Thin As Water

6.

AN: This chapter contains the spanking of preteens, don't like don't read. 

Lilian stalked down the hall, more on edge than usual. She was hoping with everything she had that no one would misbehave, or else they were going to get it.

Of course, she couldn't be that lucky.

"You little bitch!" 

That emphatic statement was followed by a loud smacking sound and a yelp. Lil rolled her eyes in frustration and stormed into the classroom. The sight before her caused her to stop and sigh deeply.

Skylar Matthews was holding her cheek and glaring at Maddison Robins, who was glaring right back.

"Ladies." Both girls jumped and turned to face Lil, looking very guilty.

"Lil, uh, miss, I-" Skie stopped and shut her mouth at Lilian's glare.

"Both of you, with me. Now."

Lil led the way quickly to the discipline room, so quickly that Skie almost had to jog to keep up. Once inside, both younger girls took off their blazers instinctively and sat down.

"Now, explain yourselves." Lil instructed.

"She was making fun of me!" Skie accused.

"I was joking around! You freaked out!" Madi shot back.

"It wasn't funny and you know it!"

"ENOUGH!" Lil shouted. Both girls looked at her in surprise and the Head Girl realized that she needed to rein in her temper.

"Now, I said explain, not argue any more. I thought you two made up last year." Lil said much more calmly.

"I mean yeah." Madi muttered.

"Alright, I'm going to go out on a limb and say maybe, there's still some things that you need to work out. So, right now, I'm going to send you two to the corner to calm down, and when you're calm, then you can work things out. Go."

The two 12 year olds nearly began protesting at being put in time out, but Lil gave them a pointed look that had them scurry over to separate corners. Lil sat down on the couch and took mental note of the clock, then focused on calming herself down. She couldn't allow her own problems to affect her job, after all.

Ten minutes later, with mask securely in place, Lil called the two girls back. "Have you two calmed down sufficiently?"

"Yes miss." Lil hid a smile at the two sheepish responses.

"Very well. Now, I think that you can work this out between each other, yes? So I would like you to go into the side room and talk through whatever needs to be talked through."

The girls nodded and disappeared into the side room. Lil leaned against the counter and waited, considering what she ought to do.

After 15 minutes, Lilian figured that either Skie and Madi had figured things out or they had gone back to punching each other. She walked over, tapped on the door, and opened it to find the two girls hugging. 

"I take it you've worked things out?"

Both girls nodded.

"Alright, come back out here." Lil waited while they sat back down on the couch, then stood before them. "Would you like to explain what your argument was about?"

"Not really." Madi said under her breath.

"That's fair."

"What?" Madi looked up in surprise.