Temporal Exploring 101 - Branch Cut

V.3 Jinxed

There was no doubt in my mind that it was Mira who had jinxed it.

I had been all resolved and determined to make an extra effort to stay out of trouble for the remainder of my time at St. Albert's.

Then yesterday the redhead had joked about it, expressing concern about me spending a sizable fraction of that time with a sore backside.

And sure enough, on the very next morning, here I was facedown across my tutor's knee, with my skirt raised and my knickers down, getting my bare bottom spanked.

I would not have been surprised at all to learn that, as in Erin Morgan's case, strange gifts had been running in Mira's family for generations, too.

Such as, to name just one of them, the gift of jinx.

It had been the worst stroke of bad luck that Ms Gablins had happened to glance at me just as I had been about to pass that slip of paper on to Jess. It had been passed to me from Helen, and I still had no idea where it originated and what was written on it.

Ms Gablins had confiscated it and studied it for a moment. I had been alarmed to watch her face turn red with anger.

"Did you write that, Hart?" she had demanded to know.

"No, Miss."

That was nothing but the truth, of course. But it pretty much had invited our teacher's follow-up question, "Who gave it to you, then?"

As it turned out, "I can't remember, Miss" was not considered a satisfactory answer by Ms Gablins.

"Don't be ridiculous, Hart," she had snapped.

Needless to say, I would be damned if I told her who had passed the slip of paper to me. Ratting on one of your classmates was one of the things that simply were not done at this school, period. Surely, even Ms Gablins had to be aware of that. Or perhaps she wasn't. In any case, she had sent me to see my tutor for a 'much needed attitude adjustment'.

Obviously, none of this had actually been my fault. I had attempted to convey this to Allie, sadly without much success.

Her friend and classmate, Lena Atkins, was perched on the edge of Allie's desk and watching placidly as Allie spanked my butt.

Like her friend, Lena worked as a tutor. She held the small office adjacent to Allie's, and both girls liked to hang out together, usually in Allie's office.

For a while the only noises to be heard in the small room were the sounds of Allie's palm connecting with my bare bum and my own squeals and yelps that accompanied the procedure.

A procedure that was made no less awkward by the circumstance that both Allie and Lena were my friends and that they were merely one year older than me.

I hasten to add that I was the only one among us who considered that awkward. Lena and Allie regarded it as perfectly normal.

With a final resounding smack, Allie's right hand came to rest upon my left butt cheek.

"I think that ought to be sufficient," she announced.

With a sense of profound relief I got to my feet. At which point it occurred to me that I might as well use the opportunity to learn something useful about Ms Delmond. Both Allie and Lena had proved to be invaluable sources of information in my previous investigations.

"Say, guys, what do you know about Ms Delmond?"

"Ms Delmond? Well, let's see." Allie took a moment to collect her thoughts. "For starters, she is new at this school. She has been here for less than a year. Supposedly this is her first position as a teacher. She is fresh from university and fairly young compared to the other teachers here at St. Albert, right, Lena?"