by Grace Brackenridge
"Leadership and teamwork, girls," intoned Mr. Cavanaugh gravely. "It's a difficult choice. But somebody has to pay the price. You decide amongst yourselves."
"Only one of us, Daddy?" asked Judy.
"Only one," he replied from the doorway. "The other two must stand witness, however. That's their punishment."
Mr. Cavanaugh closed the door, leaving Judy Cavanaugh, Connie Schwartz, and me to ponder our fate.
Mr. Cavanaugh - Coach Cavanaugh - was right, of course.
We had no business accepting a ride from a bunch of high school boys. But we were 13, the boys were cute, and we never thought we'd get caught. So we talked each other into it.
The boy who was riding shotgun smoked Marlboros. Coach Cavanaugh could smell tobacco on our clothing and in our hair the minute we walked in the front door.
We convinced Coach Cavanaugh we hadn't smoked cigarettes. But in the process, we had to disclose how we got home from the mall.
Our heads bowed, we trooped past the kitchen door and upstairs to await Judy's father in her bedroom.
"I swear, Judy," said Mrs. Cavanaugh from the kitchen door as she wiped her hands on a dishtowel. "Your bare behind attracts your father's paddle like a magnet these days."
"God, this is awful!" exclaimed Connie. "Deciding who gets it seems punishment enough."
"Daddy's like that," sighed Judy. "He always tries to teach me something special when he spanks."
As coach of the high school baseball team, as well as an English teacher, Mr. Cavanaugh seemed dedicated to the proposition that every little misconduct on the part of his players, students, or daughter created a teach-able moment.
Connie and I knew Coach Cavanaugh spanked Judy often and hard. In the showers after P.E., a girl and her red bottom have no secrets.
"Yeah, I remember that sleepover when we all tried to sneak out the back gate," sighed Connie. "We had to go into your dad's workshop and sand that new paddle he was making. The one you gave your mom on Mother's Day. After he spanked one of us, the next girl in line had to sand it some more before her bottom got to feel it."
"You didn't come to that sleepover, did you?" Judy asked me.
"No, I think that was before I moved to the neighborhood," I replied evasively.
"Yeah," agreed Connie. "We were in the 5th grade. And you didn't move to our school till the 6th grade."
I nodded, realizing I was being less than forthcoming.
But how could I explain to my two best friends that my mom never spanks?
After all, we'd been together for almost two years now. Whenever Connie or Judy talked about their spankings, I nod sympathetically and keep my mouth shut.
Although I hated spankings, I felt embarrassed admitting my divorced mother was so lax in the discipline department.
We were still debating who should get it when Mr. Cavanaugh opened Judy's door. "Well, girls? Who's stepping up to the plate?"
"Daddy, please, we need more time!"
Judy's dad shook his head. "Time's up. Since you girls failed to act decisively, I'm afraid all of you must step up to the..."
"I'll do it, Mr. Cavanaugh," interrupted Connie. "I'll step up to the plate, Coach. I'll take that spanking, Sir. I'll take everybody's spanking. Better one bottom than three."
Judy and I cast each other guilty looks as Mr. Cavanaugh sat down on his daughter's bed and helped our friend over his lap.
"It's been a long time since you've had to do me, huh Mr. Cavanaugh?" said Connie with a nervous laugh. "I remember that time with the new paddle out in your workshop. You're a real bun-buster!"
But despite her false bravado, Connie gasped when Coach Cavanaugh flipped up her miniskirt and stretched the elastic band of her panties tight and...
SNAP!
"Ouch! Oh gosh..."
Bare bottom, Connie craned her neck to look up with big, brown beseeching eyes at Judy's dad. "I guess I should have said before, Mr. Cavanaugh, but my dad doesn't pull them down like that anymore."
She smiled awkwardly. "Unless, of course, I've been extra bad."
"Well, since you're taking a spanking for two other girls at the same time," Coach replied, "I don't think we want to knock it out of the infield for a single. I think we've got to put some muscle behind it, so we can hit a triple..."
With no further adieu, Mr. Cavanaugh gave poor Connie Schwartz's bottom one awesome, blistering, bun-busting administration of justice.
Judy's paddle flew up and down in a blur, scoring against Connie's cheeks two or three times a second.
When he was done with her, Connie climbed awkwardly off his lap and turned to me for a hug, sobbing uncontrollably with her panties at her kneecaps.
I took Connie in my arms and tried to comfort her.
Judy Cavanaugh came over and put her arms around both of us.
"I'm so sorry, Connie," said Judy, crying in sympathy with our punished friend. "It should have been me. After all, he's MY daddy."
Mr. Cavanaugh stood to leave.
"Wait, Daddy!" called Judy as her father began to close her bedroom door behind him. "Please do me. Spank me too!"
My arms still around our sobbing friend, I hissed. "Judy! What are you DOING?"
"It's not right, Grace," she sobbed as she explained. "Did you see Connie's butt? Mine should look the same. Otherwise, I'll never be able to look Connie in the eyes again."
Her father sat down and Judy went to his side, reaching up under her miniskirt to remove her own panties.
Unlike Connie, who wore her panties at half-mast through her ordeal, Judy elected to take her ride sans panties altogether. Judy neatly folded her lime green panties and placed them on the bedspread next to her father.
Then, in a ritual she no doubt enacted scores of times before, Judy pulled up her skirt and lay down over her father's lap.
Her father showed Judy Cavanaugh not one ounce of mercy, even though she had volunteered for the ride.
Connie Schwartz recovered enough to turn her head from my shoulder to watch the tail end of Judy's long, lonely, agonizing ordeal.
Judy Cavanaugh was the most curvaceous of our threesome, with long blond hair besides.
But as the pain reached unbearable levels, Judy looked like she was trying to sweep the hardwood floor with her long locks, jerking her head from side to side and howling.
Seeing my two very best friends get spanked right in front of me like that reminded me of the last time Daddy spanked me.
I was in the 1st grade.
Daddy had moved into Gwen's apartment right after the separation.
Gwen had been Daddy's secretary and now served in a new capacity - and position - as Daddy's girlfriend.
They were moving back to Tulsa, Gwen's hometown. I didn't know it at the time, but this would be my last visitation.
"I know you two got some serious business to attend to," said Gwen with a smile, taking her car keys and letting herself out the front door.
"Grace, I'm giving your mother the power to raise you up as she sees fit," Daddy informed me somberly. "I know your mama don't approve. But I want to give you a little something to remember me by. Something to remember any time you're feeling willful or disrespectful to your ma."
Then he spanked me something awful.
Afterwards, when I felt recovered enough for a public appearance, Daddy drove me to Baskin Robbins.
"There's Daddy's li'l spankin' gal!" exclaimed Gwen loudly as we entered the ice cream parlor.
She had been holding a table for us.
Daddy's girlfriend smiled. "You just order any little ole thing your heart desires, Gracie."
As I ate an ice cream sundae - I felt I deserved it - Gwen went on and on about all the times her daddy whipped her with a leather strap out in the garage and how grateful she felt now, because those whippings taught her right from wrong.
I felt like telling her that taking my daddy away from my mommy and me didn't seem right, but my butt hurt too much to take that kind of risk.
When Judy got up from her father's lap, she was a sobbing, trembling mess.
Connie took Judy in her arms, the first-spanked teen now sobbing anew in unity with her just-spanked friend.
I thought about putting my arms around both of them, like we did before.
But I realized I hadn't earned that right.
Connie Schwartz had made the ultimate sacrifice, taking a spanking for all three of us.
But Judy Cavanaugh knew that just wasn't right. She couldn't let her friend suffer alone.
With great clarity, I realized I couldn't stand by and let Connie take my licks for me either.
Darn it, we three were in this spanking thing together.
"Mr. Cavanaugh, I believe it's my turn." I think my voice trembled, but I said it loudly.
For everyone to hear.
Still sitting on the bed, Mr. Cavanaugh looked at me skeptically. "Grace, I've never spanked you before. I guess you're saying your folks approve of spankings?"
"My daddy does."
I reached under my miniskirt and removed my panties for Mr. Cavanaugh, just as if I were his daughter.
I pulled up my skirt and lay down.
I remember little of my ordeal.
At some point, I made myself small and dropped to the floor in a drop of my own tears.
I endured the rest of my punishment in the puddle of tears and snot, the pooling of Connie's pain and Judy's sorrow commingled with my own.
"You did a good job, Grace," said Mr. Cavanaugh from the door as my two best friends in the whole world wrapped their arms around me in the sweetest, most comforting embrace.
On Judy's bed, we held each other close.
"You guys," I began, "I got a confession to make."
I finally told them about Mom and what a non-spanker she was and that I was six the last time my daddy spanked me.
"Gosh, that's more than half a lifetime since your last spanking!" exclaimed Judy.
We all agreed that seven years was way too long between spankings.
That's the funny thing about the time right after a spanking - a group spanking like this one, anyways, involving my most closest friends in the whole world.
It's like we'd been though this trying experience and it made us closer and more intimate. So, naturally, since it was a "done deal" anyway, we began to extol the virtues of the agony we had all endured together.
"I'm lucky my daddy spanks me so much," Judy declared. "I know you guys see my red butt in the showers after P.E. I know it seems like every time I turn around. But times like these, I see the power of spankings to help shape me up and guide me."
"You're lucky to have somebody to spank you!" I blurted. "There's been lots and lots of times I deserved what I just got - and didn't. I really wish somebody would take a firm hand to me more often. I think I'd be a better girl for it."
"What about me?" Connie demanded. "I'm the one who stepped up to the plate and took a spanking for everybody. So, as you can see by my actions, I think a good, hard spanking IS needed from time to time. And tonight, I think we all deserved a spanking. But Judy, when your dad said just one, I knew it had to be me."
"Why you?" Judy inquired.
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