DAYCARE LADY

It seemed like everyone else already found their summer jobs by the time Edward and Isa realized the needed to apply. Everyone Edward talked to had a smart and serious internship in their “field of interest” (whatever the hell that means), or otherwise something lined up with a friend of their parents or whatever. He stopped asking people what they were doing over the break because he knew the whole conversation would end with him feeling awful. 

Both of them knew they needed to do something — but neither of them had any clue what that something should be. Isa had already switched her major three times by the end of freshman year. Edward had never switched his: it had always been undeclared. Ask either of them what they wanted to do with their lives and they always drew a complete blank.

The daycare job was Isa’s find. Apparently, the place had been around since Isa was a kid: she even went there herself for a couple of years. The woman who ran it was a known figure in the neighborhood. Everyone calls her The Daycare Lady, but her name is actually Linda.

“I just ran into her in the grocery store,” Isa told Edward one afternoon while they were studying for finals together in her room. “It’s crazy she can still recognize me — it’s been, like, 15 years. She asked what I was doing over the summer and I said I didn’t know…and she just offered me a job! Then I told her about you and she said she had room enough for both of us.”

Edward sat back against the bedboard with his textbook splayed open on his lap. “Have you ever done work like that before? Like, babysitting or whatever?”

“Never. She said it didn’t matter.” She turned back to the open window, where she was watching some other students playing frisbee on the lawn. Her blonde hair was dark at the roots from sweat (their dorm’s AC never seemed to work on the hottest days) and the gentle breeze made the loose strands around her face flutter and twitch. Edward watched her dark eyes carefully, but when she turned back to him he pretended he hadn’t been staring. “So, what do you think? Would you do it with me?”

“How do you even know she’d give me the job? She hasn’t even met me.”

“Psh. Ms. Linda is gonna love you. Trust me, you’ve already got the job. All she had to hear was that we’re willing to work afternoons three days a week and she was in, that simple.”

Most of life isn’t nearly as simple as it seems, Edward thought. Like falling in love with your best friend you grew up with: she’s the only person you could possibly tell your secrets to, but your only big secret is the one thing you can’t tell her. For most of the time he spent awake, it seemed to him, everything in Edward’s life was complicated.

But getting a job with The Daycare Lady was not.

On the first day of the job, Isa and Edward showed up early, and Ms. Linda was very pleased. She poured them glasses of iced tea and chattered for five minutes about how nice it was to have help. 

“Most of the year, the college students are too busy working, and I don’t hire high schoolers to work with me anymore,” she remarked in a way that made it seem as though Isa and Edward should know what she was talking about. They laughed politely. “The summer months are the busiest — without school, working parents need some place to drop off their little ones. And that’s where you and I come in!”

Ms. Linda was in her fifties; she looked about as old as Edward’s mom. She had long, curly hair that reached down to her elbows and the small of her back — mostly dark, but streaked with silver hairs that could catch the light (unlike Edward’s mom, Ms. Linda probably hadn’t even considered dying them). She was tall and hardy, and she wore comfortable looking summer dresses with colorful patterns. She seemed to be in constant motion, always cleaning or preparing something during every conversation. Sometimes while she was talking with her back turned to them, Isa would meet Edward’s eye and make a face. She often said things that sounded wrong without realizing it, and they had to try hard not to laugh — like the time she kept saying, “Pound it in there” when she was describing the lock on the front gate. 

“You’ve really gotta pound it in there, hard, otherwise it pops out,” she said, utterly oblivious to how hard Isa was biting her lip not to giggle. “Yeah, that’s it, Izzy — like you mean it!”

She calls Isa Izzy still, even though no one’s called her that since she was six. She also calls Edward Eddy, although no one’s ever called him Eddy in his life. 

And, in Edward’s opinion at least, she makes really good iced tea.

Far as summer jobs went, working at the daycare was a pretty good one. It may not have been a fancy internship, but at least it paid. They worked on Monday through Wednesday from ten to four-thirty, and money wasn’t half bad — Ms. Linda paid in cash at the end of every day. 

The first few days were complete chaos, but once they learned the kids’ names it started to get easier. By the time Isa and Edward arrive, Ms. Linda has already opened and has most of the kids playing outside. They “help out,” which mostly just involves handing out juiceboxes, applying the occasional band-aid, and surveying games of tag from their lawn chairs. At lunch, the kids have to each inside at the folding tables Ms. Linda has set up in the living room, and everyone gets a snack before nap time. After naptime, it’s ‘inside play’: this mostly means board games, storytime, or an arts and crafts activity Linda puts together. If the weather is nice, which it usually is, they end the day back outside. The kids start getting picked up around 2pm with the last ones out by 3:30, leaving about a half hour for Isa and Edward to help clean everything up, take their cash and extra snacks, then head home or to the local pool. 

Ms. Linda is one of those people who just has a natural way with children. She never has to raise her voice, and she can silence a whining toddler with an expressive tilt of her head. She seems impervious to loud noises and her patience is limitless — when things start to get out of control, she simply asks a question, as though she were sincerely wondering it: “Are these our indoor voices?” or “Is that how we play with clay?” Usually, three or four kids will excitedly jump in to answer her just for the thrill of receiving her approval. 

Isa confirms that she’s exactly how she was fifteen years ago when she was in the first grade. “She even does the same exact thing with her glasses,” Isa once whispered to Edward when Ms. Linda was getting ready to read a story. “She always wore them like that — look, right at the tip of her nose! I was always worried they were gonna fall off…”

Edward smiled, but it wasn’t because of the story, true to life as it may have been: it was because, in whispering, Isa had put her lips close enough to his ear that he could feel her breath, and it was a feeling he knew he would remember for a long time.

There was, however, one strange thing about the daycare, and that was the spanking. When it came to tantrums and repeated rule-breaking, Ms. Linda had a very simple behavior policy for the kids: if you broke the rule again after your “Last warning” you could expect to be taken over her lap. A few swats over the shorts was all it usually took, but one or two of the fussier kids had had their pants pulled down to bare there little butts.

The first time it happened, Isa and Edward looked at each other, startled. But nobody else even flinched. Even the boy who’d been swatted seemed to think it was pretty normal: he apologized for smearing paint on his friends dress, and she forgave him. They went back to playing as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all. 

“I guess she gets away with it because she’s been doing it for so long,” Isa reflected as they ate their popsicles poolside later that day. The sun was setting over suburbia and the sky was orange, the color seeming heavy with oncoming dark. “She did it when I was a kid, too.”

“She did?”

Isa nodded. “I probably got spanked at some point — I don’t really remember, though. I guess it was just never treated like a big deal.” She cupped her hand over her eyes to shade them from the light of the setting sun. “Nowadays, people would, like, report you to the cops.”

Edward didn’t know if that was true. He remembered one of the parents of a particularly troublesome kid thanking Linda as she was picking up at the end of the day. They seemed really grateful — apparently, Linda’s methods had improved their kids’ behavior at school — even their grades. But Edward wasn’t really thinking about that: he’d pretty much stopped thinking when Isa said she’d been spanked; he was unable to think of anything else for the rest of that cool summer night.

The first few weeks passed, and pretty soon, they each had a couple hundred dollars saved up and they were feeling good. They went shopping at the mall on weekends and ordered takeout for lunch. Their friends were all busting their asses trying to impress people at an unpaid internship — Edward and Isa were sitting on lawn chairs in the summer sun. Linda didn’t mind if they talked to each other while they were watching the kids, so it was like getting paid to hang out!  She had a rule against them being on their phones, but neither of them really minded that — especially not Edward, since it meant he could have Isa’s undivided attention for an entire day. Isa started to talk about how much she liked the kids, and she even said she’d like to start a daycare of her own. Life was good, they both agreed.

Linda worked hard, but Isa and Edward didn’t have too much they had to remember to do. The things they did have to remember, though, were important. One of their responsibilities at the daycare was to make sure the gate stayed closed whenever the kids were outside. If the lock wasn’t properly pounded it, the gate would swing open, meaning kids could wander into the street. The lock was too tall for any of the kids to mess with, so they usually only had to worry about locking it once or twice a day if they left the daycare during open hours. 

On a Tuesday in early July, Isa went to get her lunch from the take-out sandwich shop down the block. Edward had brought his, and he ate it with a glass of the Daycare Lady’s iced tea. 

When she got back, Isa was grinning ear to ear. Apparently (to Edward’s dismay) a cute boy at the sandwich shop had comped her salad. Edward never found out why he did that — but he had a feeling he knew, and it didn’t feel good.

“He was so sweet,” Isa gushed in between bites. The kids were fingerpainting during their inside play, and Linda was watching them with a curious expression. Edward could tell the Daycare Lady was annoyed that their lunch break — which was officially only until 1pm — seemed to be dragging on so long. 

But Isa didn’t seem to notice: she was too caught up in her own good mood. Edward eventually got up and started helping with clean-up, but Isa remained in her own world through the whole thing, eating her boxed salad one slow bite at a time.

Then it was time to go outside again, and as Ms. Linda opened the door the kids poured out onto the lawn. Then she yelled sharply — something she never did — and ran — another first — down the steps. Isa and Edward rushed to the door.

“The gate wasn’t closed!” Linda shouted back. She pounded the bolt lock into place and turns around with an accusatory look on her face. “Someone didn’t close it when they got back from lunch.” Her eyes locked onto Isa’s face.

The kids barely noticed the disturbance at all: they immediately set into their own routine of playing and squabbling and tottering around. But Isa’s face was pink, and Ms. Linda’s lips were pursed tightly.

She walked back up the walkway to where Isa and Edward were standing on the steps. “Edward,” Linda said without looking away from Isa, “would you mind looking after the kids on your own for a few minutes?” It wasn’t a question, and her piercing eyes never left Isa’s downcast ones. “Isa and I need to have a talk. Inside.”

Edward mumbled a response, and Linda nodded her head for Isa to go in. Isa obeyed without a word. Then Linda followed, closing the door behind them and leaving Edward alone to realize that it was the first time Linda had used their full names.

So Edward sat in the lawn chair watching the kids run around. As usual, the kids were loud: they shrieked happily every time they evaded being tagged and cried out pitifully if they ever took a tumble. In the background, he mostly just heard the noise of cars rolling past in the street and Linda’s wind chimes making their shimmery, clinking music. But every so often, there would be a pop noise that didn’t sink with the tiny hands slapping the beach ball, or a cry that didn’t sound like a kid’s. Edward listened close, staying very still so he could hear.

It seemed like forever before Ms. Linda and Isa came back out. Isa’s pink face was now a bright, hot red, and she was tugging nervously at her jean shorts. She didn’t say anything as she sat down next to Edward, but she winced. Edward tried to watch her face carefully for some evidence of what had happened, but she kept her head tilted, looking away. 

“Isa? What happened in there? Was Ms. Linda mad?” he finally ventured.

No response. He waited a few moments, but she stayed quiet. He looked up at Linda, who was passing out juiceboxes, and then back at Isa.

“Isa,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” Isa said at last, sounding sulky and out of breath. “She was mad.”

Edward turned to look at Ms. Linda again…but she didn’t seem mad at all. She was playing with the kids, making happy faces. Was she actually still upset but hiding it? A few minutes later, she called over from her place by the fence. “Izzy, would you please get the sidewalk chalk? I left it on the counter inside.”

So Isa was Izzy again. All was forgiven. At the end of the day, Ms. Linda paid them both with the same smile as always…but Isa turned down Edward’s offer for a ride home.

“I-I think I’ll walk today,” she said. He gave her a questioning look, but she’d already turned around and had her hands jammed in her sweatshirt pockets, her shoulders shrugged up.

The next day, Isa was herself again. She was at the daycare before Edward was, smiling at him and bouncing on her toes. She opened the gate for them carefully, and once they were both inside she immediately turned around to lock it.

“Don’t wanna forget this again,” she said.

“What happened yesterday? Was Linda seriously angry?”

Isa cut her eyes at the toddlers all around them. “I’ll tell you later. Not now.”

Later turned out to mean naptime. Ms. Linda was sitting in a wicker armchair in the living room, surrounded by sleeping kids on yoga mats, reading a novel and occasionally shushing. All of the lights were off in the house, and sitting at the kitchen table felt oddly nocturnal. A rotating fan occasionally wafted cool air over their faces and necks, which were sticky with sweat. It made just enough noise to cover the sounds of their whispers,.

“She spanked me.”

“…Wh-…She did what?”

Isa didn’t repeat herself. She just nodded her head slowly as Edward blinked. “Yup. Just like one of the kids.”

“She…wait…are you serious right now?”

“I’m serious.” She leaned forward in the chair, then bit her lip and hissed softly. “It actually still kinda hurts. My butt, I mean.”

“She spanked you?”

“But I guess it’s not so bad,” Isa went on as though he hadn’t spoken. “It’s better than getting fired, right? And honestly, after it was done I…I dunno.” She crosses and uncrosses her legs. “I guess I just felt…relieved.”

“Relieved?”

“Yeah. Like, I’d taken my punishment, you know? It was over, and she forgave me right away. She even gave me a hug.” A flicker of a smile passed her lips at the thought. “I dunno…it was actually kinda better than, like, getting grounded or chewed out or whatever.” She looked at Edward. “…Is that weird?”

Yes. “…No, I, guess I get what you’re saying…” Edward hedged carefully. “ But, like — did she actually spank you?”

 Isa snorted softly. “Yup. She even took down my shorts.”

“She did what?” 

“Pulled ‘em right down. Shoop. I was so embarrassed I thought I was gonna die.” 

“Did…did it hurt?”

“Fuck yeah it hurt!” Isa said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which, in way, Edward supposed, it kinda was. 

Of course it hurt getting your ass smacked. But that wasn’t really his question. He couldn’t exactly place what his real question was. He also couldn’t get the image of Isa’s shorts being pulled down around her white thighs out of his mind long enough to really think about it.

“And you know what,” Isa finally said with a wry grin, “I’m definitely not gonna forget to lock that stupid gate anymore.”

Edward and Isa sat in the dark kitchen in silence for a long time. Then Linda stood up and flicked on the light, and nap time was over.

This conversation was enough to dominate Edward’s thoughts for a full two weeks afterward. He managed by sheer force of will not to ask any more prying questions about the spanking, like the one that had been on his mind ever since the word shoop: did Linda pull down her panties, too? He didn’t ask any of that, but he thought about it constantly. It was on Isa’s mind too, of course: every time Isa locked the gate, she would meet his eyes and give him a half-smirk. But to Edward, every second his mind wandered, it came back to the image of Isa over Ms. Linda’s lap, her long legs kicking just like a kids, her jean shorts around her knees…

The daycare closed for the first week of August, during which Linda drove down south to visit her sister for a few days. That was the week Isa told Edward that the cute guy at the sandwich shop had asked her on a date. Edward felt like his heart had dropped out of his ass. He didn’t even remember what he originally said to her when she told him, but his feelings on the matter must have come through at least partway because Isa asked confronted him later while they were sharing chicken fingers and fries at the pool.

“What’s up with you?” she said. “You’ve been acting all weird ever since I told you about…”

Then she said sandwich guy’s name, but Edward didn’t remember it. It was a matter of principle to him.

“No, I haven’t,” he shot back.

“Um, yeah, you totally have. Do you have, like, a problem with him or something?”

“How could I have a problem with him? I’ve never even met him”

“That’s why it’s weird,” Isa said, turning to face him. She gestured with a French fry. “He’s a really cool guy. You’ll really like him.”

Edward snorted. “Doubt it.”

“Why the fuck do you doubt it?”

“Because I don’t fall in love with every guy who gives me a sandwich — unlike some people, apparently.”

Isa’s mouth dropped open, and immediately Edward knew he’d gone too far. He felt horrible, like someone had cut him open and stuffed him full of garbage. But that feeling only made him more sullen; he didn’t apologize. His words hung there in the air like a bad smell.

Suddenly, Isa got up. “You’re a jerk.” She stomped away holding her flip flops in her hand.

Monday was their first day back at the daycare. Isa hadn’t answered Edward’s messages asking if she needed a ride, so they showed up separately. Edward opened the gate and Isa brushed past him without a word. 

A knot tightened in Edward’s stomach. He pounded the lock into position and followed her inside with his head down and his hands jammed in his pockets, more miserable than he’d been all summer.

Linda gave them a friendly welcome, waving both hands, and they replied with forced enthusiasm. The Daycare Lady didn’t let the smile fall from her face, but Edward could tell by her eyes that she noticed something was up. She didn’t say anything, though, for which Edward was very grateful.

Isa still wasn’t talking to him when they sat beside each other on their lawnchairs. The silence felt so heavy and dismal that it seemed to be slowing down the time: usually, outside play flew by, but now the minutes dragged. 

Finally, Edward couldn’t stand it any more: he took out his phone and scrolled idlely for a few moments. The moment he managed to let his thoughts wander, his thumb clicked Isa’s name in his messages as if by reflex. The open message box stared him in the face. He felt like there was a knife in his stomach. Typing into the box was like shifting into a position that numbed the pain — it still hurt like hell, just less.

Before he really knew what he was doing, he’d sent the message: I’m sorry.

Isa didn’t look down at first when her phone chimed. Finally, though, she couldn’t resist. She slid it out of her pocket, read it, then started furiously typing.

You can’t treat me like that, you know. I would never do that to you. NEVER.

His gut twisted again as he read it — but again, typing loosened the pain.

I know. I’m really sorry, I fucked up.

Neither of them, it seemed, could manage to look at each other. The kids giggled and shrieked as they ran. The next chime came moments later.

Why did you SAY that.

Edward stared that that message for a long time. The twisting feeling was starting to numb. His heart was pounding as if it were pumping adrenaline to keep him going through a wound. Maybe that’s why he texted her back: Because I was jealous.

What do you mean

I was jealous of the sandwich guy. Because he asked you out on a date and you said yes.

His fingers were trembling as he sent the message. He could feel her closeness, but somehow the fact that he wasn’t looking at her made it easier to say what he had avoided saying for years.

I wanted that to be me. I like you, Isa. A lot.

The next message took a long time to arrive. He could hear her tapping on the screen, the silence as her thumb hovered while she considered what she was going to say, the quick taps as she deleted something. 

He looked up across the lawn and saw Ms. Linda glancing at them disapprovingly. Her look made him put his phone back in his pocket, and she looked away again. Ms. Linda had made the rule very clear: talk all you want, but while you’re working, no screens. She called phones “hypno-machines” and praised them for how they never needed to be reminded not to stare at them, unlike other young people. He knew she was already starting to feel annoyed. 

But when his phone finally chimed, he had to look at it.

I like you too, Edward.

The words were like a balm to his soul. He felt more excited than if he’d just been told he was going to live after a week of thinking he was about to die. He clutched tightly in a quivering hand until it chimed again.

I wish you told me. We used to tell each other everything.

And again: Why didn’t you just TELL me???

He texted back, staring resolutely into the screen. 

I just couldn’t. I don’t want to lose what we have. You’re my best friend. I couldn’t risk that.

“Okay, everyone, time to go in for lunch,” Ms Linda announced.

Isa and Edward followed the kids in silence…but as they were getting out of the lawn chairs, maybe accidentally, Isa’s hand brushed his and he felt like he was flying.

The silent texting continued through the day. With each text, the messages seemed to get longer, and they spent more time gripping their phones intently. Isa said she hadn’t meant to make Edward jealous: she had started thinking he might have liked her a few months ago but then, when nothing happened, she pushed it out of her head, thinking she was being vain. She mentioned one night when they were alone together at the dorm after a venture off-campus for a party they’d been “invited” to by a friend of a friend of a friend of the host. They were both slightly drunk and couldn’t stop giggling about the silliest things. She’d expected Edward to make a move then, and when he didn’t, she thought he must not be interested in her. Edward replied that he remembered that night really well. He said that he’d wanted more than anything to kiss her, but every time he worked up the courage he’d convinced himself against it. Hearing her (or, more precisely, reading her) say that made him feel like an idiot, but at the time he thought they were just having fun like best friends do. That, he told her, was one of the best nights of his life.

In all of this texting back and forth, they both completely missed lunch. They texted right through naptime: when Linda ‘shushed’ one of their phone’s chimes, they both automatically clicked them to silent. From then on, Edward was watching his phone without a moment’s pause, not wanting to miss the next message even for a second. They continued to text all throughout inside play, even when they started to repeat themselves. They were sorry. They were grateful. They were so luck to be best friends. They liked each other. 

Edward liked Isa. Isa liked him back.

For most of this, they didn’t look at each other, until one point during inside play when Isa looked up after tapping send on her message and met Edward’s eyes. She smiled at him, a sweet and crooked smile that was one of the prettiest things he’d ever seen. Then he looked down at the message and saw that it said:

It’s almost two. We’ve been texting all day.

Yeah, I know.

Ms. Linda is gonna be mad.

He bit his lip. He tapped out the words, Do you think she’ll spank us? and and then deleted them. Instead, he sent back.

I’m still glad we did.

A few moments later, another text came in.

Me too.

The kids started to be picked up as usual during the end of the day’s outside play. The sun seemed brighter than it had been that morning, the sky bluer. Everytime he met Isa’s eyes she smiled at him, and he started glancing up at her just to see that smile. By the time they were down to the last two kids, they had decided (over text, of course) to go to a nearby restaurant (they were both starving) and finally talk things out in person. It sounded an awful lot to Edward like a date. He was feeling so excited and energetic he’d started shaking his hands as though he’d touched something hot. At one point he looked up and saw that Isa was watching him do this, and she giggled at him.

He beamed, a helplessly goofy and sincere grin.

But then Ms. Linda stepped towards them across the lawn. Her shadow cut across both of them where they sat on the lawnchair, and she had her arms crossed. They cupped their eyes against the sun to look up at you.

“I’d like to see both of you inside after the last little one is picked up,” she said. It was not a request. Edward and Isa looked at each other, then back at the Daycare Lady. They nodded.

The last little girl left at 3:17pm, waving as the green SUV whisked her away. Ms. Linda stood on the porch and waved until the car was out of sight, then turned and went inside without a word. Isa and Edward hadn’t spoken much for the last two hours besides some panicky whispers. Everything they needed to say to each other seemed to pass between them in a look.

Isa met his eyes, and Edward swallowed hard. They followed Ms. Linda inside into a small hallway where the kids never go.

“I’m over here,” she called out. They followed her voice to the door at the end of the hall, which turned out to be her bedroom. 

Ms. Linda’s first story bedroom is comfy and (predictably) decorated with flowers. There are daffodils on the wallpaper and a vase of fragrant lilac on the dresser. Her dress on the previous day would have fit the theme (it was covered with bright, orange-yellow sunflowers) but today she’s wearing a simple white blouse and a thin, flowing skirt. She sits at the edge of her lilac bedspread as they come in, her eyebrows arched.

“Today felt like I was running the daycare all by myself for the first time in a while — do you know why?”

Isa bit her lip. Edward looked at his feet. The silence hung  in the air.

“Because the two of you spent all day tapping on your smartphones,” she said, mimicing a texting posture with her shoulders slumped and her eyes down. Then, straightening up, she plucked a long strand of hair that had fallen in her face and tucked it gracefully behind her ear before levelling them both with a stern gaze. “I thought I’d told you both: when you are supervising children, no technology.” 

“Y-Yes, ma’am,” Isa said in a small voice. “We’re sorry.”

“We are, and it won’t happen again,” Edward chimed in. “Today was just —“

Ms. Linda held up her hand. 

“I’m quite sure it won’t happen again. If it did, both of your would be out on your hind ends. I don’t pay you to diddle with your electronics, young man!”

A surge of heat rushed into Edward’s face, and he found himself unable to look into Ms. Linda’s wild, indignant expression. 

“The only reason I don’t fire both of you right now is because this is the first time all summer we’ve had this problem.” She looked from Edward to Isa, but neither of them could meet her eyes. “I know the both of you are better than this. I don’t know what was going on today that had you both so distracted, but I’m warning you it is completely unacceptable.”

Warning? Edward started to feel his heart lift at the word. Maybe they were getting off with a warning after all!

Isa must have felt the same way, because her voice sounded stronger as she said, “We know, Ms. Linda — honestly, we do.”

“Mm,” Linda said, nodding her head in approval. “Good. Then you still have a job. And although it pains me to pay you for today’s sorry display, you will still be getting your cash.”

Edward and Isa glanced at each other, eyes flickering like rabbits’.

“…But first, of course, you need to take your punishment.”

And with that, Edward’s heart sank like a stone.

“M-Ms. Linda, please —” Isa’s voice sounded strained and high pitched. “We — we promise, we won’t —“

“Again, I’m sure you won’t. One reason is that I won’t stand for it. Another reason is that today, both of you are about to be spanked. You’re going to learn a good lesson today that you won’t soon forget — consider that a bonus,” she added wryly. “Being on your phone all day when you’re supposed to be working is a downright naughty thing to do — and naughty boys and girls get spankings on their bare bottoms.”

B…Bare?

Isa shuts her eyes tight and winces. 

“Here we go, then: ladies first,” Linda said patting her lap. “Over my knee, Isa — you know how it’s done.”

Edward turned to Isa and had to clench his jaw to keep it from dropping open. His spit-fire blonde friend — who, ever since she was a kid, was the first to speak her mind, whether that meant standing up to a bully or even telling off a bad teacher — was obediently stepping forward to climb over Ms. Linda’s lap.

Isa looked so odd and out of place lying over the woman’s knee that Edward almost laughed. She was blushing so hotly that her cheeks were the color of summer strawberries, but her eyes were flashing not only with embarrassment but sheer, awful anticipation. Her posture was tense as Ms. Linda scooted her into a better position across her thigh. Her eyebrows twitched nervously (Adorably, Edward thought) as this frenzy of emotions passed through her.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve been in this position, Isa,” Ms. Linda said in a grim tone. Then she took hold of the waistband of Isa’s volleyball shorts.

“W-Wait wait!” Isa exclaimed. She looked back over her shoulder, her eyes wild, looking from Ms. Linda’s hand on the small of her back to where Edward stood just a couple of feet away in stunned speechlessness. “N-Not on the…the bare, Ms. Linda, please!” Her voice was pitched up a full octave; she was truly, sincerely pleading. “I-It’s too embarrassing!”

“You’re worried about Edward here seeing your bottom?” Ms. Linda said, and Isa blushed another shade darker. “Well, don’t worry: he won’t have anything to tease you about. After all, he’s next.”

With that, she pulled down Isa’s shorts and underwear together and bared her behind.

Edward watched as Isa’s pale bottom sprung out from her volleyball shorts, perfect and round like two scoops of vanilla ice cream. From where he was standing, he could see everything: the perfect slope of her cheeks into the dark divide, the way two curving lined cupped each orb of her buttocks just above her thighs, the way it all jiggled, so wonderfully soft and yet so firm, like a perfect panna cotta. He could even just barely see the dark silky hair between her cheeks and her tensing thighs before she clenched her bottom tightly, a delayed reaction to the surprise of being made suddenly naked in front of her best friend. 

Isa moaned pitifully and reached back to cover herself but was quickly corrected by Ms. Linda, who wordlessly pinned Isa’s wrist against her back and began the spanking.

Each time Ms. Linda’s palm came down on Isa’s milky-white cheeks it made a phlap sound that Edward would remember the rest of his life. And soon, as her bottom began to turn rosey and pink, the handprints blooming like summer roses, there were also Isa’s squeals and cries.

“Ow! Oh!…Gnaah!…I’m sorry, Ms. Linda — Ow!”

Isa’s spanking continues for some time with Ms. Linda alternating from cheek to cheek with firm-handed swats with her lips pursed in a stern frown. Just when Edward is starting to ask himself sincerely if he’s dreaming, Ms. Linda starts to scold.

“Doesn’t feel too good, does it? Maybe you’ll remember this the next time you want to check your doodads while you’re supposed to be watching the little ones!”

Poor Isa clutched the bedspread as if for dear life, her eyes starting to well up. “Owwww! Yes, Ms. Linda! Ow! I p-promise, I will! OW! It huuuuuurts!”

“I know, Isa,” Ms. Linda replied simply, never stopping with her crisply delivered forehands for a moment. She had her hand cupped, it seemed to Edward, to make Isa’s helpless bottom bounce in the perfect way such that no degree of pinching her butt cheeks together will matter. “I’m doing this for your own good — do you understand?”

Isa had tears brimming in her sky-blue eyes now, and as Edward watched one of them spilled free, tracing an arc across her blushing cheek. “Y-Yes, Ms. Linda,” she said miserably, sounding defeated. She lowered her head and hiccuped a soft sob. Then another hard smack makes her jolt up again. “Owwwwwwahaa! I’m sorryyyyyy!”

When, at last, Isa’s bottom was cherry red, Ms. Linda gave it a gentle pat. “Good,” she said. “Now, then, you go stand right there as I handle Edward.” Her eyes turned to him.

Edward had never understood how hypnosis worked before that moment. He and Isa saw a hypnotist do a stage performance at a carnival once: he made a bunch of their peers do and say silly, embarrassing things on stage like wiggle their hips or stand on one leg until they fell over. The whole time, he remembered thinking that they must all be in on it — no way the hypnotist hadn’t slipped them five bucks before the show. 

But when Linda’s expectant, over-the-glasses stare met his eyes, he could feel himself moving like a person hypnotised. He climbed over Ms. Linda’s lap without a word, feeling as though his own thoughts were distant noises, too far away to hear. Beside the bed, Isa was rubbing her well-spanked bottom with both hands, her panties and volleyball shorts still at her knees. He realized dully that he’d caught a glimpse of the dark, silky hair again, this time at her front. 

“I’m going to take these pants down now,” Ms. Linda said. “You’re getting the exact same treatment for the exact same crime.”

Edward didn’t reply. He didn’t say anything

The moment the first spank landed, reality came back into crystal clear focus.

The spanks were fast — faster than he could brace himself for. Soon, he was writhing on Ms. Linda’s lap. His pulse throbbed in his ears — his face was flushed dark red. He could feel Isa’s eyes on him, and he was too humiliated to look up at her. He stared at the bedspread as the smacks landed, gritting his teeth not to cry aloud.

“Now, I’ve never spanked you before, Edward — and I hope I don’t have to again.” Ms. Linda spoke in a measured tone with no evidence of being tired. “Here is how this is going to go: you’re going to get a good, long, bare-bottomed spanking, and then you’re going to apologize.”

The stinging pain of the spanks was rising into a blaze, now. Edward had never been spanked in his life. It was a strange experience: as his bottom warmed, each swat became more painful, harder to handle. His body wanted to find ways to deal with that smarting pain: he kicked his feet, he clenched his fists, he bit his bottom lip.

Most of all, though, he wanted to cry out loud.

“Gnggh!” He grunted as one particularly well aimed splat landed on his right cheek. By this point, he could feel the heat thrumming through his backside, matching the hot blush in his face. “Hng! I-I’m sorry, Ms. Linda!”

“Mm,” the Daycare Lady replied, not sounding convinced. She continued to pepper his bottom with spanks. She worked in a rhythm, one cheek and then the other, cupping her hand just like she had on Isa. “Tell me, Edward — what were you two so distracted by today?”

“Gnggh! O-Our phones, Ms. Linda!” He felt like a soldier replying to a drill instructor.

“Oh, I know that,” Ms. Linda replied, never letting up. The smacks resounded through the room. From the corner of his eye, he saw Isa lift her hand and start chewing a fingernail. Her bottom was still bared. “I’m wondering what you were doing on your phones.”

Another spank flattened his now-searing backside, and he finally cried out loud. “Gnaah!” The text messages flashed through his mind.

Why didn’t you just TELL me???

I just couldn’t. I don’t want to lose what we have….

“W-We were texting!” he exclaimed. The spanks continued to dances across his bottom, which by now was a shiny-apple red. “Owwwaha! Gah!”

“Texting who?”

“H-He was texting me!” Isa suddenly blurted out. 

For a moment — and only a moment — Ms. Linda’s hand stopped. She turned to Isa curiously, and then, much to Edward’s chagrin, continued.

“And why would he be texting you? He was sitting just two feet away — couldn’t he have just talked to you?”

“I-It’s complicated,” Isa stammered.

“And can I assume you were texting him, then?”

“Yes, Ms. Linda.”

Ms. Linda shook her head. By now, Edward’s bottom was dark red, and his vision was blurring with tears. “Young people these days,” she said, still not letting up. “What was so hard to say to the other’s face?”

“…That we like each other, Ms. Linda.”

Suddenly, the spanking stops. Edward blinks and grimaces: in the absence of new, fresh pain, the burning ache is all he can think of. He can hardly even process the embarrassment of Isa looking at his with his bare ass out, over the Daycare Lady’s knee, tears in his eyes. All he can think is a loop: ithurtsithurtsitSTINGSithurts —

Wait…did she just say we like each other?

“Is this true, Eddy?” Ms. Linda says. She places her hand across Edward’s well-warmed backside, and he hisses softly…but a moment later the pressure feels strangely nice. “Were you two texting back and forth…that you like each other?”

It was all Edward could do, eyes still fixed on the bedspread, to nod.

For a moment, the room is silent. The sounds of the spanking seem to echo, though, ringing through the quiet. At last, a smile spreads across Ms. Linda’s face.

“Well…I must admit, that’s actually quite sweet.”

She looked up at Isa. 

“I’ve always thought you two made a nice couple. As my mother would say: you’d make good-looking babies.”

Isa snorted a laugh through her tears, then wiped her eyes.

Edward was completely still.

“So then, Eddy,” Linda said. “Are you going to ask Izzy on a date?”

Edward looked up at Isa, who was still standing half naked with her hands held over her front. She looked down at him with a twitchy, anxious, crooked smile. Her eyes glittered, almost seeming to say: Well?

So Edward nodded. 

“Alright, then — get on with it!”

Edward swallowed hard. He heard Isa sniffle and saw her swaying nervously, tears shiny on her cheeks, a nervous giggle in her throat. 

He had never seen any girl so pretty in his entire life.

“Isa,” he said. “I really like you. Do you wanna go on a date sometime?”

Isa’s laugh was wet and short — she covered her mouth, nodded, and said, straining: “I’d really like that.”

Ms. Linda was beaming. She looked down at Edward, who, it should be mentioned, was still bare-bottom over her knee, and said, “You asked that like a proper gentleman, Eddy. I’m very proud.” Then, her voice became stern again. “Now: is there something you want to tell me?”

Edward took a deep breath in and nodded. “I-I’m really sorry, Ms. Linda.”

“Me too,” Isa said. “I-It won’t happen again.”

The Daycare Lady smiled warmly now and gave Edward a pat on the rump. Gentle as it was, it still perked him up.

“I know it won’t. Okay, you two — come give Ms. Linda a hug.”

Edward stood up on shakey legs, and Isa stepped forward as Linda stood too. The two of them hugged Ms. Linda tightly, their sore red bottoms still on display. Edward’s thoughts were racing too quickly for him to keep up, so he let his mind ignore them. He melted into the hug and Isa’s nearness, the smell of her perfume.

Ms. Linda finally stepped back. “Uhm, Eddy,” she said gently. “You may want to pull up your pants again, now.”

That’s when Edward realized he’d gotten completely stiff…down there.

Isa laughed, and Eddy leapt backward. He yanked up his pants over his sore backside even though it hurt like hell and started stammering an explanation: “I-I-I —“

“No need to explain,” Ms. Linda soothed, putting up a hand. “These things happen. Izzy, it’s not polite to giggle.” 

Isa quickly pursed her lips and gave Edward an apologetic look.

Linda glanced out of the window, and they all saw that the bright afternoon sunlight was fading into dusk. “Now, the two of you should head home,” she said as she produced their payment for the day from her wallet. “I think you have a lot to talk about. I’ll see you tomorrow morning for work. Sound good?”

It certainly did. They thanked Ms. Linda, and they both meant it. But on the walk home, they didn’t say much — they just held hands and looked forward, sniffling softly, grinning ear to ear.