The School Bully by Fiona Wilde

Bartlett and waited.
    “I owe you an apology,” the man said. “You came to me yesterday with good information and in my….stubborn pride I managed to make a complete ass of myself. I said a lot of terrible things to you, so you can only imagine how I felt when I came home last night and overheard my daughter laughing to her friend over the phone about what she’d gotten Beck to do to your car.”
    He looked up at her and shook his head. “It’s not easy for me to admit this, Miss Fowler, but what you said yesterday was correct. My kids are jerks. Both of them. What they did to you was unforgiveable….”
    “No, not unforgivable,” she said. “It was stupid. Really stupid. And possibly even criminal. But it’s not the kind of thing that I think should follow them the rest of their lives, which is why I came to you instead…”
    She looked at the headmaster now, and noted for the first time that he was giving her the same stern, hard look he’d given her just before he’d taken the paddle to her quivering backside. Her stomach rolled at the memory and she swallowed hard.
    “They’ve been expelled, Miss Fowler,” Logan Chance said. “Both Beck and Hannah are out of here. And what they’ve done is going to be reported to the police by their father.”
    “Mr. Chance,” she began. “I think…”
    “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Not this time. This is the best course of action, and their father agrees. It’s why he came to me.”
    Anna stood considering the gravity of what the men had decided. She did not agree, but she was not the parent. Mr. Bartlett was.
    “And you know something else,” Beckwith Bartlett was saying. “I think that the old Bridgestone disciplinary code is going to be applied in my house when I get back home. I think it’s time that someone got paddled to remind them to remember what they were told to do.”
    “So do I ,” the headmaster said, and Anna realized he was looking at her. She swallowed hard.
    “Well, I’m leaving now,” Bartlett said. “Miss Fowler, you will be compensated for your damage.”
    Anna started to say that there was no need, that the Mazda was old anyway, but he left. And she found herself standing in front of the headmaster.
    “I need to get back to class,” she said.
    “No you’re not,” he replied. “Not today.”
    “I’m fired?” she asked.
    “No,” he said. “But you are in trouble.”
    “Logan...” she began.
    “Today it’s Mr. Chance,” he said, and pointed to the door. “Now move.”
    Anna’s head was swimming as he directed her outside.
    “Where are you taking me?” she asked.
    “I told the secretary we were going to discuss staff development,” he said, pointing to a black Mercedes sedan parked in the space marked “Reserved for Headmaster.” Logan Chance opened the door for Anna, who felt her heart thudding as she got into the passenger’s seat.
    He didn’t speak as he drove her through the winding streets of the old-money neighborhood where he’d grown up. Anna had heard through the grapevine that Logan Chance’s parents had moved to Florida and given him the house years before. She’d only seen it from the outside, never having been cool enough as a student to secure a coveted invitation to any of his parties. Now she was being taken inside for a reason she was dreading, and was wondering why in the hell she wasn’t protesting. Did she want this? Was part of her sickly fascinated with the kind of politically incorrect treatment he’s already given her?
    “Mr. Chance…” she uttered as he cut the engine after pulling into a garage. Her voice was soft, pleading.
    “Anna, I told you what would happen,” was all he said, and then he was out of the car and at her door. He opened it and led her out and then inside his house through the side door. It was exquisite inside. Everything was polished and clean. She looked down and realized he was holding her hand and flushed with fear and pleasure. She felt like