p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; background: white; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie was sitting in the first row of the class and although he looked at the chalk board, Professor Fleinhardt could clearly see that his mentee's mind was not on the quantum force field equations. He debated whether to call him out on it but after the clock showed him that Charlie had been distracted for over fifteen minutes, his mind was made. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""So Charles, what's the simplified form of this equation?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"The well-beaten deer-in-the-headlights look wasn't a common one on his protégé. "Uhh Larry, I mean Professor Fleinhardt," Charlie shook his head, focusing on the writing, "that differential clearly simplifies to a harmonic sine wave and then the end becomes an exponential and then.." "I asked you for the final answer Charles, not the first steps that we discussed five minutes ago." Charlie blushed at Larry's raised eyebrow and started scribbling in his notebook but Larry shook his head and called on another student. As he wrote Will's answer, while still facing the board he threw "wait back after class, Charles." Larry missed the angry huff Charlie let out. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie didn't even bother to pretend to be listening after that. He kept writing something in his notebook. Larry kept glancing at him but decided not to call him out further, he'd handle it after class. Charlie didn't even realize when Larry dismissed the class and he missed the others leaving as he was right at the front. Larry stood at the door as all the students left. Will lingered a moment longer trying to catch Charlie's eye to show his sympathy but Larry wanted to hurry him along and said, "We'll see you soon enough during the Olympiad prep. Go."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Once the classroom had cleared, Larry shut the door and went to stand in front of Charlie. When Charlie didn't look up for ten seconds, Larry knocked on the desk. Charlie jumped and scowled at him. Larry was confused by the scowl, Charlie was always so apologetic when he was in trouble. Larry decided some power dynamics needed to be used. He pointed with his head and walked to his own chair, leaving Charlie standing in front of him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""What's going on Charles?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie, who would have to be coaxed to look up from the floor when in trouble, looked into Larry's eyes and said, "Well in my schedule, I have an hour long break before I have to be at the high school for studying how to cheat and kill." Larry decided to ignore the jibe about having to continue attending literature classes at the high school despite being at Princeton for everything else at just 13, except gym too, of course. "For you, I know that you have to drive me to the high school but other than that I don't know what's in your schedule. I can check your planner for you if you're struggling with the tech." Larry didn't speak. If Charlie was behaving so uncharacteristically, he had to change his technique too. He had started this conversation simply wanting to know what's wrong but it looked like Charlie was going to make things significantly harder for both of them. He got up. Charlie took a step back. Larry looked up and raised an eyebrow. Charlie stepped forward again and looked down. 'Finally', Larry thought as he moved around his desk, behind Charlie and let his hand fall in a loud, hard smack. Charlie used all his will power to not respond. Larry smacked him again and waited for five seconds, then again. At the fifth smack, Charlie couldn't help but whimper. Larry was confused. Charlie was not one to try to display bravado. He had a very low pain tolerance and had no qualms about begging. "Do you want to try the answer again?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie took a deep breath. "I don't know what you want me to say."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Three smacks fell in rapid succession and broke through Charlie's pain tolerance. His hand went back to rub as he said, "I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention, I was distracted. I won't do it again. Please stop." Larry took hold of Charlie's hand and moved it to his side. Charlie understood the order of keeping it there. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry moved back to his chair, completing the circle. Things should go more like normal now. Larry used the same gentle tone, "Charlie, this is unlike you. Talk to me, please." This rubbed Charlie the wrong way. "You don't even know me, how would you know what's like and unlike me." Larry took a breath, he could now clearly see that Charlie was hurting, but he also couldn't let this behaviour slide. "I've known you for 3 years now, Charles. But sure, yes, people change. But let's discuss why you're changing into someone who doesn't pay attention and answers back?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""In case you didn't notice, I'm a genius, like a certified genius now. So trust me I can learn the content of your class in a day with no help from you. And I help you with the math for your research; we are equals, why should I speak to you differently?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"'Wow. Where on earth is all this coming from?' Larry kept staring at Charlie. The stare generally helped to get Charlie talking generally and well right now, Larry didn't really have anything good to say. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie didn't look repentant at all but at least he wasn't looking straight into Larry's eyes anymore. He was looking at a point just about Larry's shoulder. If the situation wasn't so serious, Larry would have laughed saying that Charlie was finally using the faking eye contact tips. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"When it was clear that Charlie wasn't going to say anything else, Larry simply said, "Bend over. And bare" as he walked to his desk. He removed his wooden ruler from the blackboard but then looked at Charlie and removed the paddle from the bottom drawer too./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Was I unclear about anything, Mr Eppes? Too Fleinhardt. Let me clarify. You are going to be punished with the ruler and the paddle in the next couple minutes. I want you to get in position by bending over the desk with your bottom bared. And I want you to do it now." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie started walking towards the desk, then stopped. He looked at Larry. "Larry, listen.." "Its Professor Fleinhardt to you, Mr Eppes." Charlie looked up, shocked. "Larry, come on. I said I'm sorry. I'll drop out from your class, okay? That way no record, no foul." Larry couldn't believe Charlie was saying these things. But then again, he could. They had been here before, although it had been a long time since Charlie was this stressed and insecure about everything. That realisation further strengthened his resolve. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Mr Eppes, neither of us want you to be late for your literature education. So I suggest you hurry up before you end up in a situation where you have to explain your tardiness to your beloved English teacher, truthfully." That shocked Charlie again, Larry knew how he did not get along with the English teacher at all. 'He won't do this to me'. He looked up. 'Or will he?'/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Professor Fleinhardt, please tell me what I can do to compensate for my actions. I'll do all you ask and drop out of the course and both of us won't ever have to see each other again." Yep, Larry was right. Charlie was feeling insecure about his relationships and was pushing the boundaries. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Are you forgetting our daily Olympiad prep sessions and twice a week mentoring sessions, Mr Eppes?" "Well, I can drop off the Olympiad too. It is in good hands with Will here now anyway. And I'll find a different mentor."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry decided that this line of argument was fruitless. Charlie was too upset to reason with. You have fifteen seconds to be in position, Mr Eppes. For every minute after that, your punishment increases ten per cent. I'm sure the math will convince you to heed me quickly."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""No, please. Please. You know I hate spa- uhh physical punishments. Please?" Charlie thought about how unfair this is. He thought of how amazing it would feel to swear you and walk out. But he knew how easily that would go downhill, with his dad getting involved. Which after yesterday evening he did not want at all. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Ten seconds now"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie panicked and opened the zipper of his jeans. He held the waistbands then looked at Larry who just looked at him meaningfully. Charlie started crying. It broke Larry's heart. He wanted nothing more than to go and hug him and tell him everything was okay and fox whatever was bothering the kid. But unfortunately that wasn't the right thing for Charlie. Charlie stood there crying for almost a minute. Larry couldn't help but soften as he said "Charles.." but in his state Charlie didn't notice the change in reference. He thought Larry's as about to increase his punishment and immediately pushed his pants and boxers down to his thighs and bent over the desk, crying louder. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry thought about having a conversation and calming him down first but then decided to just get it over with. "Twenty with the ruler and ten with the paddle." "Noo" Charlie whimpered. This was significantly more than anything Larry had ever dished out to him. In his pain he reverted back to, "Larry, please. Please don't do this. I can't take it. Please Larry, I'm begging you." 'Okay then, something is happening as expected. Not that it makes it any easier to handle.' But he didn't call Charlie out on calling him by his first name again, albeit a small mercy. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""It's exactly what you have brought on, so brace yourself." Larry lifted the ruler and brought it down hard. Charlie immediately shot up. "Larry, please. Can't we talk about this?" "Of course, Charles. We will talk. So tell me what has got you so upset?" When Charlie didn't respond and looked away, Larry placed his hand on his back and pushed him back on the desk. 'Maybe some kindness will help. "Charlie? Talk to me. I'm listening." "Can I get up and then we can talk?" Larry hesitated. He sounded so small and broken. And the reassurance he would provide would help Charlie feel better about the relationship and thus fox the main problem too. But, the things Charlie said were really out of line. He couldn't let that slide without punishment. And he remembered what Alan had said about Charlie's tendency to keep track of patterns of behavior and keep trying it again and again. He didn't want an encounter like this again so he had to finish what he started. "No Charles. We will finish this punishment now and then you can sit, or stand, and talk to me. Alright?" With that Larry brought the ruler down two more times. Charlie started sobbing. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry could sense that Charlie couldn't really talk through the sobs so he continued and brought down the ruler five more times. Charlie pushed off the table and screamed, "Aahhhh. That hurts, I'm dying. Please, please I'm begging you. Please stop. Please please." "I'm sorry Charles, you brought this on yourself. And refrain from getting up. Next time you get up we will start from.." he was about to say the beginning but he knew he couldn't do that. "the same stroke. So that stroke won't count." Larry guided Charlie back and gave him three more to the ruler. Before he could say half way there, Charlie had gotten off the table again and was begging him with hooded hands, "Please Larry, I can't take this. Please. Dad spanked me yesterday and it hurts a lot. Please. If you care about me at all, even the tiniest bit please please don't do this to me." "Charles, I have to do this because I care about you so much. Get back on the table at once." Charlie was never good at accepting a punishment which is why both Larry and Alan preferred to punish him on their knees where they had more control but after Charlie's attitude today, Larry wanted him to feel the difference. And Charlie's extreme behavior relatively early in the spanking made sense now that he knew Alan had spanked the boy the previous night. He wondered if the same reason had triggered today's antics. Larry pushed Charlie back and kept his hand on Charlie's back this time and gave him five swats in rapid succession, wanting to get this over with as much as Charlie did. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie sobbed, "Please Larry, please stop. I won't ever bother you again. I won't take your classes, I won't come to you with my problems, nothing. You will get no trouble from me. Please just stop now. Please show me some mercy. I'll be grateful forever." And he collapsed, crying into his elbow. Larry was a little stunned at the words but Charlie's low pain tolerance always made him prone to hysterics during a punishment, which was another reason he used spankings so rarely. But today the boy had crossed a line. So Larry quickly gave me the last five with the ruler, but made them significantly lighter, not that Charlie noticed, at all. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"As Charlie realised where Larry was moving to he said, "Larry, please. If you have ever cared about me, if you want me to ever believe in the future that I mean something to you, you will stop this right now. I really cannot take it. I don't know how to tell you how much pain I am in. Please listen to me, please." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry wondered how Alan dealt with this, especially with two kids, not that Don would ever beg like this. He tried to rub Charlie's back. "Charles, I know it hurts. But it is supposed to. That is what makes it a punishment. And it will be over soon. Then you shall have a ean slate and we shall talk and fix everything and it will all be okay." Charlie tried to get up again. "No Charles" and with that Larry gave him a stroke with the paddle. The sound Charlie made can only be described as a howl. Larry didn't think he had hit that hard but he decided to reduce the force further until the last two swats. Charlie's sobs got louder and more broken. Larry knew he couldn't take them any longer and so brought the paddle down thrice quickly. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie shot up pushing Larry's hand along. He fell on his knees. "Larry" he couldn't speak through the sobs. Larry wanted to get this over with. "Charles, get over the table this instant. That last stroke did not count. So you have seven more to go." Charlie looked up at him with fear and anger and plain disappointment. Larry's heart broke in a thousand pieces but he had to see this through. He pulled Charlie up with his arm and moved him back to the table. He brought the paddle down four times. Charlie was crying so hard he couldn't breathe. Larry immediately stopped and tried to rub Charlie's back but he flinched away from his hand. Larry knew that the only way out was through so he picked up the paddle and administered the last three swats. He threw the paddle away. Charlie just kept sobbing. Larry trie dto run hos back again but Charlie pushed his hand away with his own hand. Charlie got up and straightened his clothes. Larry pulled Charlie in for a hug but Charlie pushed him away, with a stronger force than Larry had ever got from the boy. Of course Charlie rarely ever accepted comfort after a spanking but Larry still hoped, as did Alan. Charlie just rested his hand on a wall, bent and sobbed his lungs out. Larry tried to approach him but Charlie would just shove his hand away so he decided to give the boy a few minutes to calm himself. Larry went and sat on his chair behind his desk. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"After almost ten minutes Charlie got up, rubbed the years out of his eyes and stood in front on Larry. He stood with his hands behind his back, looking a lot more like a middle school child in front of his headmaster than a child who often felt like a colleague to Larry. "Professor Fleinhardt," even though Larry had just asked him to refer to him with his title, Charlie's current state and tone made it feel like the worst swear word. "I deeply apologize for my behavior. I assure you it won't happen again. I promise you, you won't see me again so you won't ever be troubled because of me." "What are you saying Charles? I will see you this evening for Olympiad prep and tomorrow in class and then tomorrow afternoon for our mentoring session.." "I promised you during the punishment that I would leave all of that and I intend to fulfill my promises." "Charles, I didn't ask for those promises." "But staying away from you is the best way to not get in your way and not incur your wrath, sir." Larry hated being called sir. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry took a breath, "Charlie, talk to me. What happened lats night? Would you like some water?" "No sir" "Charlie, what happened last night?" "I don't have to disclose my home life to any professor or mentor at the University, sir. And it was nothing to do with Princeton." "But Charlie a couple minutes ago you wanted to sit down and talk." "That was before you broke any trust I had in you by ignoring my please repeatedly. I can't seek comfort from the one who hurt me so badly." Larry contemplated threatening calling Alan but seeing how broken Charlie already was he didn't want to escalate this. Besides he was going to join the eppes family for dinner and would find out eventually." "Charlie, I'm just trying to understand what is it that has you so upset so that I can make it better." Charlie huffed. Larry decided to change tracks. "Tell me why you were just punished." Charlie refrained from reminding Larry about being a genius and tried to remove all emotion from his voice as he said, "Because I wasn't paying attention in class, I gave you back chat and I was disrespectful." As Larry was about to express how proud he was of Charlie being aware of his infractions the boy continued, "or at least that's what I believe you want to hear." "What do you believe?" "I already told you that but you dismissed them." A lot of thoughts ran through Larry's head. That if he was picking on Charlie, he wouldn't have ever sat down for the way he was talking but the comments about being a genius had crossed a line. But he chose to say, "You were punished for your extremely disrespectful comments about my class, your education and our mentoring relationship. I would never spank you for just not paying attention. Your punishment for that is that you will read and summarise this chapter from the textbook after dinner tonight. "You can't punish me in my home, professor?" "Would you like to check with your dad about that?" He could see Charlie's eyes narrow ith anger. "No sir. I understand. And it seems like a fitting end to this mentoring relationship if you can even call it that." Larry knew that Charlie was hurting and lashing out but his words still knocked the wind out of him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" "Professor Fleinhardt, may I be excused to wash my face before we have to leave for the high school?" Larry wished that a miracle would happen in there which would fix this whole thing and nodded his permission. Feeling generous he said, "meet me at my car in 15." He hated to say it but he had to, "and this discussion isn't over yet."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie couldn't believe the heat and pain in his butt. He tried to rub it, tried to put some water on it but nothing helped. He couldn't think straight through the pain. He hated Larry. 'How could he do this to me? I can't believe I ever trusted him'. He filled in the required forms to switch Larry's class, mentoring and to drop out of the Olympiad. He felt a little better after doing that but he still wasn't able to get his sobs under control. He looked at his watch and knew that he was already late. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"When he reached the car, Larry was reading the emails about Charlie's requests. Larry made a split second decision, got out of the car and said, "My office, Charlie." "Why?" Charlie stuttered, he couldn't take anymore abuse to his backside. "We need to finish this discussion." "But I have a literature class." "I know, I'll handle it, don't worry." "But I don't want you to handle it, I want to go to class." "This is not up for debate, follow me to my office." "What is ever up for debate or even conversation with you."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry decided not to respond until they were in the privacy of his office. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"He sat on the couch and offered Charlie the adjoining seat, the softest one on his office. "I'd rather stand." "Sit down, Charles." Charlie sat down and winced. "Let's start at the beginning shall we?" "I'd rather not." "Charles, we just had a discussion about respect. Do you think these comments are respectful?" Charlie's butt made him choose to say, "No Professor Fleinhardt, I'm sorry sir." Larry was looking for some cooperation but this felt more like an arrow. "You may go back to Larry, Charlie. We're okay now." "Yes sir, Professor Fleinhardt." Charlie could say so much without saying anything too. 'Great now he has closed up. There goes my hope for a heart to heart.' /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry decided to compromise, "How can I make this right Charles? What can I do to help?" Charlie did not respond, just kept looking straight ahead. "Charles?" "You just asked me to not speak disrespectfully, Professor Fleinhardt and asking you to do something is disrespectful." Larry felt like pulling his hair out. "When you're answering a direct question, a along you keep a civil tone and not cuss, I won't consider any of your answers disrespectful. Now go on." Without missing a beat, Charlie said, "You may invent a time machine, go back in time and not hurt me." Larry had kind of expected this answer. "Charlie, where did the whole I'm a genius and can do whatever I want thing come from?" "None of what I said was untrue." The conversation was going nowhere so Larry shook his head slowly as he said, "you leave me no choice, Charles" and flipped open his phone./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""No, please don't call him, Larry. I mean Professor, please. I can't take any more. I'll answer all your questions, I promise. I'm sorry I'm giving you a hard time but I'm just in a lot of pain and I'm sorry that's my fault not yours. And yesterday evening, dad spanked me for ignoring my chores to work on the P vs NP problem instead. It made me angry. You know I hate getting spanked. I'm sorry I took it out on you but I really wish that you wouldn't spank me." And he started sobbing again. Larry pulled him into a hug and said, "Cry it out, child. Thank you for sharing. Those are big feelings. I'll be honest with you. It's highly unlikely that either me or your dad will stop spanking you anytime soon, genius or not. You are ours and we want you to grow up to be a great human being, not just a genius mathematician, okay? But I assure you we love you and only want the best for you." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie cries himself out and just nodded. Finally he said, "Can you please not tell dad about this?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""You know Charlie if you hadn't given me lip, this would have only been a conversation with you having to submit a summary of the chapter before the next class. But you made it so much worse. But I am feeling a little guilty and generous so I will tell Alan but I will also tell him that I handed it. You won't have to worry about any more consequences from him. But if you give me or anyone else such disrespect again especially about your mathematical gifts, today's punishment will feel like nothing, are we clear?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Yes sir"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""And my boy, you know I hate being called sir."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Yes Larry, we're clear." Charlie smiled. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""So what would you like to do after dinner today?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""I thought I was grounded to the table summarizing the chapter?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""You never know when to shut up do you? Well, you may work on that later and submit it before the next class. Today I'd like to spend time doing something you like."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Sounds good. Thanks Larry."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""You are very welcome, Charlie."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""So Charles, what's the simplified form of this equation?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"The well-beaten deer-in-the-headlights look wasn't a common one on his protégé. "Uhh Larry, I mean Professor Fleinhardt," Charlie shook his head, focusing on the writing, "that differential clearly simplifies to a harmonic sine wave and then the end becomes an exponential and then.." "I asked you for the final answer Charles, not the first steps that we discussed five minutes ago." Charlie blushed at Larry's raised eyebrow and started scribbling in his notebook but Larry shook his head and called on another student. As he wrote Will's answer, while still facing the board he threw "wait back after class, Charles." Larry missed the angry huff Charlie let out. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie didn't even bother to pretend to be listening after that. He kept writing something in his notebook. Larry kept glancing at him but decided not to call him out further, he'd handle it after class. Charlie didn't even realize when Larry dismissed the class and he missed the others leaving as he was right at the front. Larry stood at the door as all the students left. Will lingered a moment longer trying to catch Charlie's eye to show his sympathy but Larry wanted to hurry him along and said, "We'll see you soon enough during the Olympiad prep. Go."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Once the classroom had cleared, Larry shut the door and went to stand in front of Charlie. When Charlie didn't look up for ten seconds, Larry knocked on the desk. Charlie jumped and scowled at him. Larry was confused by the scowl, Charlie was always so apologetic when he was in trouble. Larry decided some power dynamics needed to be used. He pointed with his head and walked to his own chair, leaving Charlie standing in front of him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""What's going on Charles?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie, who would have to be coaxed to look up from the floor when in trouble, looked into Larry's eyes and said, "Well in my schedule, I have an hour long break before I have to be at the high school for studying how to cheat and kill." Larry decided to ignore the jibe about having to continue attending literature classes at the high school despite being at Princeton for everything else at just 13, except gym too, of course. "For you, I know that you have to drive me to the high school but other than that I don't know what's in your schedule. I can check your planner for you if you're struggling with the tech." Larry didn't speak. If Charlie was behaving so uncharacteristically, he had to change his technique too. He had started this conversation simply wanting to know what's wrong but it looked like Charlie was going to make things significantly harder for both of them. He got up. Charlie took a step back. Larry looked up and raised an eyebrow. Charlie stepped forward again and looked down. 'Finally', Larry thought as he moved around his desk, behind Charlie and let his hand fall in a loud, hard smack. Charlie used all his will power to not respond. Larry smacked him again and waited for five seconds, then again. At the fifth smack, Charlie couldn't help but whimper. Larry was confused. Charlie was not one to try to display bravado. He had a very low pain tolerance and had no qualms about begging. "Do you want to try the answer again?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie took a deep breath. "I don't know what you want me to say."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Three smacks fell in rapid succession and broke through Charlie's pain tolerance. His hand went back to rub as he said, "I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention, I was distracted. I won't do it again. Please stop." Larry took hold of Charlie's hand and moved it to his side. Charlie understood the order of keeping it there. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry moved back to his chair, completing the circle. Things should go more like normal now. Larry used the same gentle tone, "Charlie, this is unlike you. Talk to me, please." This rubbed Charlie the wrong way. "You don't even know me, how would you know what's like and unlike me." Larry took a breath, he could now clearly see that Charlie was hurting, but he also couldn't let this behaviour slide. "I've known you for 3 years now, Charles. But sure, yes, people change. But let's discuss why you're changing into someone who doesn't pay attention and answers back?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""In case you didn't notice, I'm a genius, like a certified genius now. So trust me I can learn the content of your class in a day with no help from you. And I help you with the math for your research; we are equals, why should I speak to you differently?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"'Wow. Where on earth is all this coming from?' Larry kept staring at Charlie. The stare generally helped to get Charlie talking generally and well right now, Larry didn't really have anything good to say. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie didn't look repentant at all but at least he wasn't looking straight into Larry's eyes anymore. He was looking at a point just about Larry's shoulder. If the situation wasn't so serious, Larry would have laughed saying that Charlie was finally using the faking eye contact tips. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"When it was clear that Charlie wasn't going to say anything else, Larry simply said, "Bend over. And bare" as he walked to his desk. He removed his wooden ruler from the blackboard but then looked at Charlie and removed the paddle from the bottom drawer too./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Was I unclear about anything, Mr Eppes? Too Fleinhardt. Let me clarify. You are going to be punished with the ruler and the paddle in the next couple minutes. I want you to get in position by bending over the desk with your bottom bared. And I want you to do it now." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie started walking towards the desk, then stopped. He looked at Larry. "Larry, listen.." "Its Professor Fleinhardt to you, Mr Eppes." Charlie looked up, shocked. "Larry, come on. I said I'm sorry. I'll drop out from your class, okay? That way no record, no foul." Larry couldn't believe Charlie was saying these things. But then again, he could. They had been here before, although it had been a long time since Charlie was this stressed and insecure about everything. That realisation further strengthened his resolve. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Mr Eppes, neither of us want you to be late for your literature education. So I suggest you hurry up before you end up in a situation where you have to explain your tardiness to your beloved English teacher, truthfully." That shocked Charlie again, Larry knew how he did not get along with the English teacher at all. 'He won't do this to me'. He looked up. 'Or will he?'/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Professor Fleinhardt, please tell me what I can do to compensate for my actions. I'll do all you ask and drop out of the course and both of us won't ever have to see each other again." Yep, Larry was right. Charlie was feeling insecure about his relationships and was pushing the boundaries. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Are you forgetting our daily Olympiad prep sessions and twice a week mentoring sessions, Mr Eppes?" "Well, I can drop off the Olympiad too. It is in good hands with Will here now anyway. And I'll find a different mentor."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry decided that this line of argument was fruitless. Charlie was too upset to reason with. You have fifteen seconds to be in position, Mr Eppes. For every minute after that, your punishment increases ten per cent. I'm sure the math will convince you to heed me quickly."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""No, please. Please. You know I hate spa- uhh physical punishments. Please?" Charlie thought about how unfair this is. He thought of how amazing it would feel to swear you and walk out. But he knew how easily that would go downhill, with his dad getting involved. Which after yesterday evening he did not want at all. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Ten seconds now"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie panicked and opened the zipper of his jeans. He held the waistbands then looked at Larry who just looked at him meaningfully. Charlie started crying. It broke Larry's heart. He wanted nothing more than to go and hug him and tell him everything was okay and fox whatever was bothering the kid. But unfortunately that wasn't the right thing for Charlie. Charlie stood there crying for almost a minute. Larry couldn't help but soften as he said "Charles.." but in his state Charlie didn't notice the change in reference. He thought Larry's as about to increase his punishment and immediately pushed his pants and boxers down to his thighs and bent over the desk, crying louder. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry thought about having a conversation and calming him down first but then decided to just get it over with. "Twenty with the ruler and ten with the paddle." "Noo" Charlie whimpered. This was significantly more than anything Larry had ever dished out to him. In his pain he reverted back to, "Larry, please. Please don't do this. I can't take it. Please Larry, I'm begging you." 'Okay then, something is happening as expected. Not that it makes it any easier to handle.' But he didn't call Charlie out on calling him by his first name again, albeit a small mercy. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""It's exactly what you have brought on, so brace yourself." Larry lifted the ruler and brought it down hard. Charlie immediately shot up. "Larry, please. Can't we talk about this?" "Of course, Charles. We will talk. So tell me what has got you so upset?" When Charlie didn't respond and looked away, Larry placed his hand on his back and pushed him back on the desk. 'Maybe some kindness will help. "Charlie? Talk to me. I'm listening." "Can I get up and then we can talk?" Larry hesitated. He sounded so small and broken. And the reassurance he would provide would help Charlie feel better about the relationship and thus fox the main problem too. But, the things Charlie said were really out of line. He couldn't let that slide without punishment. And he remembered what Alan had said about Charlie's tendency to keep track of patterns of behavior and keep trying it again and again. He didn't want an encounter like this again so he had to finish what he started. "No Charles. We will finish this punishment now and then you can sit, or stand, and talk to me. Alright?" With that Larry brought the ruler down two more times. Charlie started sobbing. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry could sense that Charlie couldn't really talk through the sobs so he continued and brought down the ruler five more times. Charlie pushed off the table and screamed, "Aahhhh. That hurts, I'm dying. Please, please I'm begging you. Please stop. Please please." "I'm sorry Charles, you brought this on yourself. And refrain from getting up. Next time you get up we will start from.." he was about to say the beginning but he knew he couldn't do that. "the same stroke. So that stroke won't count." Larry guided Charlie back and gave him three more to the ruler. Before he could say half way there, Charlie had gotten off the table again and was begging him with hooded hands, "Please Larry, I can't take this. Please. Dad spanked me yesterday and it hurts a lot. Please. If you care about me at all, even the tiniest bit please please don't do this to me." "Charles, I have to do this because I care about you so much. Get back on the table at once." Charlie was never good at accepting a punishment which is why both Larry and Alan preferred to punish him on their knees where they had more control but after Charlie's attitude today, Larry wanted him to feel the difference. And Charlie's extreme behavior relatively early in the spanking made sense now that he knew Alan had spanked the boy the previous night. He wondered if the same reason had triggered today's antics. Larry pushed Charlie back and kept his hand on Charlie's back this time and gave him five swats in rapid succession, wanting to get this over with as much as Charlie did. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie sobbed, "Please Larry, please stop. I won't ever bother you again. I won't take your classes, I won't come to you with my problems, nothing. You will get no trouble from me. Please just stop now. Please show me some mercy. I'll be grateful forever." And he collapsed, crying into his elbow. Larry was a little stunned at the words but Charlie's low pain tolerance always made him prone to hysterics during a punishment, which was another reason he used spankings so rarely. But today the boy had crossed a line. So Larry quickly gave me the last five with the ruler, but made them significantly lighter, not that Charlie noticed, at all. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"As Charlie realised where Larry was moving to he said, "Larry, please. If you have ever cared about me, if you want me to ever believe in the future that I mean something to you, you will stop this right now. I really cannot take it. I don't know how to tell you how much pain I am in. Please listen to me, please." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry wondered how Alan dealt with this, especially with two kids, not that Don would ever beg like this. He tried to rub Charlie's back. "Charles, I know it hurts. But it is supposed to. That is what makes it a punishment. And it will be over soon. Then you shall have a ean slate and we shall talk and fix everything and it will all be okay." Charlie tried to get up again. "No Charles" and with that Larry gave him a stroke with the paddle. The sound Charlie made can only be described as a howl. Larry didn't think he had hit that hard but he decided to reduce the force further until the last two swats. Charlie's sobs got louder and more broken. Larry knew he couldn't take them any longer and so brought the paddle down thrice quickly. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie shot up pushing Larry's hand along. He fell on his knees. "Larry" he couldn't speak through the sobs. Larry wanted to get this over with. "Charles, get over the table this instant. That last stroke did not count. So you have seven more to go." Charlie looked up at him with fear and anger and plain disappointment. Larry's heart broke in a thousand pieces but he had to see this through. He pulled Charlie up with his arm and moved him back to the table. He brought the paddle down four times. Charlie was crying so hard he couldn't breathe. Larry immediately stopped and tried to rub Charlie's back but he flinched away from his hand. Larry knew that the only way out was through so he picked up the paddle and administered the last three swats. He threw the paddle away. Charlie just kept sobbing. Larry trie dto run hos back again but Charlie pushed his hand away with his own hand. Charlie got up and straightened his clothes. Larry pulled Charlie in for a hug but Charlie pushed him away, with a stronger force than Larry had ever got from the boy. Of course Charlie rarely ever accepted comfort after a spanking but Larry still hoped, as did Alan. Charlie just rested his hand on a wall, bent and sobbed his lungs out. Larry tried to approach him but Charlie would just shove his hand away so he decided to give the boy a few minutes to calm himself. Larry went and sat on his chair behind his desk. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"After almost ten minutes Charlie got up, rubbed the years out of his eyes and stood in front on Larry. He stood with his hands behind his back, looking a lot more like a middle school child in front of his headmaster than a child who often felt like a colleague to Larry. "Professor Fleinhardt," even though Larry had just asked him to refer to him with his title, Charlie's current state and tone made it feel like the worst swear word. "I deeply apologize for my behavior. I assure you it won't happen again. I promise you, you won't see me again so you won't ever be troubled because of me." "What are you saying Charles? I will see you this evening for Olympiad prep and tomorrow in class and then tomorrow afternoon for our mentoring session.." "I promised you during the punishment that I would leave all of that and I intend to fulfill my promises." "Charles, I didn't ask for those promises." "But staying away from you is the best way to not get in your way and not incur your wrath, sir." Larry hated being called sir. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry took a breath, "Charlie, talk to me. What happened lats night? Would you like some water?" "No sir" "Charlie, what happened last night?" "I don't have to disclose my home life to any professor or mentor at the University, sir. And it was nothing to do with Princeton." "But Charlie a couple minutes ago you wanted to sit down and talk." "That was before you broke any trust I had in you by ignoring my please repeatedly. I can't seek comfort from the one who hurt me so badly." Larry contemplated threatening calling Alan but seeing how broken Charlie already was he didn't want to escalate this. Besides he was going to join the eppes family for dinner and would find out eventually." "Charlie, I'm just trying to understand what is it that has you so upset so that I can make it better." Charlie huffed. Larry decided to change tracks. "Tell me why you were just punished." Charlie refrained from reminding Larry about being a genius and tried to remove all emotion from his voice as he said, "Because I wasn't paying attention in class, I gave you back chat and I was disrespectful." As Larry was about to express how proud he was of Charlie being aware of his infractions the boy continued, "or at least that's what I believe you want to hear." "What do you believe?" "I already told you that but you dismissed them." A lot of thoughts ran through Larry's head. That if he was picking on Charlie, he wouldn't have ever sat down for the way he was talking but the comments about being a genius had crossed a line. But he chose to say, "You were punished for your extremely disrespectful comments about my class, your education and our mentoring relationship. I would never spank you for just not paying attention. Your punishment for that is that you will read and summarise this chapter from the textbook after dinner tonight. "You can't punish me in my home, professor?" "Would you like to check with your dad about that?" He could see Charlie's eyes narrow ith anger. "No sir. I understand. And it seems like a fitting end to this mentoring relationship if you can even call it that." Larry knew that Charlie was hurting and lashing out but his words still knocked the wind out of him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" "Professor Fleinhardt, may I be excused to wash my face before we have to leave for the high school?" Larry wished that a miracle would happen in there which would fix this whole thing and nodded his permission. Feeling generous he said, "meet me at my car in 15." He hated to say it but he had to, "and this discussion isn't over yet."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie couldn't believe the heat and pain in his butt. He tried to rub it, tried to put some water on it but nothing helped. He couldn't think straight through the pain. He hated Larry. 'How could he do this to me? I can't believe I ever trusted him'. He filled in the required forms to switch Larry's class, mentoring and to drop out of the Olympiad. He felt a little better after doing that but he still wasn't able to get his sobs under control. He looked at his watch and knew that he was already late. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"When he reached the car, Larry was reading the emails about Charlie's requests. Larry made a split second decision, got out of the car and said, "My office, Charlie." "Why?" Charlie stuttered, he couldn't take anymore abuse to his backside. "We need to finish this discussion." "But I have a literature class." "I know, I'll handle it, don't worry." "But I don't want you to handle it, I want to go to class." "This is not up for debate, follow me to my office." "What is ever up for debate or even conversation with you."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry decided not to respond until they were in the privacy of his office. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"He sat on the couch and offered Charlie the adjoining seat, the softest one on his office. "I'd rather stand." "Sit down, Charles." Charlie sat down and winced. "Let's start at the beginning shall we?" "I'd rather not." "Charles, we just had a discussion about respect. Do you think these comments are respectful?" Charlie's butt made him choose to say, "No Professor Fleinhardt, I'm sorry sir." Larry was looking for some cooperation but this felt more like an arrow. "You may go back to Larry, Charlie. We're okay now." "Yes sir, Professor Fleinhardt." Charlie could say so much without saying anything too. 'Great now he has closed up. There goes my hope for a heart to heart.' /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Larry decided to compromise, "How can I make this right Charles? What can I do to help?" Charlie did not respond, just kept looking straight ahead. "Charles?" "You just asked me to not speak disrespectfully, Professor Fleinhardt and asking you to do something is disrespectful." Larry felt like pulling his hair out. "When you're answering a direct question, a along you keep a civil tone and not cuss, I won't consider any of your answers disrespectful. Now go on." Without missing a beat, Charlie said, "You may invent a time machine, go back in time and not hurt me." Larry had kind of expected this answer. "Charlie, where did the whole I'm a genius and can do whatever I want thing come from?" "None of what I said was untrue." The conversation was going nowhere so Larry shook his head slowly as he said, "you leave me no choice, Charles" and flipped open his phone./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""No, please don't call him, Larry. I mean Professor, please. I can't take any more. I'll answer all your questions, I promise. I'm sorry I'm giving you a hard time but I'm just in a lot of pain and I'm sorry that's my fault not yours. And yesterday evening, dad spanked me for ignoring my chores to work on the P vs NP problem instead. It made me angry. You know I hate getting spanked. I'm sorry I took it out on you but I really wish that you wouldn't spank me." And he started sobbing again. Larry pulled him into a hug and said, "Cry it out, child. Thank you for sharing. Those are big feelings. I'll be honest with you. It's highly unlikely that either me or your dad will stop spanking you anytime soon, genius or not. You are ours and we want you to grow up to be a great human being, not just a genius mathematician, okay? But I assure you we love you and only want the best for you." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;"Charlie cries himself out and just nodded. Finally he said, "Can you please not tell dad about this?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""You know Charlie if you hadn't given me lip, this would have only been a conversation with you having to submit a summary of the chapter before the next class. But you made it so much worse. But I am feeling a little guilty and generous so I will tell Alan but I will also tell him that I handed it. You won't have to worry about any more consequences from him. But if you give me or anyone else such disrespect again especially about your mathematical gifts, today's punishment will feel like nothing, are we clear?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Yes sir"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""And my boy, you know I hate being called sir."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Yes Larry, we're clear." Charlie smiled. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""So what would you like to do after dinner today?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""I thought I was grounded to the table summarizing the chapter?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""You never know when to shut up do you? Well, you may work on that later and submit it before the next class. Today I'd like to spend time doing something you like."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""Sounds good. Thanks Larry."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #222222; mso-bidi-language: MR;""You are very welcome, Charlie."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p