Life as Shania

Chapter 4: Morning Rush Hour (Part 1)

"Hey Naya," Chris peeking into Shania's room where she's doing her homework, "I have an 8 am conference call tomorrow morning so I need to send you to school 30 minutes earlier than usual. Please plan your morning accordingly."

Shania just looked at him at nodded.
"Use your words, please."
"Yes, sir," Shania replied rolling her eyes.

---

*Thud Thud Thud*

"Naya! Hope you're getting ready already! I'll be waiting for you at the dining table," Chris shouted outside Shania's room.

Shania looked at the clock on her bedside table, did a mental calculation and decided that she could sleep for another 3 minutes.

...

"WHY ARE YOU STILL IN BED?!" roared Chris at Shania after pulling her blanket away. Shania ended up snoozing for 20 minutes instead of her calculated 3 minutes.
"Oh shit," thought Shania as she scampered out of bed. At this rate, not only will her brother be late for his conference call, she too will be late for school.

Shania quickly washed her face, brushed her teeth and changed into her school uniform. She was done in less than 10 minutes, but Chris was still not impressed. It was obvious that he was seething in anger although he was quiet. 

The drive to school was surprisingly smooth and Shania had 2 minutes to enter the school gate before she was marked late. Instead of driving straight into school, Chris took a turn which made Shania ask him what he was doing to which Chris smirked and simply replied, "since I'm unable to punish you for making me late, I'll let your teachers handle that for now". 

At Shania's school, students have to report to school on time for morning assembly. If the student was late, he or she couldn't join the assembly and instead would spend the time running around the carpark and they would have to go for detention after school.

In School

"Okay students, you know the drill. Hand-over your student IDs, sign your name on these forms that you would need to hand to your guardians and start running," shouted the teacher in charge. There were about 6 other latecomers joining Shania.

After Shania completed her rounds around the carpark, the teacher in charge gave her a late slip that she could give her homeroom teacher and told Shania to be in the detention room after school.

In Class

"So are you heading off to the detention later?" Beth asked Shania.
"Of course, I have to. I don't need extra punishments from my brother," replied Shania.

Throughout the day, Shania was anxious about her time at detention and most of all, about what punishment her brother would mete out for her. She's still bruising from the belting he gave her a couple of days ago.

During recess, Shania texted Chris, "I have to attend detention until 3pm."
"Good, I'll pick you up at 3pm then."

The rest of the school day went on uneventfully and Shania attended detention where the teacher in charge returned her student ID. 

As promised, Chris was already waiting for Shania in his car at the school carpark when she was done. He was talking on the phone when Shania quietly boarded the car and sat in the passenger seat. Chris just looked at her and continued his business conversation while starting up the car to head back to the office. Although Chris's office was only 20 minutes away, Shania felt like it was a 2-hour long car ride because of how anxious she felt throughout the drive.

In Chris's Office

By the time the siblings arrived in Chris's office, Chris had already ended his call and Shania was just awkwardly standing in front of his table waiting for further instructions from her brother. Despite being frustrated with his teenage sister, Chris knew that Shania probably wouldn't have time to have her lunch so he had already asked Tina to pack her a lunchbox. 

"Go wash your hands and come back here to eat your lunch."
Shania did as she was told and was relieved as her brother did not speak to her in a harsh tone as she has expected. She was glad to see that the lunchbox contained fried rice, fried egg, and some nuggets. But she also noticed that Tina had sneakily put chopped broccoli and spinach in her fried rice. "Don't even think about picking out the vegetables, eat them all," Shania wondered how does Chris even know what she's doing when he's not even looking at her. She ate them all anyway. 

Seeing that Shania had finished her lunch, Chris came closer to her. 

"Do you have any homework today?" Asked Chris.
"No," replied Shania.
"Okay, then I want you to kneel down at the corner and have both your hands raised up to the sky," Chris ordered while smirking.
Shania was shocked and annoyed because she knows that he got that idea after watching a Korean movie with her and kneeling with arms raised is a common Korean-style punishment. Not wanting to have any other reason for punishment, Shania did as she was told.

It must have been about 25 minutes of kneeling and Shania has discomfort in her legs and her arms were aching. Chris was constantly telling her to have her hands raised higher.

"Chris, my legs really hurt and I can't keep my arms up any longer," whined Shania.
"Raise. Your. Hands. Up. Straight!" Chris glared.
"I can't! I give up!" Shania exclaimed rubbing her arms and straightening her legs.

Chris stormed up to Shania and pulled her by her arms and readjusted her position so that she's back to kneeling. He then grabbed a wooden ruler from his cabinet and signaled Shania to position her palms upright in front of her. By now, Shania is already scared and tearing up. She is kneeling, her legs are cramping and she can't feel them anymore. 

*SMACK SMACK SMACK*
Chris used the ruler to hit Shania's palms.
"I'm sorry, please stop," cried Shania as she pulled her palms away only to return them when she saw Chris staring angrily at her.
*SMACK SMACK SMACK*
Chris was hitting each of her palms alternately. 
*SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK*
*SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK*
Shania was sobbing sorrily. Chris pulled out her hands and laid the wooden ruler on Shania's palms so that she was kneeling while holding the ruler with her arms stretched out.
"Stay in that position until I tell you otherwise," Chris ordered while walking back to his table.

After about 20 minutes of staying in that position (of course, Chris had to bark at Shania to keep her hands straight constantly), Chris told Shania to pack her things and prepare to head home. 

Throughout the car ride home, Shania could only cry silently, rub her palms gently, and hope that they wouldn't swell. But she also knows that Chris wasn't done with her yet.