The two attractive young women sat in a back booth of the dimly lit diner. It wouldn't do to be seen. They were smiling, but their conversation was conducted in hushed, low tones.

"As promised, here it is." The blonde handed the brunette an envelope. The envelope was thick. The brunette opened it and riffled through the stack of hundreds and fifties. "It's all there, all $10,000." The blonde smiled. "You didn't think we'd pull it off did you?"

The brunette shook her head. "I still can't believe it."

The blonde sighed. "It was all so predictable. With the media, I mean. They're like lemmings, falling all over each other for a juicy story. I knew the shower thing by itself would create a firestorm of publicity..."

"But you risked your scholarships," said the brunette.

"So what? The publicity, the talk shows, a book deal, a movie deal--who needs a scholarship?" she whispered. Then she added triumphantly, "You know who they want in the movie? Brittney Spears--it'll be her movie debut... and get this--she says she doesn't want a body double!"

The brunette just shook her head, smiling. The blonde laughed and continued.

"You know what was more dicey, though? Getting them to do the paddling. But, wow, when they went for it, I knew we were in like Flynn! That was the one that cinched the Playboy layout. Do you have any idea what they are going to pay me for some cheesy photos of me bending over in a little schoolgirl skirt showing my bare tushy?"

Kelly shook her head. "A lot," said Heidi, "a lot. You know, the tape that Clark made is now worth a fortune. There are no copies. The original is in my safe deposit box."

"But where did you get the idea in the first place?" said Kelly.

Heidi smiled. "Did you ever hear of a boy named Micheal Fay?" she asked.

Kelly thought for a minute. "That kid who got caned?"

Heidi nodded. "But you know what Micheal Fay's problem was?" Kelly shook her head, no. "His problem was that he was NOT an 18 year old high school girl with a cute ass," said Heidi with a giggle.

Kelly saw it now--the brilliance of the manipulation of the public's appetite for sensation. Heidi continued. "The media was all over him, but there was no money in it. But with me--I mean, look what they offered Darva Conger to pose--and all she did was get married on TV. That guy never touched her. And here you've got a schoolgirl jumping into a shower naked and then getting her bare fanny spanked for it? It's gold, Kelly, pure gold."

"And you did a great job, Kelly. I couldn't have done it without you. I mean, you tipped off Thompson right on time. You put the idea in Ned's head--I knew he'd go for it, the old fart."

"The tricky part was the school board, right?" said Kelly.

"Yeah, but they saw that it gave them the perfect out," said Heidi. Actually the tricky part had been getting Willard on board, because Heidi knew that the school board would do whatever Willard told them. But when she had dangled the ten per cent fee under his nose, Willard had snapped it up. Now he represented her exclusively. And took his 10% off the top.

"I knew mommy and daddy would back me when I said I did it for 'women's equality' and file the suit. They're like neo-hippies or something. And the Finnegan story. That hooked them. You told it just like I told you to. And showing Twoomy where to find the paddle..." Heidi had actually heard the Finnegan story--how Kelly had asked for a paddling to get out of detention--from a former classmate of Kelly's, Eric's cousin and Kelly's ex best friend. In fact, it had been that story that had started the wheels turning. And the fact that she was the school secretary had made the whole thing feasible.

"Yeah, but I didn't know about that other paddle," said Kelly. "With the light one you had to take it bare butt."

"Yeah-- having the punishment be bare butt--well, it was embarrassing all right, but in salacious publicity value it's probably worth half a million more. It was hard at the time and it stung like blazes--whew! But I even earned myself those two extra swats just so Miss Smith would actually put me across her knee like she said. That image will burn like a fever in the public's mind. The tabloids are just dying to get their hands on me. And believe me, it's going to cost them."

"Well it cost me, too, but mmm, it was worth it." Kelly told her about the paddling from Sandy Smith.

"Gee, you got it worse than me, almost," said Heidi. "So that's why that paddling stung so bad. She'd been practicing--on you. Poor Kelly! I'll tell you what, I'll pop an extra five in the next advance, Ok?"

That was nice, thought Kelly, but not even Heidi knew about the games Sandy and she played on weekends. In fact as soon as she left here she was going straight to Sandy's house and don a flimsy, short French maid's outfit--to be worn while Sandy would monitor her "dusting." Missing spots would mean paying a penalty over Sandy's knee with a stingy little strip of leather applied to her naked fanny while she was plopped face down.

Oh well. Kelly grinned and shook her head in amazement. This was great. Money for nothing. Man, that Heidi--so smart to have figured all this out. To have covered all the angles. But then they always said she was a very bright girl.