Chapter 3

With supper over and the dishes done the Burkes and Neal were situated in the living room with Neal once again lying on his side on the couch talking.

"So what did you learn on your first day of college?" El asked quietly.

"That the headmaster wasn't the only one that can use corporal punishment

at Stanton College," Neal replied with a wince at the memory.

"So your day didn't go as well as you had hoped," replied El.

"No…far from it. Peter had told me to behave before he left me there, but I didn't think that winking and whistling at the gorgeous blond would earn me a paddling and the writing of lines either," Neal said as he began.

"Let me guess, the teacher didn't want that type of behavior between students?" asked El.

"The blond was the teacher and no she didn't like the wink and she especially didn't like the whistling. She sent me to the board immediately to write 'I will not wink and whistle at the teacher' one hundred times and while I was writing she gave me three licks with a paddle."

"Oh no…that had to be embarrassing.

Neal nodded. "But I got the impression that this must have happened before because when I returned to my desk, I saw a lot of the boys in the class give me looks of sympathy. I decided that this must be a constant activity with the male students."

"What subject does she teach?"

"English; Peter also signed me up with Calculus I, Computer Science, French, History of Western Art - Proto-Renaissance to 19th Century and Drawing and Painting I," Neal added.

"I tried to find courses that would fit in with your supposedly major and shouldn't give you any problems," volunteered Peter. "You speak French like a native and two of your other courses deal with art. I can help you with math and El can help you with English if you even need our help."

"Neal did you get in trouble in any of your other courses?" asked El gently.

"Not until I walked into my Art History class and was introduced to the biggest pompous ass of all time. His name is Gerald Martin and yes, he is the headmaster's brother," Neal replied bitterly. "He picked on me from the moment I walked into his class. He was so boring. He read verbatim from the art history book and when I started asking why we weren't taught better, he got mad."

"Did he paddle you for that, Neal?" asked El.

Neal shook his head, before looking elsewhere than at the Burkes

"What did you do Neal?" asked Peter, who knew his partner a bit better than his wife.

"I might have called him a name under my breath… Who would have known that his hearing was that sharp," replied Neal.

"And…," prompted Peter.

"He gave me six licks from his paddle!"

"Who taught your other art class?" asked El.

"A Mr. Davis…and he is one scary dude. He's good but he's not very personable unless you happen to be female," replied Neal.

"Did you learn anything that might tie in with our case?" asked Peter.

"Well, in the sketching class we are studying forgery…we discussed several types of forgery of which counterfeiting was one of the types discussed. I thought that was interesting," replied Neal.

"What earned you the canning Neal?" asked Peter.

"It seems that the headmaster failed to warn me that if you get paddled at least twice during the day he had the honor to add to that pain as a reminder to behave better from now on. So he ordered me to bend over his desk and he gave me six licks with his cane!"

"Six licks? But you only had three on your backside," asked Peter confused.

"The headmaster placed each of the three on top of each other so that it looked like I only got three when in reality I got six…this way the pain at sitting will last longer," replied Neal angrily.

"I'm sorry Neal," replied Peter as he laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed offering comfort.

"It's not your fault that I got into trouble…I just didn't realize just how painful it was going to be…I'll be more careful in the future," Neal said as he laid his head down.

Peter and El exchanged a glance before Peter reluctantly asked, "Do you have any homework that you have to hand in?"

Neal shook his head, "No…I'm taking those courses three times a week…Monday, Wednesday and Friday…I can start on my homework tomorrow. So if you wouldn't mind I'm going to my room and get some rest."

Neal carefully got up with a little help from Peter and staggered off upstairs to "his room" as Peter and El looked with concern after him.

The next day at work showed Peter bringing his team up to date on the undercover case. "Neal won't be able to make in today; he's got homework to do and punishment to recover from," was all Peter would say but it was enough to alert both Diana and Clifton that Neal had be disciplined to the extent that sitting would be uncomfortable.

"Today's assignments will be to check on all of the staff working at Stanton…I'll leave that in your capable hands Diana. Clifton you need to check on the student body…thank goodness this is a small private college and not a large university type," Peter said as he started to get his papers together.

"Where are you going to be boss?" asked Diana as she followed him into his office.

"I'm going to have another chat with the headmaster about the caning he gave my 'son' before he left for home yesterday," Peter replied grimly.

"Is Neal hurt badly?" Diana asked at once. Even though she didn't always show it she did care about the young CI, as did Jones. They considered him to be a pesky kid brother.

"Let's just say that he is doing his assignments while lying on his stomach in bed," replied Peter just before leaving.