Cat, Max and the other eight ladies in their terrified group of ten arrived at the solid steel door of Study Room C10.

“You guys…” the smallest girl amongst them was literally shaking, tears already on her cheeks, “I can’t… I don’t know how they can…” she choked on a sob and fell completely mute as the door to the Study Room opened.

“Ladies,” a man in a white lab coat stood in the doorway and beckoned the group inside the very stark and very white room. He directed them to stand in a circle in the middle of the room and Cat was completely at a loss of what to make of her surroundings. They were in a complete circle of white. The room appeared to be cordoned off into cells evenly spaced around the circumference of the room. Each cell was curtained off with a white curtain. Cat’s feet became leaden and rooted to the floor. Her heart sank with dread. She knew where this was likely headed. Clearly, the tiny redhead next to her also came to the same conclusion since she barely stifled a loud sniff and a muffled whimper.

“Each of you to one of the cubbies,” the man in the white coat said shortly, nodding to the curtained off spaces around the room, “I will be completing your final assessment today. I will not tolerate any sort of refusal or argument from any of you. You are familiar with the rod from your initial assessment within the last week. This will be utilized. I expect immediate compliance. From each of you.” He looked pointedly between Cat and the tiny redhead. The small girl’s face was puffy and red from crying. No one moved.

“Ladies. Cubbies. Now.” Their circle broke apart and each girl turned around and claimed the cubby closest to where they stood.

Cat peeled back the curtain to her cubby and her heart thudded wildly in her chest. White on white on white. White walls, white curtain - she closed this behind her - a white metal table in the middle of the cubby. Nothing else as far as Cat could tell.

“Ladies!” The man raised his voice which seemed entirely unnecessary. The room was silent as a tomb as each girl wondered what could possibly be in store for each one of them. “I will need each of you to lie on the table in your space. Assume the position you were placed in from your interview assessment. Remove your panties, if you are wearing them. You do not need to remove your skirts. You will assume this position by my count to twenty. You will remain in this position until I have come to assess you. If I enter your cubby and you are not in this position, you will be subjecting both yourself and your colleagues to whatever punishment I deem necessary for your inability to follow simple directions.”

He was going to punish all of them for something that one of them did? Cat sure hoped that Max didn’t resort to her usual sarcastic bravado.

”This should go very quickly,” he continued, “Please assume your positions in… 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6…”

There was a rustle of woolen skirts and metal as presumably each of the ten girls stepped out of their underclothes and assumed the directed position on each of their tables. By the count of 17 the room was silent, save for the count and an occasional tap of metal. Cat lay on her back staring at the white ceiling, her knees pressed together. He didn’t say anything about them spreading their legs. She assumed the rod would be claiming that job anyway. Her heart hammered as she stared into white nothingness. Like an answer to her curiosity, she heard the sharp command, “Spread.” From somewhere that sounded like the other side of the room. She gasped, heard a couple others follow in it's wake, and her own pulse thundered in her ears.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she tried to block out the brief, one-word orders that she could hear echoing through the room. Worse, the occasional squeak or muffled shriek from one of the girls as he moved from cell to cell.

The rattle of curtains opening, then closing. Maybe the sound of a tap or something striking skin or bone. A sharp, “Spread”. Rinse and repeat. Cat wondered if she would be last. No one had screamed yet, that had to be a good sign, right? She yawned and closed her eyes as she heard another curtain open, close. A sneer, “Oh. You. Spread.” The clang of something metal rang in Cat’s head and her imagination drifted off elsewhere, somewhere far away.

Cat startled awake and nearly fell off the metal table she lay on. What the… did she… had she… She sat up and something sharp bit underneath her.

“OW!” She jumped up off the table to her feet and lifted her skirt up around her waist. What. The. Fuck. She’d been put in a chastity belt. How had she SLEPT through it?! She grasped at the front of the belt, locked just below her navel. It was locked all right. She wrestled with the edges of it, biting into her waist - it was locked on her tightly. Too tightly. It pinched her skin in places she certainly wished it wasn't.

She dropped her skirts and whipped around, throwing the curtain open as she did. The room was empty, save for the man who had greeted them and given them their directions.

“Catherine Davis,” he sneered as he met her eyes. “Your friends are waiting for you outside.” He nodded towards her waist and winked, “You’re welcome for that. You can thank me later.”

Cat’s eyes widened in horror and she fled the room to her waiting friends just outside. Every last one of them looked completely haunted - no doubt from whatever they had all just gone through, but also for the complete lack of knowledge for Cat’s wellbeing and what had happened to her. Why hadn't she left with the rest of them five minutes prior?

“I fell asleep,” Cat said dumbly, looking down at the floor. “I somehow slept through it.”

”Oh my god,” Max sighed a great breath of relief and wrapped her arms around Cat’s shoulders. “I thought he was keeping you back there to like, I don’t even know. We didn’t hear a thing from you. We think he got to you and told you to spread your legs,” each one of the girls shuddered a bit at the memory of the command he had given each of them. “But then you didn’t because he said it one or two more times. Then… there was a bunch of noise. Like, so much more noise than with any of the others but we didn’t hear anyone making any noises to go along with all the shuffling.”

“I’m wearing a chastity belt,” Cat explained. “I woke up and I was wearing it. How did he get it on without waking me up?”

”Maybe you won’t have to do any more assessments,” one of the girls said glumly.

”I hope none of us have to do them anymore,” Cat argued. She looked up to catch the gaze of her roommate and Max’s face was aghast and pale. “What?”

“He put me in a chastity belt too,” she said in a whisper.

”Are any of the rest of you…” Cat looked around the circle of girls. They all shook their heads numbly.

“He just pulled it up out of the table along with the rod,” Max told her story without being prompted by any of the others to share, “Loomed over me as he stuck the rod between my legs and told me that I required extra protection for my own good. Maybe he’s right, maybe not. He was so fast, I didn’t even argue about it. Maybe I should have. It’s probably good that I didn’t. He fastened this thing - way too tightly, I might add - around me and then ran his fucking hand between my legs and tried to push his fingers past the belt. I guess if nothing else, it works as intended.” She shifted uncomfortably where she stood.

“Mine is too tight, too,” Cat agreed, feeling the need to shift in the same manner her friend just had.

Max shuddered, “I bet it’s intentional. But I’d rather burn in Hell than go back in that room to have that weirdo loosen it up for me.” Cat turned towards the door and wondered how deep her desperation might run. It might only bother her if she actually did something like ride a horse. Or a bike. Or have to sit on a wooden church pew for an hour long service. That last point would definitely cause a problem within the next five days.

“Maybe I just won’t eat for a week,” Max continued on. Cat really admired the way her new friend was able to manipulate such a humiliating and violating experience into just another quirk of this awful college. The ten girls gathered together and descended the hallway. It was nearly the supper hour and the dean would be waiting to greet them at the Great Hall for their first communal dinner together.

::::

After everything that had occurred in Study Room C10 late that afternoon, most of the girls had forgotten that they would be receiving their course schedules that evening. Not Cat. She had been eagerly anticipating her upcoming classes and more information about what she would be studying this semester. Since, apparently, according to the school her course of study would choose her. She was pretty certain that wasn’t how college worked, but she was also pretty certain that there likely wasn’t another college on the entire planet that forced their freshman class to undergo invasive purity tests. Again, she wondered why on earth her parents would ever have chosen to send her here of all places. Her mother had lived through this experience. She really wanted the same for her daughter?

The Great Hall was the most boisterous place she had been on campus so far. The room was massive and towering with a limitless glass ceiling, strung with lights and chandeliers from rafter to rafter. Long wooden tables and benches lined the great hall, each table and bench filled with girls from freshman to graduate student, noisily laughing and chatting away.

At exactly six o’clock, the room flashed red and that awful buzzing noise reverberated through the cavernous space. The room fell immediately and deathly silent. Every single girl in the room - other than about half of the freshmen - jumped to her feet and stood at attention, palms flat on the table in front of them. Cat quickly followed suit with the rest of the girls surrounding her, but as she glanced around the room she could definitely see the nervous confusion on the faces of the girls who were brand new to St. Mary’s like she was.

“Ladies,” the dean boomed from the back doors as he entered the room. “Scholars. Patrons. Welcome to our new Class of 2028.” Silence followed the announcement. The only sound in the entire room was the heavy footfall of the dean’s feet as he made his way down the center row of tables towards the elevated head table at the front of the hall. There was suddenly a loud smacking noise that echoed through the hall and a startled gasp from somewhere to Cat’s right. Another. Another. Two more in quick succession. Cat looked over her shoulder just as she saw the dean swing his arm up high in the air and bring it swiftly down upon the backside of a girl two benches down from where she stood. What the fuck?! Was this a normal nightly occurrence?! Why weren’t these girls reacting in any way to being spanked so casually, but so violently?

The dean arrived to her bench and slowly assessed each girl he passed. He stopped behind Cat and she froze completely. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t feel her heart beating. All she could feel was the heavy and oppressive presence of her worst nightmare standing behind her.

“Catherine Davis,” the dean said quietly, smoothly. She felt a lift at the back of her skirt and it took everything inside of her in that moment not to flinch. She continued to hold her breath. She could feel a draft of air on her buttocks but nothing else. Then, unexpectedly, a push and slight pressure at the bite of metal between her legs and she bit at her tongue. “Too tight, I’m so sorry.” Her heart beat in rapid succession in a way that made her dizzy.

“Sir?” She squeaked.

“Study C always puts the belts on too tight, come see me tomorrow and I will loosen it for you. You’re going to be wearing it for quite some time, you might as well be comfortable,” the dean explained. He lowered her skirt and just like that moved down the line to the next girls. She stared across the table at her roommate - wide-eyed. Cat wondered if the dean’s invitation would extend to Max as well.

After about a half dozen more violent spanks down the middle of the row of tables, the dean ascended to the main table at the front of the hall.

“Freshmen, don’t be alarmed. I wish nightly supper spankings were not as commonplace as they seem to be lately. Only the most insolent amongst you,” he stared pointedly at a couple of very precise points around the room, “will receive them. Only when deserved,” a couple more pointed stares, “and dress code violations.” Cat didn’t exactly know how anyone could pull off violating the dress code around here.

“As always, eat as much as you please, my home is your home,” he lived here? “Freshmen, I will be making the rounds through dinner with your course schedules for the semester. If you do not receive one from me, please inform the patron at the head of your table before you leave to return to your dormitory for the night.”

And with that, a patron at each table stood up and unveiled a feast of a meal up and down each and every table in the Great Hall. Conversation and laughter started back up again, and Cat sat down with the rest of the table, trying to muster up an appetite for the decadent options that lay before her.

“Catherine Davis,” she heard the dean’s voice behind her and nearly jumped out of her own skin.

“Sir?” She turned around to see what he could possibly want from her now.

“Your schedule,” he handed her a large, rigid envelope that seemed excessive for a course print-out. He was gone to the next student before she could even ask permission to look at it.

She opted to open the envelope versus serve herself food. A decision she regretted when she slid out her fall course schedule and her heart dropped. No history. No history?! Didn’t she say that she had wanted to study history during her interview? Instead, she would be taking anatomy, biology, psychology, Latin and…gym? She didn’t realize colleges offered a general physical education course anymore. She hadn’t seen any gymnasium on the campus tour; which, seemed odd now that she thought about that. She couldn’t say she was overly thrilled about the idea of exercising in her chastity belt. She also wasn’t overly thrilled about the courses of study. She was really very disappointed about the lack of history courses in her schedule. She didn’t want to study the human body, which seemed to be the indication she saw in front of her.

She emptied the envelope further. There was a thin notebook of required textbooks, course reading, and suggestions for supplemental materials. There was a long, multi-page questionnaire about… Cat flipped through this and was shocked by some of the questions her eyes caught as she skimmed the pages. Questions about her menstrual cycle. Bathroom, eating, and sleeping habits. She turned back to the front page of the packet and in bright red text across the top it boldly read, “Complete and Submit To First Meeting with the Dean”. She supposed that would be tomorrow morning when she went to get her belt adjusted. She flipped through the questionnaire again. Apparently she had homework tonight.