## A True Test (m/mmmmmm)

It is the start of my third form year and I am not yet 12 years old. It is, in fact, the very first day, in fact. We have all been running around the grounds of the school, meeting up with friends, talking to each other about our holidays and working out if anything has changed that we need to know about. Then a bell sounds and we head to the House - we're Third Form boys now and we know that the third bell summons us. We file into the House and into the prep room.

Standing at the front of the room with a red notebook in his hand is Arthur Doyle. His blazer pocket informs us, if we couldn't guess from where he was standing that he is our new House Captain.

"All right, you gargoyles, settle down. The first formers are getting dressed in their dormitory and I need to let you know who your telems are. Before I do, let me remind you of what you're supposed to do.

"As mentors, it's your job to make sure your telem learns his way around the school. You tell him the rules. You tell him the codes. You make sure he knows where the toilets are and what time meals are. You've all been on the other end of it, so you should know what's going on. You also look after him - remember these are little boys..." I smile at the realisation that most of them are actually the same age as I am, "... and some of them have probably never been away from Mummy before. If that's what you end up with, that's what you end up with - and it's your job to make sure he's OK - and to make sure he can stand on his own two feet as soon as possible. You take care of him - and if you don't - well, I have a springy new cane in my room and years of pent up aggression as a victim of the cane to get rid of! Now - I'm going to read out the list. When I'm finished - head to the dorm and find your telem."

I wait for my name to be called: "Rysher - you have Derek Gordon."

We all file out and into the first form dorm and walk around looking for our telem. I find Derek - he's the smallest boy in the room. Mousy hair, a few freckles, looking incredibly nervous.

"Hi Derek. I'm Nathan - you stick with me and I will look after you."

We head outside - we have an hour or so of free time to get to know each other, and I can see one of my close friends - William Connolly is standing under a tree with three other boys. One I recognize as Rupert Strathvayne - the other two are new boys, who I (rightfully) assume to be Connolly's and Strathvayne's telems.

Strathvayne - I don't think he's come up in any of my previous accounts, so a bit of an introduction is in order.

Lord Rupert Strathvayne - and that starts to tell you a lot about him. Member of the nobility were not exactly common at our school, but they weren't unheard of. For some reason, some rich families in Britain wanted to send their sons out of the country for their education, but still wanted them to receive the same type of education they'd receive at home. So we did have a smattering of English boys at the school - and just occasionally one of them had an adornment at the front of his name (Hon. was a bit more common than Lord, though). Strathvayne was a nice enough fellow, but he could be very arrogant at times, and sometimes at the absolutely most inappropriate times - when an Irish-Australian Police Sergeant - one who already has real problems with the spoiled rich brats from the nearby boarding school - has just caught you somewhere you shouldn't be, the last thing you want your companion to start doing is insisting on the respect due his station. Anyway - Strathvayne was a close friend of William Connolly, and I was a close friend of William Connolly and that made the two of us friends by default.

The other two new boys were Terrence Harvey - with Strathvayne as his mentor, and Spencer Walker who had been assigned to Connolly.

We all joined up together and started walking around showing the new boys the most important places they needed to know about. We asked them a few basic questions about themselves, and found that none of them had previously been at boarding school - though fortunately none of them seemed completely wet - slightly damp at worst. They had read the right books though, which was reassuring because it meant they had some idea of what was expected in a school like ours. Mostly, though, they seemed a little out of their depth - and considering the indoctrination process they'd been through that was quite normal.

Basically we spent the rest of the day getting to know each other a bit. And I began instructing Derek in the code - the unofficial rules of schoolboy conduct that were in some ways more important than the rules of the school.

Derek was unusual - but unusual in the same way I was, which was probably why he had been assigned to me. Derek was two years younger than the normal first form boy, just as I had been. It wasn't that uncommon for a boy to be admitted to the school a year early - but two years was quite unusual, and he was very nervous about it, and I was able to reassure him a bit about the fact that I fitted in quite nicely. He came from a middle class family from another state - not an unusual background for someone in the school, but he was quite conscious of the fact that, in his case, he was the first person in his family to be sent away to boarding school, and the first person in his family to have the chance at what was seen as an extremely high quality education. He was a bit nervous about this as well.

Because he was so nervous, I took special care to begin outlining the codes. I took these very seriously, far more seriously than most boys. But there real value was that if you followed them closely, it was a lot easier to fit into the school. Boys who fitted in naturally didn't need to worry that much about the minutiae of the code - they had to follow it on broad lines or become a pariah, but that was enough. The minor details though made a lot of difference to the boy who otherwise wouldn't fit in that well. People like me - and perhaps like Derek - who were smarter than normal in a school where you didn't want to be labeled a swot and nothing else. Derek found the codes fascinating, and I have to say he learned them very well indeed, very quickly, though I should also say that as he moved through the school over the next few years, while he always followed the code he became a lot less obsessive about it than I was.

But that took time. To begin with, Derek really embraced it and in those first few days at the school he quizzed me on its detail mercilessly. I told him everything - including about the concept of the true test.

The true test concept was part of the code that most people regarded as rather old fashioned and too... well, rather cabalistic. Over the years there had been boys - boys like me probably - who took the code so seriously that some of them sought to elevate it to something semi-religious. Most people didn't take that all seriously, but the true test was one bit that had survived better than others. People didn't embrace it, but they didn't dismiss it either.

The true test concept was basically that you only fully followed the code when you had to face a 'true test' in it. This meant you'd deliberately created a situation where it was easy not to follow the code, and hard to follow it - just so you could see if you would follow it or not. There was no requirement to do this - but it was seen as somehow special if you did it.

Over these early days of the term, we all had classes to go to, of course, and when we had free time, we all spent some of it with our telems. William, Rupert and I had decided to handle things more or less as a team - we basically told our telems that while they should come to their assigned mentor first if they had a problem, if they couldn't find us, they should go to one of the other two third form boys. A lot of us made arrangements like this - the mentor and telem system had been around for a long time and we knew how to make it work.

So on Friday, after school, William and I were swimming in the lagoon - it was a very hot day and most of the school was in there - with our three telems when Strathvayne swam out to join us. He looked very pleased with himself.

"I have sausages," he announced.

"Where?" asked Harvey.

"Not on me, of course." This was obvious - there was nowhere he could possibly be hiding them. "They're in my trunk - along with some ice."

Now - sausages. The school was founded on traditions and one of these traditions held that sausages were a very fine food indeed. Boys used to get them from the local butchers and cook them in the common room fireplaces and would then eat them with bread and butter and tomato sauce. The tradition supposedly came from earlier days in the school, when the food had been less adequate than it was in our time. Cooking in the common rooms was a tradition and so it was tolerated by the staff, but was only permitted to boys in third form and above. So we hadn't had the chance before.

Connolly looked at Strathvayne with an expression of disdain. "What use is having sausages today? Look at how hot it is - if we try to light a fire in the common room this evening, they'll lynch us! And the ice won't last - they'll go off. We're not going to be able to eat them!"

"Oh. Oh dear. I hadn't thought of that. Whatever shall we do." Strathvayne's tone was caustic. "Listen, William, do you honestly think that I am unaware of how bloody hot it is today? I'm the POM, for goodness sake, believe me, I know it's hot. No, we're not going to cook them in the common room. What we're going to do - well, Harvey and I are, and the four of you are invited - is sneak out at midnight, head down behind the rifle range and grill them up on the bush barbie down there. An old fashioned midnight feast - like in the books."

"You're joking?"

"I am not. Harvey and I were talking about the books and he asked about midnight feasts and I said we didn't have them, and he thought it was an absolute liberty to have a boarding school without midnight feasts. And I agree. Now, are you four in or not?"

My answer came instantly. "I'm in." I had resolved towards the end of the previous year to be a good boy. And I was finding it rather a strain. So to me, this sounded like a great idea. It wasn't bad to be talking about sneaking out of the House for a midnight feast - it was just naughty. And naughty was all right.

Connolly saw his two best friends were up for it, and so he shrugged. "All right - someone has to keep the two of you out of trouble."

Walker and Gordon, though, they looked a bit nervous. "If we get caught..." Gordon said.

"Then we'll be in a fair bit of trouble. But that has a way of happening anyway, Derek." I wanted him to come. He was still worried about not fitting into the school - getting him involved in something like this, in my judgement, was a way to get him into the swing of things.

"OK."

And Spencer Walker - well the rest of us were going. He could hardly say no. Could he?

So we agreed. Strathvayne assured us that he could wake up when he wanted to - so he would wake us all at midnight and we would sneak out of the house with his sausages. Bread and butter was easy enough. On Friday nights, dinner was almost a buffet and we could collect what we wanted and it was my job to swipe one of the ubiquitous sauce bottles from the tables.

All was set. We got the food, and when it was time, we went to bed. We had planned to go to bed in clothes suitable for our escapade, but Matron decided to supervise our preparation for bed that night and we had to change into our pyjamas under her gaze. She did this periodically - supervised our changing or our showers, right through our time at the school, doing it less and less as we got older. But always doing it enough to both keep us on our toes - and perhaps as a reminder that we had no right to privacy from her.

I was shaken awake in the middle of the night by Strathvayne. There were night lights in the dormitories so we wouldn't fall over in the night when we went to the toilets, and we quietly dressed by those - just the basics of shorts, shirts, and sandshoes. We had to be quiet - but only quiet enough to stop anyone outside the junior dorms hearing us. If our dorm mates had heard us - well, they wouldn't tell anyone. Rupert had dressed first before waking William and myself and he crept to the first form dorm and woke them - and they dressed too, and it was only a few minutes before we snuck out of the front door of the House.

We headed across the grounds keeping to the shadows. After a couple of minutes, we could see the clock tower on the main building of the school and I realised it was actually after two in the morning. I pointed and Strathvayne shrugged. I decided that this was probably better - much less chance of being caught at two in the morning than at midnight.

We snuck across the school and down past the rifle range to where we knew the bush barbecue was - this was a brick construction with a steel plate on top for cooking food on. It was used for various purposes, but normally in daylight. It only took a few minutes to start the sausages cooking and while they did we talked.

The three first form boys had had a few days to get the basic feel of the school and that is what we talked about. And one of the things that came up - unsurprisingly considering we were in the process of breaking rules - was the issue of crime and punishment.

"Do they really use the cane as often as people say?" Derek asked the question.

"Probably. Why, does that scare you?" I asked as I turned the sausages onto the steel plate.

"A bit, I suppose. Yes."

"Did they have the cane at your last school?"

"Yes, they did - but they gave it on the hand, not on the bottom and I never got it."

"They had the strap at my primary school," This was Terrence Harvey. "On the hand, too. I got it once for fighting. It hurt a bit, but not too bad. I don't like the idea of the cane at all."

We all looked at Spencer Walker. He nodded. "Yes, we had the cane too at my old school - on the bottom. I got two strokes once and it hurt a lot - but I never got six, and I've been told that they even do it on the bare bottom here! Is that really true?"

Strathvayne gave a laugh. "Oh yes, it's true - it doesn't happen that often - but it's happened to Nathan - and he got beaten in front of the entire school last year too - six of the best in front of everyone! He screamed like a stuck pig. 'Oh, please, Sir, please, Sir, please stop. I shall be good. I shall be good.'"

"Shut up, Strathvayne." This was William who could see I was getting a bit angry. "You'd have screamed too." He was trying to defuse the situation.

But I was going to strike back and I had the ammunition to do it:

"You know, you three. On his first day at the school, Strathvayne..."

"All right, all right, Nathan, Pax! Pax! I take it back."

But I wasn't stopping, "... he got his bottom smacked during the medical exam because he was scared of the needle. And that night Matron spanked his bare bottom in front of everyone!"

"You're really nasty, Nathan, you know that, don't you." But Strathvayne's voice was calm. He'd told tales on me. I'd told them on him. For now, we were even.

"Have a sausage, my Lord."

"Thank you, old chap. Don't mind if I do."

We sat there eating our first round of sausages and trying to scare the new boys with stories about how horrible canings were - and, of course, how brave we were when we experienced them. But we also outlined how they worked - it was our job to give them information.

Harvey was summarizing what we'd told them. "So the Headmaster and the Deputy can flog and beat, House Masters can beat, all the Masters can cane any boy except a prefect and the Matrons can cane any boy at all, and the House Captains and the Captain of the School..."

There was a voice from the shadows. "The Captain of the School can cane any boy he likes except a Prefect - as you lot are about to discover."

We almost jumped out of our skins. Stepping into the firelight, was David Wycroft, recently appointed School Captain. He was fully dressed in school uniform - rather odd for that time in the morning.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?"

We all scrambled to our feet. Strathvayne spoke. "Um... two o'clock feast. It was meant to be a midnight feast, but I overslept, I'm afraid."

"I see. Strathvayne, Connolly, Rysher... I don't know you three."

Strathvayne spoke again. "They're new boys, Wycroft - our telems." He paused, and the spoke very deliberately. "And they don't know the rules yet.

" A smile appeared on Wycroft's face - he was a nice boy, like most of the Captains I was under at the school - he had a duty to discharge and he would certainly do it, but he was nice at his core. "Are you asking me to believe that these three boys had absolutely no idea that it's against the school rules to sneak out at two o'clock in the morning - even if its meant to be midnight - to have a meal?"

"Yes, Wycroft." Strathvayne nodded. "That's exactly what I am asking you to believe."

William and I both piped up agreement. We knew Wycroft was going to cane us. There was no point in dropping our telems in it. Wycroft obviously knew that they knew they were breaking rules - but if we gave him even a semi-credible excuse, he just might take it.

He turned to look at them. "You three - names?"

"Gordon."

"Walker."

"Harvey."

"Well, Gordon Walker Harvey - what do you have to say for yourselves? Did you know you were breaking a rule or not?"

They were silent. Wycroft gave a deep sigh. "Let me put it this way. I am going to give those three," he gestured at us. "six each." My heart stopped for a moment at that - six was a lot more than I was expecting. "I'll have to - three for sneaking out for this, three for leading you astray. Now... if you three were willing participants, that changes things a bit. That'd mean three each for the lot of you - and because you three are new, I'd let you get away with two."

Gordon was the first to answer. "We knew... I mean, I knew anyway - I don't know about the others. But Nathan's taught me all the rules." And he looked straight at me. "And all the codes as well."

Harvey nodded, as Walker spoke, "I knew as well, I wish I hadn't, though."

"All right - then let's get up to the school."

"Oh, fair go, Wycroft - there's still some sausages left. You're going to cane us, right and proper - but let us have the good as well as the bad." Strathvayne was pushing now - he had a tendency to do that.

"Is there a sausage there for me, then?"

"Certainly - two if you want."

"Is this a bribe or blackmail? I mean, you're not going to get up to the school and claim I'm compromised."

"No, it's just natural justice."

"All right - cook 'em up."

We cooked and ate the sausages - and they still tasted very good. And when we were done, we trooped up to the school after Wycroft, into the main building and up to the Captain's room.

He unlocked his door, entered and came out a second later with his cane. He pointed at Derek with it. "You first, I think. Come here."

Derek slowly shuffled over.

"Ever been caned?"

"No, Wycroft." His voice was unsteady.

"Well, we're going to learn together, because I've never done it. Bend over and touch your toes."

Derek gave a deep breath and then did as he was told.

"All right, Gordon. I hope this is going to hurt. I want you to stay down for both the strokes. Is that clear?"

A muffled reply, barely audible.

"Be brave, kid."

Wycroft tucked his cane under his arm for a second and cracked his knuckles. Then he took the cane in his right hand and lay the end of it across the seat of Derek's shorts with great care, and moved it back and forward a little. Derek made a little noise - a squeak more than anything else. Wycroft raised the cane and then swung it back down hard and fast - but pulled up before impact. There was the start of the swish noise - but only the start. Derek's whole body tensed expecting the blow, then shuddered as it didn't arrive.

"Sorry, Gordon." Wycroft took aim again, again, very carefully with lots of small movements, and brought his arm back, then rapidly slammed the cane down - the end of the cane landed hard and centred on Derek's bottom and he straightened up, his hands moving around to clutch his bottom as he burst into tears.

"I guess that worked. Go over there, Gordon - you next, Walker."

Walker shuffled forward - his hands already clutching his bottom.

"You ever been caned, Walker?"

"Yes, I have." His voice made it clear he was on the verge of tears already.

"On the bottom?"

"Yes."

"Well, then... look I have to give you two. I've let Gordon off with one, because I stuffed the first one up and that isn't fair, but I have to even it up as much as I can. Now, bend over and touch your toes."

Walker very, very reluctantly did so.

"Don't stand up like Gordon did - I'm going to do both quick so it's over quick, but you have to stay down."

Wycroft lay the cane across Walkers bottom - again the incredible care in aiming was noticeable, then he raised it and slammed it down. It almost seemed to bounce off the small boys bottom and Wycroft let it rise before bringing it down again, within a second of the first cut. Walker didn't stand. He stayed down in position.

"Stand up and join Gordon."

"Yes, Wycroft." His voice was quiet, but more controlled than it had been before he bent over.

"Come here, Harvey. What's your experience?"

"I've been strapped on the hand, and smacked at home on the bottom, but I've never had a caning."

"You get the same as Walker. Bend over and touch your toes."

Harvey did as he was told immediately Wycroft took very careful aim and raised slammed the cane down again - and once again the second stroke came on the bounce.

"Get over with the others." Wycroft turned to Rupert, William, and myself. "You three - with you three, I'm working on technique. I know it's asking a lot - but I know the three of you have a bit of experience - so, could you, perhaps - well, could you tell me if I got it right at the end? Please?"

We made non-committal noises. He sighed. "Up to you. Rysher - you first. Come here, and bend over and touch your toes. I'm giving you three and you stay down or it will be four."

I stepped forward to the correct location and bent over to touch my toes. I felt the cane lying gently on my buttocks and I closed my eyes to hold in the tears that appeared unbidden. The cane left my bottom, there was the briefest sound of a swish and then I felt my body move with the impact. Half a second later, pain across the centre of my bottom. The tears flowed, but I remained silent. A few second passed, and again the brief sound and the explosion of pain so my whole bottom felt like it was red hot. And then again, and I couldn't help myself. I stood up straight.

"Oh, why did you do that? You little fool. Now get back down."

I was crying now properly - the realisation that I'd earned myself an extra stroke was just too much for me to bear. This rarely happened at our school - it seems to be a common factor in accounts I have read elsewhere, but while it was often threatened it didn't happen to us often at all. I bent over again and the pause seemed to go on forever as the pain in my buttocks built and built and I hoped that maybe he was reconsidering. But just as the pain faded, there was the noise and fresh pain. This time I held my position.

"Get up and join the others."

I straightened up, and used my hand to wipe away some of my tears. As I stepped across, I decided there was something I had to say. "Eight out of ten."

"Pardon."

"Eight out of ten, Wycroft."

"Oh, thanks. You next, Strathvayne - and should I try for nine out of ten."

Strathvayne's voice was as cultured and upper crust as he could make it, "On the whole, I think I'd rather you didn't, if it's all the same to you."

"We'll see. Bend over and touch your toes."

I turned around to watch. Strathvayne bent over and as instructed, and Wycroft took up the necessary stance. He laid the cane across Strathvayne's bottom, but he was no longer aiming with the same care he had when he had begun. He raised it and swung it down in a fairly fluid motion. There was a swish and a crack and no discernible bounce. He raised it again, and held it his eyes focused on his target, and he seemed to be counting under his breath. Then he swung it down again. Strathvayne yelped, but held his position, as the cane was raised again and then swung down again.

"Stand up."

Strathvayne's face was very red. He opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Closed it. Then he opened it again and spoke. "Oh dear... dear... dear... dear... I think Nathan's right. Eight out of ten."

"Join the others - lucky last, Connolly. Come here, bend over and touch your toes."

William almost marched into position - I think that might have been a result of him forcing himself to move - and with just as much of a military bearing bent over. Wycroft cracked his knuckles, then took his line without apparent concern. He raised the cane and swung it down - it described an almost perfect arc, geometrically beautiful to watch - if you were in a position to appreciate it. William was hardly interested in aesthetics at that moment. He grunted as the cane was raised again, and then after about two seconds seemed to decide there was little point in holding anything in and I heard him begin to cry freely. There was the swish and the crack of the arcing cane, and the intensity of his crying increased. The cane was raised again, there was a pause - and then it came down and William jerked but held position.

"Stand up."

"Eight again, I think." Williams voice was strained.

"Well, that's good - and room for improvement." Wycrofts voice was deliberately light, but I realised there was a slight tremor in it, as if he was keeping himself under very tight control. "Now back to your House..."

"No." I heard the word and was shocked to hear it. It came from Gordon.

"I beg your pardon?" Wycroft's control slipped a bit.

"I'm owed a stroke."

"What?"

"Harvey and Walker got two. I got one." Gordon's voice was full of tears, but was very firm.

Much firmer that Wycroft's reply. "Yeah, all right - but I stuffed up the first stroke and that scared you, and so I couldn't do that to anyone else. So it's all right."

"And I stood up before I should have. And when Nathan did it, you gave him an extra."

"Look, kid, I'm not going to give you another stroke."

v "Yes, you are."

"Oh really, why?"

"Because you should. Nathan has told me how the school works and how there's a code."

I spoke up. "Oh, Derek, don't be a twit. You don't..."

"Yes, I do - this is a true test. I have to take it. Or I don't belong here. Please, Wycroft."

"Jesus..." Wycroft squeezed his eyes shut, and then opened them. "All right - bend over, and take what's coming to you."

Gordon bent over in place, and Wycroft stepped behind him. He aimed quickly then brought the cane up and down sharply. Gordon gasped, but held his ground.

"Now get to bed, all of you. Right now."

We went. Wycroft sounded just a little bit tense. We headed back to the House, went to our dormitories, undressed and went to sleep as we could.

The following morning, we had to shower, and once again, the Matron decided that this was something she was going to supervise. As I came out from under the water - she pointed at me and gestured me to come over. She also gathered William and Rupert.

"You three were unmarked last night when you went to bed. Now you've woken up and it's very obvious you've been caned. Now I am not going to ask you what happened - I just want you to know that I have noticed. And I have very real suspicions as to what might have gone on last night. All right, whatever it was - you've obviously been punished. I just want you to know that I will be keeping a very close eye on you from now on, and I do check beds sometimes. Fair warning."

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