by Mike London
Celia Manners was addressing a large group of girls who had gathered in the Day Room, the common room used by fifth form girls at St Olive's School. She was not the form captain, neither did she hold any official position, but she was popular with the other girls, had a forceful personality and often acted as though she were their unofficial leader.
She was now reminding the others that the final hockey match of the term was to take place next Friday. Even if they didn't beat Upton School, and she was sure that they would, they would still be top of the school league within which they played. Her suggestion was that she and a couple of other girls would get exeats and go off on Saturday to Friardale, the local village, where they could buy something to drink at Mr Cleggs local shop. They would have a celebratory party in the Day Room, starting at 1 o'clock on Sunday morning. Midnight Feasts were for the junior girls. They could be sure that no teachers would be about in the early hours of the morning and then they would be able to lie in on Sunday, when there were no lessons, only having to get up by 9am in time for Prayers.
Celia could be very persuasive and soon most of the girls were happy to agree to this plan. The others, seeing that they were in the minority, went along with it. It would be an adventure after all. The fifth formers who had not been in the Day Room at the time also acquiesced to the plan, knowing that a majority had already agreed to it. No one considered it particularly risky. Such things had taken place before, though never with alcohol, and they had never come to the attention of the staff.
Celia discussed the details of the planning with Donna Lowther and Carolyn Gadsby with whom she shared her study. Fifth form girls at St Olive's did not sleep in dormitories but shared 'studies' with either one or two other girls. These rooms were used for sleeping but also had desks that could be used for prep, the preparatory work that girls were expected to do before lessons.
It was soon agreed that cider would be the form of alcohol to be bought. It was inexpensive and had a high alcohol content. Celia told the others that she had seen three-litre plastic bottles of cider in Clegg's shop, priced at £1.90 each. There were twenty-five girls in the Fifth Form. It seemed reasonable that they should each have the opportunity to drink at least a pint of cider. Carolyn was the best at maths. One litre was about one and three quarters imperial pints. So, she worked out that five three-litre bottles would be more or less twenty-six pints, just over a pint for each girl. Celia thought that they should get one more bottle to be on the safe side, six in all. That would come to £11.40 or just under 50p from each fifth former. The other comestibles would come from whatever tuck the girls had on hand. This seemed reasonable for such a fun event and Celia organised a quick whip-round. She transferred the heterogeneous collection of coins to her purse and made sure that she had three £5 notes.
They couldn't make the purchase at Mr Clegg's shop themselves. He would realise that they were schoolgirls attending St Olive's and that they were underage for the purchase of alcohol. Celia's plan was to walk to the village and hang around near to the shop. When a young man came along, she would offer him £15 to buy six bottles of cider. He would make £3.60 on the deal and would be unlikely to decline. Celia's parents gave her a large allowance and she could easily afford the difference.
The next step was to obtain exeats for the three girls from their housemistress for Saturday. That would allow them to visit the village and they wouldn't have to wear school uniform. Celia wanted all three of them to go so that they could easily carry the six heavy bottles between them. The exeats were readily granted. There was nothing out of the way in three senior girls wishing to visit the village on a Saturday.
They set off early in the afternoon, each with a rucksack to carry their purchases. They had to hang around outside the shop for longer than they had expected. Most of the customers seemed too respectable to be likely to agree to the rather shady transaction and they certainly did not want to be reported to the police or to the school.
Finally, a rather rough looking young man came along, and Celia approached him.
"Hi," she said, "we want to buy some cider from the shop, but he won't serve us because we can't prove we're eighteen."
Ben Cobb was fairly sure that he knew the reason for this problem. None of the girls looked as if they could be older that sixteen or seventeen at most. Still, he continued to listen.
"I've got £15 here," she said, holding out three £5 notes. If you buy six bottles of cider for us that will be £11.40. You can keep the change."
Ben only had to think for a moment. Opportunities to earn almost £4 for no effort did not come along very often. Certainly, it would be against the law. But Ben had no objection to law breaking except in circumstances where there was a probable risk of being caught.
So, he said "Rightio!" took the proffered cash and walked into the shop. A few minutes later he emerged, carrying two large bottles of cider.
"They're bloody heavy, these are," he said. "I don't want to do my back in!" He handed the bottles to Celia and she thrust them in her knapsack. After Ben had gone into and out of the shop another two times all the cider was in the knapsacks, he had effectively got a pack of cigarettes for free and he had £2 extra in his pocket.
"Nice doing business, girlies," he said, smiled and walked away. The three girls, laden knapsacks on their backs, made their way back to St Olive's.
Unfortunately, Celia's plan had been flawed.
Mr Clegg had been surprised when Ben Cobb had asked for six bottles of strong cider. Ben usually only bought a packet of cigarettes and the odd lottery ticket. It had been more remarkable still when Ben had taken the bottles out two at a time. Mr Clegg had looked out of the shop window to try to see what was going on. He had clearly seen Ben handing the bottles over to a group of three young girls. He was even able to recognise two of them, Celia Manners and Carolyn Gadsby both of whom he knew to be pupils at the nearby St Olive's School.
Unlike Mr Cobb, Mr Clegg did have respect for the law and proper behaviour. So, as soon as the three girls had started to walk off, knapsacks on backs, he telephoned Mrs Gresham, the headmistress of the school. He told her that he had seen three girls evidently arranging for a man to buy alcohol on their behalf and that he believed at least two of them, Celia Manners and Carolyn Gadsby to be pupils at her school. Mrs Gresham thanked the shopkeeper.
It took very little time for her to establish that Celia and Carolyn had obtained exeats to visit the village that day, together with Donna Lowther. These had to be the three girls whom Mr Clegg had seen.
Prefects were already waiting at the school gates when the three girls returned. Their bags were searched, the cider found, and all three girls were immediately escorted to Mrs Gresham's study. They had been caught red-handed and did not dare to deny their guilt or to make any excuses.
"This is disgraceful behaviour, girls," she said, "and you know that you will be severely punished. I do not believe, however, that you intended to drink the enormous quantity of cider that you brought into the school by yourselves. There were six bottles, each containing three litres. I find it impossible to credit that each of you intended to drink six litres of cider - ten and a half pints! That would be a challenge for the most experienced of topers! In fact, you would probably die from alcohol poisoning! Was this alcohol intended to have been shared with other girls?"
The girls did not want to give away their colleagues, but they did not really expect Mrs Gresham to believe that they had intended to drink all eighteen litres between themselves.
Carolyn nodded. "Yes, miss, with the other girls in our form."
"And may I take it that all of the girls contributed to the money to buy the drink?"
After a brief pause Celia replied, "Yes, miss, they did. But it was my idea in the first place."
"As all the girls in your form were involved in this nefarious scheme, they will all be punished. But the three of you, who actually attempted to smuggle alcohol into the school should expect additional and more severe punishment.
"You will tell all the girls in your form to change into pyjamas and dressing gown immediately after tea. All the girls, and I am including you three in this, will then line up outside the studies of their respective housemistresses. I will instruct the housemistresses to administer sound slipperings to all of you, over your pyjama trousers. You will all then go to your rooms and not emerge until the rising bell goes tomorrow morning."
The headmistress continued.
"That will be an appropriate punishment for the other girls in your form. For you three, however, a slippering will not suffice. In addition to your slippering from Mrs Chambers you will all report to my study before Prayers on Monday morning when you will all receive a severe caning. "I will arrange for the cider to be returned to Mr Clegg. I will not, however, ask him for a refund. You can tell your form-mates that their money has been lost."
The girls trooped disconsolately back to the Day Room to pass the bad news on to the others.
"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" said Celia, that really didn't go as well as I hoped!"
The other girls were dismayed and dejected at the news of the debacle. Most were more upset at the loss of their money and of the drinking party than at the prospect of the slipper. Getting the slipper was a part of school life and, although it was used less often on fifth formers, they knew that by going along with Celia's scheme and handing over their money they had certainly broken school rules.
Only two girls out of the entire twenty-five in the form had never had the slipper. Miranda Parker, strangely enough, was quite looking forward to the prospect. She had often wondered what it would be like to get the slipper and, now that she was in the fifth form, had thought that her chance of getting it had all but vanished. She was quite excited at the idea of a new experience.
Imogen Blake, on the other hand, was panicky and almost scared out of her wits. She was a timid girl who had always been well-behaved and had never even been given lines or a detention. She had contributed her 46p to the drinks fund because all the other girls had. She had never even intended to drink any of the cider. Despite all that, she was booked for the slipper along with all the others. She knew that most girls who got the slipper said it didn't hurt much and they did seem to perk up surprisingly quickly after a whacking.
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