Thin As Water

12.

"You ready to come out of there now?" Alissa smirked as she put the key in the door of the boiler room.

"Giving the silent treatment, are we?" Katherine added.

Alissa swung the door open, then narrowed her eyes. She pulled out her phone and lit the flashlight. "Holy shit! She's gone!"

"Language, Ms. Kingsley."

The four girls spun around to see Lil with her arms crossed and eyes narrowed, smirking.

"I suppose it is true that criminals will always return to the scene of their crime. With me. Now."

"But how?" Alivia trailed off.

"Oh, and if you give me any trouble, I have the headmistress on standby." Lil brushed back her blazer to show the pager on her hip.

"Shit." Alissa muttered under her breath as she realized their mistake, but it was not quietly enough.

"Second infraction, Ms. Kingsley. I instructed you to watch your language." Lil had a countenance of stone, but inwardly, she was almost enjoying the guilty and scared faces.

Rather than waiting for any response, Lil turned on her heel towards the discipline room, smiling grimly to herself when she glanced back and saw her four assailants following silently. Once she reached the door, she turned. "My key, please?"

Alissa growled but handed over the key. Lil unlocked the door, waited for the girls to enter, then carefully locked the door behind them, just in case anyone decided to cause trouble.

"Now, sit." Lil instructed, crossing her arms and glared at the four girls. Acting as though she enjoyed this would seem petty, and it wasn't too hard to put across that she was upset.

"I would like one of you to explain to me what exactly you were trying to accomplish."

Dead silence. All four girls were doing their best to look anywhere but Lilian's eyes. Lil raised an eyebrow and then, in sudden memory, stepped over to a drawer and pulled out a worn slipper.

"Now, if none of you will willingly offer an explanation, I suppose I will have to extract one in a more...unpleasant manner. Christina." Lil felt a small shiver as she repeated the words Hazel had spoken two years previously.

Tina jumped slightly, and Lil knew that she remembered that situation. Unlike their last encounter, there was no defiance on Tina's face now, only trepidation.

"Well, miss, we didn't mean any harm by it. We only meant it as a joke, see?" Tina winced at the weak explanation.

"A joke. Right. Let's say that I believe that. A joke should be harmless and enjoyed by all parties involved, and I'm certain that between the four of you, you realized that I would certainly not enjoy your prank. Try again."

Alivia spoke softly. "We truly didn't mean to cause any harm, it was a prank I suppose, but a harmless one."

Lil raised an eyebrow. "Again, let's say I believe that you meant it to be harmless. However, that was also flawed. You pushed me in and I fell, which could have cause a serious injury if I landed wrong. You locked the door which, had there been some sort of emergency, would put me in great danger. You also chose the boiler room, which has a strong smell of gasoline, which is dangerous to be breathing in for an extended period of time. It is very fortunate that I had a way to contact the headmistress, for both my sake and your own. Had I been more seriously hurt, you could be looking at suspension or expulsion."

Lil paused for breath and noticed that none of the girls were daring to make eye contact with her.

"Had you been playing a harmless prank, you would have thought this through enough at least to see how absolutely foolish this was. Although, perhaps not, considering you gave yourselves away by speaking to me as you were locking me in."

Absolute silence.

"I take it by the fact that none of you have anything to say that you realize just how idiotic this stunt is. So, once more, what exactly were you trying to accomplish? Katherine?" 

Kat sighed deeply. "I can only speak for myself, but I'm just trying to look out for my cousin. She shouldn't be mixing with people that will hurt her."

"Ah, I had a premonition this had to do with yesterday. So Christina was upset about my warning to her, and in response, the four of you thought you'd have revenge?"

Kat glared at the floor.

"Well I'm sad to say, Christina, that your plan has backfired spectacularly. I warned you to adjust your attitude and you purposely did the opposite. So congratulations, whatever you were attempting failed, and now you're all in trouble."

Tina nearly opened her mouth but then thought better of it.

"Now," Lilian turned to the one girl who had not yet spoken. "Alissa, would you care to share your involvement in this?"

Alissa glared up at her. "No."

"That's incredibly unfortunate then, as you're going to explain anyway."

"Fine." Alissa spat as she stood up. "It was my idea in the first place, and my only regret is that we didn't take your pager too, filthy bitch!"

The slipper landed on Alissa's bottom faster than anyone could react. The smack caught her off balance, and Lil pushed her firmly backwards onto the couch.

"One more dirty word out of you, Ms. Kingsley, and it will be to the Headmistress for the cane with you." Lil spoke in a very dangerous tone, and Alissa shut up. 

"So let me see if I've got this pieced together. Christina went back to her dorm to complain about the warning I gave, Alissa came up with the plan to throw me in the boiler room, and you all went along with it?"

Alivia gave a silent small nod which Lil took as plenty of confirmation.

"Well congratulations. For all of you having quite decent grades, this was surprisingly idiotic. Pranking in general is discouraged in this school, and a dangerous prank such as what you attempted is outright forbidden. You all are certainly in trouble." 

Lilian paused as the bell rang, and made a quick decision.

"But I'd rather eat lunch first. So all of you are expected back at 3pm sharp. Come to the detention room. If you are late, you will be penalized, and if you are more than 10 minutes late, you'll go straight to the Headmistress. Am I quite clear?"

Four silent nods answered her.

"Right. Stand up, all of you, turn around, and grab hold of the top of the couch."

Alissa let out a noise that almost sounded like a growl at that, but all the girls complied.

Lilian moved quickly, starting with Katherine and ending with Christina, landing a dozen hard whacks of the slipper on each girl's bottom, ignoring all their yelps of pain.

"You all had better believe that that was just a warm up. Get to lunch." Lil stepped over to the door and held it open, allowing herself a small smile as the last girl slunk out.

AN: Sorry this has taken a bit, I had a little writers block. I'm trying to decide if any of these four should be a remotely redeemable character, if it's anyone, it will be Alivia, she's really just a follower anyway.

The next chapter is probably going to be rather long, so it's going to be a bit. I'll get it out as soon as I can.

Please leave a comment! And buckle up for things to go down in the next chapter, because you'd best believe that Tina's gonna have some things to say about it.