Madame Dominique's School of Etiquette occupied a three story brown brick building that was built somewhere in the middle of the last century. Most of the other buildings on the well-kept street were more modern in appearance and date of origin. The basement apartment was the domain of a funny little man with a crooked back called simply Pierre.

Pierre was more the face of the school because he was the one who daily hauled out the metal cans for the bin men and attempted to keep the small outside garden organized with something less than a green thumb. He was the one to receive the deliveries from the tradesmen and who turned away vendors seeking an audience for peddling their wares.

There was a constant steam of posh, upper class young ladies who arrived with a flurry of luggage and some confused parents who were denied actual entrance beyond the small waiting room just inside the large double doors. The proprietor of the establishment, the very stylish and attractive Madame Dominique Cointreau was currently languishing with some degree of discomfort on the settee in the front reception room. She had been swamped with new recruits to her training program for the last two days and was in dire need of some liquid refreshments to re-vitalize her dwindling reserves of patience and good will.

Her constant companion, the fashionable and petite Yvonne was visiting her unemployed father in a seamier part of the city attempting to sort him out for the upcoming holidays and an opportunity to play the role of Saint Nick for an upscale department store catering to custom-made female attire. Yvonne's poor father was a bit of a drinker and was known to take every opportunity to bend his elbow and wag his chin at any convenient pub not too distant from his small apartment.

Two of the senior girls were helping process the new recruits and had advised the exhausted middle-aged woman to relax in the reception parlor. They were Regina and Regis, and Dominique could never remember who was who. They were not related in any way at all, but they looked like twins or bookends manufactured from the same factory. The three new recruits were looking a little bewildered and perhaps even a little bit fearful as they all waited in the other reception room on the other side of the long marbled floor front hallway.

Regis and Regina rounded up the three girls already dressed in school uniform and herded them up to the third floor rooms reserved for newbies. Each room was for three females whereas the rooms on the second floor were all doubles and even a few single rooms for special students. Regis told them that Pierre would be bringing up their luggage shortly but they should make certain the door remain open at all times because he sometimes liked to tease the new girls in letting him touch them improperly in places a lady never lets a gentleman touch unless they are a husband or a really fit fiancée.

Alice was a shy girl but she smiled a lot and giggled when she became nervous. Cassie was a bit devil may care in her attitude and her skirt was a full two inches above the prescribed length but she was highly intelligent and was noticeably obedient to any command. The very haughty Kate was a pixie with horrid pigtails that made her look years younger than her 18 years. The other two girls were a full year older than Kate and tried their level best to look much older.

Regina interrogated Cassie about the obvious violation of school rules with the length of her uniform skirt and the poor girl finally admitted she had done it on purpose in the eventuality there might be some young lads lurking about the premises to take a peek at her knickers. Regis knew it was the wrong thing to say to Regina because she was a stickler on "newbie" rules and would brook no breaking of the time-honored dress code traditions.

They instructed the other two girls to sit on their beds and watch how discipline was enforced for violations by new recruits. Regis took Cassie's wrists and pulled her across her lap until her bottom was sticking up at a tempting angle and her knickers were displayed for all four of them to view to their heart's content. Poor Cassie was already twisting and squealing out like a silly schoolgirl promising to "never do it again ever".

When she was asked if she wanted Regina to attend to the infraction now or have it put on her record for the first day of training, she opted immediately to have the older girl administer her discipline in the regulation manner. Regis informed her it would only be 12 normal strokes of a heavy hand. The first 6 would be on the outside of her knickers and the last six would be on the "bare". She was to count in a loud voice and clearly state, "Thank you, miss, may I have another?" The other two girls sniggered at this irony but quickly sobered up with a stern look from Regina.

The very first spank brought an involuntary gasp from Cassie. She had never suffered such an indignity before in front of witnesses to her humiliation. A little hint of tears in the corners of her pretty blue eyes betrayed the fact that she was not as brittle as she would like others to believe.

When it came time for her to move from outside the knickers to "on the bare" she made no protest at her knickers being lowered to her knees. It just so happened that was the exact time that Pierre picked to deliver the first of the trunks to the new arrivals. He stood frozen in the open doorway gazing with ogling eyes at Cassie's bare bottom. All of the girls were aware of his front row seat but didn't bother to inform the trembling Cassie of her further degradation. The final 6 blows were well-placed and Cassie's bottom was fair red as a ripened apple.

She stood up and quickly pulled up her drawers when she saw the houseman viewing her humiliation. It was insufferable because even her own father had never seen her with her knickers down in such a state of disrepair.

Regina and Regis left the girls alone telling them to be ready to eat at 5PM sharp because the discipline for tardy females at the dinner table was a full 24 spanks delivered by the Headmistress. They all scurried about to get ready and not leave themselves open to further discipline.