Chapter 2: School Days

It was quickly learned, at school, that anything could be done to the little girl with the odd name of Cookie without fear of any retribution from those in authority. She could be slapped, punched, kicked or knocked down by the boys and she would never fight back. It wasn't in her nature to hurt anyone. There was no anger in Cookie ... just a pretty smile and hopeful goodwill toward everyone. She felt that being kind and good would help her in the world but it never did.

The only fear the boys had was of her large brother Corey who would knock the shit out of them if he heard any one of them had hurt her. So the kicks and punches and trips were done to her on the sly.

The girls, on the other hand, were both jealous of her extremely pretty features and hateful acting, toward her, for her funny way of dressing in tattered, second-hand clothes. They would taunt and torment her at school and on the playground at recess without mercy.

The teachers and school Principal were in on the game too, prompted by her father who encouraged the school staff to be as harsh with her as they wanted. He informed them that her subservient behavior (always saying "yes sir" and "no ma'am") was actually her way of showing them her disdain and stubborn disrespect for them. Thinking that they were on to her game, her teachers made her school hours just as miserable as her home life had become.

She was yelled at, in class, and called stupid, by her teachers, even though she was very smart and (if given a chance) an above average student. She was given F's because she didn't sign her name in all caps or because her paper had a stain on it. Other students took her homework papers and crumpled them or ripped them up. She couldn't re-do them before they were to be turned in and the teacher was not going to listen to any of her excuses.

Whereas corporal punishment was unheard of for the girls, it was common for Cookie to be paddled on her tender backside, bent over with her hands on her knees, in front of the whole class. Five or six hard strokes of the wooden paddle or a hardwood pointer, sometimes even with her ordered to hold her skirt up in back, exposing her ragged panties for the whipping (much to the girls' satisfaction and the boys' delight). The teachers were astonished that she never grunted, screamed out or made so much as a whimper as they thrashed her soft-looking bottom and tender upper thighs. It was taken as her way of stubborn defiance to their authority and caused them to beat her all the harder and without any mercy. To the classes' astonishment, there was never so much as one tear shed, on her somber reddened face, as she struggled to walk upright back to the hard, cold, wooden seat of her desk.

Classmates loved the show and wanted to see it often, blaming mysterious damage and school mischief on Cookie so that they could see her abused and humiliated for it by teachers or Principle Smith. The teachers and staff were more than happy to punish her, aware that whippings and cruelties, meted out to the frail, little blonde-haired girl, could be done with her own father's blessing and without fear of any repercussion.

School, for Cookie, became a daily ordeal of taunting and failure and traps and humiliations and whippings, with very few bright spots in her dismal life.

She had no friends. Nobody, boy or girl, wanted to face the social stigma of making friends with (or being caught even just being nice to) the odd, ragged, funny, little, outcast girl.

If the class held a Christmas party or a birthday party for a student, Cookie was told to either go out in the hall and wait until the party was over, or she was told to turn her desk around and face the other way as the students had cupcakes and candy and punch and she was left out of the merriment. She was hurt, of course, but never shed a tear or even once complained about her treatment.

Crying was a punishable weakness (her father always told her and her brother) and, not only did Cookie not want to appear weak in front of everyone, she also did not want to give them the satisfaction that their hurtful actions affected her as deeply as they did.

Cookie learned very early, through fear and self-preservation, to hold her emotions far down inside of her and to never let them show even though the constant ache in her little heart was, at times, far too much for her ever to bear.