Foster Forest (10): Watching

"And I don't want to hear a single sound out of either of you!" Becky said. She deposited Jackson in opposite corner of the kitchen, letting go of his ear and giving it a quick but gentle rub where the flesh had reddened as a result of her hold. She let her hand fall on his back as though patting him. Briefly Becky was able to note that Jackie had lost perhaps five pounds. There was still quite a ways to go, but she felt relief at knowing that her rules were doing their job. She glanced over at Lizzie and pointed her finger at the little girl. "You and I are going to have a very serious talk in just a few minutes," she scolded.

Then, with a heavy sigh, Becky fell down into the chair at the kitchen table, putting her head into her palms and rubbing at her temples. Her head was pounding, and her blood pressure was high. Her hands were trembling slightly, and she lowered them, placing them palm down on the table and taking several deep breaths.

These two had such an ability to make her angry! For the first time in her life, Becky was beginning to understand why her father had snapped at her the way that he had, or why her mother had sent her to her room to wait for her father instead of dealing with discipline herself. There was no way that Becky was going to force the two children in their separate corners to wait for Peter, especially when she knew that Peter had that awful little paddle. There might be a time that behavior warranted the paddle, but she sincerely hoped that it wasn't today.

Peter would arrive in fifteen minutes, right around the time that the newest member of Foster Forest showed up to be settled in. Her anger level as well as her sympathy told her she should deal first with Jackson and Elizabeth, but she didn't want to be caught in the middle of that when Cody showed up, the way it had been when Peter arrived. It was bad enough that Lizzie resented Peter's seeing her draped across Becky's thigh, or worse, that he had scolded her for rubbing her bottom. She didn't need that kind of resentment flying between two more of her youngsters. Lizzie seemed to resent everybody, in some way or another. It was something that Becky just wouldn't understand.

***

 

Becky's head was still throbbing when she heard the bell ring at the desk. She glanced up at the clock on the wall and groaned. She hated it when people showed up early, but at least that might expedite the process so that she could get to Jackie and Lizzie sooner. Wearily, she pushed up from her seat at the table and turned for a moment to regard the two miscreants. "Alright, you two. You are to stay in those corners until I come back to get you. If I hear a sound out of this room, I will have Mr. Peter deal with the two of you when he gets here in... Ten minutes," she said, glancing again at the clock. "Do you understand me?"

When two sets of heads had nodded, Becky turned and swiftly left the kitchen, her shoulders back and her jaw set in a grim line of determination. She would get through this, get rid of the social worker, and see to settling in the new one, a boy named Cody York.

"Finally!" the silver-haired social worker snapped.

Becky had only just rounded the corner into the Great Room, and she stopped in her tracks. "Hello Mrs. Barker," she said, nodding her head toward the social worker. Her conversations over the phone with this woman had been far from pleasant, and she was hardly looking forward to continued dealings with her.

"Ms. Thomas, I'm sure you are aware that you have kept us waiting," the social worker said, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Yes," Becky said, her voice firm and without any grace for the bad tempered woman. "And I'm sure that you are aware that you are ten minutes early. Now I'm sure that you have Cody's file available for me and that you've informed him of what it means for him to be here." Becky held her hand out for the file, her feet parted and her shoulders set. She was sure that her cheeks were red; she could feel the heat in them as she stared at the older woman.

The silver-haired social worker sniffed and slapped her briefcase onto the desk, opening it with a click and then shuffling through papers. After a moment, she handed Becky a thin file. Becky raised her eyebrows and glanced down at it, flipping it open and glancing at the sparse paperwork and information. She sighed and shook her head, knowing that this could be a bad situation, as it had been with Lizzie. Too little information seemed to lead to over-disciplining and, for Becky at least, a lack of empathy for the child. They'd gotten over it, eventually, but it would be a rough few weeks with Cody, Becky decided.

Without a word she unlocked the filing cabinet in the Great Room and filed the folder. The lock had been installed after she caught Lizzie going through her mail. She would never allow that situation to happen again, and she had already determined that if she caught the ten year-old messing with the mail again, Peter's paddle was going to look like a light punishment.

When Becky straightened, the social worker was still standing at the desk. Becky raised both of her eyebrows and blinked slowly. "Yes?" she said, gesturing to make it clear that she was ready to move on with her day. "I have things that need to be done, including settling Cody in. I don't have time to stand here and chat with you. I'm sure that we've done all the necessary paperwork by fax. If it's just the same to you, I'd appreciate it if you'd go on with your day so that I can go on with mine."

Seemingly flabbergasted, the silver-haired social worker opened her mouth as though to speak but then closed it again and marched for the door, her high heels clicking against the hard wood of the floor. Becky winced as Peter came through the front door, gave the older woman a scathing look, and then stepped up beside Cody. She watched as the blonde-haired man appraised the teenager, nodded, and then turned toward her. "Bet you're glad she's gone," he said with that grin that made Becky weak in the knees.

With another glance at Cody, Becky nodded her head. Her hand was pressed to her chest before she realized that she'd done it, and she felt herself flush with shame as she forced her hand back down to her side. Peter hadn't spoken to her in what seemed like forever, and that smile spoke volumes. "We're working together tonight," Becky told Peter. "So I can get Cody settled in. Elizabeth and Jackson are in the kitchen. There was... an issue," she said, choosing her words carefully so that Cody wouldn't be privy to what was going on in the kitchen.

She glanced up just in time to see Peter's face fall. He glanced over at Cody again and extended his hand. Becky watched as they shook, and then realized with a start that Cody hadn't said a word since he'd come in the door. She felt her cheeks heat up, feeling as though she should have encouraged him to be more involved, but then waved a hand dismissively, wiping away her own feelings. "Cody, this is Peter Grisson: Mr. Peter. Peter, this is Cody York. You knew he was coming."

"Yes," Peter said, smiling at the fourteen year-old. "I did. I think I could show him to his room if you want to get things taken care of with dinner." Becky could hear from the tone in his voice that he knew she wasn't dealing with supper in the kitchen, and she nodded gratefully, watching as the blonde haired man put his hand on the boy's shoulder and directed him out of the Great Room and toward the stairs.

Becky sighed softly and shook her head. Looking after where Cody had gone with Peter, she wished she had a moment to look through his file. She couldn't remember it saying anything about him not being a talker, but he certainly did seem to be quite quiet. She supposed that she'd cross that bridge when she got to it. He was probably just scared, and he'd have plenty of time to open up over supper later that night. Thankfully she had a casserole in the fridge, ready to be heated in the oven in an hour. That gave her plenty of time to deal with Elizabeth and Jackson.

"She said don't move!" Becky froze halfway to the kitchen when she heard Lizzie's voice coming from that direction.

"She said 'Be quiet!'" came Jackie's retort.

Becky rolled her eyes and entered the kitchen with a purposeful stride, approaching Lizzie and Jackie before they could scurry back into their corners. She caught each of them by an ear and sat down heavily in her seat. Already her hairbrush sat on the kitchen counter, and she held them both by their ears at arm's length. "Well!" she said, looking from Jackson to Elizabeth. "I would have though that under the circumstances the two of you would at least have considered obeying me for a change! I would like it if one of you could give me just one reason not to send for Peter and his paddle!"

"He's taking the new guy to his room," Lizzie said, her tone full of sass.

Becky gaped at the ten year-old for a moment, shocked at the tone in her voice. As quickly as Lizzie sobered, Becky gave a firm swat to the seat of her skirt. "You do not speak to me that way, young lady!" she exclaimed.

Of course Lizzie had a good point. Peter was too busy to go and fetch his paddle, which meant that her hairbrush was going to have to be sufficient to get the job done. Becky gritted her teeth and gripped her knee tightly with her right hand, resisting the temptation to give Lizzie another firm smack.

Lizzie let out a short cry of surprised pain. "You asked!" she said, trying to bend to rub her thigh where it had been smacked. But Becky had hold of her ear, and Lizzie couldn't reach.

Finally, after a moment Becky released the two children and looked between them again. "Alright," she said, thinking she might finally be calm enough to handle proceeding with the punishment. "There are much better, much more pleasant things that I could be doing rather than having the two of you here in the kitchen with me right now. So I want to know from each of you, before I send you to your rooms for your spankings, why you were fighting this time?"

Jackson was sniffling, and Elizabeth looked indignant. "He started it!" she cried, pointing at Jackson.

So Becky turned her attention toward Jackie. "Well?" she asked. "Did you?" She had learned over the past few weeks that Jackson Seeber was not the brightest child in the world, and he was inclined toward honesty, since he rarely expected the spanking that most children were trying to avoid by lying.

True to form, Jackie told the truth. His little blonde head nodded up and down slightly and he sniffled, both of his hands already covering his round little bottom. "She was makin' fun of me caus'a my last spankin'," he said, a little sob escaping from between his lips.

Becky sighed, and she felt a slight tightness in her chest. Without even stopping to think about what she was doing, she wrapped her arm around Jackie and pulled him to her in a tight hug. The truth of the matter was that she could understand how he felt, and in some way she thought he might just be justified in his reaction toward Lizzie. After all, she'd been snooping just around the corner and watching him get his last spanking as Becky roasted his bottom over the couch cushion. Justice had caught up with Elizabeth in the end, of course, but Jackie hadn't been there to see it, and nobody had spoken of the ten year-old's punishment afteward.

"And you got punished that first day you were here when you said anything at all about Lizzie's spanking, didn't you?" Becky asked, raising both of her eyebrows as she gazed at Jackie, contemplating. When he nodded, she gave him a tight squeeze and then turned toward Lizzie.

"Well, Jackie, I don't suppose you know that Lizzie got a very red and sore rump after that occasion as well," she said crisply, watching as Lizzie's face became a bright red from embarrassment. "Now," Becky said, "since the two of you are so intent on seeing one another getting spanked, I think you should each get to see what it's like for the other," she said. "If you want to see it, see it you shall," she added. "Elizabeth, you may step back to your corner, but you should face out into the room. Jackson, I want you to go over there and get me the hairbrush that is sitting on the counter. I have other things to do, including fixing supper, so I'd like to get this done before any more time races away."

Becky looked at Lizzie and pointed toward where she wanted the little girl to go. Elizabeth's jaw was down, her brown eyes wide with surprise as she slowly backed up into the corner again, pressing herself back against it as though she could guard her own bottom from the coming spanking by doing so. "You seem to like watching so much, Elizabeth!" Becky snapped. "Now here's your chance!"

She pointed toward the hairbrush on the counter, tapping her foot as she waited for Jackson to bring it to her so that the punishment could begin. She would do it right here, in the kitchen, instead of giving them the privacy of their bedrooms. Chances were that Cody would have been able to hear Jackson's punishment anyway, and it wasn't fair to him that his punishment should be so public when Lizzie's was not.

When Jackson brought Becky the hairbrush, she stood up and waved the brush toward him. "You know the drill. I want your jeans and your underpants down to your knees. I'll let you do it this time." She patted the hairbrush against her palm, testing its weight and its sting while she waited for Jackson to do as he had been bid. It was the first time, for him, that she had made the demand of him, and he seemed to take his time unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans and pushing them down to his knees.

Jackson appeared to hesitate with his fingers in the waistband of his briefs, and Becky raised her eyebrows quite deliberately. "Underpants too," she said. "Get your knickers down and we can get this over with," she added quickly. She hardly noticed when the little boy flushed hotly, as she was already leaning forward to deliver a swat to his thighs. The quick sting made the little boy jump, and Becky shook her head. "Underpants down with your jeans, then I want you to put your hands on the seat of the chair and put your bottom straight out so that I can get it nice and red for you," she added.

Becky breathed deeply in through her nose and out through her mouth as she waited for Jackson to comply. Why was it that no matter how calm she got between misbehavior and punishment, she was always angry again when it came time to apply punishment to the miscreant's bottom? Still breathing deeply, she took up the hairbrush in her right hand, her left hand wrapping around her thigh and giving it a tight squeeze as she struggled for her calm place and to keep herself together.

Finally, she was ready. Becky tapped the hairbrush against Jackson's round bottom. He was still much too fleshy, but she thought that another twenty pounds should have him at an appropriate weight, and there would be a lot less of him to spank. She put her hand on his back with a gentle pressure meant to keep him firmly in place so that he wouldn't try to escape from his punishment as he had the last time. It took a lot of trust to put a child in this position and expect them to hold it, but she hoped that by showing him she had faith in him, he might try harder than he had in the past.

Becky gently rapped the hairbrush against Jackson's bottom, then turned her head over her shoulder to look at Elizabeth. "I hope that you're watching this, Elizabeth Moore, because you're going to be next and your bottom is going to be just as red as Jackson's is when I'm done with it. You stay right there, young lady!" she snapped.

Finally there was no more time to be wasted. Becky herself had spoken out that she had better, more enjoyable things to do. She raised the hairbrush and brought it down hard on Jackson's right cheek. Then, moving quickly, she repeated this on the left cheek. Bright red marks appeared immediately, and then faded quickly. The boy howled, twisting his thick hips in an attempt to alleviate the pain. "Don't you move, Jackson Seeber," Becky said sharply. "If you get out of position I'll move you into a different one and we'll start all over. On your thighs. So you just stay right where you are until I'm finished. Understand me?" she asked.

In order to punctuate, Becky delivered a sharp, hard smack with the hairbrush to the back of each one of Jackie's thighs. The little boy wailed, and Becky felt a little pitch in her tummy, the feeling she used to get when her mother had told her to go to her room to wait for her father, but when she thought that maybe she could still get away without a spanking. She felt for Jackson, and she felt for Elizabeth, watching the spanking and knowing that she was next. But both of the children knew better than to fight with one another, and she was going to make sure that the lesson was well learned.

Once again the spanking moved back up to Jackson's chubby rear-end. Becky kept the spanks hard and snappy, moving quickly and speaking to Elizabeth rather than to Jackson, knowing that the little girl was much more likely to be able to listen to her than the seven year-old little boy who as currently having his bottom warmed up. "Elizabeth Moore, I hope that you are paying close attention to what is going on right here. You wanted to see Jackson get a spanking, and now you're getting that opportunity. I really hope that you're happy with the results of this fight you've had with him, because you're next, and he will be watching your spanking as well!"

Then she stopped speaking, and finished up the spanking with an earnest, very hard set of twelve swats to each cheek. The hairbrush smacked down with a sound almost like a gunshot, the red marks quickly turning white and then deepening into a purple color that would last probably for a couple of days. To Becky the spanking seemed to have lasted a little bit over two minutes (which, if she'd looked at the clock she would realize was pretty much accurate) but she knew that to Jackie it must have seemed as though the spanking had gone on for forever. She set the hairbrush down on the table and then took a step back. "You may stand up and go back to your corner, Jackson," she told him. "You may pull up your underpants but leave your jeans down. You will be watching Elizabeth's spanking while I warm up her naughty little bottom for her as well. Go," she said, gesturing toward the corner as the little boy struggled to move into it with his jeans around his ankles. It was only once he was there that he tugged up his briefs and then turned around to face the room. His face was streaked with tears, but his eyes held a look of expectation and excitement. Becky sighed softly and looked toward Elizabeth. "Your turn," she said.

Becky took a deep breath. Lizzie wasn't moving, and the woman walked over to her, taking hold of her hand gently and leading her over to the chair. "You saw what Jackson had to do. Pull your panties down to your knees and put your hands on the seat of the chair," she said sharply, using the brush to give Lizzie a swift swat to her backside. The little girl cried out, and Becky pointed toward the seat of the chair with one long finger. "Now," she added, when the child seemed to hesitate.

"But... He can... see me!" she said, her voice distraught.

"Yes," Becky said, keeping her tone very matter-of-fact. "You're right, he can see you. Just like you could see him. Panties down, bend over. If you don't do as you're told, I can give you the same spanking that he got, but all of it on your thighs."

The little girl gasped, and Becky could sense that she was about to say something. Without another word, the young woman cracked the hairbrush down on Lizzie's right thigh. The little girl kicked her foot up and quickly moved her hands to push her panties down to her knees.

"Better," Becky said. "Now bend over, put your hands on the seat of the chair, and stick that butt way out so I can get to it. If you didn't want this spanking, you wouldn't have done anything to deserve it. When you started screaming at Jackson, and when you came out of the corner while I was meeting with Cody and his social worker, you chose this. So I don't want to hear any excuses out of you! Hands on the seat of the chair!" The last few words were punctuated by hard spanks of the hairbrush to Lizzie's bottom, now covered only by her skirt.

The little girl cried out, but quickly fell onto her hands on the seat. Becky watched as the small fingers curled around the edge and grabbed a tight hold. She knew what that was like, and she realized that Elizabeth was very prepared for the spanking she was about to get. Becky glanced over at Jackson, who had tears and snot rolling down his face, and she sighed. "You," she said to him. "You should watch this very closely. You wanted to see, well this is your chance, young man. Maybe next time you'll think twice before aggravating Elizabeth!" she snapped.

With that, Becky tucked the skirt up Lizzie's back, tucking it into the waistband so that it would stay put, and then she rapped the hairbrush against Lizzie's bottom. "You have earned every spanking you've gotten here, Elizabeth Moore, including the one you got for sneaking up and watching Jackson's spanking so sneakily. I suggest you treat him -- and me -- with a bit of respect if you don't want to wind up in this position again."

Then the spanking began. As promised, Becky gave Lizzie the same spanking that she'd given to Jackson. She spanked one side, then the other, with crisp, hard spanks. She spanked quickly, all the while speaking to Jackie. "Is this what you wanted to see, young man? You wanted to see Lizzie getting her bottom reddened? You know this hurts her just as much as it hurts you, don't you? You two get in trouble together, from now on you'll be spanked together, and you can watch or listen as the case may be!"

Lizzie was howling, and Becky pressed down firmly on her back to hold her in place. "Same rules apply, Elizabeth. You move, and I'll put you in another position and we'll deal only with your thighs. Understand me?" She gave a gentle downward shove on the girl's back and continued the spanking. Lizzie's bottom was going from a hot pink to a light red, and Becky decided it was time to finish up.

The last two dozen spanks were delivered in a rapid-fire fury, leaving little bruises on Lizzie's bottom that would be painful when she sat down for the next couple of days. Just as she was finishing up, Peter strolled into the kitchen. He flushed a though he hadn't known what was going on, but he pulled out a chair and sat down. Cody was behind him, and the teenager's blue eyes went wide with surprise. "Wh-what are you doing?" he asked, glancing from Elizabeth and Becky over to Jackson.

"I'm giving a much deserved spanking," Becky said, finishing the spanking up with two especially hard spanks to each cheek. She stopped, put the hairbrush down and stepped back. "Elizabeth, you may pull your panties up. Jackson, turn around and face the wall. Elizabeth, back to your corner," Becky said.

Once the girl had gone, Becky drooped, exhausted, into her seat. "Well," she said, as though it was the word of the day. "Peter, I don't suppose you'd mind putting the casserole in the oven. I need a rest, and I think I have a couple of kids who could do with some loving. Do you mind?"

Peter shook his head and went to the refrigerator, stopping on the way to give Jackson's shoulder a squeeze. Becky turned and gestured toward the little boy, saying his name and calling him toward her. She gently wrapped him up against the side of her body and then called for Elizabeth, with whom she did the same. The anger was gone, and in its place was left the sense of guilt that often followed a spanking, whether she was giving or receiving. She held both children tightly for a moment, then gave each of them a kiss to their foreheads. "Supper will be ready in about half an hour," she told each of them. "Why don't you go upstairs and change your clothes and wash up. Then you can come down and meet Cody."

She watched as the two younger children scampered off, and then she looked toward Cody and smiled. "I'm sorry that you had to see that," she said softly, nodding her head. "They've been fighting all week and this was the only way for me to solve that problem. I hope I haven't scared you off."

"N-no Ma'am," the teenager said, though Becky thought she detected a hint of nervousness in both his face and his voice.