Eloise parked her van in the designated spot five minutes before she was due to arrive at Victoria Morgan's room. That was cutting it a little closer than she aimed for but it's not like she couldn't make it. Quickly, she checked the electronic file for the offender.
The image of a blonde with a tiny nose ring greeted her on her profile. She was eighteen, a freshman, and was in trouble for keeping a pet mouse in her dorm. Eloise found that sort of sweet, but it was still against the rules. The only animals anyone was allowed to keep were goldfish and even then there were limits aimed mostly at preventing the men's dorms from gambling on beta fish fights. She shook her head at the monsters that teenage boys living on their own could be as she went through the mental checklist.
Victoria was getting sentenced to one category lower than Meredith had been so her list of options was different. She could choose between breast groping, face slapping, nipple pinching, or having her backside paddled. Eloise had performed this category a few times, though not as often as category 3. If she had to guess, Victoria would probably choose the paddle, which is also what Eloise would choose. The nipple pinching and groping were too sexual and there was just something about face slapping that put people off. Something about it not being under clothes, maybe.
The new list did mean she needed new equipment. Opening the panel door, Eloise double checked that she had plenty of gloves, restraints if she needed them, and she traded out the cane, putting it in a compartment designated for items needing to be cleaned, for a solid wooden paddle. She checked her watch to see she had three minutes and she began to walk quickly to the dorm, pulling her ID card out as she walked.
Victoria lived on the second floor of Hamden Hall and Eloise rode the elevator up. She followed the signs past the bulletin board decorated by the RA and the student lounge, where two girls in pajamas raised their eyebrows as she went down the hall. Finally she found room 237 far down on the right. In greens and pinks, the names Victoria Morgan and Natasha Freeman decorated the door alongside butterflies and the silhouettes of ballet dancers. After checking the time, she knocked on the door.
She waited ten seconds and furrowed her brow, listening for any movement on the other side of the wooden door. Eloise wouldn't blame any girl for hesitating before opening the door, after all. She knocked again and still nothing. She checked her watch and it was one minute past time. Eloise really didn't want to have to write this up and was deciding if she should try to find the RA on duty to help her find Victoria when she heard the elevator door ding and footsteps coming down the hall.
She turned her head and fast walking toward her was a blonde girl with a ponytail and thick black glasses. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! My professor kept us late!"
Eloise sighed as she tried to brush off any annoyance. She stepped aside to let the anxious young woman get to the door and put her key in the lock to open it, "I guess you're Victoria Morgan?"
"Yes, I'm so sorry. I should have snuck out the back of class. I know it's bad to be late. So so sorry."
"Mmmhmm," Eloise said, noncommittally. It didn't really matter that she was a minute late, and her excuse was as good as any, but the technician wasn't in the business of letting an offender be late to a session that she scheduled herself.
The answer made Victoria even more anxious and she continued her apologies, "I really didn't mean it. I'm so so sorry."
Eloise didn't answer as she followed Victoria into her room. It looked basically the same as Meredith's but reversed. Straight in front of her was a desk with a bed behind it. To the left there was another desk, obviously Victoria's as that is where she dropped her bookbag and small brown purse, and behind that another bed with a walkway between the beds ending with a dresser and a window that overlooked a quad that Hansen Hall shared with other freshman dorms. Eloise took her time looking around, learning what she could about the offender.
On Victoria's desk were pictures of her in tutu's and leotards and on the back of the closet door in a shoe organizer sat ballet slippers. Having pegged her major hobby, Eloise's eyes went to the girl. She wore a loose fitting red t-shirt that seemed a bit too big for her and tight black leggings with mesh panels on the outside of her legs. On her feet she had white sneakers with red trim and tall white socks that Eloise had been noticing more often with students. She had a tan and blue eyes and Eloise wondered if her tan was natural. Unlike the picture in her profile, she wore thick black framed glasses and she didn't have her nose ring on today.
Finally, Eloise spoke after Victoria started to look even more red faced and worried, "It will be ok. You just have to listen to directions."
"Yeah, I know, I know. I didn't mean to be late," she repeated.
"I understand," Eloise answered.
Victoria clearly thought Eloise was more angry than the technician actually felt. "I understand if you have to write me up..."
Eloise frowned and then tried to soften her expression before reassuring the girl, "No, I don't think that's necessary but we should get started."
"Yeah, right... So do I undress..?" the blonde started.
Eloise raised her eyebrows at how quickly the freshman moved onto what terrified most offenders. "Hmmm, not yet," she answered, "We should talk first."
"Uh, yeah, right," Victoria replied, her cheeks reddening, "It's just, like, I've heard what might happen."
"That's ok. You will have to undress in a few minutes but not yet. Why don't you take a seat?" Eloise suggested, "Do you think Natasha will mind if I take her desk chair?"
"Hah, no. Tasha is mad at me so she's on your side," Victoria said as she turned her chair around to sit facing the technician.
Eloise filed that tidbit away as she sat down across from the blonde and sat her bag down on the floor and pulled out her tablet. "Ok, thank you. First, my name is Eloise Wendell and I'm an Assistant Punishment Technician here at the College's Office of Student Behavior. Nice to meet you. Should I call you Victoria?" At the same time, she held out her hand in front of her to greet the teenager.
"Uh, yeah. Everyone does," she answered, not noticing the offered hand. She leaned forward in the wooden desk chair and rested her elbows on her legs with her hands together.
So not a Vicky or a Tori, Eloise noted. "Can I see your student ID, then, please."
"Oh, yeah, yeah," Victoria said. She leaned back in her chair to get to her purse that now laid on her desk and started searching. Eloise could tell that the girl was frazzled and reminded herself being one minute late wasn't that big of a deal. "Sorry, I, um," the girl muttered as she obviously was searching the depths of the small bag, "I thought it was in here."
Eloise stayed professional. She was just eighteen and in a stressful situation. "You need to find it for me. Would it be anywhere else?" she guided her.
"Yeah it's here somewhere," the girl said, switching from her purse to searching her pink and gray bookbag. She searched the main pocket, found nothing, and then started going through the smaller compartments and the pockets on the sides, "Sorry I just always use the electronic version on my phone."
Eloise sighed and tried not to roll her eyes, "Why don't you just show me that." She wrote a mental memo to tell students that was acceptable in the future, "You should probably get a replacement card."
"Yeah, just a lot easier on the phone," she muttered as she swiped and tapped in codes, "Here you go."
Eloise took the phone and held it up next to the girl. It was definitely her, even with the glasses, and the fact she had to login to the university system with her credentials to access the ID made it even more certain.
"Yeah, I wore contacts that day," Victoria said awkwardly.
"It's fine," Eloise said handing the phone back, "Let's get started." The technician inhaled and tried to push her irritation to the side and put on her professional disciplinarian face on, "I'm here because you have been sentenced to be punished for a rule infraction. Do you want to contest that you were keeping a pet mouse in your room?"
"No," she said, looking ashamed, "I screwed up."
