My Halloween Roommate

I couldn't believe it when my honorable father told me that he had been appointed the Japanese ambassador to Italy. I immediately had flash fantasies of being partying in Rome. All those lovely boys and I would be turning 19 in only 2 weeks. Then he dropped the big one on me.

"You will be attending a private girls college in Switzerland. It is called Oaks and Pines and caters to only the most privileged young ladies from all over the world. Daughters of prime ministers, presidents, ambassadors, and industrialists attend the college. The security is the best in the world, and I'll be paying 115,200yen a year for you to attend. I don't want to hear of any of your pranks. You will be a proper Japanese girl and stay out of trouble. Do you hear me!" If you don't they will make you, they still practice corporal punishments. There's no sparing the rod there.

For the next three years I'll be locked away in the Swiss alps. I might as well be dead. At the Geneva airport I was met by a lady from the school, and she and two big hulks were waiting for me as I departed customs.

"You must be Shumikiko Osata as she addressed me. My name is Ms. Dunbar-Counsens and I'm in charge of our young ladies. We will pick up your luggage and then we can leave for the chateaux."

We went to the luggage carousal where a porter retrieved my luggage, and then followed us to the exit. We walked through the airport as visions of me running away and then what flashed through my mind. But where would I go? I didn't know anyone in Switzerland and I was sure that these two men with us would be able to catch me in a heartbeat.

As we got to the exit, Ms. DC (which is what everyone calls her) put her hand on my arm as one of the men stepped outside and looked around then spoke to someone on a throat microphone before motioning us outside. There was a black limousine and we were quickly ushered into the backseat.

"Now you will relinquish to me your cellphone, your money, and credit cards that you have. You will be given receipts for them when we get to the chateaux. That's what everyone calls the school since it used to belong to Swiss royalty."

Tears were forming in my eyes as I opened my purse to remove my contraband items, when she just took my purse. "Hey all my make up is in there along with my keys and other items", I protested sitting in the back of the limousine as it pulled out of the airport.

"Don't worry, everything will be kept for you, and as far as make up is concerned, it also is not allowed. You will be given everything that you will need when you get to the chateaux. All the young ladies will wear uniforms all the time, and there will be no deviations from that rule. If you are caught wearing anything else you will be punished, and that goes for underwear as well."

"I sat there fuming as we drove and this female prison guard kept up her rattling off the end of my world for the next three years.

"I know this might sound very hard but we are responsible for you for the next three years, and we don't want anything to happen to you. Just a few months ago we discovered a plot to kidnap the daughter of a Texas billionaire. I'm sure you will hear all about it, but don't worry nothing will happen to you."

"You can see that the two guards that are with us are in contact with two other cars that will be our escort back to the chateaux. Don't worry we will arrive at the chateaux in about an hour and a half Shumikiko, is that correct", she asked?.

I told her that was as correct as she could get, not being able to speak Japanese.

As we rode along through the late afternoon I could see shadows of the trees that seemed to grow everywhere playing hide and go seek with the sun. The lady droned on about all the different rules while I stood on the banks of the weeping pool of self pity.

It was just getting dark when we pulled into the long curving drive of the impressive building and it did look like one of those huge palaces that I saw in picture books when I was a little girl. As we got out Ms. DC told me to follow her and we went into Miss Prestwick's office where she took my purse and all my other belongings and I was given receipts for everything. Then she took me into a big room with a TV and a few other girls sitting on couches talking or reading books.

She introduced me to a tall French girl with pretty red hair named Clara who was the head girl of the floor. "I'll leave you with Clara who will show you to your room."

"Hi, you look like you're about to cry, well don't worry we all felt like that when we first got here. But you'll soon fit in don't worry, it's not really as bad as it may seem now. Come with me and I'll show you your room", she said.

Well that was just a month ago, and she was right. After the first few days I did fall into sort a routine, as all of our activities were well planned out. We got to go running in the mornings on a group run and it was kind of nice to get out into the fresh air and then we had inspection so that they knew that we were in the correct uniforms. I don't know why this was so important, as there was no one to see us.

The first day of October I woke up at 6AM for our run, and when I went to put on my shoes the laces were tied together in a bunch of knots. It took me about 10 minutes to get all the knots untied and then by the time I got down to start the run the stretches were over so I had to run without stretching which isn't good.

The next day I got of of the shower and all the towels in the bathroom were gone. This may not seem like a problem to most people but to us we are issued 4 towels each week, and I had to borrow one from one of the other girls. It's not a problem but just an inconvenience to walk to someone's room and asked them for a towel in just a robe soaking wet.

I finally got one after asking 4 people if I could borrow a towel. When I got back to my room, all my towels were hanging right where they should have been.

The next day when I went to get dressed all my socks were missing. I looked all over my room and then headed down to the run without any socks. Sure enough when I got back all my socks were back in my drawer.

By this time I knew someone was playing Itazura on me. It should have been funny, but it wasn't. It was just one of the girls trying to break up the monotony of everyday life.

Then it started to get real. Friday morning I went into my chemistry 205 class, and the professor Ms Knight told us to prepare our Chemistry in Correlation With Biology paper to turn in, which should have been to remove the folio from my notebook and hand it in when Ms Knight called on me.

I opened my notebook and it wasn't there. She called out the names in alphabetical order and I knew I'd be the 9th name that she called. I frantically began to look in my notebook but it just wasn't there. It couldn't have fallen out as I remember closing the clasp on my notebook the night before.

She called the first name, and that was Balcome, Clara the head girl. After the 3rd name she must have seen me looking again and again as she said, "Is there something wrong Miss Osata?"

I looked at her with pleading eyes replying, "I can't seem to find my paper Ms. Knight."

"Well you can go back to your room and check but if you don't get back by the time I call your name you will be penalized 10%. I shot up and ran back to my room but it wasn't there. I was doomed. I've been told turning in work that isn't up to standards can be dealt with, but not turning in work is one of the worst offenses that you can commit.

Then I thought, I'd just print out another copy, it was saved on my computer. I went into my chemistry folder, and it wasn't there. It had been deleted. But how? I wouldn't have done that. All my other work was saved, just not my recent report.

I shuffled back to class trying to figure out how this could have happened. The only thing I could think of is that someone else must have done this. I reached my classroom and as I walked in the last girl had just handed hers in and the stack of the maroon portfolios on her desk was the proof, that my chance was over.

"Did you find it, Miss Osata", questioned Ms. Knight.

I just shook my head and lowered my eyes as I didn't want to see the other girls looking at me as I went and sat back down.

As I did so I saw Ms. Knight mark in her records and announce, "No work submitted from Miss Osata."

This I knew would be very bad as the mark of a zero would bring the class average down quite a bit. Now all the other girls would be mad at me, and that was another worry that I would have to carry around with me.

I couldn't think of anything else for the rest of the day. What made it even worse was the looks I got from the other girls. If their looks would have been daggers then I would have been dead, and a bloody mess. I thought about the story of Hanako told to scare little girls and about how she was found dead for not doing her school work, it's a silly tale that children tell each other, and now I wished that if I was Hanako then I wouldn't have to be alive to deal with the aftermath.

Well as I was coming out of the dinning hall I saw a group of girls looking at the bulletin board and when they saw me they walked away. I knew what that meant because I've seen it happen a few times in my month here. I walked up and there was a notice in red ink. I didn't have to read it but I did all the same.

Executive director Miss Tanaka requests the presence of Miss Shumikiko Osata in her study this evening at 4PM.

I was dead, and what was worse was that no one spoke to me. My friend Charlotte just shook her head and said, "Kiko how could you have not handed in your paper. I saw that you had it, why didn't you hand it in. I can't really be seen talking to you now as I don't want the other girls to think bad of me.

Our executive director was kind of like me, except I was full blooded Japanese, and she was half English and only her father was Japanese. She was Miss Tanaka, and she dealt with all the girls behavior problems.

Some of the girls had talked with Charlotte and she told them that I did have the assignment and that it was completed. "There was no reason that she shouldn't have submitted the paper", she told them.

At exactly 4PM I knocked on Miss Tanaka's door and she told me to come in and I walked in and I was going to close the door, but as I walked in she told me anyway, "Ah, Miss Osata do come in and please close the door. Please stand in front of my desk."

"You do know that your fate is sealed by you not submitting your work, and looking at your record I see that you are a solid student and that you are maintaining a 3.99 GPA, but with this absent paper it will drop considerably. I see girls come into my office and they have other issues, but I have to tell you that I would never have thought I would see you in my study."

She looked at me and I felt on the verge of tears as she leaned back in her chair, and pointing to the record on her desk with her pen. She continued, "I would ask you to tell me why you did this, but it wouldn't make any difference. My hands are tied with an offense of this magnitude."

She then tossed her pen on the desk and stood saying, "It's not like you tried, but you just didn't even submit anything. I'm going to give you the full punishment. You will remove your skirt and panties and bend over grasping the edge of the desk and count each one of the 12 cane strokes after you receive them."

My hands were shaking as I unbuttoned my skirt and then unzipped it letting it fall to the floor before I stepped out of it puddled around my ankles. I pulled down my panties I saw out of the corner of my eye Miss Tanaka withdrawing a long rattan cane with a red grip from a stand that held them. Folding them and setting them on the chair next to me I could see her expressionless face as she swung the cane through the air. As I bent forward and grabbed the edge of the desk my breathing was starting to come in short gasps, and I could but all hear my heart beating out of my chest.

As she swung the cane through the air I could hear the swishing sound that it made. To say I was scared would have been an understatement of present facts, but it would explain the way my body was shaking.

"After each one you will call out the count, do you understand. You will not cry out with any silly exclamations of pain, but you may cry if you feel you need to, and I don't think you could stop yourself if I or yourself could try and prevent the expression. Do you understand?"

In a shaking voice I uttered a stuttered, "Yes Miss I understand."

I could hear the swish as she tested the cane against the air, and then I felt it on my bottom as she tapped where she wanted the first stroke to land. There was silence for a moment before the swish preceding the landing of the rattan on my bare bottom.

I was immediately forced upward as I gritted my teeth while air surged out of me in a deliberate rush, and I voicing, "1", before taking in another breath. I had never felt pain like this. Even though she had removed the cane from my flesh I could still feel exactly where the cane had impacted my bottom.

My breathing was now much faster, and I knew it was coming out of my mouth. The swish again and I could tell it was almost in the same place, but just a little higher. It felt like I was being cut by a large knife and I voiced, "2." I lowered my head and I focused my gaze on the plastic pen with the clear body and red top and bottom where she had tossed it.

Rasping breaths, waves of pain surging through my body, and I was still shaking totally without any hope of control. A flashing thought that I hope my legs wouldn't buckle, and I would fall. "Swish", again before the "Platt", on my body and all my conscious thoughts were quickly deserting my mind but not before out of my mouth came, "3."

"Try and keep your legs still, I don't want you to make me miss my mark. Try to stop shaking so much. You're acting like a big baby. Maybe next time you will do your work and hand in your paper so you won't have to endure my professional attention."

I thought about my knees shaking and I was trying someway to stop them from trembling as my nerves were now on overload. I almost missed the inescapable swish and in an audible breaking of my voice came, "4."

Something different was happening in my body and it seemed my mind was being disconnected from the pain of the 4th mark burning along side of the other ones. Oh why couldn't I stop the wobbling as I gripped harder and harder in hopes of getting a grasp on whatever it was that was building up in my body.

The moment was broken as "Swish", invaded my world, and the searing knife edge cut into my flesh as I blabbered out, "5", followed by, "Unh, hu, hu, hu, hu", and tears flooding out my eyes. Crying! The crying was building up in my body and now breaking the dam of self control it just gushed forth unstopping. I couldn't control it, and it just poured forth. It was kind of a relief, and Miss Tanaka supported the reaction, "I know it can't be helped, just don't lose grip on the desk or fall to the floor."

Even through the noise of my tears and busted blubbering breathing the ever present, "Swish", could still be heard as well as the, "Si, si, si, si, six", that I stuttered out. I turned my head a little and I could feel my hair sticking to the sides of my face, so other parts of my body must be hot, as well as the searing pain of the six marks on my butt.

The tears were now coming forth without any prodding and through them you could still hear the, "Swish", reverberating through the air. I don't know why I still had to count. I tried to distinguish, "7", as it came out of my mouth, but with my blabbering breathless breathing it didn't sound recognizable even to me. What was recognizable was the searing marked mass still commanding my forfeiture of responsibility.

"Woo woo whish", and suddenly I realized that the swishing sound had changed. What didn't change was the increase of pain. I could still feel the first one, but now it was like a burning rectangle across my butt. What also didn't change was my utterance, "8."

I was in full, without any shame, gushing forth sobs after sobs, "Unh, hu, hu, hu, hus." These were broken up by at the moment of impact with a, "AAAAHUUHG!", followed by a decidedly short shake.

The next 4 went by much as the first 8, but now had morphed into packages of agony. Unendurable agony encapsulated into mere moments of forced oppression ruled by a piece of rattan 75cm in length, but wielded by Satan's bride. Even though I had counted the 12th stroke, the importance was momentarily lost until Miss Tanaka told me to stand up and get dressed.

As I stood and picked up my panties and bent to put one leg in them I could see a puddle on the floor right in front of the desk. Lost in explanation as to what that could be it soon became evident as I stood and I could see the nasal secretions hanging from my nose, it was just snot. I suddenly felt ashamed and asked if I should clean it up.

"No, your not the first girl to expel such from your crying, and besides after it drys it becomes much easier for the custodian to vacuum up", Miss Tanaka informed me.

Putting on my panties I could feel how they covered the marks and now keeping the heat in was another kind of pain all together. After dressing I stood in front of her desk waiting to be dismissed and watched as she was writing something in a ledger.

She finally stopped and looked up at me before preceding, "This doesn't absolve you from handing in your assignment. You still owe Ms. Knight a paper and if you can't find it then you will have to print out another one. If you were stupid enough to not save it then you will have to write another one. I don't see why you didn't just print out another one and save yourself all this pain, but then maybe you wanted the punishment. True you would have received a lesser grade, but I'm sure that you would have rather been given that instead of what I just gave you. Maybe you're not as smart as we all think you are. You are dismissed."

I replied, "Thank you Miss and turned and as I was walking out I was instructed to leave the door open.

Immediately after getting back to my room Charlotte, Clara, and Belinda walked in asking what I got and I told them I got 12 with the cane. Then Charlotte asked what color the grip on the cane was and I told her it was red.

She turned to Clara, and Belinda and they all three said at the same time, "See we were right." She then turned back to me and asked if it hurt a lot? I know that when I get caned they do, but then some girls can take it, and it doesn't hurt them so much."

"Yeah, 12 cane strokes hurt but not so bad. I mean I never even cry and a couple of days later I have forgotten about it", added Belinda.

Charlotte then turned back to me and asked, "Hey when you came up here to look for it why didn't you just print out another copy?"

"She just wanted to get caned. I see we have one of those", Belinda said sneeringly.

I blurted out, "I was going to do that but it was gone. I tried but the file was missing. Don't you think I would have thought about doing that."

Then I stood and opened up my chemistry folder and announced, "See right there...", stopping unable to remove my eyes from the screen was the report. I opened it up and scrolled through the pages. It was all right there, all 21 pages with resources, validations, and summaries.

Standing there unable to talk the three girls just looked very strangely at me and then they walked out with only Charlotte saying, "I'm so sorry, I'll see you later."

I just sat down on the side down on the side of my bed, and then jumping up very quickly once I put pressure on my marks left from the cane.