The Story

Chapter 11 of Penitatas Diana

Jacqueline, Diana, Mary and Samantha were in the schoolyard’s sandbox. The girls were waiting for Jacqueline to tell just why she was transferred in the middle of the school year after being reassigned to other parents.

“First I should explain why I’m attending school in the first place…” started Jacqueline.

Mary, Diana and Samantha nodded. They were wondering about that.

Usually a Penitatas convicted of murder, and multiple murder in the case of Jacqueline, normally receive a sentence of 3 to 6. Which means that they never end up being old enough in their cycles to attend school; but Jacqueline had cycles of 3 to 7, attending one year of schooling each cycle.

“The cycles were an idea from the several analysts that assisted during my sentence one century ago, along with the Judge and Judicial A.I. in charge of the trial.” explained Jacqueline, “They considered that assisting school and relating to others would assists in my rehabilitation.”

The other girls nodded, they guessed as much, and to Diana, who had read the books written about Jacqueline’s case, it made perfect sense considering Jacqueline’s experience growing up as a Kindren, isolated from other people.

“Being my 25th cycle, this is the 25th school year I take. But so far, I always had problems fitting in.” continued Jacqueline, looking a little sad.

The other girls noticed this, “Why is that?” asked Mary, truly concerned for her classmate.

“Well, its just that I have trouble making friends. I don’t know if anyone of you know much about me, considering how… famous… I am as a penitatas, but some of the other children were, well, scared of me. I don’t blame them… considering how many people I killed before I was captured…”

Mary frowned, “That’s just wrong!” she exclaimed, “I mean, we’re all penitatas here. We all did our crime, and we are all doing our time. Okay, so some of us didn’t murder someone, but still…” she raised her hand showing the P signaling her as a Hard Time Penitatas, “We all have one of these, and we all get spanked.”

“Yes, but some of my victims were Penitatas…” explained Jacqueline, “That’s why I really can’t blame them.”

“Well, they still shouldn’t be scared of you. You’re a kid just like they are now.” Finished Mary.

Jacqueline continued, “Well, of the ones that weren’t scared of me, some actually wanted to play with me. But that encountered problems most of the time.”

Diana tilted her head, “Why?”

Jacqueline pointed at the leash attached to the harness locked on her little body, “There aren’t much games kids can play when they are wearing this.”

Diana blushed and covered her mouth with both hands, “I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have asked.”

Jacqueline giggled, “It’s okay. I said I got used to it by now.”

“You said that some of the children that weren’t scared of you wanted to play with you. What did the other children do?” asked Mary.

Jacqueline looked down again, and grabbed her right arm with her left hand, “They bullied me…”

Mary frowned again, and this time she looked even more upset, “That’s not right!” said the black haired girl, “The penitatas system was designed so prisoners wouldn’t abuse each other! Didn’t the teacher’s help you?”

The other girls were surprised at Mary’s outburst, the former judicial officer was convicted of having abused the power of her position. She was ashamed of what she had done, and took it very personally when people took advantage of other people.

Jacqueline overcame her surprise and replied, “Yes, of course they defended me, and punished the bullies. But it still hurt me when it happened.”

Diana felt sorry for Jacqueline, she had read in one of the books written about her that one of the reasons she was antisocial was that bullies mistreated her when she was a Kindern boy.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about us! We have no intentions of bulling you.” said Diana, “Right?” she asked Mary and Samantha.

“No,” Samantha shook her head, “Of course not,” replied Mary.

Jacqueline smiled, “That’s always nice to hear. I didn’t know what to make of you, since she looked kind of scared of seeing me.” Replied the harnessed girl, referring to Samantha.

Samantha blushed and played with her hair, “I wasn’t scared.”

Diana and Mary giggled, they knew Samantha had been scared about coming to talk with Jacqueline, “Liar, liar, pants on fire, soapy mouth and bare behind, paddle strap and switch will find!” they sang in unison. The nano-web causing them to act like little children.

Samantha covered her face with both hands, blushing furiously, “Alright! Alright! I was scared!” the nano-web affected her too of course, “But it’s just because of my criminal record.”

“Oh right!” exclaimed Diana, “Samantha here has a Y-rep sentence, just like you Jacqueline,” explained the red headed penny girl, “she was convicted for abusing women.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Replied Jacqueline, “Since I didn’t get to hear all your introductions at the beginning of the school year, I don’t know anything about you, but you do know everything about me.”

“Oh, you are right!” exclaimed Mary, “We should introduce ourselves. I’m Mary O’Hara, serving 16x4-9 and I’m convicted for abuse of authority and misuse of government resources.”

Di was next, “Diana Kavenzky, serving 10x6-12 for segregation and violation of the first principle from medical negligence.”

Samantha finished, “Samantha Jones, serving 12x4-9. They already told you why I’m a penitatas.”

“Nice to meet you all,” smiled Jacqueline, “now that we all know each other, I should start explaining why I was transferred in the middle of the school year.”

The penny girls nodded, with everything that was being said, they actually forgot why they were talking with Jacqueline in the first place. A short attention span, assisted by nano-web implant would cause that some times.

“It all started last week…”

.oOo.

One week ago.

The hovercar was traveling fast along the road, two adults were sitting at the front, and one child at the backseat.

Jacqueline sat down as still as possible. A hard thing to do considering she had been spanked just a while ago, not by her parents but by Mrs. Gordon, the school’s Principal. And Mrs. Gordon sure knew how to spank hard!

Her leotard-school dress was dirty all over, and her hair was a mess. She wasn’t wearing the leash or the harness, the child car seat she was sitting on was designed for her by the board or corrections, and therefore had locking seatbelts, that wouldn’t open without the correct combination, which only her parents knew.

She knew she was in trouble, she knew she could have avoided it, but she didn’t care.

She had been caught fighting with two boys during the after lunch recess. A teacher broke it up, and they all had a long chat with the Mrs. Gordon, who then proceeded to spank all three of them; quite humiliating for Jacqueline, since to spank her on the bare her whole leotard-school uniform had to be removed, and so she was naked except for her shoes as she was spanked in front of the two boys she had been fighting with.

The biggest problem with Jacqueline getting caught in a school brawl was because she was a violent convicted criminal. When a Pennitatas misbehaved in a way that reflected of his or her original crime, like if a thief stole a cookie from the cookie jar, or in Jacqueline’s case; a violent criminal using violence.

That’s why the Principal actually called Jacqueline’s parents to the school, to talk to them personally of what had happened, and to pick her up, while the other kids went home with the school bus like they normally would.

“We are VERY disappointed with you Jacqueline,” commented Jacqueline’s mother.

John and Violet Mitchell were Jacqueline’s assigned parents for this, her 25th cycle. It was a big responsibility to be assigned as a parent to a Penitatas, and even more when it was a Penitatas as “famous” as Jacqueline Morley.

“What were you thinking, starting a fight… A FIGHT… with other kids at school! You are in a lot of trouble young lady. When we get back home, you will be getting several spankings, you can be sure of it.” She said in a stern and firm voice, looking at Jacqueline trough the rear view mirror.

Jacqueline looked to the side, “I know, but I don’t care. Those boys were always bulling me, but today they even started bulling a kid because she wanted to play with me during recess. They had no right to do that to her.”

“No they didn’t, just like YOU didn’t have the right to take matters into your own hands. You should have called out to a teacher to help you, you know better than that Jacqueline.” Replied her mother, then she realized something that Jacqueline had said, “How long had those boys been bulling you?”

Jacqueline shrugged, “For a week, maybe, they always step all over the sandcastle I was building, and throw sand into my school uniform.”

This time Violet turned her head to look at her penny daughter, “And why didn’t you tell a teacher about it? Why did you let it escalate to this?”

Again, Jacqueline looked away, “Because they were just bulling me, who cares about that? I wouldn’t have done anything if they hadn’t bullied someone else.”

Violet rubbed her forehead, this has always been a problem with Jacqueline. At the end of her previous cycle, they had talked to her previous assigned parents, and they had said to them what has been said about Jacqueline from old assigned parents to new assigned parents for a century; Jacqueline had a lot of self loathing, and she didn’t believe in the Judicial system to top it off. “Jacqueline, you should have told a teacher the first time it happened. In fact, I’m going to talk with the principal tomorrow morning so she knows that this has not been the first time those boys were bulling other children.” said Violet.

This time Jacqueline looked back at her mother, “That’s okay mommy, don’t bother with it.”

“Jacqueline!” exclaimed Violet, “You shouldn’t undermine yourself! You can do a lot of great things if you believe in yourself.”

Jacqueline looked down again, “Yes, my life is such a success story. I’m a Penitatas serving a thousand years long sentence, with no chance of parole and I’m always on a leash. I’m just a failure, a worthless human being and a failure…”

“You are not worthless Jacqueline! We had this conversation many times before!” replied Violet in a firm tone, “That’s exactly the point of going trough your sentence as Penitatas, you do your sentence, and then you have a new clean start. And then, you can become a positive part of the community.”

“Let’s face it mommy, the only thing I was ever good at was killing people, and I wasn’t even happy doing it. Caring for me is just a waste of time.” She knew that saying that was crossing the line, but Jacqueline didn’t care about that.

Violet turned the seat around so she was now facing Jacqueline completely, “Okay young lady, that’s it! We are not waiting to get home, you are going to get a spanking right here, right now!” Violet entered the combination of the lock of the seat, releasing Jacqueline from the seat. “If I can’t make you understand with words, then maybe you’ll understand with some swats on the bare! John, please pull over so I can spank our daughter.”

“Yes, just wait a minute…. Uh?” John started to deactivate the auto pilot of the hover car, when he noticed that there was something wrong.

Violet was placing Jacqueline over her lap, when she noticed that John wasn’t slowing down the hovercar. “John, is something wrong?”

“The controls aren’t responding right! The auto pilot turned off, but it’s still controlling the hover car’s speed, and I can’t put the wheel back into autopilot, we have no brakes!” said John in a worried tone, as he pressed the alarm button on the dashboard, sending an electric signal that warned the other cars (and the traffic authorities) that there was an out of control vehicle coming trough. “Quick! Put Jacqueline back

“What?” Violet turned her head to look at John, a worried look on her face, matching John’s.

“Mommy?” Jacqueline looked up from her mother’s lap, she was also worried.

“Put Jacqueline back in her seat Violet, it’s not safe!” exclaimed John.

Violet quickly placed Jacqueline back in the custom made child seat, and started to put the seatbelt back on.

“Mommy, what’s going to happen?” asked Jacqueline, she was getting scared.

Violet was worried, but hid it as best as possible for Jacqueline’s sake, “Everything’s going to be fine Jacqueline, just sit still while I finish locking your seatbelt back on.”

That was easier said than done, the locking seatbelt had a complex mechanism for total security, it was designed to be secure, not to be fastened in a hurry in a speeding vehicle!

And the hover car was going faster and faster with each passing second, to a speed that only a computer driving A.I. could control, not a human being.

John did everything possible to control the hover car, sweat forming in his forehead as the vehicle went faster and faster, the landscape becoming a blur, finally he couldn’t prevent it from crashing. “Watch out! We are going to crash!” he yelled out.

Violet heard John’s warning, but she hadn’t been able to finish securing Jacqueline to her child seat. Thinking fast, she grabbed Jacqueline again, sat her on her lap, wrapped her arms around her and covered her completely with her body in a protective manner.

“Mommy?” Jacqueline’s worried little voice was the last thing that was heard in the car, then everything went black.

.oOo.

Jacqueline slowly opened her eyes, her left leg hurt but otherwise she felt okay. Then she realized what happened. She looked up, she saw the hover car, a big round dent in the front, it was turned over and the windows were all broken, a couple of feet away from it was a big boulder with some paint from the car on it.

She turned her head to a side, her daddy John was lying on the grass, covered in bruises and scratches, a puddle of blood forming under him. He was unconscious.

Jacqueline felt someone caressing her cheek. Her mommy!

Jacqueline turned around as fast as she could, mommy Violet was lying next to her, both arms still around her, one hand was caressing her cheek. She was also covered in bruises just like her daddy. Only had one eye open, and was barely keeping conscious.

“Mommy! You saved me!” exclaimed the penny girl.

“I’m so happy you are okay Jacqueline…” said Violet with a smile, then she fell unconscious just like her husband.

“Mommy?”

Her mother had just saved her… she had sacrificed herself, to save her… she could die, and had put her life at risk to save her…

Suddenly, Jacqueline realized something she never had never noticed before. Her mother loved her! She loved her so much that she would use her own body to protect her from any harm!

She loved her, she believed in her, she wanted her to live on because she saw good in her, she valued her life!

Tears started to form in little Jacqueline’s eyes. “Mommy?” she started to shake her mother, trying to wake her. “Mommy, wake up!” tears were flowing unabashed from her eyes.

Jacqueline didn’t hear the sirens of the patrol car approaching, following the beacon of the emergency signal being sent by the wrecked hover car, activated by John before the crash, she didn’t hear the steps of the two police officers running towards them. She didn’t hear how one of the officers called an ambulance in his transmitter, all she cared about now was trying to wake her mommy up. “Mommy! Please wake up, I’m sorry, I’m sorry for everything I said, please don’t die mommy, please don’t die!”

She finally realized the officer was there when he pulled her up and away from Violet’s limp body.

Jacqueline turned her head frantically to see who had picked her up, and saw the face of the police officer. “Sir, please help my parents, our hovercar went out of control and my mommy tried to protect me and then she got hurt and then…” Jacqueline started ranting like a little child.

“Calm down little girl, I just called an ambulance, what is your name?” said the police officer, trying to calm down the frantic Jacqueline.

“Jacqueline sir, my name is Jacqueline…” replied the penny girl.

.oOo.

The ambulance had taken ten minutes to arrive, the longest ten minutes in Jacqueline’s life.

The police officer carried Jacqueline on the backseat of the patrol hover car, as Jacqueline explained who she was and what had happened. Then the police officer hurried back to the wounded bodies of Jacqueline’s parents, along with his partner, and they started to give them CPR until the ambulance arrived. Jacqueline watched them from the car’s dome, silently praying that they were okay.

After the ambulance got there, the two police officers left the paramedics to do their job. The paramedics quickly gave them first aids and placed them in the hover ambulance, then they jumped into the vehicle and turned on the siren, quickly flying towards the closest hospital. The police hover car, with Jacqueline in the backseat. The little penny girl didn’t take her eyes off the ambulance during the whole trip, the fact that she was in the back of a police car with her leg hurt was secondary.

When they arrived at the hospital, her parents were taken into the E.R. room. As for Jacqueline, she was taken to the pediatrics ward of the hospital. A nurse cleaned her up and undressed her, put a pink hospital robe on her and laid her on a bed with railings. Then a doctor came and they use a portable x-ray machine to see her leg. The was no broken bones, just a very big bruise, so they placed a tissue-repair machine around her little leg, and turned it on.

Then the police detective came into the hospital room. He walked over to Jacqueline’s bed and sat down on a chair next to it, while the penny girl sat up on the bed, her back resting on the pillow.

“Hello Jacqueline, I’m Detective Powell. Don’t worry, you are not in trouble, but your sentence requires that you are secured down all the time, so I have to put this on you before anything else.” He said that as he pulled out a set of KidKuffs, handcuffs for children used on Penitatas, they consisted of five centimeter-wide carbon fiber bracelets, with inside padding, connected by a 12 cm long thin, but strong, chain.

Jaqueline nodded, putting up no protest, she obediently offered her hands to the detective, he fastened one of the bracelets to Jacqueline’s left wrist, and the other end he fastened on the bed’s metal railing.

“Now Jacqueline, we talked to your parents and they explained how the hover car just went out of control, we’ll have to check the car’s black-box to see exactly what happened.” He explained.

Jacqueline’s eyes lit up, “You talked to my parents! They are okay!”

Detective Powell nodded, “Yes, they are okay.”

Jacqueline put her little hands together, “Oh, please Officer, please let me see them. Please!”

Detective Powell smiled, “I don’t see why not, they actually want to see you too.”

“Be aware, Jacqueline, that they were too injured when they arrived. The only way to save their lives was to Rejuve them. The nurse, who was still in the room, added; she then moved to open the room’s door.

At the other side of the door was a doctor, holding the hands of two little children; a boy and a girl. They seemed as young as Jacqueline. They were wearing the hospital robe (a pink one on the girl and a blue one on the boy) and had a big M on the back of their hands. “They had lost a lot of blood from the accident and had internal bleeding. We had to rejuve them to the age of six.” explained the doctor.

“Mommy? Daddy?” inquired Jacqueline, wonder and joy mixed in her face’s expression.

The kids smiled, “Yes Jacquie, its us.” replied little girl Violet.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Jacqueline cried out and extended her arms to them, tears of joy filled her eyes, she would have jumped off the bed and ran to them if it weren’t for the medical device around her leg and the KidKuffs on her wrist.

Little Johnny and little Vi ran next to the bed, crawled on it, and the three met in a tight embrace.

“Oh, mommy, daddy… I’m so happy you are okay.” Jacqueline cried from happiness while she hugged the two Medicalos as hard as her little arms allowed her. “Mommy, I’m so sorry for the discussion in the car. I swear I’ll be a good girl from now on, I understand now. I understand what you meant, I promise I will try my best from now on, I promise.”

“Oh Jacquie…” said Vi with a smile, “I’m so happy to hear you say that. We love you Jacquie.” she added, Johnny nodded in agreement.

“I love you too mommy.” replied Jacqueline.

Violet and Johnny finally broke the hug, “Now Jacquie, you should stop calling us mommy and daddy now.” said little Johnny.

“Huh?”

“Johnny is right Jacquie.” replied little Vi, “We are the same age as you are now, we certainly can’t be your parents like this. That’s why the Detective is here.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to be rejuved to start a cycle from the beginning, you’ll be taken to the home of your substitute parents, who will become your assigned parents for the remainder of your cycle.” explained Detective Powell.

“Don’t worry, the Beckers are good friends of us, we know them well and we trust them.” explained Johnny.

Jacqueline started to sniffle, then cry, “It’s not fair *Sniffle* I finally understand it, *Sniffle* I finally care about it to be a good girl *Sniffle* and I lose my mommy and daddy over an accident. *Sniffle* It’s not fair! *WHAAA!*”

Violet and Johnny moved quickly to hug Jacqueline again, trying to calm her down. After a minute or so, Jacqueline’s crying calmed down to sobbing, and then to a quiet sniffle.

“Please Jacquie, don’t cry.” said Vi, “Look at this as an opportunity for a fresh start. The Becker’s live in another town, you’ll have to register on another school for the rest of your cycle.”

“*Sniffle* Can’t you come with me? *Sniffle* I mean, can’t they be your new parents as well as mine? *Sniffle*”

Vi cleaned Jacqueline’s tears with her hand, “I’m so sorry, Jacquie, but we can’t.”

“Your sentence specifies that your assigned parents must have only you as their assigned child; to guarantee that you will receive their undivided attention.” Explained Johnny, “Violet and I will be going to my parents house, the hospital has called them and they’ll be coming to pick us up later.”

“But we’ll see if they allow us to visit you and call you as often as possible,” added Violet, “But being a Medicalos, I don’t think they’ll be saying no.” she pointed to the M’s on her hands, and winked at Jacqueline.

Jacqueline smiled and nodded, then she leaned over to whisper in her former mother’s ear, “I want you to know that, no matter what, you’ll always be my mommy.” she then kissed Violet in the cheek.

“Oh, Jacquie.” Violet’s eyes started to get glassy, she didn’t have any nano-web implant, but her body was that of a six year old girl, and it was starting to catch up, “Now, swear that you’ll be a good daughter to your new parents, okay?” Vi raised her right hand, with only her pinky finger extended, Johnny did the same.

Jacqueline nodded, and also rose her right pinky finger. The three “sealed it” in a 3-way pinky promise.

.oOo.

“… I stayed in the hospital until the machine finished healing my leg, then Detective Powell took me to my new home in this town with the Beckers. All my things had already been moved from my old room to the extra bedroom in their house. They transferred me to this school, and before I started my new parents spent the following mornings home schooling me so I wouldn’t loose my lessons. And that’s how I’m here in the middle of the semester.” Jacqueline finished the story.

“That was such a nice story…” said Diana, “I’m sorry, I mean, it’s not nice that you were in an accident, or that your last parents are Medicalos, I just meant that, well, you know…”

Jacqueline giggled, “It’s okay Diana, I understand what you meant.”

Mary was going to say something when she noticed that Samantha was sobbing. “Samantha? Is something wrong?” asked the green eyed girl.

“*Sob* I’m just so happy to hear they’re all okay. *sob sob*” said the girl with the big ribbon. Since Samantha’s crime was violence against women, her nano-web had an extra feature that not only compelled her into reacting more like a child, but also as a little GIRL, making her much more sensitive.

“I’m sorry Samantha. It wasn’t my intention to make you cry.” apologized Jacqueline.

“No, it’s okay. Don’t worry.” said Samantha as she wiped the tears with the back of her hand, then sniffled. “Did you get out from being spanked?”

Jacqueline giggled, “Actually no… the Beckers were told about the school incident by my old school’s principal, and was sure I learned my lesson… the whole week.” Jacqueline rubbed her little fanny as she remembered vividly all the spankings she had received from her new mommy and her new daddy during the course of last week.

“Ouch.” was Diana’s short and sympathetic reply, “Wait… your parents are the Beckers? Are those Dave and Lauren Becker?” asked little Di.

Jacqueline blinked, “Huh? Yes, those are the names of my new daddy and my new mommy.”

“And your room has wallpaper with a pattern of blue ponies and pink bunnies being spanked with a round paddle?” added Diana.

Jacqueline’s eyes opened wide, “That’s amazing! How did you know that?”

“Jacqueline, Uncle Dave and Aunty Lauren are my parent’s Shabbos goy, they take care of my punishment spankings during Yom Kippur earlier this year!” exclaimed Diana, smiling and putting her hands together like a little applause, “that makes you my Cousin Jacquie!”

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