Susie froze in the glare of the hall light. Any chance she had had to bluff it out had been thrown away by the act of taking off her shoes to sneak in.

“What time do you call this?” Her father sounded furious.

Did parents all read the same cliché manual? Although this was no time to get snippy, Susie thought. It was Daddy, so the penitent face and some tears might just swing it. As she considered this tactic her mother appeared behind her father. Oh shit, shit, Susie winced. Okay, time for the ‘stop treating me like a kid’ gambit, or the ‘when are you going to start trusting me’ ploy.

“Hi guys,” Susie said cheekily, “Still up? You don’t need to worry you know, I am 18 now.”

What the hell was that? Susie berated herself.

“Don’t you dare take that tone with me my girl,” her father raged. Daddy was cross, quick; use an excuse, her mind raced.

“You are not too old for a smacked bottom,” Susie’s mother said; she sounded serious.

“Don’t be silly,” Susie said rolling her eyes up, she got no further.

“That’s it, you are grounded,” Dad threw up his arms and turned to go.

“She’s already grounded,” Mother screwed up her face as if to say ‘men’ in a tone that was less than complimentary, “you have to take this girl in hand.”

Father studied his daughter for a long moment and then shrugged, “I’ll spank her tomorrow,” he sighed.

“What? You can’t. I’m 18 now; you haven’t spanked me since…”

“Since you were 17, 11 weeks ago,” her mother growled.

“But…” Susie began. There had to be some way out of this.

“Get to bed, your father will deal with you in the morning.”

*

Susie opened her eyes and looked around the room. Saturday, she liked Saturdays. Working the taste from her mouth she crawled from under the sheets to look at the scatter-haired blonde in the mirror. Her pink Hello Kitty T-shirt just covered her small breasts at the top, but failed to meet her pale pink knickers that stretched across her broad curved hips.

“You’ll live,” she said aloud as she stretched herself with a yawn.

Like most teens she lived in the now and last night seemed to blur. She glanced at the clock. Ten in the AM, I had better grab breakfast now before Mum kicks off about that. What time did I get in? Oh yeah. She grinned. If Mum pushed it, she would get another week added to her grounding. What the hell she would just ignore it again. What could they do?

Without bothering to dress, she stumbled down stairs. Dad hated it. She grinned again. It wasn’t until she reached the foot of the stairs of the open plan house that she saw that the table was being cleared.

“I’m not that late, can’t I just…? The last word stopped in her mouth as the rest of the sentence came to a crashing halt as one groan.

There on the sofa was Aunt Claire and her latest toy-boy. Susie was suddenly conscious of being in her underwear.

“Good morning Susie,” Claire said pertly. There was a cold edge to her voice.

“Hi… eh… Claire,” Susie stuttered. Claire was only 34 and calling her ‘aunt’ was a big, big no-no.

“In trouble again I hear,” Claire said disapprovingly. “How are your plans to get a job going; now that you have quit school I mean?”

Susie blushed. There had been some talk about three months. Something about ‘or measures would be taken.’ Susie gulped.

“It’s hard, what with the current job market, I mean…” Susie sounded like a whiney kid; Claire didn’t look impressed.

“We will talk about that after your father has had… words with you,” Claire said darkly.

It was then that Susie noticed her parents breaking off from clearing the table and closing on her.

“I see,” her father sighed wearily eyeing her scanty attire, “It’s going to be like that is it?”

Susie saw the slipper in his hand and suddenly felt decidedly uncomfortable. She eyed the young man on the sofa next to her aunt and blushed again. If Daddy took her upstairs, and surely he was bluffing, then what would this new guy hear?

“Since you have no modesty I’ll deal with you here,” her father growled as he stepped forward to take her arm.

“Daddy you can’t,” Susie protested as she was dragged struggling to the chair opposing the sofa and hauled across her father’s lap. She cast a wild stare at the man sitting next to her aunt and felt her ears melt.

“You are… you are really for it this time my girl.” Her father could barely get the words out.

“Daddy please,” Susie wailed, but then things got worse.

There was a small tug at the seat of her knickers and in one motion they were whipped down her thighs.

“Daddy,” Susie shrieked, but before she could protest further the slipper blasted down on her bare bottom in rapid sweeps of her father’s arm.

It was all Susie could do to kick her legs and bawl like a kid. The embarrassment was unbearable for about a minute before the sting stole all the glory.

“I’m sorry Daddy, I’m sorry,” Susie bawled, but the spanking had only just got started.

“Now go and stand in the corner,” Her father bellowed at last and for once Susie could not conceive of disobeying.

“Have you thought about my offer?” Claire asked once Susie was safely in the corner with her tears.

“Yes we have,” Mother interrupted, “We think it is an excellent idea. That girl needs a very firm hand; she can’t go on wasting her life away here.”

“So be it,” Claire said standing up.

Susie was horrified, what was going on? Then once again things got worse.

“Now we must start as we mean to go on. She broke her curfew I believe,” Claire said with an edge to her voice. “So I think she needs a length or two of willow across her bare bottom.”

“What?” Susie broke from the corner and turned to face her aunt.

“Get your nose back in that corner, I’ll tell you when to come out,” Claire snapped. “One more word and I’ll have Tony here use his belt for good measure.”

“Oh please Mummy, Daddy, don’t…” Susie wailed, but to no avail.

Ten minutes later she was bent over the back of the sofa while Claire and Tony took turns slicing a bitter wand of freshly cut willow across Susie’s bare bottom.

“Oh please, oh please, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” Susie begged and started to cry in earnest.

At some point in the proceedings the doorbell rang.

“It’s some of Susie’s friends and that so-called boyfriend of hers,” her father said in irritation, “I’ll get rid of them.”

“No bring them in,” Claire said, “This will be most… educational.”

“Please Claire, please, I’ll do anything, anything,” Susie begged.

“Nonsense, Tony, I think she would benefit from a taste of your belt after all,” Claire said imperiously.

Susie could scarcely look round as the wide-eyed youths filed into the room.

“I suggest you learn your lesson,” Claire hissed, and then she nodded at Tony.

The belt was the worst ever. After two minutes Susie was beyond caring about her audience.

“I’m so, so sorry,” she sobbed.

“This is nothing my girl,” Claire said angrily, “Once I get you home, you’ll be scrubbing floors with a toothbrush and if you so much as look at me cross-eyed you’ll be getting your bare bottom spanked, strapped and caned on my front lawn for the benefit of the neighbours.

Just then the doorbell rang again. After several minutes Susie’s father came back from the door and said, “There are reporters here. They want to do a story on domestic discipline; apparently there was something on YouTube.”

One of the youths in the corner grinned sheepishly and showed everyone his phone. “That was quick,” he said, “I only just posted it.”

“Oh God no,” Susie wailed as she began to struggle wildly to make good her escape.

The bedclothes tumbled around her and Susie found herself sitting on the floor in a heap.

“Shit me, what a weird dream,” she said aloud panting.

Strangely, when she looked at the clock, she saw it was 10am. There was a strong smell of bacon and coffee coming from downstairs. Saturday, she thought, and then she yawned. I really should call Claire, she wiped the sleep from her eyes, I want to hear all about this new guy.

She took one glance in the mirror at the mass of blonde hair tumbling over her head and then without putting on a robe, made her way to breakfast.

At the foot of the stairs she did a double-take. Tony and Claire were sitting on the sofa just as they had appeared in the dream.

“Good morning Susie,” Claire said pertly. There was a cold edge to her voice.

Ends