Schooled Read online

  Kelvin shrugged. He needed the five points. He also needed to change his whole life, but he doubted that was going to happen.

  “So what happens if I don’t finish all my tasks?”

  “We would discuss it. Go over why you didn’t finish and how you could’ve handled any obstacles or distractions better.”

  That was what authority figures had been doing with Kelvin his whole life—like if they just explained it better, he would suddenly be able to do it better.

  “And then you’d get a spanking,” Grant said, which was where this study suddenly and widely deviated from what authority figures had tried in the past. “The length of the spanking would depend on how many assignments you’d failed to complete. It might range anywhere from five swats to fifty. Fifty swats is going to make your ass hurt,” Grant said with something like relish. “You won’t let that happen more than once, I promise you.”

  Kelvin didn’t think he was going to let it happen at all. It was too weird. Fishy, even. Bunch of perverts wanting to whale on his ass while they pretended they were helping him.

  “I suppose you do it bare-bottomed,” he said, fishing for the perversion he suspected Grant of.

  “No.” Did Grant sound regretful about that? “We do ask that you take your pants down. Jeans, especially, are a pretty effective insulator. But whatever type of underpants you’re wearing beneath your pants stay on, so keep that in mind.” Grant’s mouth quirked like he wanted to smile.

  “And you do it with your own hand?” Kelvin wasn’t sure whether he wanted the answer to be yes or no. If Grant used his hand, that would be more perverted—more intimate and humiliating—but a paddle would hurt more.

  “Why don’t I show you?” Grant said. “That’s the easiest way to answer your questions.”

  He walked over to the fake window and raised the blinds, behind which there really was a window. But the window didn’t go outside. It went to the next room, which was set up exactly like this one except one of the chairs had been moved away from the table to the middle of the floor. There was a guy in the chair and another guy over his lap.

  Kelvin stood up so he could see better. That was the guy from the lobby, only now he had his pants around his ankles and was squirming as one blow after another landed on his forest green boxers. He looked like he might be crying, but Kelvin couldn’t hear anything.

  “Can they see us?” he whispered, stepping closer to the window despite himself.

  “Nope. Can’t hear us either, so you don’t have to whisper.” Grant touched the glass. “Two-way mirror with soundproofing. For observation.”

  “But… but does he know he’s being observed?” Kelvin couldn’t imagine it. The humiliation of taking your pants down, crawling over another man’s lap, and letting him spank you was bad enough without someone watching.

  “He knows it’s a possibility. It’s in the waiver you’ll sign if you decide to go through with the study.”

  Kelvin shook his head. No, no, and no. No spankings, no observation. No.

  “You’re all just a bunch of perverts.”

  “I can understand why you’d think that.” Grant leaned against the window frame, watching Kelvin rather than the spanking, which Kelvin couldn’t take his eyes off of. “But Taylor has seen his GPA go up a full point since he started the study. He’s one of our success stories. I’m sorry to see he needs a spanking today, but I’m sure he’ll be the better for it.” Grant reached for the pull cord to lower the blinds, but Kelvin brushed his hand out of the way because he wasn’t done looking yet.

  Taylor was definitely crying, but the blows didn’t stop. Anywhere from five to fifty, Grant had said. This must closer to fifty than five because the TA kept raising his hand and slapping it down again with mechanical precision. It was weird without sound.

  “Look good?” Grant asked, his tone a little teasing.

  Kelvin tore his eyes away from the spectacle playing out before him, aware that his dick was thickening in his pants. “It looks like sex,” he said with a scowl.

  Grant raised one eyebrow in a hipsterish gesture that made Kelvin want to smack him. “Interesting.”

  “Interesting how?”

  “Not everyone has that reaction, I assure you.” Grant lowered the blinds, even though Kelvin still wasn’t done watching. “I wonder if it should disqualify you from the study. Spankings won’t be a very effective deterrent if you enjoy them.”

  “Who said I’d enjoy them?” Kelvin turned his back on Grant and stuck his hand down his pants. Stupid dick. He manhandled it into a more discreet position, then turned to find Grant watching him with an amused expression.

  “Any other questions about the study?”

  “I’m not doing it.”

  “All right.” Grant shrugged. “Your life.” He opened the door and gestured Kelvin out.

  Kelvin went through the door, feeling like he was being pushed out even though he’d just said he wasn’t doing the study. Shouldn’t Grant try to talk him into it harder? If this was really for his benefit and not just because Grant would get some kind of demented sexual satisfaction out of it, then Grant should care enough to convince him. In fact, Grant should care enough to convince him even if he was a kinky bastard because wasn’t Kelvin’s ass nice enough to spank? Kelvin thought it was.

  A vivid image of himself in Taylor’s place flashed through his mind, except it was Grant doing the spanking instead of that other TA and Kelvin’s undershorts were around his ankles along with his jeans. He was thrashing and crying. His ass stung like fire, and he felt like a humiliated little brat who couldn’t take care of himself well enough to avoid punishment. But also his dick was hard. It was all very confusing. And not helped by the fact that his dick really was hard.

  Kelvin shook Grant’s hand and said goodbye to Mynna. He trudged back to his dorm without thinking because his brains were in his dick, driving him toward privacy. When he reached his room where there was no sneaky two-way mirror that would allow someone to peep in on him, he didn’t waste any time. He lay down on his back, took his cock in hand, and gave it a few quick pumps, feeling those lightning sparks of arousal skitter through him like electric shocks. Jerking himself off right now had nothing to do with the study, he told himself. He just happened to be horny.

  But after a few minutes of chasing satisfaction and finding it oddly out of reach, he rolled onto his stomach and imagined being bent over Grant’s lap with Grant’s slim but surprisingly long fingers slapping his naked ass. He pumped into his fist, pretending it was Grant’s thigh he was rubbing against, and came so fast it was a record even for him.

  Being on his stomach meant he’d gotten come all over his bedding. He pulled his hand out from under him, felt the wetness of the comforter against his stomach, and was embarrassed by the whole thing. He definitely couldn’t participate in that study. Even if it would literally save his life.

  Chapter 4

  Kelvin woke with his bare ass still pointing up to the ceiling and the wet spot still damp under his belly. He’d fallen asleep after that mind-blowing orgasm and now it was dinner time and he hadn’t exercised or written a paper or even made it to his Anatomy lab. He hadn’t gotten a single thing done today except jerk off and apply for a study he didn’t intend to take part in. He was hungry and hopeless and it was too late to make today come out right. All he could do was get a good night’s sleep and start over fresh tomorrow.

  But of course he couldn’t sleep, thanks to that massive nap. And instead of buckling down to work on his Sociology paper, since he was wide awake, he diddled away hour after hour playing games on his phone, promising himself with each game that it would be the last one. But then he would either lose and have to try again or win, which made him want to continue, to chase that sense of victory that was so fleeting and so rare. Either way, he just kept hitting the Next button. Because hitting the Next button was the easiest, most obvious thing to do.

  Morning came way too soon because it’d already be
en morning before he fell asleep, and even the three different alarms set on his phone couldn’t get him out of bed for his first class. He made it up just in time for lunch, with the day already feeling like another one he might as well write off, but as he was looking for a place to sit in the crowded cafeteria, he spotted Taylor sitting at a table by himself with a mostly empty tray in front of him.

  Kelvin dashed over there before Taylor could leave, but once he got there, he had no idea what to say. “I saw you getting spanked yesterday” wasn’t a thing that could be said, even if Taylor had signed a waiver making it okay for Kelvin to watch.

  Kelvin swallowed down his nerves and stepped forward. “Hey, um, is this seat open?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Taylor looked at him like he was trying to place him. They’d seen each other when Kelvin first came in, while they both still had their clothes on, so that was something Kelvin could mention, right?

  “What class do you have Dr. Abidi for?” he asked, coming at the subject sideways.

  Taylor snapped his fingers. “That’s where I saw you. The study, right?” He turned his head to the side and cleared his throat, as if just realizing what he’d admitted.

  “I was only taking the assessment,” Kelvin said, so Taylor would understand he hadn’t subjected himself to any spankings. “Are you, uh, enrolled?”

  Taylor considered the question for a moment. Then his shoulders slumped. “Yeah, I’m enrolled. It’s weird, I know, but listen, it really works. So whatever, right? You gotta do what you gotta do. I was going to fail out.”

  “Me too. I mean, I am going to fail out.” It was pretty much an inevitability.

  “You should do the study then. Give it a chance.”

  “But does it feel like… like I don’t know. I just don’t see how…”

  “Yeah, I get you. I didn’t either. But I’m so glad I did. You really should. No one has to know.”

  Kelvin nodded, except he knew about Taylor, didn’t he? He’d actually seen Taylor getting his treatment. If Kelvin signed up for the study, not only would he get spanked, but someone might see it.

  “It doesn’t even happen very often anymore,” Taylor said. He lowered his voice and leaned forward. “The spanking, I mean. It’s a preventative. I get my work done because if I don’t, I get”—he lowered his voice even further, so that Kelvin had to lean way in to hear him—“spanked.” Taylor’s face was beet red, like Kelvin imagined his ass was.

  “Does it hurt?”

  Taylor grimaced. “A little, but not as much as it embarrasses.”

  Yeah, that was what Kelvin had figured. Funny how embarrass had bare ass right in it. They really ought to do the spankings that way. It would be more embarrassing and also hurt more.

  Jesus, what was he thinking? Why would he want more of either of those things?

  “But my TA is really good about it,” Taylor said. “Sort of business-like. We do what has to be done and when it’s over, it’s a relief. It feels like I can move on instead of being stuck wallowing around in self-hate.”

  Kelvin knew a thing or two about self-hate. It would be nice to be relieved of some of that.

  “Give it a try,” Taylor urged, probably because misery loved company. “If you do your assignments, nothing will even happen.” He didn’t wait for Kelvin to answer. Just picked up his tray and left. So maybe Taylor’s misery didn’t want Kelvin’s company, after all.

  Kelvin toyed with the food on his tray. He couldn’t make up his mind whether he should do the study or not. And that was what finally decided him. He could never make up his mind about any damned thing, and if the study would help, he should give it a try. Nothing to do with his dick being hard again.

  As soon as he finished eating—without leaving any time for his brain to come up with another plan or get diverted onto a side-track—he went back to the windowless reception room in the basement of the Bio building and signed the waivers Mynna gave him, but he paused at the box where he was supposed to initial to acknowledge that his sessions might be observed. The whole thing was bad enough already—an adult allowing another adult to spank him, the fact that he needed to be spanked, his sudden and incomprehensible sexual interest in being spanked. He didn’t need the extra layer of humiliation that knowing someone might be watching added.

  His pen hovered irresolutely over the box. He was sitting in one of the upholstered chairs, the forms on a clipboard, with Mynna minding her own business. The room was empty other than the two of them, and he could’ve sat there a long time, because that was what he specialized in, but then the door opened. Not the one to the hallway. The one that led to the spanking rooms.

  Grant ushered out a woman who looked messy and flushed, her hair all in fuzzy tendrils around her neck. A woman? What was that about? Did girls have executive dysfunction too? For some reason, Kelvin thought of it as very much a boy problem. And if Grant was spanking a woman, did that mean he was straight? Or just that the spankings really weren’t sexual. Who would be spanking Kelvin? What if it was a woman?

  The woman left and Grant went over to Mynna. “Who’s next?”

  “Maybe this guy.” Mynna pointed at him. “If he ever finishes his paperwork.”

  Grant acted like he’d just now noticed Kelvin was there. “Still undecided?” He laced his fingers together and stretched them away from him, as if his hands were sore from doing a bunch of spanking.

  “I don’t want a woman,” Kelvin blurted out, forgetting that his objection had been to the part where he might be watched, not about who would administer the spankings. “I’m gay.”

  “That’s not supposed to be a factor,” Grant said with a shake of his head. “It’s not about sex, remember?”

  “I didn’t say it was about sex,” Kelvin grumbled. “I just don’t want a woman.”

  “You don’t get any say in it.”

  “Oh, just tell him it’s you,” Mynna said, “so he’ll finish the fucking paperwork already. Honestly, the next study I do is going to be on obsessive-compulsive overachievers. This subject group is the worst.”

  Well, that wasn’t very nice. Kelvin initialed the box he’d been debating over and handed the clipboard to Little Miss Grouch-Face. Grant beamed at him like he’d accomplished something, giving Kelvin an undeserved flush of pride. All he’d done was sign a waiver. But it was a step, wasn’t it? A step in a positive direction. Maybe it was okay to be proud of it.

  “Welcome aboard.” Grant held out his hand, and Kelvin shook it. Like they were two adults, not a professorial stand-in and a misbehaving student about to be punished. “Let’s get started.”

  Chapter 5

  Kelvin had his list of school-related tasks. He could’ve made the list himself, honestly, but he had to admit that having it neatly written out and prioritized helped him focus. He also had a threat hanging over his head. For every item he didn’t finish, punishment would be administered. Since his plan was to get organizational help and extra credit without actually getting any spankings, he had a lot of motivation to check off every single item. He ought to be motivated even without the threat of corporal punishment—because these were things he needed to get done—but the list and the threat both helped, and the result was one of his most productive weeks in recent history.

  Still, it wasn’t productive enough. Kelvin considered not showing up for his scheduled session with Grant. He knew what he was in for, and he didn’t want it. Or did. But he could really use those extra five points in Dr. Abidi’s class because one of the things he’d fucked up was not studying enough for his Psych exam. He’d pulled a low C because he’d studied a little, but a low C couldn’t do much to bring up his overall average.

  So maybe it was appreciation for the effect that working with Grant had had on his week—not enough, but still positive—or maybe it was those five extra credit points. But mostly it was curiosity. Kelvin had been thinking about Grant all week, about his slightly outdated hipness and his long, strong fingers. About those corduroy-clad thig
hs. So he showed up for his appointment and sat in the chairs across from Mynna with his incomplete task list and his book bag full of proof that he’d really done some of the stuff on his list and waited for Grant to call him in.

  That woman with the frizzled brown hair scurried out through the reception room, departing as fast as she could. She had that same flustered, disheveled look about her today, which made Kelvin wonder what was really going on behind that door. Was Grant spanking her or…? Well, Kelvin was about to find out.

  “Ready?” Grant quirked an eyebrow at him, and he got slowly to his feet, hefting his bag over his shoulder to follow Grant into the pastel pink room. Grant shut the door behind him with a reassuring click. Kelvin cut his eyes over to the window. The blinds were down, which meant no one could see in, right?

  “The mirror only goes one way,” Grant said, noticing where his gaze had landed. “We can see their room, but they can’t see ours. Anyway, it’s empty right now.” He raised the blinds, giving Kelvin a glimpse into the room that was identical to this one except for being pastel yellow instead of pastel pink, then dropped them again. “Go ahead. Take a seat.”

  Kelvin sat in one of the chairs and hunched into himself protectively. He hadn’t said anything yet, not even hello, because he didn’t know the protocol for this. Grant extended his hand, and Kelvin looked at it blankly until he realized Grant wanted his list. He turned it over, then went back to hunching as Grant scanned it.

  “A few things that need to be corrected,” Grant said. “But not so bad, really. How did you feel about this week?”

  Kelvin didn’t know how to explain it, but the more he talked, the easier it got. Grant listened with so much interest, nodding along to everything he said.