Chapter 3: A Bewitching Predator
Cathy
"Will you please tell me what the hell is going on?"
I shied away from Cindy's tone like she'd just slapped me. The spinelessness of my reaction alone was enough to disquiet me. Two weeks spent under Burns' thumb had been enough to make me cower before my little sister, as if I was the schoolgirl and she the teacher.
This was an unusual position for me. Cindy could be as bossy as me with her peers, and her calculating opportunism was straight out of my playbook, I knew. But she'd always looked up to me as the big sister she could, at best, emulate.
Or, at worst, envy. I could see it in her eyes when I went out to do some modelling gig while she stayed back after our parents had grounded her for some stupid reason.
Now, these old family dynamics were shifting. When it was just Burns lording it over me, that was one thing, but now Cindy saw me grovel before the classroom - before my very students - on a daily basis.
"Cathy, come on," Cindy insisted, stepping closer to me once again. "I don't get it. Why are you letting Burns treat you like this?"
She kept her hands on her hips, her head cocked, frown burrowed. Her look of disapproval froze me in place.
"What do you mean, Miss Cooper?" I asked, in a feeble voice. I didn't need to call her Miss Cooper. By so deftly outmaneuvering her into not having a vote, Irene had ensured my sister wouldn't play a part in my humiliating grading system.
But...
Well. Cindy was an opportunist. She might genuinely be worried about me in her own way, but she also reacted to weakness almost by instinct, and at that moment, I quite clearly wasn't "the big sister" in our interactions.
There was more to it, too. Irene was openly challenging Cindy in class on a daily basis by now. Cindy had frustrations to let out, and with Burns' relentless training undermining my self-confidence, I was an easy target.
Besides, I addressed Irene as Miss Cain in class on a daily basis. If I just called my sister Cindy, wasn't that implicitly siding with Irene against her? That would just piss Cindy off. What if she went to Burns? Found out what kinds of review I had to pass to keep him on side?
That would directly threaten my job. The thought alone was enough to remind me of the stone, and to make my heart race with fear. I couldn't risk it.
And so, I found myself yielding more and more ground to my younger sister.
"My job depends on it..." I said at last, in half a whisper, hoping that the technical truth would sate her need to know. Naturally, it didn't.
"That's bullshit," Cindy said. "What other teachers do you see subjecting themselves to these humiliations to keep their jobs?"
Those other teachers didn't make fools of themselves because of a stone on their first day at work, I thought, but couldn't say out loud. "It's not that simple," I said, feebly.
"Have you done something stupid?" Cindy asked, stepping even closer into my personal space. "Has Burns got some dirt on you? Is it blackmail? Look, Cathy, I can help you, but you need to come clean with me."
"No, nothing like that," I said, and then, hoping she'll let me go, "I do need to go and report to him though. If I wait any longer, I'll run late."
That wasn't even a lie. Burns expected extreme punctuality out of me. If the clock struck eight AM and I wasn't in...
This wasn't the right thing to tell Cindy, though. Her eyes widened in outrage, and she pumped her hand into a fist. "Ugh, fine! But since you've decided to be such a wimp, I'm taking the car tonight."
That made me turn around and face her off. Plummeting self-confidence or not, that car was a gift from Richard, and there was no way I'd let anyone else use it.
"No way! Look, Cin-"
"That's Miss Cooper to you," Cindy said, tapping her boot plaintively against the tiled floor. "Or have you forgotten, Cathy?"
I lowered my gaze, feeling like a mouse all over again. What the hell was happening to me?
I couldn't piss her off. I couldn't let her go to Burns.
"Of course, Miss Cooper," I said, defeated. And, forcing myself to utter the words, "the car's yours... if you want it."
I didn't give her the time to come up with a reply. I spun on my heels, and raced towards Burns' office.
My little outburst had cost me, twice. Not only had Cindy firmly put me back in my place, but I was now late for Burns' inspection.
As I stepped into the office, I knew I was in trouble.
Burns sat back in his chair, a fat cigar between his cracked lips. He was staring thoughtfully at the ceiling, puffing smoke slowly. He didn't acknowledge my presence, or invite me to sit. I stood, fidgeting, like a schoolgirl waiting for her evaluation.
"The reports are starting to come in," Burns said, his words coming out stilted as he spoke around his cigar. "Not many students are satisfied with your work so far, I'm afraid."
My heart sank. What more did the little brats expect of me? For the past week I'd treated them like they were royalty! My lips trembled as tears swelled in my eyes.
"I'm sorry, Sir," I said, demurely. He'd made it very clear to me that he expected me to lead with an apology whenever he was dissatisfied - only then could I ask questions. "May I ask what their g-g-grievances are?"
I hated stuttering. It made me sound dumb, but I was legitimately terrified. If I lost this job, I... I didn't know what I would do! I wanted to resist Burns' hold on me, truly, I just... had to find some stable ground on which to stand, first. I couldn't think clearly while everything was in danger of collapsing around me.
"It appears that you're an insufferable bitch," Burns said without the slightest inflection, producing a perfect ring of smoke. "Not that that's a surprise."
At last, he leaned forward, and his eyes met mine. Whenever he had this look on him - this penetrating, piercing gaze - I knew he was thinking much more than he let on.
Burns was a pig, but a dangerous pig to underestimate. His mind was always working, always scheming, always concocting ways to exploit every advantage.
I could testify to that.
"I don't tolerate tardiness, Cathy," he said, in a low voice. "You were one minute late. You know what that means."
I gulped, looking dejectedly at my feet - encased in heels selected for his approval. "I'm sorry Sir," I said, remembering my training. "That will be a spank for... for every ten seconds of tardiness, Sir."
"And how many is that?" He asked, plainly. "Do you at least know how to count, slut?"
My cheeks reddened with anger, humiliation, and fear. Things weren't this bad when he first exposed my inadequacy. They were getting worse, all the time. What was I doing wrong? Was I too stupid to get it?
"That'll be six spanks, Sir," I said, biting my lips to keep my defiant backtalk to myself. Without waiting for Burns to prompt me, I made my way to his side of the desk - I knew he expected me to be proactive in my "employee disciplining", as he liked to call it.
Feeling absolutely mortified, I laid prone over his desk, with my legs hanging out from the edge, my bum presented to him for his punishment.