Page 7 of Disciplined by the Sexy Lumberjack

She looks at me and nods, afraid. She sees my expression and before I can tell her to use her words, she says, “Yes, Daddy!”

“Okay,” I say. “This is the first time I’m going to punish you so it will be tied to something else. Wait. It’s silly to explain it theoretically. I’ll be back in a moment. Wait here, little girl.”

She waits as instructed and I leave the apartment. I get some big industrial plastic bags from my truck. We use them for branches and leaves if we strip logs outside of the forest. I head back and I sit down. The bags are folded at the moment. I slide them across the table to her. “Princess,” I say, “I want you to put all of your stuffed animals in these bags. You’ll get them back when you are caught up with all your schoolwork.”

Her eyes grow wide in a combination of shock and, I think, fear. I fully expect her to refuse. She just stares at me, again, like she’s in shock. Finally, she looks at the table and says softly, “Yes, Daddy.” She takes one of the bags and leaves the kitchen table. A few minutes later, she returns with it. It’s filled with stuffed animals. She hands it to me and takes the other bag. She returns a few minutes later and the bag is about half-full. She doesn’t hand it to me. Instead, she goes to the kitchen and gets a few more from the counter.

Finally, she returns. She hands me the bag and I ask, “Where do you usually do your schoolwork?”

She looks a little guilty as she says, “Well, I haven’t been doing it. I do my normal work here at the table. I think this is the best place for my schoolwork, too.”

I nod. I quickly tie the bags and put them in the corner of the dining room. “We’ll keep your friends here. That way, you’ll always see them so if you just can’t get motivated to do your work maybe it will give you an extra push.”

She smiles at that, which is unexpected. “Okay, Daddy,” she says.

The smile confuses me a little. I kind of keep it in mind as we go over her classes and talk about the work she needs to get done. I help her with a schedule and I realize she had no academic difficulties at all. I’m pretty sure these classes will be a breeze for her. She just hasn’t had the discipline to get it done.

When we’re finished, I ask, “Do you think you can get this done with the schedule we put together?”

She smiles and says, “Yes, Sir!” she even gives me a cute salute. She gets a little more serious as she says, “Thank you, Daddy.”

“Little girl,” I ask, “can you tell me why you smiled when I said we’d put the bags here in the dining room?”

She smiles again and says, “I wasn’t sure I needed your help. I was pretty sure I just needed to screw my head on straight and stop neglecting it. When you said that, I realized you really were going to help me.”

“You didn’t think I wanted to help you?”

She giggles, “Daddy, are you teasing? I knew you wanted to help me. I just didn’t know until you said it how much you would actually help with getting my school done. I mean, I’ve been thinking about how I need to get my act together with it for a long time. It took you for me to take action.”

I kiss her forehead. I don’t know what else to do.