by Grace Brackenridge
Just to be clear, a bald-face (or bold-face) liar is one who tells brazen, audacious lies - lies that are perhaps believed only because they are so boldly stated. In other words, a bald-faced lie is one that is told in a compelling and convincing manner.
Go for broke means putting all your chips on the table. Betting big. Like taking all your winnings and placing them on 13. On a double 00 roulette wheel, you have one chance in 38 of winning. That's only a 2.63% chance. Slim odds.
But if 13 comes up on my $10 bet, I win $350.
This is a story about using bald-face lies to go for broke.
Take big chances. Win big.
Regarding context, this is a story about two 15-year-old cheerleaders from the junior varsity squad.
Most importantly, this is a story about spankings.
After JV cheer practice, Paige Primrose and I walk over to her house on Drury Lane. We'll do our algebra homework together there.
We're still in our cheer uniforms.
Secretly, I look forward to seeing her Uncle Matthew again. He's staying with Paige's family for a few weeks.
When I say 'uncle', I bet you think that Matt - if I may be so familiar - is of the same generation as Paige's stepdad.
True, they're half-brothers. They do share the same dad.
But Matt is the consequence of a May-December romance. A 'love' child, Matt is the offspring of their dad's second marriage to a trophy wife.
That explains why Uncle Matt is so much younger and so much better looking that his brother Preston.
I mean no disrespect to Paige's stepdad. I'm just trying to be totally honest here.
Matt Primrose is 24, a grad student in computer science at State.
And cute!!
Matt makes me tingle all over. When I walk by him, the scent of his aftershave makes me all squishy, if you know what I mean.
But then, I'm 15. I'm probably just going through a phase.
Almost every cute boy easily arouses me.
And in Matt's case, I worry that he is maybe too cute, if you know what I mean.
Paige's mom and dad are still at work. We have the entire Primrose house to ourselves.
Paige asks her Uncle Matt to help us with our algebra.
We set up our textbooks and assignment sheets at the kitchen table.
Paige casually mentions that we both got 69% on our last algebra test.
Her Uncle Matt says matter-of-factly, "Paige, if I were your father, I'd spank you for earning a score like that."
"What?" exclaims Paige. "You've got to be kidding!"
All of a sudden, my tingling goes into overdrive.
Just hearing Matt say "spank" makes me swoon.
Uncle Matt says "spank" so smoothly. So conventionally. Like executing a spanking on a 15-year-old cheerleader for a bad algebra score is the most natural thing in the world.
Wow! I want to hear more.
"In high school," Uncle Matt explains, "my mom spanked me for poor academic performance. I suppose academic spankings have fallen out of favor nowadays."
I am so dying to find out if his mommy spanked him on his bare bottom. Or what?
"Well, Matt," I ask on an impulse, "what about cheating? What do you think about cheating and spanking?"
"Grace! Shut up!"
"What are you talking about, Grace?" asks Uncle Matt.
"It's no coincidence that Paige and I got the same score," I reply.
Over Paige's strenuous objections, I reveal to her uncle our elaborate cheating scheme.
"If I were your father," Uncle Matt tells his niece, "I'd spank you twice. Once for academic dishonesty. And again for being such a lousy cheater. You cheat? And you flunk anyway?"
Uncle Matt shakes his head. "That's pathetic!"
"Uncle Matt, you've got to promise me you won't tell Preston!"
Preston is Paige's stepdad. Preston isn't anywhere near as cute as her Uncle Matt. Probably because her stepdad didn't have the same trophy mom as Matt. Preston's mom is the first wife, a real Plain Jane - as near as I can tell.
I don't know that for absolute fact, but it sure seems logical.
"I don't know..." Matt teases his niece. "I sort of feel ethically bound as an educator to turn you in to somebody in authority..."
"I mean it, Uncle Matt. Preston might very well spank me something awful for - like - cheating. Mom's dead set against spankings, cuz I'm - like - 15. Way too old to spank."
Uncle Matt shakes his head slowly. He doesn't think much of Paige's mother and her views on teenage discipline.
Paige continues to plead for mercy. "But Mom sometimes looks the other way - or goes shopping - when Preston thinks he needs to spank me for something big. And cheating on an exam is big, even if Grace's little scheme still got us flunked."
All this talk about spankings makes my head spin. I decide to seize the moment. Go for broke.
"Uncle Matt, I got an idea. Why don't you spank us? Certainly with the understanding, of course, that nobody else needs to know about any of this."
Notice how I insinuate myself into the family system? I didn't say spank Paige. I say spank us. Spank both of us.
Matt laughs. "I've always had this fantasy about spanking a cheerleader in her uniform. You're kidding, right?"
I shrug. "You said your mom did it to you. And now you're in grad school. So spankings helped you become a better student. Just because something is out of fashion, Uncle Matt, that doesn't mean the idea is bad."
"Grace!" Paige demands. "Why are you doing this to us?"
"Maybe I feel guilty?" I tell Paige.
Of course, guilt has nothing to do with it.
Just as Matt has fantasies about spanking cheerleaders in their uniforms, I have fantasies about cute guys spanking me in my cheer outfit.
"Okay, I'll go along with this charade," chuckles Matt. "But one spanking apiece doesn't cut it. You cheated and you flunked. I don't count the need for just one spanking in that scenario. I count two."
"This is ridiculous!" Paige declares. "Grace, you must be crazy."
"You don't want Matt to tell your stepdad, do you? I'm not even in your family, Paige. But you don't see me trying to get out of the spankings."
"Yes," says Matt quizzically. "What's with that? Grace, will your father spank you if I tell him what you did?"
"He certainly would if he wasn't dead."
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"Yeah, Daddy died when I was ten. Up till his heart attack, though, he spanked me pretty regular. Mom isn't much into spankings, so I haven't been spanked since my father died."
That's not true, of course. This is the first of my bald-face lies.
A certain somebody - or two - has spanked my tushy since Daddy died. Recently, in fact. But that's a whole other story. It involves my mom's boss. It's complicated. I'm simply not getting into that right now.
"So," I laugh awkwardly, "maybe I'm just hungry for a good, hard spanking. Maybe a spanking like my father used to give me for closure. Maybe help me grieve my father's death."
Who can say no to a girl grieving her father's death? Even if she's asking for something as unconventional as a spanking?
Matt grins. "Grace, I think you're actually serious."
"Dead serious."
"Well, Uncle Matt, you can spank Grace if you want. But count me out."
"Paige, Matt's a teaching assistant at State," I remind her. "He's ethically bound to report academic dishonesty. Besides, if he doesn't tell on you, I will."
"Grace, why are you being so mean to me?"
"I'm not being mean. But it's not fair that I get two spankings and you get none."
Paige can see the injustice in that.
But still she insists, "I don't wanna spanking!"
"Nobody here wants a spanking, Paige," I assure her through another bald-face lie. "But under the circumstances, it's the right thing to do. Trust me, you'll feel a whole lot better about yourself when your spankings are all behind you."
"I don't care how I'll feel about myself, Grace. I'm more concerned about how my bottom will feel!"
I nod. "That is certainly a legitimate concern, Paige."
"Hmmmmmmmmm..." says Paige, chewing nervously on her fingernail.
Finally, she asks, "You won't spank me bare, like Preston does?"
"Paige!" I exclaim. "You've told me about your stepdad's spankings. You've shared so many details."
"That's because you interrogate and interrogate me!" Paige retorts.
"But you never told me he spanked you on your bare behind!"
"You never asked."
"Paige, that's kind of an important detail to leave out!" I tell my friend. "Personally, I don't care one whit about panties. Up or down. On or off. Frankly, what's the diff?"
"Bare bottoms make a big diff to me!" Paige insists petulantly.
"Okay, no bare bottoms," Matt agrees. "I'll spank you guys on your cheer uniform panties."
This talk is making me tingly and crazy all at once.
"Hand spankings?" asks Paige.
Her cute uncle shrugs. "Hand spankings it is."
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
I'm more than happy to go first.
Gosh, I don't know.
Maybe Matt is holding back, because he's going to spank me again in a few.
Still, I was hoping for something more intense.
I remember my father's spankings really hurt. But then, I was ten the last time he spanked me.
Of course, clandestine spankings from my mother's boss were really intense. But like I said, that's another story.
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
And poof!
It's over.
I'm hardly crying at all.
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
"Boo! Hoo! Hoo!"
For a teen that gets her bottom spanked bare, Paige is sure acting melodramatic.
I know for a fact that her spanking isn't hurting her that much.
Afterwards, Paige stands sobbing and rubbing her buns, like her uncle just blistered her something awful.
She's got that I'm-calling-CPS expression on her face.
I roll my eyes, already dry from my prior spanking.
"I don't want anymore spankings!" she sobs. "Uncle Matt, if you tell Preston, I gonna tell on you! I bet you'll get into a lot of shit for spanking me behind Preston's back. And Mom will be livid!"
Like the drama queen she tends to be, Paige runs weeping from the kitchen, still clutching her buns up under her cheer skirt.
We hear her hurry up the stairs and slam her bedroom door.
Okay, time to go for broke again.
I know what I want to say. I just worry that my voice will be too shaky.
"Look, I'll take Paige's second spanking for her," I volunteer. "That still makes us even, right? You'll still deliver four spankings between the two of us. The punishments are a little lopsided. That's all."
Matt smiles and shrugs.
I suspect Matt can't get over his good fortune: spanking a cute little redheaded cheerleader on her nice round bottom in a tight cheerleader uniform.
I don't exactly know what Uncle Matt's cheerleader spanking fantasy was before now. But after spanking my butt two more times, I will be Uncle Matt's fantasy from now on. The thought of that makes me wet.
You're welcome, Uncle Matt.
And Uncle Matt thinks he's the only one living the dream!
"Before you spank me, Matt, I've got a personal question for you."
This is truly going for broke.
"Sure," he says. "Fire away."
"Are you gay?"
Stay with me. I'm not the least bit homophobic, as you'll soon see. There's method to my madness.
"No! Why do you ask?"
"Well, your first spanking was a bit limp-wristed. I've heard that's the way gay guys spank."
Of course, that's another bald-face lie. Somebody should spank me for lying like that. Mom's boss is gay. And there's nothing limp-wristed about the way he spanks.
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