Little's Academy

Uh ohs.

"Excuse me?" Samuel asked slowly
Alex shook his head softly, like the coward he was.
"No no, tell me. What did you just say to me?"Samuel asked, tone cool, which was debatably more terrifying.
Samuel sighed, turning around and putting a hand on his forehead. He could be heard mumbling, but the words were inaudible.
He just needed a minute to cool down.
"Samuel I-" Alex began, his attempt at reconciliation denied as Samuel put a hand up, signaling for the boy to stop.
Alex practically shrunk down, staring at the floor being his new task.
Alex moved back as Samuel began his own task.
Samuel moved a mid sized stool from near the counter into the corner where Alex was meant to be standing at.
Turning around, Samuel looked down at Alex.
He leaned himself against the wall, crossing his arms.
"You have two options. Do you want to guess what they are?" Samuel said, the last line truly revealing the level of annoyance he held.
Alex shook his head slowly. He really hoped one option was to leave and forget everything.
"Option 1, you sit your little behind on this chair and quietly accept your time out. Option 2, I sit on this chair, but your little behind goes over my lap instead."
Alex felt his blood run cold as the options were laid before him.
He understood what both options meant.
On one hand, he didn't want the indignity of having to sit in timeout of all things.
On the other hand, being over someone's lap, Samuel's especially, would probably put him into the ground.
"Well? What's it gonna be? Because if you let me choose, it's going to be both." Samuel spoke, words quiet and steady.
"I- but-" Alex tried, attempting to reason.
"5."
"Wait no!-"
"4."
"Wait wait- Samuel!"
"3."
"Sammy-"
"2."
"OPTION ONE! OPTION ONE!" Alex begged, squeezing his eyes shut.
So much for Mr "I don't have rules" and "Maybe early bedtime if you're especially defiant". He'd much rather an early bedtime than this.

"Go ahead then." Samuel replied, motioning to the chair.

Alex swallowed hard as he looked to the chair that he had now condemned himself to.
He didn't really want to, but there was hardly a choice. What else was he supposed to do? Anything other than doing as he was told would probably make Samuel even more mad.
Alex looked up at the caregiver that was now raising an eyebrow at him.

Samuel leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes and sighing.
"Alex. Timeout. Now." He said calmly
He was calm, but anyone could tell this was the last warning.

Alex slowly made his way to the chair, sitting himself gently, facing the wall like he assumed Samuel preferred.
"Thank you. You're going to sit there for fifteen minutes." He said, beginning to walk away.

"What! Fifteen minutes!?" Alex said automatically .

Samuel stopped, still facing away.

"Yes, Alex. Fifteen. I can make it longer if you'd prefer." He said, resuming his walk.

Alex pouted, crossing his arms.

Fifteen minutes in time out.
Oh how far he'd fallen.

He still couldn't believe any of this was happening.
Just a month or so ago, he was still a normal person. He lived at home with his brother and did very normal adult-like things.
Well-
There was the couple times he woke up from a nightmare to a wet bed, and his brother had to comfort him-
But that didn't count.
Loads of adults did that-
Okay well maybe not wet the bed, but-
The point is, Alex has always been very mature and adult-like.

How was he supposed to know that not everyone had a lingering fuzzy feeling?
Not everyone yearned to be held and cared for?
Well-
Towards the end of his high school experience, his brother did start treating him differently-
But that wasn't related-
There was no way his brother knew before he did.