. He grabbed my arm again and I kicked him in the shin. That did it all.

He gripped me tighter than he had before and dragged me over to the bed where he sat down. “Young lady, you will NOT push me or kick me ever again!” he said, still holding me with his right hand and moving towards my pants with his left.

“What the hell are you doing?” I said in almost a whisper, already knowing what he was about to do...

“And you will not use that type of language with me either. You are acting very childish, Ashley. And you need to stop.” His left hand landed on the button of my pants and he unbuttoned them.

“No!” I said, trying to pull away again. That didn’t stop him any, he just kept at what he was doing and soon enough, my pants fell to the floor and i stood in front of one of my best friends in only my t-shirt and panties, trying to wiggle free from his grip.

“Stop it,” he said sternly. The next thing he did was totally unexpected... he yanked me over his lap and pulled my panties down to my knees.

“What are you doing? You can’t do this! I’m 15! That’s too old!” I protested, having never been spanked before in my life.

“If you really were 15, you would act like it!” he said then landed a sharp smack in the center of my bottom.

“Owwwwww!” I whined. It hurt way much more than I had every thought it would...

He gave me five hard smacks on my right cheek, not even giving me time to breathe between each one. “Ow!” I exclaimed after every smack. Then he landed five more on my left cheek, causing me to yelp in pain.

“Owwwwwwww,” I whined, louder now. “Stopppppp,” I said, kicking my legs again.

SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK!!!!!

“Ashley, you know better than to drive without your license.”

SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK!!!!!

“And you know better than to drink.”

SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK!!!!!

“And you know better than to drag race like that.”

SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK!!!!!

“And you will NEVER hit me like that again, understand me?”

SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK!!!!!

“Owwwwwww,” I still whined after each smack, now begging him as I felt my bottom getting warmer and warmer...

SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK!!!!!

He lay his hand down on my bottom for a moment, giving me a bit of a break. It hurt like crazy, but I wasn’t going to cry. I couldn’t do that...

He stood me up and allowed me to pull my pants and panties back up. “You’ll stay in here until Kevin gets back,” he ordered, and from the previous experience I decided not to tell him what I was thinking but instead I huffed loudly and folded my arms.

I debated in my mind on whether or not to sit down on the bed. My bottom still stung like crazy, and whenever I had tried to rub the sting out, to no avail cause it still stung like crazy, I felt how hot my bottom was, and knew for sure that it would probably hurt more whenever I sat down. I had never been spanked before... and believe me, it hurt way more than I had always thought it would.

Of course, I didn’t have to debate long on whether or not to sit down, because moments later I heard a knock out the door and Brian walked over to get it. “Ah, hello...”

“Hey,” I heard the familiar voice say. I got my hopes up, seeing that it was Kevin, and knew he would see my side of this... “Have you heard from Ashley?”

“Actually...” Brian said, then turned around to face me, “she’s here. We have something we need to discuss with you.”

I knew that Kevin now wore a look of confusion as Brian led him into the room. He saw me standing there, still rubbing my bottom absentmindedly, and said, “what happened?”

Brian sat down on the bed next to me and Kevin just stood there, towering over me. The difference in our heighth was definitely noticable now...

I looked at Brian and he looked back at me. Obviously, he wanted me to explain it. “He hit me!” I spat out, the anger in my body catching up with me.

“What?” Kevin asked, voice full of confusion.

“He hit me!” I shouted again. “He was mad and he just started hitting me and it isn’t fair!”

“Why did he hit you?”

I didn’t say anything, just held back my anger.

“Well?”

“Cause I asked him to come pick me up, and he was mad. So he hit me!”

Kevin glanced at Brian, knowing that I wasn’t telling the entire story. “Young lady,” Kevin said in a threatening voice, “tell me exactly what happened and no messing around,” he warned. The tone of his voice told me that he wasn’t on my side.

“I was just having some fun and we got picked up by the cops and I called and you weren’t home and Brian decided he’d hit me instead.”

“Having fun doing what?” he asked.

I couldn’t answer this. The pit in my stomach had now moved to my throat and I was truly feeling bad about what I had done, or most likely, about getting caught. I couldn’t speak or I’d cry... I’d break down and cry like a baby. And I couldn’t let Brian see that he had won.

“Ashley, what were you doing?” Kevin repeated.

But I still did not answer. He looked over to Brian who had not spoken at all.

“What was she doing?”

Brian looked at me and seeing that I wasn’t planning on saying it any time soon he said, “she was racing some kid in someone else’s car while she was drunk.”

“I wasn’t drunk!” I defended.

“And she called me and I had to pick her up from the police station. But luckily the let her go with a warning because she complied so well. But I would have never known, the way she acted with me...”

Kevin raised his eyebrows, urging Brian to continue. “And how would that be?”

“Like she was 5 instead of 15. Throwing tantrums, exclaiming that she did nothing wrong. Using profanity and shoving me out of the way whenever I told her that I was going to take care of her.”

Kevin nodded. “This true?” he asked me.

I didn’t answer.

“Obviously, Ashley, you haven’t learned your lesson. What’s this attitude you’re giving me? You’re not usually like this...”

I still said nothing, just waited for him to ground me for a month or something. “You spanked her?” he asked Brian. I shuddered hearing the word.

Brian nodded.

“Come on,” he said, grabbing me by the arm and tugging me towards the doorway. “Sorry about this, Bri.” He looked at me to see if I would say anything, but I refused. There was no way that I was going to apologize to him.

Kevin dragged me the entire way to my room because I wasn’t into walking on my own. I was still pissed off about Brian and my bottom hurt like crazy...

We arrived to the room and Kevin plopped me down on the bed. “Explain yourself,” he said suddenly.

“Uh,” I muttered stupidly. “I um...” I was at a loss of words. “Look, Kev, Brian’s already lectured me about drinking and driving and how I could kill myself... please, I’ll do better without another one.”

“Obviously drinking and driving wasn’t the only thing you’ve done that would deserve a lecture. What are you doing with this attitude?”

I shrugged.

“I am NOT going to let this slide, Ashley,” he said in a warning tone. “I think that Brian had a good idea to spank you like that. And I don’t think you’ve learned your lesson yet.”

“But I have!” I whined.

“No, you haven’t. Drop your pants,” he ordered, but I did not do so. “Ashley, I will NOT ask you again, young lady. You are this close to getting it worse,” he said, holding up his fingers, centimeters apart from one another. I still did not budge, though.

He hoisted me up from the couch and smacked me solidly three time on the bottom then proceeded to tell me once more to do as I was told. I just folded my arms and stood there, unmobile. He gave an exasperated sigh and unbuttoned my pants for me, even though I didn’t let him do it with my arms folded. I kicked and yelled for him to stop, trying to push him away. “Ashley, stop!” he said, then held onto my arms with his left hand and finished doing what he had started. I felt the button slip through the hole then my zipper sliding down, and before I knew it, my pants were on the ground.

“Nooooooo!” I whined, still fighting with Kevin.

“Ashley, you better stop acting like this right now,” Kevin scolded. “I won’t put up with this.”

I stopped fighting a bit and Kevin let go of me for a second, after giving me a very pissed off look as if saying I better stay right where I was. I watched him as I heard the sound of his belt buckle unclasp and then slip through the loops of his jeans.

“Nooooo,” I whined again. “Please, Kev... I’m sorryyyyy.”

It was too late. He had his belt folded over and was lying me across his lap. “I won’t put up with the way you’re acting, Ashley.” My panties were tugged down to my knees and I wiggled a little. I felt the nice cool breeze pass my bottom and silently prayed that Kevin wouldn’t be too hard on me, no matter how much I deserved it. He said nothing else, just began spanking me with his hand, pounding my bottom where it already still ached from my spanking from Brian.

Instantly, I began kicking and pleading for him to stop. “Pleaseeeeeee stopppppp, I’m sorryyyyyy,” I whined.

“This is just the beginning, young lady,” Kevin replied, still spanking me with full force.

“Owwwwww,” I whined.

“I told you if you didn’t obey me, you’d get it worse. Maybe next time you’ll believe me.”

“Owwwwwwwwww, Kevinnnn stopppp pleaseeee,” I whined louder, kicking my legs a bit and crying like crazy.

He stopped spanking me for a minute and all I could think of was that I wish that cool breeze was still over my bottom... that’s how much it stung...

“You’re 15 years old, Ashley. You could have hurt yourself or someone else really badly by what you did tonight. And I am your guardian, and you won’t disrespect me or Brian or anyone else who has the right to punish you. Got it?”

I nodded. “Yessss, I’ll be good.. please no more.”

“15 with the belt, then I’ll be finished.”

“Pleaseeeee, I don’t need the belt.”

“Yes you do, sweetheart. I’m sorry I have to do this, but you’ve gotta learn, okay?”

I cried harder, but I understood him completely.

“I’m only doing this because I love you...”

WHACK!!!

“Owwwwwwwwww.”

WHACK WHACK WHACK!!!! “Are you going to drink anymore?”

“Noooooo...”

WHACK WHACK!!!! “Are you going to drive without a license anymore?”

“Noooo, I won’t.. I’m sorryyyyyyyy,” I said, pleading and crying to him because the belt stung much more than I imagined.

WHACK WHACK!!!! “Are you going to go 120 miles per hour whenever you do get your license?”

“Definitely not,” I said through tears.

WHACK WHACK!!!! “Are you going to do what Brian and I tell you to do from now on, or anyone else from the band?”

“Yesssssssss.”

WHACK WHACK!!!! “How old are you, Ashley?”

“Fifteennnnnn, owwwwwwwwwww...”

“And that’s too young to be drinking, isn’t it?” WHACK WHACK!!!!

“Yesssssss, I’m sorryyyyyy, please no moreeeeee.” I cried like crazy. “I’m sorry,” I muttered.

“This is the last one, Ashley. You know I’m very disappointed in you. Have you learned your lesson?”

“Yesssssssss I have, I have..”

WWWHHHAAACCCKKKK!!!!

“Owwwwwwwwwwwww, owwwwwwieeeeeee. Owww it hurts, it hurts.” I whined and kicked and missed hearing the belt hit the floor with a thud.

Kevin scooped me up in his arms. “It’s okay, sweetie,” he said, rocking me back and forth, stroking my hair gently. “It’s okay, honey. Shhhh shhh.” I buried my head into his chest and cried, listening to his soothing voice console me.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered.

“I know. I forgive you, okay? I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said as he kept rocking and singing to me. Lost in his arms and his singing, I drifted off into a dreamless sleep, my bottom still aching like crazy, but my conscience feeling much better. I had no intentions to ever again speak to Kevin or Brian the way I had... and the next day I would definitely apologize to Brian.