Ask anyone, they would tell you that Emily was an exemplary pupil. She was never, ever, in trouble. Zero detentions, never sent out of class, nothing. Some of the other girls in her class saw her as boring and too much of a goody two shoes. They would, secretly at least, love to see her getting into trouble, just for once.
So they'd probably be smirking right now. You only got sent to the headmistress if you'd done something really bad. Two of the toughest girls in her class had been in her office earlier this year after a series of incidents and any number of detentions and they'd both come back to class crying their eyes out because Mrs Jenkins had caned them. Her canings were the stuff of legend - bent over the back of a chair and at least four but often six very hard strokes across their bottoms. Jenny Wales had the full six after she'd been caught smoking at the time she should have been in detention. Pat Roberts got four for not attending a detention. She'd been especially unfortunate because they had a PE class immediately after her encounter with Mrs Jenkins so everyone in the class, including Emily, had seen the red tramlines on Pat's bottom and they were seriously scary.
Emily's best friend Melissa had been sent to Mrs Jenkins earlier this year. She'd been a bit unlucky because she'd forgotten to bring her French homework in. It was a genuine mistake but their French teacher was getting fed up with people not doing homework and decided to make an example of Melissa. Mrs Jenkins had kept her waiting outside the office for what seemed like an eternity and had then given her a real tongue-lashing for a good fifteen minutes. Melissa had left the office in tears even though the headmistress never laid a finger on her.
Emily was really scared as she made her way to the office for her scheduled downfall. Her legs felt like jelly, she wanted to be sick, and she wasn't sure she'd even make it to the office. Of course, like Melissa, she had a previously unblemished record, so she tried to convince herself that she was heading for a frightful telling off and it would be awful but it would be over soon. On the other hand, there was a world of difference between forgetting to bring your homework in, and calling the art teacher, Mrs Connor, a "stupid old bat" - not exactly to her face, but close enough and loud enough to know it would be heard.
She reached the outer office and with a deep breath went in. The secretary looked up.
"Emily Cooper - I'm here to see Mrs Jenkins."
She consulted the diary in front of her.
"Well you'll need to wait outside because she's on a phone call with the Chair of Governors at present but let me just check... Oh yes, there's a note here." The secretary stood up and opened a cupboard. To Emily's horror, she took out a cane and handed it to the terrified girl. "Right, take a seat outside and wait for her to call you in. You'll need to take this in with you."
Emily was already crying as she sat down. She'd never even seen a real punishment cane before let alone handled one. It felt so lightweight. It was hard to believe the reputation it had. But there was no point now in thinking she might get away with just being told off. And if she was caned all her classmates would know and some of them would make fun of her. The school would probably tell her parents as well so she'd have to face them, and if anyone walked past the office right now they'd see her with the cane and they'd know as well.
