Better Days

NATASHA POV:

I was so proud of Wanda. She was going to school every single day with a smile on her face. She was practically bouncing around with energy every morning. She told me she couldn't wait to go to school. I had hope that she would finish out high school at the actual school instead of leaving next year and figuring something else out.

After we got home from school on Friday, we had eaten dinner and then Wanda had asked to watch a movie so I of course agreed. 

She seemed antsy during the movie but I didn't say anything as I silently observed. I waited to see if she would tell me anything as it seemed like she was either hiding something or trying to figure out how to tell me something.

She ended up asking to go to the bathroom so I paused the movie as I waited for her to come back. 

When she finally came back, she had two mugs of hot cocoa. I smiled at her as I accepted the mug and took a sip. It tasted kind of funny and I wondered if she had messed up the amount of powder to milk or if she had made it with water. 

I set it down which upset Wanda so I quickly downed it, showing her that I liked it. I would drink some funny tasting hot cocoa if it made my girl happy. 

Throughout the rest of the movie, I noticed that I felt a bit tired. It wasn't anything I couldn't fight against though. 

Once the movie finished, we headed straight to bed. It was still relatively early but Wanda insisted that we go to bed early, she had apparently had a busy day at school and wanted some rest.

I fell asleep extremely quickly, not even checking to see if Wanda had fallen asleep first.

o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o

My eyes flew open after a nightmare about Wanda. 

In a panic, I turned over to settle my nerves by making sure Wanda was here and that she was okay, unlike the Wanda in my dreams. When she wasn't there, my panic ramped up a bit but I tried to keep calm as I crawled out of bed to check the bathroom.

She wasn't there either. I walked down the hall to check the kitchen and living room. When she wasn't there, I started to panic a bit. 

"FRIDAY, where's Wanda?" I asked frantically, still looking for her.

"Ms. Maximoff is not in the building," FRIDAY informed me. What? What did she mean not in the building?

"When did she leave?" I asked, now running to go get Steve.

"She left the compound at exactly 9:58 PM."

"Where'd she go?" I questioned, almost at Steve's room.

"Ms. Maximoff told me that she was meeting with a math tutor." No she wasn't. There was no math tutor who would meet with her at 10:00 at night. I panicked even more as I started banging on Steve's door.

An alert Steve opened the door. "What's going on?"

"Wanda's gone! She's not in the compound and FRIDAY said she left at 10 to go to a math tutor which I know didn't happ-"

"Hey, hey, slow down," he said as he gripped my shoulders. "Did you try calling her?"

"No," I said as I ran back to my room to grab my phone. No texts or calls from Wanda. I tried calling her but no one picked up. I tried calling her several more times and also left several texts, asking where she was and if she was okay.

No response.

"She's not responding Steve," I told him frantically after the tenth phone call.

"Okay, hey, calm down, we'll find her."

"I can't calm down! What if she was taken by HYDRA Steve?"

"FRIDAY said that she willingly left the compound so that's unlikely."

"What about after she left?"

"She's going to be okay, let's go find her."

Steve started calling Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, anyone who was in the compound while we got in my car and took off. 

"What time is it?" I asked Steve. 

"Almost 1 o'clock," he told me. She had been gone for about 3 hours. 

Tony, Rhodey, and Vision were also all out looking for her. Pepper was at the compound in case she came back.

"Where would she go Steve?" I asked as I tried not to cry.

"I don't know Nat but we'll find her. Does she have any friends that she would be hanging out with?"

"No, not that I know of! She's been doing so good, she's been going to school, doing her homework, I don't know where she would've gone!"

"We're gonna find her." 

We drove around for over an hour and there was still no sign of her. 

"We need to try something else, this obviously isn't working!" I told Steve after we had spent nearly an hour and a half doing nothing to get me closer to finding my baby.

Steve sighed but turned to go back to the compound. As we were heading back to the compound, we passed a car that was swerving all over the place. Steve had to move over to prevent getting hit by it.

"Drunk teens," he mumbled as he continued driving. I didn't care about the drunk teens because all I could think about was Wanda who was out there somewhere.

We passed a house and I saw a figure on the ground. "Stop!" I yelled to Steve. Before he even put the car in park, I was jumping out of the car and rushing over to the figure.

I got closer and immediately knew it was Wanda. "Wanda? Oh my gosh!" I said as I knelt down next to her. I could hear Steve getting out of the car behind me. "Wanda, baby, what happened?" I asked. She was covered in vomit and was crying. She looked really sick.

"Hey Nat," she told me and her speech was slurred. I smelt something other than vomit and looked at her.

"Have you been drinking?" Wanda couldn't have been drinking, she wouldn't do that!

"What? No, what're you doing here?" She was still slurring as she looked at me. I tried not to get angry as I tried to figure out what was happening.

"Wanda, you've been missing for hours! You haven't been answering my texts or my calls! Where were you?"

She didn't answer and instead leaned over and vomited. I rubbed her back as I hushed her, her crying getting louder. Why was she lying in the driveway of this house?

"C'mon baby, let's get you home," I told her gently. I was almost 100% sure that she had been drinking and was extremely drunk right now. We would deal with that later but there was no point in yelling at her or punishing her in this state.

Steve helped me get her into the car. The compound was only a few minutes away so we quickly drove home while I sat with Wanda in the backseat, making sure she sat up. She was still crying but she wasn't sobbing.

I was grateful to Steve as he carried Wanda into the compound. Pepper was sitting in the living room waiting for us when we walked in. "Oh my gosh! What happened?" She got up and rushed over to us.

"She's drunk," I grit out, trying to take deep breaths. I had told her not to drink, she knew better!

Pepper looked at me with disbelief as Steve brought her into our room. He brought her to the bathroom per my request. 

"Thanks Steve," I told him after he had set her down on the floor. "I've got her from here."

"Take it easy on her Nat, we don't even know the whole story yet."

"I will," I sighed as he left the room. Pep stayed which was good because I was going to need help. She ran a bath with warm water while I worked on getting Wanda undressed. 

She was fighting against me but her movements were slow and not calculated. 

"Wanda, baby, I know you don't feel good but you are covered in vomit and we need to get you cleaned up before you can go to bed, okay?" I told her in a gentle voice, brushing her hair back from her sweaty forehead.

Wanda grunted but let me take her clothes off and get her in the bath. I was quick to wash her as I didn't want her puking in the bath.

Pepper helped me get Wanda clean and then helped me redress her as it was obvious that Wanda wasn't going to be much help. Most of what Wanda said was unintelligible, but I was able to make out, "Sorry Tasha," as we were getting her into bed.

"We'll talk about it later, get some sleep," I told her, running my fingers through her hair. She closed her eyes and I watched as tears leaked out of the corner of her eyes.

Wanda quickly fell asleep and I turned my attention to Pepper. "Thank you for helping me," I sighed.

"No problem Nat, you're doing good. Find out the whole story tomorrow and then you can deal with it."

"Yeah, I will, I'll be doing some digging tonight to try to figure out what is going on with her. She's done so good lately."

"Teens have their ups and downs. She'll be okay, you'll take care of it and she won't do it again."

"Yeah, alright, I'm going to get to work, thanks Pep."

"No problem," she said goodnight as she left the room. I went through Wanda's purse until I found her phone. 

I sat down at the desk as I started to go through her text messages. There was a group chat with several kids that I looked at first. 

She was fairly active on this chat and I found out a lot of information. Apparently, Wanda had been ditching every day of school this last week with these new people and one of them had figured out how to hack the school system. 

I plugged her phone into my laptop as I started going through more information. I found myself getting madder and madder as I continued to read through the texts. 

I went through her photos. Several photos and videos made my heart stop. There was a video of Wanda standing on a railroad track with her eyes closed. There were voices in the background saying, "How long is she going to last?" and "Make it closer this time Wands." Wanda was laughing so I knew she wasn't being forced into this. 

You could hear the blaring horn of a train in the background. It got louder and louder as Wanda continued to stand on the tracks. I could feel my heart racing, even though I knew that Wanda obviously made it out alive. 

The train horn sounded again and right before it passed by, Wanda leapt off the tracks and rolled down the grassy hill, joining the people who had taken the video. She was laughing and bragging about how close it was before she moved. 

There were other videos with other kids on the tracks. All of them did the same thing as Wanda, stood until the last possible second before jumping off. It terrified me and I had to watch Wanda breathing in the bed to convince myself that she had made it through that stunt alive.

I continued to go through her photos and saw several of her with the same kids. In some of them, she had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. 

There was one that was taken the night I had gone to the Barton farm. There was a selfie of her and some girl with beer bottles in their hands. The next photo showed both girls drinking from the bottle. 

I couldn't believe any of this. It got worse and worse as I continued to go through her phone. 

I went through her phone history and saw searches for cigarettes, alcohol, and how to make someone fall asleep. I didn't pay attention too much to the last one as I kept going through her phone. 

She now had several profiles on social media. I wouldn't normally mind that but all of the photos she had posted had information about where she lived and locations she was at. If HYDRA found this, they would have a map for her. 

The kids in the videos were in several of her posts. There were also photos of her and this one girl, posing for the photo with their middle fingers up and cigarettes in their mouths.

I went to the school website and hacked the original hack to see how many absences she had. She had missed a whole week of school and then the extra two morning periods that she told me she had seen the counselor. 

Everything was coming out now and Wanda was in deep trouble. 

I found out that she had been emailing her teachers under my name, saying that she was in a car accident and asking for any work. Most of them had excused her from work due to the car accident excuse but she had received a few assignments from her English teacher. I saw responses to these emails with the completed worksheets. At least she had kept doing her schoolwork even through her major ditching party.

The texts told me more about the party. According to the texts from these other teenagers, she had only been to two parties. She had drunk alcohol at both of them though. The girl labeled 'Blair' in her phone had texted her several times during the second party to which she got no response. Then there were texts on the group chat saying that she thought Wanda had gotten drugged. 

With this information, I quickly called Tony down to draw a vile of blood, just to check and make sure.

I was extraordinarily mad and scared for my little girl and she was in for one hell of a spanking but that would have to wait until she was no longer drunk. 

What had gotten into her? Here I was proud of her and thought that she was doing so good when in reality, she was lying straight to my face, going behind my back, and tricking other members of the family. Hell, she had even drug FRIDAY into her master plan.

I had to sit and take several deep breaths before I woke Wanda up and started spanking her right now. I was incredibly disappointed in her and couldn't wait to hear what she had to say for herself. I was going to give her a chance to tell me the truth, tell me absolutely everything that had happened, and her punishment might lighten slightly. She was still in a hell of a lot of trouble though and the truth wasn't going to fix everything. Let's just hope she cooperated once she woke up.

o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o

I woke Wanda up at 9 am the next day. I was going to let her sleep off the hangover but I kind of wanted her to experience it to know that she should never, ever drink again.

"Time to get up Wanda," I told her as I sat on the edge of the bed. She groaned and tried to turn over into the cover of the blankets but I didn't let her. "Drink some water and take this ibuprofen. Trust me, you're gonna want it with the hangover you have."

She blinked open her eyes and took the pills and water from me, taking the pills and downing the glass of water.

"How do you feel?" I asked her, trying to hide my anger.

"Like shi- crap," she corrected herself. She knew she was on thin ice and decided that it probably wouldn't be the best thing to cuss in front of me right now. Smart.

"Have a headache?" I asked. She nodded. "Yup, that's what happens when you get drunk. Not fun is it?" She shook her head. "Maybe you'll remember that the next time you decide you want to drink. And hey, if you don't remember that, maybe you'll remember the sore ass that you're about to have."

Her eyes bounced up to meet mine and then moved back to the blankets. "I'm sorry Nat." It took everything in me to not yell at her right now. I wanted to scream at her and ask her why she had done all of these terribly dangerous things but I kept my cool.

"Are you really? Or are you just sorry you got caught?"

"I am sorry," she insisted. I figured I'd test her a bit.

"And what exactly are you sorry for?" Now we'd see if the truth came out.

"For sneaking out to a party and getting drunk."

"Anything else?" I grit out. She looked at me with a confused expression but shook her head.

"So there's absolutely nothing else that you want to apologize for?" I could see her calculating expression as she looked at me, trying to figure out why I was asking her this. Another shake of her head. I took a deep breath as I phrased my next statement carefully. "Okay, here's the deal Wanda, I know everything." I paused for a second, watching her eyes widen slightly. "You are in a lot of trouble, I will give you one more chance to come clean about everything, and I mean everything, and I'll think about lightening your punishment. Think very carefully about your answer Wanda and don't you dare leave anything out."

She was silent as she looked at me with wide eyes. I waited patiently. I would probably take a second to think everything over too if I had done this much shit behind my guardian's back. 

She took a deep breath and then started talking. "I am really sorry about going to the party last night and for lying to FRIDAY about going to math tutoring. I am sorry for drinking and then for getting in the car with a drunk driver." Oh, that was one tidbit of information I didn't know. "I'm really, really sorry Nat."

"Uh-huh," I said. "Is that all?" She paused as she looked at me, not answering. "Remember Wanda, I want you to tell me absolutely everything. Is this the only party you've been to?"

Another pause before she said, "That's everything. Yes Nat, this was my first party. I'm super sorry, I'll never, ever go to another party again." She looked down at the bed, waiting for my response. 

I couldn't believe it! I had flat out told her that I knew everything and she still decided to lie right to my face. Whatever has gotten into her better get out of her quickly because I was not going to put up with this.

I was ready to pull her over my knee and start spanking her but I was way too angry for that so I left the room, taking deep breaths. I didn't say anything in fear that I was going to say something I would regret as I walked all the way to Pepper's office. 

When I got there, I was seeing red, having thought myself into a spiral. 

"Nat?" Pepper asked quietly as I appeared in her door frame. "Are you okay?"

"No," I told her. "Wanda is fucking pissing me off and I need a minute before I punish her while angry."

"Okay, take some deep breaths," she told me as she led me into her office. "Do you wanna tell me what happened?"

"I found out everything, Wanda has this new group of teens she's been hanging around and they have gotten her into all kinds of trouble. Last night wasn't the only party she's been to. The night I left for the Barton farm? Yeah, she snuck out then too and got drunk, that's why she slept so late the next day. I don't think she was ever sick. She's been smoking, ditching school, playing on the train tracks, and going to parties where she's gotten drunk! She also got in a car with a drunk driver! I can't even believe her right now, she has gone too far! She knows that all of these things are dangerous but apparently she doesn't care anymore! I gave her a chance to give me the full truth and she lied to my face again, saying that the only thing she'd done wrong was going to last night's party, getting drunk, and then getting in the car with a drunk driver! I didn't hear anything about the smoking, the ditching school, or playing dangerous games that risked her life!" I screamed, getting so fed up that I was panting. 

I looked at Pepper to see her mouth slightly open as she stared at me. "I- I don't know what to say Nat. I'm so sorry I didn't realize all this was happening right in front of me."

"It's not your fault," I told her gently. "That girl knew what she was doing and made an extra effort to hide it from us. One of her new 'friends' found a way to hack into the school system to hide the absences and she messaged her teachers under my name saying that she had been in a car accident in order to get her work excused or to get the assignments so that none of them showed up as missing. I don't even know what other things she did to try to hide all these things. I thought she was doing good Pepper!"

"I know, we all did. She probably got in with the wrong group of kids and needs to learn how to set boundaries within her own behaviors. Just like you said, she knew exactly what she was doing and was trying damn hard to hide this from us."

"I can't punish her when I'm this mad, I don't know what to say to her right now. I'm just so angry at her. How could she do all of this?"

"I don't know Nat but you two will get through this. You'll punish her and hopefully she'll go right back to being the sweet girl we all know and love."

"Yeah, I really hop-"

"Ms. Romanoff?" FRIDAY questioned, interrupting our conversation. "Ms. Maximoff has just left the compound."

"Shit," I said under my breath as I ran to go find her. FRIDAY told me that she had climbed out the window of our room and was now running to the gate. "Lock down the compound FRIDAY! Don't let her out!" I yelled, making sure that the gate would get locked and that the fences would turn electric. The shock wouldn't kill her but it would knock her down long enough for me to get there.

Pepper was trailing after me as I ran out of the compound, sprinting to the gates. I got there in time to see Wanda use her powers to practically fling herself over the gate as she continued to run. 

"Wanda, get your butt back here now!" I shouted as I crashed into the gate, waiting for it to open. FRIDAY immediately unlocked it and opened it for me to run through. "Wanda Maximoff, right now!" I screamed, chasing after her.

She didn't listen and instead continued to try and run, throwing balls of red power back at me to try to make me stop. This just pissed me off more. 

Pepper was still following me but the gap between us had gotten a little bigger.

I finally caught up with Wanda. I grabbed her tight around the bicep and turned her to the side as I landed 10 hard swats to her backside. "Young lady, you will NEVER run away from me when I'm talking to you and you do NOT leave this compound without my permission," I told her sternly as I turned her to face me. She had the audacity to roll her eyes at me as she shoved me back with her powers. I was going to kill her.

She took off running again and I felt as if I couldn't breathe. I had never seen this much defiance from her and it was making me more than angry. 

I took off running after I stopped seeing red, knowing I needed to stop her before I lost her. Pepper had caught up to me during my short pause and had rested a hand on my shoulder.

Again, I caught up to Wanda quickly. I grabbed her roughly and turned her to face me. "You just made this a hell of a lot worse for yourself," I told her through gritted teeth as I started to drag her back to the compound. She apparently didn't have that bad of a headache if she was able to run away from me twice.

"Let go of me Nat!" she said and I was glad to see that she was no longer using her powers. 

"Shut up," I told her as I kept walking. She fought against me, trying to pull out of my grasp, but she seemed more scared now than angry like earlier.

"Nat please!" she begged as I walked through the gates of the compound. I stopped and turned to her.

"Wanda, shut your damn mouth! You are in so much trouble right now, don't do anything to make it worse." I then turned back around and continued walking with her in hand. 

We got to the compound and I dragged her to our room. "So help me god if you leave this room one more time, I will chase you down and pull you over my knee wherever I find you and give you a bare butt spanking so unless you want that, stay, here." I grit out as I turned around and slammed the door behind me. Wanda had gone too far. She now added running away and using her powers on me to the long list of transgressions. 

As I walked down the hallway, I said, "FRIDAY, don't let Wanda out of her room. If she even thinks about it, let me know immediately."

"Yes Ms. Romanoff," I heard her say.

I went straight to the gym. I needed to get out some of this anger before I dealt with her. I wanted to tell Clint to come take care of his niece before I did something to her but I knew I would never hurt her. I just needed time. 

I beat a punching bag until my knuckles were bloody. I felt like I wanted to scream, cry, punch, do anything other than just sit in this gym but I couldn't as I slid down the wall and buried my head in my hands.

I was a terrible mother. How had I let Wanda go this far? She had done so many dangerous things, I could've lost her with any one of them. I blinked back tears at that thought. 

It took over an hour for me to calm down enough for me to trust myself to go talk to Wanda.

I made my way through the halls and towards our room. When I opened the door, Wanda was sitting on the bed. Her eyes were red as if she had just finished crying and I felt my heart clench.

"I'm so sorry Nat," she said as soon as I entered the room. I nodded to her to allow her to continue. "I was so stupid, I never should've gone to that stupid party."

"Wanda, you going to that party is only a fraction of the reason I am upset with you." She looked like she was going to break down into tears at any second but she held it together as she looked at me. "I know everything. I went through your phone after you fell asleep and found photos and texts proving that you have done several other not so great things. I gave you a chance to tell me everything but you didn't. Then, you decided to run away and used your powers on me, why Wanda? Why would you do all these things?"

She just stared at me. "I'm sorry." I was so tired of hearing that out of her mouth because I didn't believe she was actually sorry.

"Okay, here's the deal Wanda. I'm going to lay out everything that is going to happen so you know what to expect. Don't talk until I'm done." She nodded. "You will be getting a spanking. You screwed up big time Wanda. You will be getting a spanking for running away from me. Then, after that's done, you will tell me everything that you have done and I swear if you leave anything out, this will get a whole lot worse. You will then get another spanking for all of the things that you have done that put yourself in danger. I have told you time and time again that you are not to put yourself in danger. All it will ever get you is a trip over my knee. Then, to finish it off, you will be getting a spanking for using your powers on me. What did I tell you would happen the next time you used your powers on me or a team member?"

"Please don't," she whispered.

"Wanda," I warned.

"The hairbrush."

"Exactly. You need to know that this is serious. You can not use your powers on your family. Trying to harm us with them is never okay. After your last spanking, we will go over the rest of your punishment and then you will be forgiven. Now, you know the drill, let's go," I said, steeling myself for what I was going to have to do. None of this was going to be fun for either of us. I had to do it though, she needed to be taught a lesson.

Wanda slowly but surely moved over to me. I gently grabbed her wrist and pulled her over my knee. I pulled down her pants and underwear and then waited for a second.

"This spanking is for running away from me and the compound. That is never to happen again, understand?"

"Yes," she squeaked and then the spanking started.

SPANKING STARTS NOW!!!

I started by landing scorching swats all around her butt. I wasn't going to go easy on her this time. She had really overdone it this time. The first spanking would be the lightest as I was just spanking her for running away from me. This time she didn't put herself in too much danger by doing that but if she does it again, she may get in a situation where she needs help but if she ran away, I won't know where she went. 

I voiced this to her as I continued to spank her, now moving closer and closer to her upper thighs. She was kicking but wasn't crying too hard yet. This was just the beginning so I was glad that she wasn't taking it too hard.

"Stop, kicking," I punctuated each word with a swat to her thighs. She screeched as her legs stilled. I was glad she was listening now, she always seemed to listen better when she was over my knee or nursing a sore bottom.

Since this spanking was for the smallest of her actions, I finished up quickly, lifting her up but not pulling her into a hug quite yet. We weren't even close to done here.

SPANKING ENDS NOW!!!

She had tears streaming down her face but was still maintaining her composure fairly well.

"Alright, do you remember what you are doing now?" She shook her head so I gave her a gentle reminder. "You need to tell me absolutely everything you have done in the past few weeks. Be honest with me, please Wanda."

She took a shaky breath and started. "Well I don't even really know where to start." She paused for a second but quickly continued. "I met this girl named Blair. I accidentally ran into her in school and made her drop her stuff. At first she yelled at me but then she recognized me as the new girl who had just spent a week ditching school, the one I got in trouble for." I nodded at her to continue.

"She invited me to sit with her and her friends at lunch so as soon as lunch came, I met up with her and her four friends, Bri, Ashley, Aidan, and Zack." I didn't really need a play by play of her last two weeks but I figured I would let her talk.

"They went out to the bleachers and pulled out a box. At first, I didn't know what they were but they explained to me that they were cigarettes." So this was where it started. "They laughed at me when I said I didn't know what a cigarette was but I didn't. It smelt bad but everyone was doing it. Blair asked me if I wanted to try and she taught me how to do it correctly after I started coughing. To be honest, I was super excited to tell you about it," she told me sheepishly and I was confused.

"I didn't know they were bad so when I got in the car, I was super excited to tell you that I had smoked. I thought it was a cool thing but when you asked me why I smelt like smoke, you didn't seem too happy so I decided to keep the information to myself. I should've told you but I didn't." If she had told me that night, I wouldn't have gotten mad at her if she told me the whole truth. I couldn't blame her for doing something she thought was perfectly okay to do.

"Okay, go on," I told her.

"Well that night I googled cigarettes and texted Blair and she said that her parents didn't like her doing it so I figured that you wouldn't like me doing it. Then you told me that I would be in trouble if I ever smoked so I decided not to tell you. I really liked the feeling it gave me though so I did it again the next day at school. I've done it a lot more than that too, I've smoked more times than I can count. I'm sorry."

"Okay, continue, what else?" I asked her, keeping calm.

"Blair invited me to a party. I really, really, really wanted to go! I was so tired of being the new kid who everyone looked at weirdly so I figured the party would help my status out a bit." She hesitated a bit before continuing. "The night of the party, you left to go help Clint. I really, really wanted to go to the party and I was worried you'd say no but I figured that you leaving was perfect." She was talking slower now but she was still going. "I wasn't sick," she admitted. "I pretended I was sick so that I could go to bed early and then I convinced FRIDAY that I was just going to a math tutor. Then I snuck out my window and ran to the house that I told my friends I lived at. I didn't want them to actually know where I lived so I gave them the address of a house about 5 minutes from here to pick me up from."

I was slightly relieved to hear that they didn't know where we lived but it's not like she gave them a house too far away. They could probably figure it out pretty easily. 

"We went to a party some girl was throwing and Blair gave me lots of drinks. A lot of them burned my throat and mouth so I'm pretty sure they were alcoholic. They made me feel good though. We all danced and I drank, probably more than I should have. When we drove home that night, they did a test to see who was the least drunk in order to drive me home. They dropped me off at the house and then I waited for them to leave before heading back to the compound. I must've slept off everything."

I took some deep breaths to stay calm. It wouldn't help anything if I started getting angry.

"Anything else?" I asked after a long pause. She hesitated but nodded her head. Good, she wasn't lying.

"Blair, Bri and I ditched school last Monday. Blair had a test she had to take that she didn't want to so we left for the first two periods. We went out and got some coffee and then headed back."

"How did you leave the school?" I asked.

"Through a hole under the fence." I nodded, allowing her to continue.

"That's when I told you that the counselor called me in to talk. Then, Aidan, one of my new friends, figured out how to hack the school system. He found a way to make it so that our absences were hidden from parents. This made it so that we could all ditch the rest of the week, so," she paused. "We did. We ditched Tuesday through Friday."

"I don't understand," I interrupted. "Yes, I didn't see any absences but what about missing assignments?" 

Her eyes met mine and then settled back on the spot on the blanket. "Well, um, I emailed my teachers saying that I was in a car accident. Most of them excused me from my work and the one who didn't, I made sure to do the assignments and turn them in."

"You emailed them?" I asked, wanting to see if she would own up about her emailing them under my name.

"Yeah, oh, well I emailed them but I said it was you, sorry." I sighed but nodded at her to continue. "We mainly just walked around town. We would play games and yeah." She paused and I knew she was contemplating whether or not to tell me about the railroad.

"What kind of games?" I helped her out.

"Um, you know, like card games and stuff."

"Wanda," I warned.

"But you're gonna be so mad at me," she mumbled.

"Wanda," I said, grabbing her hands. "It's always best to tell the truth." 

She sighed but said, "Well, we played this game on the railroad tracks. It was really stupid Tasha, we stood on the tracks with our eyes closed and jumped off as close to an oncoming train as possible. There were always other people there though who would yell at us if it got too close." I wanted to point out that yelling wasn't going to beat a train and also how you could barely hear if someone was yelling over the sound of the train but I kept my mouth closed.

"I was fine though, I'm sorry." I could tell by her reactions that she thought that that was the most dangerous thing she had done. Yes, that was extremely dangerous but so was drinking and then getting in the car with a drunk driver. I let her continue without speaking though.

"Um, then I got invited to another party, the one from last night. I needed you to fall asleep before the movie and I uh- well- um-" I noticed that she started sounding choked up and I saw some tears falling down her cheeks.

"Wanda, what is it?" I asked. 

"Um, well I um, lied about having a long day at school so that you would go to bed early." I nodded, showing her that she needed to continue and finish it up. 

"Then I snuck out the window after making sure FRIDAY wouldn't tell. Blair picked me up at that house and brought me to the party. I loved how I felt after drinking the first time so I immediately started drinking. We were all dancing and at one point, it was only me and some guy, all my friends had left. We were just dancing when my body felt heavy and I got dizzy. He led me to a room and we were on a bed I think. He tried to undress me but I went to the bathroom and started puking. Then Blair found me and brought me home. I couldn't really move so I just lied on the ground while I puked. Then you found me and I don't really remember anything after that."

I took a sharp intake of breath at the end. "Wanda, you know that you deserve the spanking you're about to get and more right?"

"Yes Nat," she spoke sadly.

"Thank you for telling me the truth though, I really appreciate it," I told her gently. 

"Now, first of all, if you had told me about the cigarettes that day, you wouldn't have gotten in trouble for it. But as soon as you knew that it was wrong, you hid it from me. You knew that it was wrong but decided not to tell me anyways. I know I told you that cigarettes are dangerous but you apparently didn't understand enough just how dangerous they are. They kill people Wanda! They give them cancer and then kill them, please, don't ever smoke again. Next, the party. I understand that you want to be seen as cool by the students at your school but parties are also extremely dangerous, especially ones with alcohol. The first party, you not only got drunk yourself but then got into a car with a drunk driver. That was stupid Wanda. People who are drunk do not have the correct reaction time to drive a car. When you are drunk, it messes with your whole body. You're underage! You should not be drinking at all, period! If you really wanted to try alcohol, you could have come to me and we would have done it at home in a safe environment, not at some party with a bunch of other teenagers. Then the second party, you were drugged Wanda. It probably didn't have the same effect on you as if you didn't have powers but the guy who drugged you had bad intentions. If you hadn't gotten out of there, he would have done bad things to you. I'm pretty sure you can guess what those bad things are but he would have raped you! That was so dangerous Wanda. You need to be aware of your surroundings at a party and I'm proud of you for getting into the bathroom as soon as possible but you never should have been in that situation."

I needed to take a breath to calm down. "You got in the car with a drunk driver again and then lied on the ground vomiting. You could have gotten kidnapped or hurt! You were in no condition to fight anyone off! Please promise me you will never get in the car with someone who has been drinking again?"

"I promise."

"Good, that was so, so dangerous Wanda! I know we've already had a talk about ditching school but apparently, you seem to have forgotten that too. Ditching school is dangerous because I don't know where you are or what's going on with you! What if you had been taken by HYDRA? They could easily overpower all of your friends and then they would have had all of you! And hacking into the school? Really Wanda?"

"It wasn't me! It was Aidan!"

"You were still a part of it! You could have told Aidan not to hack into your account and gone to school like a good student but instead you ditched to go play incredibly dangerous games! Wanda, I saw the videos of you on the railroad tracks. It was way, way too close! Please, never, ever do that again! If I lose you, I don't know what I'd do!" 

"I'm sorry," she said in a shaky voice.

"You knew that all of these things were not okay, that's why you went to extreme lengths to hide them such as messaging your teachers using my name. We talked about that the last time you ditched Wanda. You are not to use my name for anything. That's called identity theft and it's illegal! You tried your hardest to get away with all of these things which means that you knew, deep down, that each and every thing you did was dangerous and wrong. If I hadn't woken up to find you gone last night, who knows what might have happened to you out there? Wanda, never, ever do any of these things again! Please, they are so dangerous!"

"I won't," she said.

"Okay, thank you for telling me everything but you still need a spanking. This spanking is for all of the things that you did to put yourself in danger. Because you told me the truth about everything, I will lessen your punishment for afterwards slightly but you are still getting the full spanking because you didn't tell me when I gave you the chance earlier."

"I'm so sorry Nat," she breathed out as she looked at me.

"I know, c'mon, over my knee," I told her. She slowly lifted herself off the bed as I guided her over my knee. I was glad she wasn't fighting against me.

I pulled her pants down and let them fall to her ankles before wrapping an arm around her waist.

SPANKING STARTS NOW!!!

I was quick to start the spanking. Wanda was also quick to start squirming. I knew that she would want to get out of this as quickly as possible since she already had a sore bottom but this was her major spanking. This was for all of the danger that she put herself in. She knew it too.

I alternated cheeks, smacking each one hard. I moved where I landed my swats so that she didn't know where to expect them. She was crying quickly and begging soon after.

"Please stop Nat! I'm so sorry and I'll be good!"

"You pushed it too far this time Wanda," I told her as I continued spanking her.

I brought my knee up to tilt her forward to get a better reach at her sit spots. She screeched and jumped with each smack. She threw a hand back and I was quick to grab it and pin it to her back. 

"Don't, reach, back," I told her, each of my words accompanied with a smack to her thighs.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed out as she switched to kicking her legs.

"Stop kicking," I warned her but she didn't listen. I pinned her legs down with one of my legs, all the while smacking her backside.

My heart clenched at hearing her cries but I carried on, remembering the fear I felt when I found her lying on the ground by herself, extremely drunk.

She was trying to move her hips to avoid my swats so I landed several hard swats to the undercurve of her butt while warning her to stop.

"Ahh, I'm sorry!" she cried out. Her backside was a bright red now but she needed to learn. 

I kept smacking her butt, wanting her to remember this the next time she ever even thought of doing any of those dangerous activities again.

I started lecturing while smacking. "Wanda, everything that you did was extremely dangerous and I know that you know that! If I ever catch you smoking, drinking, going to a party, or ditching school again, we will be right back here but instead of my hand, it will be a hairbrush. You are about to see how much you don't want to ever come in contact with the hairbrush so keep this in mind next time you think of doing one of those things. Also, I think that these kids are a bad influence on you. If you cannot hang out with them while saying no to the dangerous actions that they partake in, then you will no longer be allowed to be friends with them. The lying also has to stop! You are putting yourself in danger when you lie and the next time you lie, you are earning yourself a long trip over my knee. I want you to really think about your actions before you perform them because lately, a lot of them have been extremely dangerous and I'm not liking it. I'm sure you're not liking this either so do us both a favor and think before you act. You are a smart girl Wanda, you need to start making smart decisions or you will end up back here every time." 

I continued to lecture her for a bit longer about her dangerous actions but stopped to finish up this spanking. She was sobbing and had stopped kicking, now gripping onto my legs while she cried into them.

I finished the spanking with several scorching swats to her upper thighs. She screamed and kicked but relaxed, sobbing over my legs as soon as I was done.

I wanted to scoop her up and hold her but I needed to finish this. After pulling up her pants, I lifted her off of my knees and she tried to hug me and looked at me confused when I held her at arms length. 

"Wanda, I want you to go into my bathroom and grab the wooden hairbrush that is sitting on the counter."

Her sobs increased at this. "No, please Nat! Please no, I'm sorry I used my powers on you!"

"You should've thought about that before you used your powers. Go grab the hairbrush please. You have one minute. Every minute you go over, I will be adding smacks." I felt horrible as I watched her sob in front of me.

"Your time starts now, go," I told her. She took a few seconds before she walked out of the room sobbing. 

I took some deep breaths, trying to hold it together. I so badly wanted to just hug her and throw the hairbrush away but I needed to follow through.

I timed her and felt my heart break when the clock hit three minutes. I needed to add more spanks. 

Wanda came back into the room, now holding the wooden hairbrush. She was still sobbing and I made sure to morph my expression back into a stern one as she walked through the door.

"You are two minutes late so I will be adding 20 spanks."

"No!" she cried out as she stopped in the doorway and wrapped her arms around herself. I could hear her sniffling, trying to calm down.

"Yes, now come here."

She sobbed but shuffled forward. I decided not to waste too much time as I pulled her back over my knee and pulled her pants back down.

"This is your last spanking and it's for using your powers on me. I told you this would happen but you chose to do it anyway. You need to understand that using your powers on me or the team is not okay, at all. If I ever see you using them on me or the team again, you will be given the hairbrush again and it will be a lot harder and longer than this so think twice before using them on us."

She sobbed into my leg as I steeled myself for what I was about to do. I had had several run-ins with the brush as a teen and I knew from experience that it was not pleasant.

I picked up the brush and then brought it down into the center of her backside. She jerked up as she let out a scream.

"No! Please mama! I'm so sorry! Please!" she sobbed as she tried to scramble off my lap. I smacked her a few times with my hand, warning her to stay still. Hearing her call me mama again made it almost impossible for me to carry on, but I did.

"You will be getting 16 for using your powers on me, one for each year of age, and then the extra 20 that you earned from dawdling after I sent you to get the brush."

"Please don't mama, I'm sorry!" I could barely understand her as she was crying so hard. I decided to finish this up, I didn't want to drag it out any longer than it already had been.

I was quick in landing the other 15 smacks. I then paused to let her catch her breath as she was near hyperventilation. She calmed down after a few moments of me rubbing her back and then I landed another 15. 

I felt like a monster as I spoke up again. "Wanda, I want you to count the last 5 and then we're done."

I landed one and heard Wanda say, "One!" between her sobs.

We continued this for the last four and then I dropped the brush on the bed before scooping her up into my arms.

SPANKING ENDS NOW!!!

"Shh, shh, it's over, you're done," I told her as she gripped onto me. 

"I'm so sorry mama!" I heard her cry between her sobs. 

I shushed her as I rocked her gently, trying to calm her down. I decided to drop the lines that I was going to have her write as well as the grounding. She was punished enough, she was done.

"Shh, all's forgiven baby, you're okay, shh," I told her.

We stayed this way for about 45 minutes until my sweet girl fell asleep in my arms.