Julie's pov

"That's it! I officially hate kids," I say, scraping a combination of Fruity Pebbles and mashed potatoes off a plate into the trash. Stacey and I are on our eighth day out of sixteen of kp duty and I'm so over it already.

"Yeah, children are disgusting," my cousin agrees, sweeping up her umpteenth dustpan of food scraps off the floor. "Hey, do you think Mabel would let us skip the dinner clean-up tonight?" she asks.

"Probably, but you know Mike would kill us if he found out," I say, recalling his warning last week when he first doled out this punishment. "Why, is somethin' goin' on tonight?" I'm curious as to what prompted my cousin's suggestion to get out of dinner service.

"I heard Dan and Ray are goin' with some people to see the 7pm showing of Halloween at the Cinemark in the mall." Stacey gives me a sly grin, "And according to Jenny, Dan told her she should tell us to come."

Stacey knows I like Dan. He's the reason the two of us are elbow deep in dirty dishwater right now. We were in Shane's car on our way home from Dan's pool party when we got the red light ticket. I smile thinking back to our make-out session that night.

"Earth to, cuz," Stacey literally snaps me out of my daydream. "So, do you wanna go?"

"Yeah, of course I wanna go but how are we gonna get there? Even if we can get out of kp duty, we don't have a ride and we sure as Hell can't ask Mike or Shane to take us or hitch a ride with Jenny for that matter, if Rick is taking her." Rick is Jenny's, Mindy's, and Cathie's guardian and he and Mike are good friends so if we got a ride with Jenny and Rick, Mike would inevitably find out.

"I don't think Rick is taking Jenny but I'll find out." Stacey's thrilled by the prospect that our night may contain more excitement than cleaning tables and scrubbing floors. "So, if she's gettin' a ride with someone else are you definitely in?"

"Only if it's okay with Mabel. I don't want to screw her over," I say. Mabel's been really sweet to Stacey and I and she works really hard at this shitty job.

"Of course, I don't want to piss Mabel off either." Stacey likes her too.

After texting Jenny and finding out we have a ride to the movie, Stacey and I move on to step two of our plan.

Stacey and I plead our case to Mabel. In actuality, we didn't need to beg. Mabel was more than willing to give us a night off, claiming that out of all the kids she's worked with, Stacey and I are the most helpful. Hearing that made me kind of sad 'cause Stacey and I are pretty useless when it comes to cleaning.

After dinner

Mike's pov

"Hey, Mabel, where are the girls? I want to talk to them." I'm going to surprise the girls with a night out at the movies. Mabel has had nothing but glowing reports on both Stacey's and Julie's work ethic and attitude in the kitchen for the past week. Truth be told, I'm really proud of how the cousins have accepted this punishment and gone the extra mile to do a great job for Mabel.

"Oh, you just missed them, sugar. Jeff took them on a supply run to the warehouse. After loading the truck and making distributions, I'd be surprised if they're back before 10pm." Knowing how strict Mike is, Mabel covers for our absence.

"Oh, that's too bad. I was going to ask you to give them the night off so they could join Lisa, Carrie, Shane and I for ice cream and a movie."

"Sorry, baby," Mabel says, getting back to work wiping the counters clean.

I can't say I'm not disappointed the cousins won't be joining us tonight.

At the movies

Stacey's pov

So far, things are not working out so well. We bought the tickets for the seven o'clock showing of Halloween at the kiosk but then the stupid ticket taker carded us and wouldn't let us in without an id showing we were at least seventeen years old. Dumbass usher couldn't have been more than sixteen himself. In a weird way, he has way too much power.

Dan and Ray, along with a couple of skanks from North (highschool), are already in the theater showing Halloween so they text us to buy tickets to a different movie and just sneak into their theater. No shit guys! Did they really think we were too stupid to have thought of that? I text them back, we don't have enough money to buy more tickets and they won't give us a refund on the Halloween tickets. The guys reply, sneak in the back door. I text back, fire exits have alarms geniuses. Oh my gosh, why are guys so stupid? Dan texts back, sux 2bu. He's such an ass, I don't know what Julie sees in him.

"So, what should we do now?" I ask the girls. Since we don't have any money, we decide to sit outside and wait for our ride. Unfortunately, our ride, the sister of one of Jenny's friends, can't pick us up for at least an hour. Fortunately, it's a nice night so that takes some of the sting out of hanging out on a bench outside the mall theater entrance. We're all messin' around on our phones, somehow inexplicably engrossed in a group chat with some kids from school that we barely know.

Out of nowhere, I hear an all too familiar British accent.

Julie and I look up at the same time and in unison say, "Fuck!"

Shane, Mike, Lisa, and Carrie are walking straight towards us, too close to allow us time to run or even hide for that matter. Mike sees us first, stopping in his tracks while grabbing Shane's arm to get his attention. Thankfully, it's dark enough out that we can't see the look of fury that we know is plastered on Mike's face.

Shane steers Lisa and Carrie into the mall, avoiding us so Mike can ream us out in semi private. Coincidentally, our ride shows up at the same time and Jenny and her friend hightail it out of there, leaving us alone with one very pissed off guardian.

I sigh and slump down on the bench. Could this night get any shittier?

Mike stands in front of us with his arms crossed and steam coming out of his ears.

"This doesn't look like Jeff's supply route, ladies. What are you doing here?"

"What?" I have no idea wtf Mike's talking about.

Seeing the utter look of confusion on both our faces, Mike realizes Mabel lied to cover for us.

"Get in the car now!" he barks, attracting unwanted attention.

Wanting to avoid further embarrassment, Julie and I quickly get up and start walking through the parking lot but not before Mike manages to smack us both on the ass shouting, "Move it!"

Oh my god, I could die of embarrassment right on the spot. How humiliating. I seriously hope no one we know saw that.

"Mike, please. Are you fuckin' for real right now? We're in public for God's sake! What the Hell?" my cousin blurts out, apparently wishing this to be her last night on earth.

Mike roughly grabs her right arm and pulls her against the inside of his right hip as he lays down five extremely hard slaps to her behind.

"You watch your mouth, young lady. I don't care if we're in the middle of your school cafeteria during lunch hour, I will not hesitate to correct you. Am I clear?"

With a death grip on her arm, Mike spanks my cousin harshly four more times in the middle of the parking lot, turning both sets of her cheeks red.

With attitude all around, Julie replies, "Yeah, alright! That's enough, Mike."

Yep, my cousin definitely wants to die tonight.

Mike grabs Julie's chin with his free hand, maintaining his iron grip on her arm, he snaps, "You're going to regret taking that tone with me. Obviously, you've already forgotten the discussion we had in my room last week about challenging me."

Julie just rolls her eyes in response.

"I can adjust your attitude right here and now, Julie, or we can continue this discussion back at the Center in my room. The choice is yours." Mike narrows his eyes at my cousin, daring her to test his authority.

"Whatever. Can we just go already?" Somehow my cousin has managed to lace more attitude in her snotty response, further enraging Mike.

OMG, cuz, just shut the f up. I think she's just pissed that those skanky North girls were with Dan and his friends and she's stupidly venting by pissing off Mike.

Mike lets go of my cousin and takes a step back. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and runs his right hand down his face in a futile attempt to quell his red hot temper. With his hand still clamped over his mouth, he takes another deep breath before raking his hands through his hair and placing them on his hips.

"I'm going to give you one more chance. You can apologize for your disrespectful attitude which I will adjust back in my room, or you can continue to mouth off and I will adjust your attitude with my belt right here as you're pressed up against my car. What's it going to be, Julie?"

I have no doubt Mike is deadly serious about whipping my cousin right here in the parking lot. I just pray she doesn't continue to test him because that would be...

Before I can even finish my thought, my cousin responds, "I'm not sorry!"

Time practically grinds to a halt as the events that follow play out in slow motion before my eyes.

Mike strips his belt through his pant loops and doubles it over in his left hand, while his right hand forcibly holds Julie against his passenger door. He quickly strikes her bottom, the leather belt snapping crisply against the sensitive skin peeking out of her jogging shorts.

Julie hisses in pain, caught off guard by the severity of the stroke Mike just delivered. He lands two more strokes in exactly the same spot. I can see the curve of Julie's ass already starting to redden as Mike's not holding back. Like a gruesome accident, I don't want to look yet I can't take my eyes off the horrific scene unfolding before me. Mike spanks the curve of my cousin's buttcheeks with a calculated accuracy and severity causing her to buck forward, slamming her pelvis into his car door.

I see my cousin's eyes welling with tears as she clenches her fists and bites down on her tongue to avoid crying out in pain. Even though this is a fight she can't possibly win, she's compelled to resist. Thankfully, I don't see anyone in the parking lot providing witness to this battle between Mike's authority and my cousin's obstinance.

"We can end this as soon as you apologize, Julie." Mike knows she's reaching her breaking point. He delivers another two punishing strokes to the focus area of her upper thighs. I can see the angry red welts instantly appear as his leather belt continues to brand her pale flesh. My cousin can no longer hold her tongue as the pain radiating off her bottom is too severe.

"I'm sorry, Mike, please stop. Please stop," she practically whispers, in defeat.

Wanting to drive the lesson home, Mike roughly spanks the crease of her bottom with his hand as he asks, "Sorry for what?"

Julie flinches at the sting of Mike's firm hand as tears roll down her cheeks.

She turns and with her eyes to the ground says, "I'm sorry I disrespected you."

Mike lands one more sharp slap with the palm of his hand as Julie should know better.

"Look at me and answer me properly this time. Sorry for what?"

Swallowing her pain and her pride, Julie makes eye contact and responds sincerely, "I'm sorry I disrespected you, sir."

Mike breathes a sigh of relief that Julie's rebellion has ceded. Still holding his belt in his hand, he pulls Julie against his chest and rubs her back with his free hand.

Looking between my cousin and I, Mike sternly says, "We'll discuss your punishment with Shane for skipping kp duty when we get home. The two of you can wait in the car until their movie ends. I'll be in the theater."

Julie and I get in the backseat as Mike goes back into the mall to wait for Shane, Lisa and Carrie.

"Are you ok, cuz?" I ask, seeing Julie still in tears curled up into a ball pressed up against the door.

"Yeah, I'm ok," she responds softly, still sniffling.

"You're a dumbass, you know," I say, eliciting a brief smile from my cousin.

"I know," she whispers, closing her eyes from exhaustion.