A.N.- I'm alive. Zombie at times, but alive. School has taken over. Joy. Sorry for the lack of updates I suppose. That wasn't supposed to happen. I blame tumblr. Without further ado, I own nothing. Broke college student woooooo…
The next week followed suit, with Kensi being extremely quiet. Callen tried to talk to her, with the same results every time. She would answer vaguely, and in short responses. No matter what happened, she just didn't want to talk. Callen was starting to worry about her. She never talked about friends, and preferred to just shut herself in her room. She hadn't brought home another note from the school, and the school had not called the house so Callen knew that she couldn't have gotten in trouble that way. Still, he knew there was more to getting in trouble than just acting out in school. He watched her behavior carefully, looking for any signs of abuse of an illicit substance, though so far, he'd detected nothing. He didn't know her all that well, and she wasn't making any move to let him into her life.
Lauren had kept him busy though, as she had started to act out more and more often. At school, and at home she had begun to constantly find herself in trouble, and subsequently over her big brother's lap. One time it was for passing notes in class, another time for refusing to do her homework. Lauren barely ever tried to do anything naughty, and now she was trying her hardest. Both of Callen's sisters were starting to worry him.
Especially when he got a phone call from the elementary school.
Fortunately, the high-schoolers had the day off for a professional day, and Granger was at work. That left Callen free to receive the phone call from the principal of the elementary school, telling Callen that he needed to pick up Lauren right away. She had apparently cursed in the middle of class, for no good reason, and was immediately sent to the office. Her age was the only thing preventing her from being suspended, but she was not allowed to return to class and her guardian had to pick her up immediately. Sighing, Callen told the principal that he would be there shortly, and jogged over to the school.
What he saw when he got there was no surprise, the secretary directed him to the principal's office, with the door closed. Knocking firmly, Callen waited until the principal opened the door for him, and motioned for him to take a seat next to Lauren. Callen gave her a pointed look, and the girl squirmed even more in her seat. Focusing his attention on the principal, he waited to hear how exactly Lauren had managed to get herself in so much trouble. The principal surprised him by telling Lauren to recount the events, causing her face to turn a bright red. She focused her attention on the pattern of the carpet until Callen cleared his throat, and said "I'm waiting, Lauren Hunter." Hearing her big brother use her full name made her turn a deep red, and she squirmed in her seat again. Regardless, she started to tell the story.
Still staring at the floor, she whispered. "I uh, might've kinda cursed in class…"
Callen knew that wasn't all of it, so he said, "Try again Lauren, what exactly happened in class?"
The fact that her older brother wasn't using her nickname further added to the sinking feeling in her stomach. Again, she started to whisper, "well we were learning 'bout the solar system, n we hadda draw it out. Well mine wasn't all that good, and I didn't like it. I screwed up the order of the gas giants, those are what the big planets are called, and I got mad. So I might've said the D word n then some people gasped n stupid Mary told the teacher and here I am."
Callen didn't like the amount of sass she was giving him, but chose to ignore it for the moment. "Lauren Hunter," he addressed her, using her full name again, "One, did you or did you not curse in class." He knew from the way she had phrased it that this whole thing was not a mistake, and she had indeed cursed in class. "Two, you do not call your classmates stupid, do you understand me?"
At this point she was at the brink of tears, realizing how much trouble she was in exactly. She sniffled a little, "I did curse," she said with a hot face. She wanted to tell Callen that she was just telling the truth about Mary, but refrained as she knew how much trouble she was in already. "Yes Sir," she said, addressing the second point, "I won't call them stupid." Unable to resist, she tacked onto the end, "even if it's true."
That was the last straw for Callen. He had no idea what had gotten into her, and was dead set in finding out why she had been acting out. Lifting her chin so that she looked him in the eye, he said, "We will be talking about this at home, do you understand me, Lauren?" She nodded miserably, and Callen turned back to the principal, who gave him an approving nod for his ability to deal with Lauren. Too often, she found that the authority figures did nothing about poor behavior, but she had a feeling that Callen would nip it in the bud. She explained to Callen the reasoning for sending Lauren home early, and gave him a slip to sign. Once that was over, he and Lauren left the office and started to walk back home.
It was oddly silent on the walk back, Lauren wasn't talking and Callen couldn't think of anything productive to say. He was still seething, and needed to calm down before he punished her. He wondered what the best way to go about that was. She had been getting in trouble so often lately that he was starting to feel that his spankings were uneffective. Then there was the matter of cursing, especially in class. Washing her mouth out would seem like a reasonable solution, but he remembered it being done to him and vetoed it, at least this time. If it ever happened again… Well, he wouldn't be so sure. He thought back to spanking her, how it only recently started not to work. What caused that change? He wondered silently, knowing that getting to the bottom of that would mean that this whole ordeal would be resolved. That, and maybe something other than his hand…
When they got home, Callen ordered Lauren to go up to her room, and stand in the corner. He prepared himself mentally for what he was about to do, and headed upstairs slowly. A bit of time for Lauren to think about why she was in trouble wouldn't do her any harm. He made a quick stop in his room, grabbing a wooden hairbrush that he had bought the other day in case he needed it. Honestly, he had expected to be using it on Kensi, after her odd behavior lately, not Lauren.
Bracing himself, he knocked gently on her open door frame before heading inside her room. As expected, there was a very contrite little girl in the corner. Callen breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her there, with the way that she'd been acting, he was worried that she might have disobeyed him more, making matters worse for herself. He let her wait in the corner for a few more minutes as he set the hairbrush besides him on the bed.
"Lauren Hunter," Callen called out to the girl, "front and center, please." He watched as the young girl slowly turned from the corner, meeting his eyes with puppy dog eyes of her own. "Lauren, you know you're only prolonging the inevitable," Callen said to her, "now come over here." The girl did as she was told, making her way over to her brother in a more rapid fashion. He stood her directly in front of him, so that they were able to make eye contact. "Lauren," he said, "I want you to tell me why you're standing here right now."
Lauren, a stubborn kid, sensed the disappointment in her big brother's voice, and it broke her resolve rather quickly. Still, she refused to cry just yet. "I said a bad word in class."
"Yes, you did," Callen affirmed the reason for Lauren being in trouble. "Words like that aren't to be used, ever, not at home and not at school. I don't ever want to have this discussion with you again, are we clear?" He waited until Lauren responded with a small nod, sighing inwardly, he said "Use your words Lauren."
"Yes Sir," Lauren said, beginning to sniffle despite herself.
"Good," Callen said, before moving Lauren over to his side and draping her over his lap. He adjusted her position so he had a better hold, as she was notoriously slippery during spankings. With that done, he started the actual spanking.
Brisk swats rained down on the younger girl's bottom. He was so small that Callen's hand was able to encompass all of her bottom at once, a fact that he took advantage of. Once Lauren began sniffling more, and Callen could sense small tears coming, he stopped.
Rubbing her back, he quieted the girl a little bit. She tried to push herself up from his lap, and he tightened his grip on her waist in response. "Not quite yet, Lauren." With that, he pulled down her pants. She looked back at him in surprise, to which he responded, "You're getting a taste of the hairbrush, but I need to make sure I'm not seriously hurting you." She seemed to accept that answer, turning back around, albeit with a huff, but allowed Called to hook his fingers under the elastic waistband of her panties, and bring those down as well. Picking up the hairbrush, he rested it on her bottom before bringing it down once, hard.
Lauren immediately gasped and threw her hand back. Callen wordlessly took her little hand and held it, providing some comfort in addition to ensuring that he wouldn't accidentally strike her hand. He continued to bring the hairbrush down on her bottom, which was starting to turn a bright red color.
Callen usually didn't lecture her during spankings, but this time, her punctuated each smack with a word. "You. Do. Not. Curse. Ever." He said, leaving room between the smacks so that she understood his words. Her bottom was turning a dark red, and she was on the verge of sobbing.
Lauren had sensed her brother's disappointment, but it only just registered with her. It was this that finally made her start bawling, she idolized her big brother and never wanted him to be disappointed in her.
Callen could sense her remorse, she lay over his lap sobbing, refusing to put up any more of a fight. He knew he had learned her lesson, so he finished the spanking up with one final hard smack, before setting the hairbrush down and rubbing her back. One glance at her bottom showed that she would be sore for the rest of the day at least, if not extending partially into the next day. He gently pulled up her panties and pants, making sure to try pulling them up with as little unnecessary contact as he could. He continued to rub her back, soothing her until her sobs quieted a little, and then turned her over in his lap.
Kissing her forehead, he whispered, "Shhh, Laurie, it's okay, it's all over, you're forgiven now." He seriously doubted that she heard a word he was saying, yet he continued to say it over and over again, rubbing her back. Finally, she began to quiet, though when she heard Callen refer to her as "Laurie" once again, she dissolved into fresh tears.
"Whoa whoa whoa," he said, "what's going on?" He began to be genuinely concerned, nothing usually made Lauren so upset. He was worried that he did the wrong thing by using the hairbrush, but he waited for her response anyways.
The response never came, and Lauren just shook her head before burrowing it back into Callen's chest.
"Lauren, you need to tell me what's going on. That way, I can help."
This time, she pulled back and looked at him with a tear stained face. "You called me 'Laurie' again. I thought for sure th-that you hated me," she finished and then started crying again.
"Oh Laurie," Callen said, careful to use her nickname, "I could never hate you."
She seemed to accept that answer, but she continued crying into his shirt. Eventually, her crying calmed as her breathing became slower and stopped hitching in her throat, and Callen tried to disentangle her. Pulling her off of him, he realized that she must have cried herself to sleep. Laying her down in her bed and pulling a blanket over her, he kissed her forehead and whispered, "Love you, Laurie."
He exited the room and closed the door before glancing at the time. He still had three hours before he had to get Kensi from middle school. He hoped that, on all days but especially today, that she hadn't gotten in trouble.
A.N.- Wow this took me a few months to finish. School's been kicking my ass. Anyways, review, tell me what to say, etc. Thanks for still following this story.