Inspection Day Ch. 02

It's not a big deal, everyone fails inspection at least once, Phoebe told herself repeatedly. Knowing for a fact that her feet didn't pass inspection weighed heavily on her. It, ironically, improved her focus in her next few classes as she desperately tried to take her mind off of it.

The day seemed to pass faster for once, though Phoebe wasn't happy about it. She wanted as much time between now and her punishment at the end of the day, even if it was just an illusion. First history, then twentieth century literature, then computer literacy went by in a flash. Phoebe somehow managed to both focus deeply and retain nothing through all of them.

Whenever she didn't have something else to think about, her thoughts kept drifting back to the end of the day, where the president of the Foot Inspectors would call out her name over the PA system to usher her to whatever this month's punishment would be. She couldn't decide what she dreaded more: the punishment itself, or the embarrassment of being called out in front of the whole school for having dirty feet.

The latter was at least a known evil, one she could prepare herself for. She knew that, ultimately, nobody who really mattered would think less of her for it. Sure, some girls giggled when someone got called out of one of her classes in the past, but most people reacted like her; just looking ahead and pretending nothing out of the ordinary was happening. She never felt any amusement when it happened, only an uncomfortable pity.

The punishment itself would be a mystery until it happened. The F.I.s are in charge of those, and they have a shocking amount of leeway for the only school in the area that doesn't even give spankings. She had seen a few given out when they decided to do them publicly, like having them sit in those medieval stocks in the lobby with their failing soles exposed to any who walked by. Often, she couldn't even tell why they failed from a glance.

With her morning classes done, it was time for lunch. Most of her close friends had the same lunch period. After buying her lunch, which could generously be called pizza, she took her usual seat at their table. Phoebe caught them mid conversation about their inspections, the last thing she wanted to think about.

"Ugh, I hate getting Beth as my inspector! They really need to make a rule that the F.I.s have to keep their nails short. She could at least be gentler about it!" Max vented. Her feet were deathly ticklish. During their pedicure get-togethers, she was always a twitchy, giggly mess.

"Consider yourself lucky..." Amanda responded flatly. "I had Kaylee for mine, and I forgot to trim my toenails. I reeeealy hope they don't make us touch each other's feet today." She said with breathy disgust. Amanda always had a foot-phobia, and at the worst possible school to have one. She got better through exposure; she could tolerate the sight of a bare foot now, but touching them was still out of the question. She still always sat out of their pedi sessions.

"Come on, you don't know that she failed you!" Tabby said, with her usual chirpy optimism.

Amanda just raised an incredulous eyebrow. Kaylee was the hard-assed, busy-body president of the F.I.s this year. She was probably behind half the failed inspections this year. They all knew she would absolutely fail someone for overgrown toenails.

"Oh! Phoeb! I didn't see you sit down! How'd inspection go?" Tabby asked.

"Uh... fine, I guess..." Phoebe deflected. Tabby didn't press the issue, but was clearly unconvinced.

"Who ended up being your inspector?" Max inquired, unable to read the room as usual.

"Rhiannon."

"Ugh, I'm jealous. She's super lenient."

"Yeah..." Phoebe trailed off.

"I don't know about that, she's the one who failed me in September. I thought I did well up until she smelled them." Amanda replied.

"I mean, she has a sensitive nose, but that's easy enough to avoid. Just need to remember to lotion up!" Max said.

Amanda looked at another table across the cafeteria and narrowed her eyes curiously. "Are all the F.I.s barefoot today? I thought it was just mine."

Phoebe looked the same direction. Sure enough, a few F.I.s where sitting there, all in bare feet. One had her feet underneath her, toes on the ground with her stretched soles facing behind. They had a faint grayish-brown to them everywhere but her pale instep. Phoebe wasn't sure why they would all be going barefoot, but it seemed especially weird that they would let them get dirty. It would be easy enough to wipe them down every now and then.

"Huh, weird." Tabby said. "Maybe they're trying to lead by example? There were a lot of failures last month, they could be trying to show everyone what nice feet should look like?" She mused.

"They're pretty dirty now if that was the idea." Phoebe replied.

"Yeah, you would think they'd at least have some flip-flops. Feet are gross enough without the dirt." Amanda said.

"I dunno, maybe today's punishment is having to clean them or something." Max added.

"I hope not! I would rather have to run a mile again, even if it's freezing out!" Amanda exclaimed.

"Was that your punishment last time? Just running?" Phoebe asked. She didn't want to think about her punishment, but she was too curious not to ask. Running a mile didn't sound so bad, but Phoebe was more athletic than Amanda.

"Yeah, but that wasn't the worst of it. They had us do it barefoot out on the practice track." Amanda said, with a tone like telling a horror story around a campfire. "My feet were sore for a week." She finished.

As good a shape as Phoebe was in, that sounded awful. The practice track is all gravel, and would be absolute torture to walk, let alone run, in bare feet. It had to be especially painful for Amanda, who never walks around barefoot, not even in her own house.

"Ouch. That might even be worse than the last time I failed." Max said, pausing to see if anyone would ask for details. Nobody did, so she continued anyway.

"We were in the art room, right? So they broke us all out into pairs, and gave us those old-timey pens. You, know, the ones with the pointy tips?"

"Inkwell pens?" Tabby corrected.

"Yeah, those. Anyway, we had to take turns writing lines on each others soles, just 'I will take better care of my feet' over and over again until every inch was covered. So my turn comes up, and I'm screaming internally before we even start. Y'all know how ticklish I am! I don't think my partner even finished a word before I was out of breath and begging for mercy. I was thrashing around so much that the F.I.s had to hold my ankles. It actually made me cry! Not just soft tears, but full on blubbering!"

"Jesus, all I had to do was sit in the stocks for an hour, and the worst part of that was the boredom." Tabby added. "I guess I'm just lucky they were too busy to come up with anything else that month!"

"Phoeb's the real lucky one here. Perfect record! I'd be surprised if she didn't win feet of the year! Isn't that right, Phoeb?" Said Max, obliviously.

Phoebe just sighed and looked down at her untouched pizza.

"Oh... I, um, sorry. Did you... you know?"

"Fail? Yeah..."

"There's always the chance your F.I. was feeling generous. I mean, you won't really know until the end of the day." Tabby said, trying to be reassuring.

"No, I saw Rhiannon's clipboard. Even if I didn't, she kinda... yelped after she smelled them." Phoebe blushed and swallowed her saliva. "I... accidentally wore the same socks two days in a row, and I'm long overdue for a pedicure. I just forgot all about inspections."

"I'm sorry, Phoeb... I should have messaged you, we were doing pedicures after school. I didn't think you could make it since you had tennis." Tabby guiltily said.

"It's not your fault. I mean, I've been here for four years. It's not like inspections should take me by surprise anymore." Phoebe sighed again. "Washing their feet doesn't seem so bad, all things considered. I hope Max's theory is right."

"I don't." Amanda said with no hesitation.

"C'mon, you'd really rather go through actual torture than have to wipe down some feet?" Max asked. "I'll never understand why you're so afraid of them!"

Amanda closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I dunno, they're just... all gross and germy I guess? It's a phobia, it's not supposed to be rational, like I tell you every time you bring this up."

Max just rolled her eyes. Empathy was never her strong suit.

"Anyway, Phoebs, we missed you at pedi night. I wish I could do nails as well as you." Max said, realizing that line of conversation wouldn't go anywhere.

Phoebe awkwardly smiled, thankful for the complement but uncomfortable with praise. "Thanks, It's really just a matter of taking your time and not rushing things."

"I really like how you always hold my feet while you do it. You have warm hands." Tabby said, giggling.

Max clasped her hands together and leaned in with a devious smile on her face. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say the great Phoebe Blake has a thing for feet." She teased.

Max wasn't entirely wrong, Phoebe did have an appreciation for feet, but it was purely aesthetic. She liked the way painted toenails contrasted with skin, and she even thought that the skin of a soft sole felt nice to the touch. Giving her friends pedicures also fulfilled her mammalian need for physical contact that was otherwise hard to get as a straight girl at an all-girls school.

Phoebe brushed off Max's comment. "I just take pride in my work, is all. Besides, I'd get kicked in the face if I didn't have a grip on yours!"

"I don't know... remember your birthday?" Max teased.

"Ugh, That was one time! You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?" Phoebe said.

"I still can't believe I let you do it..." Said Amanda.

"I can't believe I started that whole mess." Said Tabby.

Phoebe had a sleepover for her eighteenth, and Max brought a bottle of bottom-shelf bourbon. She talked everyone into doing a few shots, arguing that they were all legal adults now and should be able to drink if they wanted, alcohol laws be damned.

They made the unwise decision to mix booze with truth or dare. Tabby, uncharacteristically, dared Phoebe to suck on her big toe. Max, characteristically, added fuel to the fire, daring Phoebe to suck hers as well, and then Amanda's in the next round. Each time, Phoebe took the dare like it was no big deal. With drunken confidence, she wrapped her lips around their toes, sucked hard enough to make her cheeks concave, and released them with an audible pop.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed at the table before Tabby broke it.

"Anyway, Phoeb, I wouldn't worry too much about this afternoon. It happens to the best of us! I'm sure even a few of the F.I.s failed before." She held out her hand across the desk, and Phoebe took her offer of reassuring touch.

"The punishment might suck, but It'll be over before you know it. You can call me after if you need to vent about it."

"Thanks, Tabby. You're the best, as always." Phoebe said with genuine gratitude.

Tabby gently released her hands. "So! No more foot talk! Let's just get our minds off all this inspection business." She thought for a second, trying to come up with a new topic. "Hey, Amanda? Discover any new bands lately?"

They chatted about whatever for the remainder of lunch. When the bell rang, Phoebe walked to her next class with a feeling of relief. As much as she just wanted to get her mind off of it, talking about it got that weight off her chest. Her thoughts still lingered on her impending punishment, but now they were more curious than apprehensive.

At least I'll get an interesting story out of all this, she thought.