Willow Academy (Spanking Story)

Chapter 13, Part 1: Penny's POV

"Are you F-ing kidding me right now?" Cooper said as he stopped right in front of us. "Where the hell are you two coming from?"

"Is he allowed to talk to us like that?" Zach quietly said to me.

I whacked Zach's arm and shushed him. If there was one thing I learned from living with Cooper all these years, it was to not test him when veins were already bulging out of his neck. "We were just behind the bleachers over there," I said. "We wanted to get a break from the sun."

"Uh huh," Cooper said, crossing his arms. "And did either of you get permission to go behind the bleachers to take a 'break from the sun?'"

"I didn't know we needed permission," I said. "It's not like we went anywhere that far."

"That's not the point," Cooper snapped. "You are supposed to stay where we can see you." I flinched a little as Cooper quickly pointed towards the bleachers behind us. "Going behind the bleachers is not staying in our line of vision. There's supervision at this school for a reason. Who the hell knows what you two were doing back there. For all I know you were—"

Cooper stopped himself and took a deep breath. My eyes widened when I quickly put together the puzzle pieces of what he was gonna say. "Oh my gosh, no—Cooper, it wasn't like that at all," I quickly assured him. "We really were just taking a break, that's it, I swear."

"Well, break's over," Cooper barked as he pulled his stopwatch out of his pocket. "You two are gonna be running until I think you've had enough."

I glanced at the Tartan track some distances away behind Cooper. I wasn't particularly shocked that he'd chosen this form of punishment—since Owen used to complain about it, I knew Cooper was gong-ho on making people run whenever the opportunity presented itself. But judging by the fact that there wasn't anyone else out on the track anymore, it was safe to assume that class had ended.

"But class is already over," I said.

"Not for you two," Cooper said. "Class isn't over until I say it is." I looked at Zach after I heard him inhale a deep breath and seemingly hold it in. I was honestly surprised that he had been quiet for this long—he didn't seem like someone who liked to shut up. That being said, he looked as if he was dying to say something but was choosing to hold his tongue. "You got something you wanna say, Oliver? Any more smart remarks?"

Zach thought for a moment. "... No sir," he said, which I think surprised Cooper just as much as it did me with his addition of the 'sir.' "Except I'm not really dressed to be running laps."

"Well whose fault is that? It was your choice not to change out, and your choice to go behind the bleachers without permission, so your chose the consequence of getting sweaty in them," Cooper said, not actually giving Zach a chance to answer his question. "Anything else you wanna say?"

I nudged Zach slightly, hoping he'd take that as a hint not to challenge my already-pissed-off brother. "Uh, no ... not really," he said.

"Good, then get running," Cooper said.

"But we were both running before," I said. "Like, actually running, not just walking, around the track. Running."

"Well I didn't see it," Cooper said. "And if I didn't see it, it doesn't count."

"Cooper, that's not fair—"

"I'm waiting," Cooper said, cutting me off. One look into his dark, intimidating eyes made me back down a little. "Get a move on. I have practice to get to, and I believe you do too."

It kind of sucked that I had gym last period, because otherwise I might have gotten away with saying I had to get to my next class and I didn't want to be all sweaty and smelly for it. "Now I'm gonna be tired before practice even starts," I said as I slowly started jogging towards the track.

"I don't care," Cooper said. "Consider this an extra warm-up." I could hear the shuffling of my feet once I got off the grass and actually set foot on the track. Just because I was moving didn't mean I was gonna do it with a smile on my face. "Run!"

"I am!" I snapped back at my brother, only picking up my speed the tiniest bit so that my feet were slapping down on the track instead of shuffling.

"Damn, Pidge," Zach said as he caught up to me and matched my speed. I was surprised he actually followed me. "Your brother is a hard ass."

"Yeah no kidding," I snapped.

"So, what's your issue with this brother?"

"He's the twenty-five percent that I don't have an issue with ... well, didn't have an issue."

I stopped running when I noticed that Zach was no longer running beside me. I turned around to see him just standing there looking at me. "Then why the hell are we running?" he asked.

"You two better pick up the pace!" Cooper shouted to us. "Or you'll be out here all night!"

I went back and grabbed Zach's arm to pull him along with me. "Because if we don't than the seventy-five percent of brothers that are pissed at me will turn into a hundred percent," I told him.

"Fine," Zach said as I let go of him and he reluctantly started running next to me again. "I guess I'll run to keep your brother happy ... for you."

"Gee how nice of you," I said. "But I doubt you'll make any difference on making Cooper happy if he's pissed at me."

"Look, Pidge, if you want things to get better with any of your brothers, you gotta be patient and work on them one at a time. Just remember: divide and conquer."

I looked at him with an 'are-you-serious' expression on my face. "That's it?" I asked. "That's how you're gonna help me? By giving me advice like that?"

"Yes and no," he said. "Fixing your issues with them and getting back in their good graces is just the start. Then you gotta seal the deal to make it so all of your brothers will one hundred percent trust you with whatever you want to do." Zach smirked. "That's where I come in."

"How do you know all this?" I asked him.

"I'm the oldest in my family."

"So?"

"I'm the oldest of seven."

"Okay..."

"And the only boy."

"...Oh."

"So I think it's fair to say I know a thing or two about brother-sister relationships."

"Yeah but it's probably different with your family since your siblings probably don't view you as another parental figure."

"My youngest sister is two and when I'm home, I babysit them all the time when my mom's at work."

Damn, I guess Zach really could relate to my family's crazy age-difference situation. "Alright fine. I'll give your advice a shot." I looked towards Cooper out in front of us, who we were slowly but surely getting close to passing. "I definitely won't be starting with that brother though," I said. Zach nodded in agreement.

Cooper stopped us as we approached him after running our first lap. "You two are moving way too slowly, so here's what we're gonna do: Penny, you're gonna run that way," he said as he pointed in the direction from which we'd just came, "and Oliver, you're gonna keep going in the direction that you've been going. Maybe if you two aren't running together in the same direction, it'll cut the chitchat and cut your lap time down." He pressed what I thought to be the reset button on his stopwatch. "I'm giving you both one minute to run a lap."

"One?" I asked, in shock. I didn't think I'd ever run one full lap around the track in under a minute, and that was when I was well-rested!

"Yes, one," Cooper said, "so you better get moving because I'll make you do it again and again and again until you can beat that time." He then pressed the start button before I had a chance to protest. "Go!"

I groaned as Zach and I took off in opposite directions. Talk about divide and conquer.