Kelsey Pays For Her Crimes Ch. 01

One reason she had been so depressed the last week is that her usual strategy of coming to terms with her fate wasn't working. The last time, she had talked to a therapist and they had suggested owning her punishment and having personal responsibility. When she had gotten arrested for underage drinking, she might have thought it was unfair, but she did feel bad for breaking the law. This time she felt bad for scaring Sofia and putting the rest of the USSJP in harm's way, but she didn't feel bad for organizing the protest. That fact was making it hard for her to accept her upcoming punishments.

In a few minutes, Kelsey and Zoe were called to their respective receptionist, leaving Jeremy in the line awaiting the third window to come open. Kelsey approached to see a middle-aged woman at her computer.

"ID, please," the woman said flatly.

Kelsey pulled it out of her wallet clip and passed it through the window.

The receptionist raised her eyebrows as she typed into her computer. "You're one of the special ones, I see. When you go to the garage, you'll see a line that is marked Special Event, go to that one. Your intake is modified because of the unique circumstances," the receptionist pointed to a lens that was facing Kelsey, "Look there, please."

There was a flash as Kelsey wondered what was going to be different. She thought it would be like the last time when they were strip searched here and then taken in a van to the park for her exposure.

"Hold on, while I make your wristband." About a minute later, the woman handed her a laminated card with her picture and a long number on it, "This is your ID card after your wallet is taken from you. Don't lose it, there will be consequences."

Kelsey had heard that spiel before, "Yes, ma'am."

"Go down the hall that way," the woman said, pointing, "Follow the Special Event signs and listen to all directions."

Kelsey nodded and turned in that direction. Once past the receptionist windows she turned and waited for Zoe and then Jeremy to join her.

"So Special Event line," Zoe started, "What does that mean?"

"It means we are VIPs," Jeremy said without missing a beat.

Kelsey realized everything was a joke with him, "I have no clue. It could be the same thing, just a shorter line. There's probably issues with us all going to the same place, so they are trying to keep us separate from everyone else."

"Yeah, they don't want to lose us, 'cause we're important," Jeremy said, agreeing.

When the three of them went through the door at the end of the hallway they emerged on a catwalk with the garage opening underneath them. Below them Kelsey recognized the temporary cubicles where the intake and body searches occurred and a serpentine queue, formed with metal crowd control fences, filled with dozens of men and women waiting their turn.

They climbed down the metal staircase and were confronted with a fork. To the right was the entrance to the main line of people, but to the left, the Special Event line, the fences sent them in a straight line toward the vans.

"Maybe they're taking us straight to the arena," Kelsey suggested. They walked down the makeshift hallway and at the end they were confronted with two Punishment Center guards, a baby-faced man who looked to be in his early twenties and a middle aged woman with long blonde hair tied back in a pony tail. They were both dressed in gray uniforms that made them look like police and the man had a baseball cap. Sitting on the concrete floor was a plastic tub that, Kelsey guessed, held their supplies.

"You're all three rioters?" the woman asked.

"We're the rioters," Jeremy answered. The older guard looked at him stonily, but the younger man smirked. Zoe elbowed Jeremy in the ribs and Kelsey wished he would be a little more serious. She kind of appreciated the levity, but she didn't want to be associated with him as far as the guards were concerned. Plus, it worried her that the guards knew what their crime was. They might consider the riot disrespectful to their profession, or something, and it could end up worse for them.

"Read off your ID numbers, please," the female guard ordered. Zoe read hers to the woman while the man grabbed Kelsey's wrist and led her a few feet away.

"Oh, no," Kelsey's mind screamed. She did not want to be with the man, but she tried to calm herself. "We aren't in a cubicle. He's not going to search me."

He made her hold her wrist out and typed her number into a tablet. "Ok, you're in the right line. He pulled out a large plastic bag that Kelsey knew was for her clothes, and again, her heartrate spiked. "They're not going to make me strip out here in front of everyone, are they?"

The man gave her the answer quickly, "I'm going to confiscate your personal items now, but the body search is happening at the punishment location. Put your wallet, keys, phone, jewelry, and things like that in the bag."

That was a relief. She pulled out her wallet, which was the only thing she had that needed to be taken and dropped it in the bag.

"Is that it?"

"Yep, I'm a minimalist."

"Ok," the guard responded, writing her number on the bag for later identification, "Turn out all your pockets."

"Don't you believe me?"

"We do it for everybody. Just being safe."

Kelsey looked over at Zoe, but she didn't have any pockets to confirm or deny the guard's assertion. She pulled the pockets out of her jean jacket as he watched, and her fingers dropped down to her jeans.

"Any pockets on the inside of that jacket?"

"Nope," Kelsey answered, opening her jacket for him to inspect, before turning her front jean pockets out, proving their emptiness.

"Back pockets," he said, "Turn around."

Gracie reached under the tail of her jacket and pulled the pockets out, before turning around and lifting her jacket so he could see. Her first flash of embarrassment went through her as she showed her clothed butt to the man.

"Arms out like a scarecrow," he ordered and extracted a handheld metal detector from the plastic tub and started to pass it over her body.

She felt more embarrassment, followed by anger, as she thought he lingered passing it over her chest and crotch. "Calm down, this is what you get," she told herself trying to remind herself that these were the consequences of her own actions.

As he completed his security sweep, she saw Zoe, her hair now down to her shoulder blades, being led toward the line of vans with her wrists cuffed behind her back. She was done quicker, probably because she didn't have to go through the pocket search.

The guard put his security wand down, "Hands behind your back." Kelsey complied and he secured her wrists tightly. "Sit down on the ground and wait for my partner to get back," the guard said, surprising her, "We can't leave your friend here alone."

Kelsey sat carefully on the cold, concrete floor of the garage. It was hard since she couldn't support herself on her arms, like she usually would. She watched as the guard went to Jeremy and started the procedure with him.

As Jeremy was turning out his pockets, the woman came back and fetched Kelsey, "Come on." She reached down and pulled Kelsey back to her feet. They walked about a hundred feet down toward a big white van with no windows and open double doors on the back.

The van was almost full, and she recognized everybody in there. There were benches along the sides of the van, making everybody face toward the center. Their cuffs were connected to a metal bar that ran behind them that prevented their escape. Kelsey was the sixth person in the van and sat down on the passenger side bench and was secured by the guard.

Across from her was Zoe, leaning forward trying to keep an eye on Jeremy. To Kelsey's right were two guys whose names she knew, but not much else, red headed Cody and the broad shouldered, muscular Will. On Zoe's side behind the driver was a third woman, Harper. She was a senior who joined the club when her dad had been sentenced to a Judicial Punishment. Between Harper and Zoe was Johnny. Kelsey didn't know he had gotten arrested, this was his second time being punished, so his sentence might be worse than the others.

"That's everyone in this van," the guard said after Kelsey was in the van. Kelsey saw Zoe's face flash to concern, "You'll be on your way shortly," the guard told them, and the back doors closed.

Small fluorescent lights were all that illuminated the rear compartment of the van as the engine came to life.

Johnny was the first to speak, "How have you been, Kelsey?"

Kelsey wished everybody would quit asking her that, "I'm fine. Have you guys gotten along ok?"

There were grunts from the guys next to her. "As good as we can be, I think," Johnny said looking at Harper.

"Yeah, I'd say so. We've missed you," Harper said quietly.

"I'm sorry. I've heard from Zoe that the club kept going," Kelsey said, "I'm so, so sorry about all this. I was so stupid."

"Not your fault, that's what the club is about," Johnny said, "The cops were always going to oppress us eventually."

That wasn't how Kelsey saw it. They hadn't arrested them for nothing, but to each their own.

"I just think it was bad luck," Harper said. They could have arrested any number of us, not just the nine of us."

"There are nine?" Kelsey asked.

"Twelve counting you, Zoe, and Jeremy. Nine of us for disorderly," Johnny explained.

"If it's ok to ask. What did you all get? And who else got arrested?" Kelsey asked.

"It's ok with me, ok with you three?" Johnny asked, looking at Harper, Cody, and Will.

"She's going to see it happen anyway, I guess," Will said as the others acquiesced.

"I got an hour exposure with the cock and ball bindings because this is my second time. The rest of them got an hour with the spreader bar," Johnny informed her.

"Katrina got nipple clamps for reoffending, too," Harper added, "There's another girl I didn't know, Alexa, and then Peter, Shawn, and Quent."

Kelsey recognized all their names from the USSJP, Katrina had joined after getting caught trespassing on a construction sight the first week of classes and now, she had two punishments in three months.

"What about you two," Will asked.

Kelsey glanced at Zoe who nodded permission, "Zoe and I both got a J31 which is."

Zoe cut her off, "They're going to torture our tits."

Heather and Johnny didn't look shocked. Kelsey supposed Zoe might have already told them, but Will's mouth was agape, and Cody's eyebrows shot up. "They must not have heard."

"Yeah, and I'm going to be spanked, too," Kelsey revealed, "I think that's because I'm a reoffender."

"Wow," Will said, "I didn't think you all had gotten it that bad. I heard the girl, um, Sofia didn't let them press assault charges."

"They didn't let us plead down from rioting," Zoe said, "And we had another charge because we tried to cover her up."

"And supposedly I incited a riot," Kelsey chimed in.

"That's not fair, at all," Harper said.

"I get what I get," Kelsey responded, still trying to keep her state of mind, "I organized the thing that became a riot."

Johnny and Harper still frowned, but she thought she saw Cody, tilt his head and nod, like that was a good point.

The prisoners could tell the van was moving along at a good clip now, having escaped the downtown gridlock. It wouldn't take long for them to get to the arena, now.

"Anything you can tell us?" Harper asked, trying to sound casual.

Kelsey felt everybody's eyes on her and Johnny, since they had both done this before.

"This is already different than last time," Kelsey said, "I was in that long line we saw back at the garage."

"I wasn't at this PC," Johnny said, "My hometown one just made me strip on a street corner and tied me to a lamppost."

"Lo-fi," Zoe said, flatly.

Everyone in the van chuckled. "You've been hanging out with Jeremy a lot the last couple weeks. That sounded like one of his jokes."

Zoe looked embarrassed. Kelsey guessed that they must have gotten closer than the last time she saw them. "Don't be embarrassed. AJ and I met when we were being punished."

"Yeah, I know," Zoe said, "We were a secret thing before all this, though. Now it just seems like we only like each other because we got arrested together."

"Back to what we can expect," Harper said, trying to get back to the original conversation. She looked scared, her long legs twisted around each other like she was already trying to hide herself.

"Yeah, sorry," Zoe said.

"I mean we are going to be body searched," Kelsey said, "That hasn't happened yet."

"Is it bad?" Harper asked.

"Mine was fine, last time. It is probably worse if you had a guy doing the search," Kelsey said.

"That might not be true for us," Johnny said, looking at Cody and Will, who both answered with an awkward chuckle. Kelsey and the other women rolled their eyes.

"It's different for everybody," Kelsey said, "Y'all have been to the meetings and heard testimonies."

The van slowed and came to a stop and everybody in the cabin took a deep breath. "We're going to be fine," Kelsey said, "We're still going to be together for a while."

She looked around and everybody seemed like they were in their own world, preparing. Kelsey felt much more at home when she was supporting others than when she was being comforted. It was nice to be in her element.

The doors to the van were opened and two guards, one in his fifties and the other closer to middle aged, were standing there. "Welcome to your punishment location, the Emmett Bledsoe Center," the older one said.

The prisoners all knew where they were going to be, thanks to Sofia, but they tried to put on concerned or surprised faces.

"We are going to walk in an orderly line to the locker room. Understand? No funny business," the older guard demanded.

The college students waited for the guards to do something, but the just stood there in awkward silence.

"I said, understood?"

"Yes, sir?" Harper responded quizzically, but she had given the correct response, and everybody repeated after her.

"Good, know your manners," the guard demanded, as he reached toward Kelsey and released her cuffs from the rail behind her.

His partner did the same to Zoe and in a couple minutes, all six of them had been pulled from the van and had formed a line with the women in front and the men behind them. Sandwiched, by the guards they marched from the parking lot through, Kelsey guessed, through an employee entrance and into the bowels of the arena. They walked for a long time through the labyrinthine hallways past offices and training rooms, until they entered a large locker room.

There were standing blue lockers around the outside walls of the room and rows of lockers in the middle, creating aisles. The guards escorted the prisoners to one of the middle aisles and ordered them to sit on the benches that ran down the center of the passageway.

The guard gave directions again, "Everybody stay seated. No getting up! When the second van gets here, we will continue."

The prisoners sat there in silence, still handcuffed, examining their surroundings. Zoe sat on the end, nearest the end of the aisle, followed by Kelsey, Harper, Will, Cody, and Johnny, who took up the end.

After a few minutes, Zoe must have decided the coast was clear and whispered to Kelsey, "I wish they would have separated the guys and the girls. They must have two locker rooms."

"Probably four, home and away for both sexes," Harper said, leaning over.

"Last time the searches were one on one, but they didn't care about mixing genders after we were naked," Kelsey said.

Harper and Zoe looked worriedly at her.

"We all know each other. I suggest getting used to it, the crowd is going to be big, unfortunately," Kelsey said. Her instincts told her to just be honest with them. They surely knew the truth, but probably needed to hear it.

The three of them sat in silence for a while, as Kelsey noticed the guys huddling together.

"Did either of you practice?" Harper asked, "I couldn't figure out how. I was too scared to go streaking."

Kelsey smiled, she had written the guide that the USSJP passed out on how to prepare for visits to the Punishment Center and was glad someone had read it.

"I did, with Jeremy," Zoe admitted, "I'm sure we didn't go hard enough, though."

"Anything helps," Kelsey said, "And I'm not sure anybody goes streaking. It was kind of a throwaway line when I wrote it."

The three chuckled at the admission. "I'm glad you guys dressed up though. I didn't follow my own advice, AJ picked out my clothes."

"You look good though and I did not dress for style," Harper laughed. She had worn a long black and white striped dress that went down to her ankles, "This dress is so comfortable."

"If I was taller, I'd wear it. I feel like it would swallow me."

The three of them laughed, but were interrupted by the next van of prisoners walking into the locker room and being forced to sit down. Jeremy led the way, followed by Peter, Quent, and Shawn. The two women Katrina, who Kelsey knew, and Alexa, who she'd never met, brought up the rear.

The gender splits that the guards enforced during the march through the arena gave her some hope the searching would be split as well, as she suspected there weren't going to be one on one searches. Though she was worried that she hadn't seen a female guard.

They sat for a couple minutes, allowing the prisoners to start whispering to each other again. "Do you guys know, Alexa. I've never seen her."

"I met her at court," Harper said, "She never came to a meeting, she just joined the rally after it had already started. I think she's a grad student."

"That sucks," Kelsey said, guilt welling up again. That made Kelsey feel even worse. She'd have to apologize to her when she got a chance.

Zoe must have noticed Kelsey's face contort, because she said, "You know it's not your fault. She might be less your fault than the rest of us. You didn't even invite her."

"True," Harper added, nodding.

"That doesn't matter. Still my rally."

"Quit it, it's our rally," Zoe said. They probably wouldn't have even started arresting people if me and Jeremy hadn't done what we did."

Kelsey looked at her friend, realizing for the first time she was carrying a lot of guilt, too. "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way."

Then a guard, a dark-haired man who must have came in the second van, came up to the end of the aisle and interrupted them, "Greetings everyone. Next up is the body search. I expect everyone to follow our directions the first time. These can be quick and painless if everyone listens."

Two other guards started to walk down the aisle from either side and released the prisoners from their cuffs as he continued, "After I'm done talking, everyone is going to remove all of their clothing and lay it on the floor in front of you. Sit back on the bench silently when you're done. The officers will search through your clothes and then put them with the rest of your belongings. Does everybody understand these first set of directions?"

"Um," Alexa squeaked, raising her arm in the air, "Are we not going to get undressed separately? That's what I was told."

"No," the lead guard responded, "You were told wrong. We usually do that, but it is not a guarantee. Any other questions?"

There was silence as nobody wanted to speak up.

"Good. Two minutes. Get going."

Kelsey looked down and started to unlace her tennis shoes but noticed nobody else was following directions. She took a deep breath, thinking, "Ok, I'll be the leader."

She stood up and felt everybody's eyes on her. Shaking away her anxiety, she put her foot up on the bench and pulled off her shoe. As she removed her second shoe and socks, everybody was following her lead, shaken from their frozen positions.