Ann Berrybush and the Elevator

Author's Note

Ann Berrybush and the other characters in this story are not original. They originate from the Ann Berrybush stories posted on Yahoo Groups, of which there are now hundreds of stories by numerous authors. In most of the stories, the hapless, repressed schoolmarm Miss Berrybush is stripped in slapstick fashion, usually by her student nemeses, Amber and Brandi. This story references earlier stories in the Berrybush canon, but knowledge of those stories is not necessary for enjoyment.

*****

A voice crackled through the walkie-talkie: "Hit it, Amber!"

Amber flicked the switch and the sound of machinery whining down filled the room.

The doors on the elevator opened no more than an inch before they stopped.

"Oh no, looks like it's stuck!" cried Miss Ann Berrybush.

Tommy Effenheimer didn't verbalize his surprise. That feeling was soon pushed away by the realization of the opportunity he had just been given. "Allow me, Miss." He stood up to the door and puffed out his chest. His slender fingers curled around the edges of the door.

"Hah!" he grunted. His arms gave out, letting his fingers slip over the polished surface. He made a second attempt, which had the same result.

After he had failed a few more times, Ann said, "If you said you were feeling ill, you shouldn't exert yourself like that. Why don't you let me give it a try?"

He stepped back. She struggled just as he had, which made him smile. If she had managed to get it open, he would have looked weak. On top of that, there was no other person he'd rather be stuck in an elevator with.

"I just can't get enough leverage. The doors are too close together. Looks like we're going to need help." She pressed the call button and leaned toward the intercom. "Hello?"

No answer. She pressed the alarm button a few times. The bell echoed through the elevator shaft. She sighed. "Everyone's probably gone home by now."

-

While Amber made her way up to the floor the elevator had stopped on, Brandi took the steps up to the next door. Earlier that day, she had picked the lock on the service door that led into the top of the elevator shaft. She dangled her legs down the shaft and let herself fall onto the top of the elevator car.

Meanwhile, Amber was assuaging the group of boys gathered around the elevator doors. "Quiet. You're going to see more of Miss Berrybush than you've ever seen before."

"This better be worth staying after school for, Amber," said one of the boys.

"Don't worry, it will be."

-

A strip of paper fluttered from the ceiling and landed in front of Ann. "Where did this come from?"

She picked it up and read it aloud. "Dear Miss Berrybush. I am sorry to say that the F you gave me on my last paper is unacceptable. I cannot afford to fail your class. If you agree to change my grade to an A, fold this paper lengthwise and slip it through the door. If you do not, you may not like the consequences. Love, Brandi."

Ann crumpled the note. "Those two! I should have known."

Tommy went pale. Ann looked over at him. "Oh dear, you look even worse than before. Are you going to be all right?"

"Yes, Miss. Perfectly fine." This was a mere half-truth. Tommy's stomach was not, in fact, doing back flips because of illness.

"Well, I'm not going to play games with them. You need to get to the nurse." She cupped her hands over her mouth and pressed herself to the door. "Open the door this instant! There's a sick boy in here who needs help!"

When no response came after a minute, she banged on the door. "Open up!" She turned to Tommy. "I don't think anyone's out there."

"Are we stuck, then?"

"Hold on. Let's see what happens if I push the note through the door. I don't have to keep my word, after all." She folded the strip of paper and flicked it through the opening in the door.

A moment later, a second note dropped from the ceiling. Ann grabbed it and read., silently this time. Tommy peeked over her shoulder to read along. "Nice try, Miss Berrybush, but we want some kind of guarantee that you're telling the truth. How about you give us your suit - jacket, blouse, and skirt - as collateral. Then, maybe we'll open the door."

Ann answered to only one authority - Reason. And that authority required honesty. There was no choice. She simply could not give in to Amber and Brandi. But she couldn't abandon her duty to Tommy. "I just cannot allow this. I will not let those two corrupt the integrity of my classroom. But I can't let you suffer for this, Tommy. You need to get to the nurse, so I'll do what I must. Brandi may get my clothes, but she won't get her A."

As Ann hesitantly slipped out of her jacket, Tommy asked, "What do you mean, Miss?"

"What I mean is that I'm going to hand over my suit so you can get the medical treatment you need."

She reached up to undo the first button on her blouse. Tommy flinched. No, this was not going according to plan at all. It was his fault that they were trapped in the elevator. It was his fault that Ann was about to humiliate herself.

The second button came undone. Silk and lace peeked through the opening in Ann's shirt. Her fingers thumbed the third button. A paler shade of white swept over his face. She frowned. "My goodness, Tommy, you look even worse now."

When Amber and Brandi had torn apart Miss Berrybush's dress at the dance, he had been there to lend her his jacket. When they had reduced her to a bra and half-slip before her class, he had helped her escape. He couldn't let her down now, especially since he was responsible for this entire predicament in the first place.

"Oh, and this is my last good jacket, too," she muttered to herself as she undid the third button.

Tommy couldn't bear to see Ann sacrificing her dignity. He worked up the courage to speak at last. "Stop, Miss Berrybush."

"What? Stop? You need a nurse."

"Look, Miss, I'm not really sick. I lied."

"Tommy? What do you mean?"

"I'm so sorry, Miss Berrybush. Really, I didn't mean for this to happen. I just wanted a little bit of money."

"Start making some sense, Mr. Effenheimer." Ann's tone turned harsher, squeezing the last bits of truth from Tommy.

"Amber and Brandi paid me to act sick. But I swear I wasn't gonna play along with their plan. I was gonna take the money and then show them what's what if they tried to pull any funny business on you, ma'am."

Ann's eyebrow raised. "That's very sweet of you, Tommy, but look where your dishonesty has gotten us."

"I'm sorry, honestly. I didn't think this was gonna happen. I thought they were gonna wait 'til after we got to the nurse's office. Then I was gonna tell you to hide in there in case they showed up. You don't have to give them your suit."

"So we stand our ground then." She sighed and leaned against the back wall of the elevator. He mirrored her action.

"Yeah." He paused. "I'm just a rotten liar, I guess. Are you mad at me, Miss?"

"Lying wasn't the right thing to do, Tommy. But, after what you've done for me, I know you didn't mean any harm. Let this be a lesson to you. But I know you're not rotten. You're a kindhearted young man."

A wave of relief ran through him. She had always been forgiving toward him. When he accidentally destroyed the locket he meant to give her, he had told her he was as worthless as that piece of broken glass he had created. But she insisted otherwise, showing him just how beautiful even that little shard was when light shone through it. That feeling, when she had held him in her arms and proved him wrong, returned.

"Thanks, Miss. I'm lucky to have you as my teacher."

She smiled. "Well, I better button this up now." But when she moved to button her shirt, her hands could move no farther than the sleeve of her jacket allowed. She jerked forward and snapped back, as if trapped against the wall.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm stuck. I can't get off the wall."

Tommy went to move from his leaning position, but found himself no more mobile than Miss Berrybush. "What the...? I'm stuck too!" His palm brushed against the wall. "Huh, it's sticky."

"Amber and Brandi must have put glue on the walls." Another note glided from above. Ann looked up. "The hatch on the ceiling, that's it! We need to get up there."

She peered down at her clothes. "I guess I'll have to lose the suit after all." She slipped her arms from the jacket, leaving it hanging on the wall. Then she undid the catches on either side of her skirt. The front of the garment flopped forward, allowing her enough freedom to step out of it. Miss Berrybush stood in front of Tommy, her lacy white slip running from under her blouse. It fell to mid-thigh, just covering the tops of her stockings.

"Come on, Tommy. You need to get off the wall if you're going to be any help."

"Need a hand here." He struggled against his clothes.

Her fingers brushed his chest on their way to the buttons on his shirt. She went to work opening them. He knew it wasn't her intent, but his body interpreted it as a prelude to something more intimate. Miss Berrybush was disrobing him, after all. When his shirt was open, he popped his arms out of his sleeves and freed himself from the garment.

"Do you need help with the pants as well?"

He nodded. Her fingers pulled at his belt buckle, causing a swelling in his pants. When she unzipped the pants, even more blood rushed from his face. The realization that he was now a victim of Brandi and Amber's game of humiliation was overriding his elation from contact with Ann.

"I think our only choice is to tear you out of them. Here." She offered her hands to Tommy, who took them. The two pulled until, with a great tearing sound, he fell forward onto the floor. He stood, crossing his hands over the small bulge forming in his briefs. The two stared at their lost clothing, which drooped lazily from the wall.

"No time to cry over spilt milk, Tommy. Let's try to get up to that hatch. Now give me a boost."

"How?"

"Just hold out your hands. I'll climb on your shoulders."

Tommy's clasped hands bent under the pressure from the flat sole of Ann's shoe. Her other leg swung up onto his shoulder. Tommy wobbled as the bottom of her slip covered his face and her heel smacked into his back. He felt himself being pulled forward, too fast to keep balance.

"Hold on to me, Tommy!" It was too late. He stumbled and fell, throwing Ann against the wall.

-

One of the boys was holding the cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels to his eye like a telescope, peeking into the gap in the elevator door. "There goes the blouse," he mumbled.

Amber cupped her hands around one eye to look in. "Hah, the old cow is doing all the work for us."

"Well, she's still got that slip on underneath, right?" a boy standing against the wall asked.

"Yeah," replied the cardboard tube lookout.

"Tell me when she's showing more skin than Tommy. Otherwise I ain't interested."

-

The last note, the one they hadn't read, was sitting right in front of the collapsed Tommy. He read as he picked himself up. "You had your chance, but now you'll have to lose every stitch." He looked up to see Ann sitting on the floor. The small of her back had hit the wall after her fall.

She had forgotten to redo the top three buttons and the remaining ones strained as she pushed off the floor to stand. A pang of guilt hit Tommy's stomach as Ann's face contorted. Her eyebrows raised in that expression of distress she habitually wore whenever she realized she was just about to lose another article of clothing. She couldn't stop her forward momentum, though, and the buttons gave out. When they popped from her shirt, that expression changed into one she had practiced just as much, the one that always followed the first expression. Her eyes opened as wide as possible while her lips formed an O-shape.

"Oh! Oh no, not again!" She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned forward. Tommy found Miss Berrybush's demureness endearing. The loss of her blouse had revealed a scant amount of skin - merely arms, shoulders, and upper chest. Many girls Tommy's age would have considered themselves overdressed if they were forced to wear that slip and nothing else. Yet her cheeks reddened as if her clothes were transparent.

Tommy couldn't stand watching Ann in her flustered state. This was his fault as well. He had failed to keep his balance and she suffered for it. His guilt, however, channeled into anger. If one of the girls was still on top of the elevator, he was going to show her a thing or two.

"Come on, Miss. No use crying over spilt milk, right? Let's try again." He held out his hands.

"Right." She stepped onto his hand. "But this time, remember to hold me in place."

Ann hopped onto his shoulders. His hands shot up to grab her before she caused him to fall over again. She let out a tiny "oh" from the force of his hands, which sent a smacking sound echoing through the elevator cab. Tommy didn't realize what he held in his hands until he had regained his balance. He squeezed to confirm that he was, in fact, holding the wonderful curvature of his teacher's rear. The curvature that she had tried so hard to hide for her entire life. Despite the two garments separating his fingers from her, Tommy was struck by how good it felt to hold something that she strove to keep a mystery.

However, her slip had once again hooded him. Her stocking-clad thighs clamped around his head. "Uh, Miss Ann, it's kinda hard to breathe in here."

"Sorry, Tommy." Part of the hem of her slip was trapped between her legs and his chest. She wriggled closer to him to free the garment. The hem fell back against her hips, revealing her panties as well as Tommy's reddening face stuck between her legs. His grip and her motions had brought the two into even closer contact. Her legs squeezed his mouth open and his lips struck lacy fabric. The pressure she put on him was causing him to breathe hard through his mouth. Hot air passed through the fabric of her panties and washed over her lips.

Although Ann worshiped at the altar of reason, she believed that she was plagued by the gods of ancient Greece. Nemesis beleaguered her in the form of Amber and Brandi. Eros filled her with a desire she wished to be rid of. Aidos formed the common ground between the two.

Aidos and Eros had become inextricable in Ann's life. She had been inculcated with Victorian mores since her childhood. When she had discovered the desires of an adult body, a parent or teacher was always nearby to shame her. One of her most vivid memories was the day she decided to steal a kiss from the boy next to her. A caning soon followed.

Her conditioning had worked both ways, associating sex with shame and vice versa. It was an unfortunate and unintended effect of her upbringing that had only caused her to internalize her repression. But there were still times when that failed. She had dammed up the desires that once flowed so naturally until that conditioned stimulus of shame chipped away at the dam and her arousal burst forth with incredible strength.

She felt that dam weakening. The loss of her suit had set that feeling in motion. The quivering of Tommy's lips against her, though slight, was pushing her further. Looking at his head lodged between her legs, she realized that this was the closest a man, or a boy, had ever gotten to touching her most private area. This sent a chill down her spine. She trembled and held onto his shoulders for support. This only drove his face harder against her.

Tommy, meanwhile, was having his own problems keeping himself under control. He hadn't imagined he would get so close to Miss Berrybush today. Now that his head was buried in her crotch, the nylon of her stockings was replaced with the feeling of the smooth skin of her inner thighs and the cold metal clips of her garter. Heat emanated from her and mixed with the warmth from his own breath. The lace of her panties was inviting, especially with the way it rubbed against his lips. For a woman who never wants to show it off, he thought, she sure does buy fancy underwear.

Tommy's semi-erection became complete, filling his briefs. Ann felt a moistness creeping into her loins. The two found themselves brimming with arousal and distracted from their goal. Tiny involuntary moans coursed through her throat. Her eyelids fluttered, her vision beginning to dim. Tommy, however, was losing his strength. "You almost got it, Miss?"

His statement was muffled. He had to drag his lips up and down her own lips in order to speak. When he struck the sibilant sound of the S in "Miss," his tongue rolled forward and pressed into her panties. This had the effect of sending a jolt of pleasure through Ann's body, but it also jolted her back into the reality of the situation. She chastised herself for losing control. The hatch was close by. The ease of reaching out and lifting it up only highlighted how distracted she had gotten, how much her arousal had kept her from trying to escape.

While he listened to the hatch opening, Tommy felt felt Ann's panties dampen. However, he wrote it off as his own spit leaking from his open mouth. Then her weight began to shift off his shoulders.

-

"She's trying to get through the hatch," Amber's voice came from the walkie-talkie.

A hand reached from the open hatch and slammed onto the top of the elevator. "I see that," responded Brandi. A second hand followed. Finally, her teacher's head popped into the open elevator shaft.

"You! You're in for it, missy!"

"Hey there, Miss B." Brandi brandished a pair of scissors. "Snip, snip."

In a second, Ann felt cold steel run over her shoulder. The scissors cut through the thin strap of her slip. She tried to prop herself up on one hand to knock Brandi's hand away, but she couldn't support her weight. She stayed still, her legs dangling against Tommy's back.

"Get me down, Tommy!" She didn't descend back into the elevator cab fast enough to avoid the second snip that caused her slip to snake down her torso. What Tommy and Ann hadn't noticed during all of this was what Amber had gotten up to. She had maneuvered the hooked pole from Ann's classroom, the one that was used to pull down the window shades, into the elevator. The hook caught on the frilly lace on Ann's hem and tore it as she slipped down Tommy's back. As Amber pulled the hook back, the lace ripped off and brought with it the beginnings of a long nylon thread.

-

Ann gasped and pulled her loose slip back over her bra. Tommy turned around, worried he had dropped Ann again. She was, however, safe on her feet. He hadn't thought about what he had just revealed, though.

"Tommy, y—you're..." Ann trailed off, looking down at his crotch. He squeaked from the realization that she could see the tent in his briefs. His erection had become so strong that it was beginning to lift the waistband off his skin. He blushed and covered himself. He would have loved to be half-naked with Ann in any other situation.

Her face darkened. She finally completed her sentence, "You're aroused."

"I'm so sorry, Miss Berrybush, I just couldn't help it."

Tommy was confused as to why Ann had such a look of great disappointment of her face. For Ann, the sight was even more distressing than being reduced to her slip. She had lost Tommy.

Ann wished for a world that followed Platonic ideals, a world that recognized the Manichean difference between the spiritual light and the pale physical dark. Her life ought to be devoted to the practice of reason, for, as Plato argued, the highest and purest objects were not material, but abstract. But she had no choice other than to live in the physical world. She wished that physical world could be reduced to a mere distraction, but her beauty was the curse that prevented that. If only she could give it to someone who desired it more than she.