## Tape Week

Post by aeris » Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:01 pm

(Another of my older stories.)
"We told you that cursing would no longer be tolerated at the school," Principal Harbaugh told the assembled students in the gymnasium. "Apparently none of you saw the microphones and cameras we installed in the hallways to catch those of you who thought it would be a good idea to swear in between classes. As you can see, bad behavior of any kind will not be tolerated at Sunshine Elementary."
As Principal Harbaugh said these words, he gestured to the line of nine students who had been standing next to the podium since before the assembly started. Some were boys and some were girls, ranging from first grade all the way to sixth grade, but all of them had one thing in common: Their mouths had been thoroughly sealed with duct tape. The tape had been wrapped completely around their heads, and additional strips had been placed over and underneath their chins to stop the students from trying to work loose the tape with their jaw muscles. Only the silvery sheen of the duct tape made it look like their mouths had been sealed with something other than a skin-tight muzzle.
Brianna, the only third-grader in the lineup, looked down at the assembled students. The first-graders and second-graders were sitting Indian-style closest to the stage; she guessed that the third-graders were behind them, but she couldn't bring herself to raise her eyes to look at them. She pressed her chin hard against the tape binding her jaw to try to relieve the pressure against it, but the tape still didn't budge. Her face felt like her knee after she'd broken her leg last summer and had it placed in a cast, tight and immovable. At least she hadn't felt like scratching her face yet.
Brianna thought back to earlier that day, when the kids and their parents arrived at the school early and Principal Harbaugh told them about the "experimental punishment" the school wanted to try on the children. All of the parents agreed to the punishment, and the school nurse, Mrs. DeFay, showed the parents how to apply the tape muzzle. Brianna thought that the first strip of duct tape, placed across her mouth, would have been enough to silence her, but then her parents were instructed to keep placing pieces lower and lower down the face, then on the chin, and then under the chin curling back up to the ears. After that the tape was wound three times around the head -- Brianna's parents were told to lift their daughter's long blonde hair up first -- then the tape was cut off at the back of the head. The parents were then told to sign their names across the seal of the tape, so if any of the kids tried to remove it, there would be evidence.
Principal Harbaugh's speech snapped Brianna back to the present. "For the next week, these students will walk among you unable to speak. Let their presence among you serve as a warning that when we say no cursing at this school, we mean it." The principal didn't mention that the tape would be taken off for dinner and breakfast, but then their parents would keep putting the same tape muzzle on them, over and over again. Also, before breakfast and dinner, each of them was required to write five hundred words in a special notebook about how they felt having their mouths taped shut and how sorry they were.
As the assembly ended, Brianna tried to turn her head to see where her homeroom teacher, Miss Bess, was, but as she did so she felt a sharp pain on the back of her scalp. Turning her head caused her to pull hard on hairs that were trapped underneath the duct tape. Small tears involuntarily escaped her eyes, brought on by the stinging pain.
"Over here, Brianna," Miss Bess called. Brianna turned her whole body, and this time saw Miss Bess and her classmates forming a line near one of the exits. She walked over, and Miss Bess motioned at her to stand at the front of the line. Without a word, the teacher led her class back to their classroom.
When Brianna got to the classroom, she noticed that one of the desks had been turned around and made to face the classroom, to the side of the blackboard. Her bookbag was on this desk.
"You'll be sitting here for the next week," Miss Bess told Brianna. "It's important for the other students to see you being punished so they don't make the same mistake you did. Now sit down."
Brianna slid into the desk, watching the other students file into the classroom in front of her. As the students took their seats, each of them stared at Brianna. She could see a bit of sympathy in the eyes of her friends Jane and Judy, but the others just look frightened. None of them seemed to anticipate what measures the school would take to wipe out cursing. Brianna wondered if they knew how she felt right now, how the tape made her jaw ache, how she couldn't move a muscle in her lower face, how silly and humiliated the whole experience made her feel.
As Miss Bess talked about current events, Brianna barely heard her. Half the time she was thinking about the ache in her jaw -- she still tried to open her jaw a little, to try to lessen the strain -- and half the time she spent looking at the students in front of her. Being singled out by sitting alone, facing the class, would have been bad enough, but having her face taped up was beyond awful. The tape was so tight and heavy that it felt like the only part of her body.
Eventually most of the students stopped staring at her and looked at Miss Bess while she was speaking, but a few of them continued to watch Brianna's every move. Brianna could even see a couple of the boys in the class, Pedro and Jeremy, whispering to each other and giggling as they looked at her, even pointing at her at times. They always seemed to snap their attention back to Miss Bess just before she called on them. They were experienced troublemakers, and they knew how to avoid getting in trouble. Brianna wished she had their luck, so maybe she could have avoided this punishment she was now undergoing.
The day went on it like it normally did, first math and then social studies, and in each new classroom the teacher had moved a desk to the front just like Miss Bess had, and Brianna was made to endure the stares, and some snickering, from her classmates. When she got to art class, they'd even moved a desk in there for Brianna to sit at, instead of at the tables they had in the art room. As the students lined up after art to go to lunch, Pedro and Jeremy made a point of lining up right behind Brianna, giggling even louder.
"Hey there Brianna," Pedro said, "got anything to say?"
"Mmmmmmmmmm..." Brianna tried to reply. She didn't want to, but she'd had to put up with their giggling for a couple of hours now and she couldn't stand it any longer.
Jeremy laughed out loud. "Sorry, I didn't hear that?"
"MMMMMMMMMMMM!" Brianna tried to scream, but the tape muffled her voice so much that it seemed like she was just talking in her normal voice. She turned around to see both Pedro and Jeremy laughing quite loudly. Even some of the other students behind them in line seemed to be giggling.
"Settle down class," the art teacher told them, "or I'll make you stay in here for lunch. Well, everyone except Brianna, because she has other plans."
Those other plans involved standing, with the other students who had their mouths taped shut, against the wall of the cafeteria during lunch, next to the teachers' table. It was macaroni day at the cafeteria -- Brianna's favorite -- but she was forced to watch all the other students eat up the golden yellow food while she stood there, the rumbling in her stomach barely registering over the pain still in her jaw. Even at lunch the taped-up students were an attraction, as students from all grades watched them when they weren't talking with their friends. The older students seemed to be bolder in watching the students against the wall, smiling and giggling as they did so.
After science -- again, Brianna had her own special desk at the front of the classroom -- came recess, where Brianna had to stand next to the playground monitor, an old hag of a woman named Mrs. Winnie who taught fifth grade and always smelled of cigarettes and too much perfume. Next to her stood two boys Brianna thought were in the fourth grade; both of them had their mouths taped shut like her.
Brianna looked out at the playground. Jane and Judy were playing on the swings, and everyone else was having such a fun time. Their joy made Brianna feel even more sad, even more humiliated, having to stand there watching them with all that tape on her mouth. Other students continued to stare and giggle at her and the two boys, and she could even see some other third-graders playing a game where one of them pretended to have his mouth taped shut, making grunting noises, and the other kids laughed at him.
A sharp pain in the back of Brianna's neck made her let out a "MMMMMMM!" It wasn't the tape, though; it felt more like a pinch. Out of the corner of her eye she could see one of the fourth-grade boys quickly move his hand back behind him. The two boys looked at each other knowingly while Brianna rubbed her neck. She knew one of them had pinched her, but she knew she couldn't do anything about it. None of the teachers listened when she complained when she was being picked on before, and they certainly couldn't listen to her when her mouth was bandaged up with duct tape.
After another couple of minutes, one of the boys pinched her left arm. The boys laughed as best they could with their taped mouths. Brianna couldn't take it any longer; she reached back with her arms and began swatting at the boys, trying to hit as hard as she could but not having much luck. The other boys began swatting at her as well, and over the chaos Brianna could barely hear Mrs. Winnie's whistle.
By the time Brianna had settled down, she was sitting in Principal Harbaugh's office with the two boys. The principal was behind his desk, and Mrs. Winnie, standing behind the kids, was telling Principal Harbaugh about how they had all begun hitting one another. Harbaugh leaned forward to give the kids one of his mean looks, his bald head reflecting the fluorescent lights overhead. "You realize that all of you are already in deep trouble, and this only makes things worse. Do you have anything to say for yourselves?"
The two boys shook their heads as best they could, looking contrite. Brianna, however, couldn't help herself, trying to tell Principal Harbaugh about how they'd started it, but all that came out of her mouth was "MMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM!"
"Shhhhh, settle down," Principal Harbaugh told Brianna. "Mrs. Winnie, please tell the other playground monitors that the three of them are to stand apart from one another when they are at recess while they're being punished."
"Yes Mr. Harbaugh," Mrs. Winnie replied.
"Take the boys back out to the playground," Principal Harbaugh continued. "As for you, Brianna... well, obviously you haven't learned your lesson yet, so you will sit there quietly for the rest of recess. And I'm also going to add another week to your punishment. Two weeks of being unable to talk should help you learn when to be quiet."
Brianna went red in the face. She wanted to yell at the principal about how unfair this all was, but she was afraid of earning an even longer punishment. She folded her hands in her lap as Principal Harbaugh called her mother to tell her about the lengthened punishment, and then went on about his business.
After recess was over, Brianna was allowed to join her fellow students for English, and then homeroom again before the bus ride home. Anywhere a lot of students were, especially ones who weren't in third grade, Brianna seemed to notice more snickering and pointing at her. It didn't help that she was the only student on her bus with a tape muzzle on her face.
Her mother awaited her at the front door of her house as Brianna got off the bus. "Brianna, you are to go straight to the living room sofa and do your homework. Do you understand?"
Brianna nodded as best she could. The living room television, which was normally turned to Dr. Phil when she got home, was off. Brianna guessed that the television being off was another punishment she was going to have to deal with. She sat down on the couch, took a pencil out of her bookbag, and started doing some of the story problems she had for math. As she kept doing her homework, she noticed her mother watching her from the kitchen.
Just as Brianna finished her homework, her father pulled into the garage. Before he came in the front door, though, Brianna's mother handed her the journal she was supposed to write in, and told Brianna to start writing about how sorry she was for cursing. All Brianna could write about was how mean those fourth grade boys had been to her and how it wasn't fair that she'd had her punishment doubled, but as she kept writing she began to write about how bad she'd felt when other students pointed and laughed at her.
Just before lunch was served, Brianna's father pulled the muzzle off of her, starting with the tape wrapped around her head and then the pieces on her jaw and face. It hurt a lot when the tape around the back of her neck came off, but her father went slow to minimize the pain. When all the tape was off, her father told her, "Now, you're still not allowed to talk when the tape is off, but you need to eat. Be silent at the dinner table and you won't get in any more trouble. Do you understand?"
Brianna started to say "yes," but thought better of it and just nodded, sighing resignedly.
"Good. Now let's eat."
Dinner that evening was meatloaf, a far cry from the delicious macaroni and cheese she could still remember from the school cafeteria that day. Her parents told her how disappointed they were in her, especially after getting in trouble on the playground, but she barely paid attention to them, chewing the bland meatloaf slowly. The worst part was when her younger brother, Vince, asked their mother why she had tape on her mouth when she came home.
"Because she said bad words and she's being punished," their mother replied.
Vince stared at Brianna; Brianna closed her eyes, averting his glance. "I hope I don't ever get my mouth taped shut," Vince said.
"Well then, be a good boy and don't say words you're not supposed to," their mother responded.
After dinner, Brianna's father applied the same tape muzzle to her face again, starting with strips going from her mouth all the way down to under her chin, and then the three winds of tape around her head. This muzzle seemed even tighter than the last one; Brianna's jaw hurt more and more. Brianna was then made to go to bed early, even though she normally stayed up for a few hours after dinner. Brianna's mother told her that she needed to spend some time alone to think about what she'd done wrong and how she could avoid getting her mouth taped shut in the future.
Brianna laid on her back in bed; any other position caused the tape to pull at the hairs on the back of her head. She thought back to the first meeting in Principal Harbaugh's office, the feel of that first muzzle going on her. She thought about standing on the stage at assembly, her shame visible for the whole school to see. She thought about classes and how Pedro and Jeremy teased her, and how she couldn't respond back because of the tape on her mouth. She thought about not being able to eat her favorite meal at lunch, and then the incident with the older boys on the playground that led to her punishment being doubled.
What gnawed at her the most was how all those other students -- some in her class, some from other grades -- pointed and laughed at her. Being singled out and picked on like that was bad enough, but not being able to talk back, not being able to respond, made it ten times as worse. Even if she'd had the tape taken off of her mouth now and never put back on, Brianna knew she wouldn't ever swear again, for fear of receiving the punishment all over again. Now, however, Brianna knew that she would wake up with that same tape on her mouth that was there now, that after breakfast another muzzle would be put on her, and she'd have to endure another day going through school with her mouth taped shut, the pain in her jaw, the giggling from other students. And then there would be another day, and another day after that, and on and on for the next two weeks, with no hope of relief.
Brianna pulled the covers up near her head. She closed her eyes hard, hoping against hope that she could somehow get some sleep, have some time in which she didn't have to think about that awful tape on her mouth.

### Re: Tape Week

Post by cp729 » Sun Apr 29, 2012 1:05 pm

Great story !
Have you more old story like that ?

### Re: Tape Week

Post by NemesisPrime » Sun Apr 29, 2012 5:37 pm

I feel so bad for her...
but having my mouth taped like that would be nice!
Everyone speaks in multiple languages...But gag talk is universal and a sock in your mouth is the perfect translator!

### Re: Tape Week

Post by aeris » Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:00 pm

NemesisPrime, pardon me asking, but what would you like to have happen to you if you had your mouth taped like that? I'm trying to get inspired to write new stories and I'm not coming up with many new ideas.

### Re: Tape Week

Post by NemesisPrime » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:13 pm

Depends. How explicit do you feel comfortable with?
Because I would like to be naked and have people drawing in sharpie all over my body and the tape then once that was done start sitting on me or torturing plus blackmail.
Man, I'm beginning to sound like David Toddman...
Everyone speaks in multiple languages...But gag talk is universal and a sock in your mouth is the perfect translator!