Wait and see

Not wanting to do anything she will regret, the degraded student delays any action until she has had a good chance to consider her options. Throughout the afternoon, she continuously anticipates the giggles or looks of sympathy that will signal the recording starting to do the rounds, but there is nothing, nor does she receive any further communication from the secret cameraman. She thinks she notices people sniffing as she passes by and becomes slightly paranoid that they can smell the piss in her hair, but is probably imagining it.

By the evening, her fury at the way she was treated has abated somewhat and she is beginning to think she might be better off just trying to put the whole debacle behind her. In the end, whether through fear or lethargy, that is what she does.

Over the next few days, she turns over in her mind what she will do if the bloke contacts her again or publishes the video. She imagines confronting Chris, making him see how her IOU was misused and persuading him to reveal the miscreant's identity. She visualizes reporting him to the dean or the JCR, the humiliation of having to show the IOU and play the recording to prove she has been mistreated. It is actually quite a relief that nothing happens to make her do this. As the weeks turn into months, she is able to push the awful memory to the back of her mind and concentrate on the future.

Epilogue

Layla never hears from the student who redeemed her IOU again, nor does the recording resurface. She keeps the scrap of paper and video file for many years as insurance, but never needs them. The experience spurs her on to improve her weakest subjects in an effort to avoid further punishments, which is fairly successful, although she does come in the bottom three a few more times before she graduates. On every occasion, she trades for reduced severity, but is quite willing to negotiate if she does not like the first terms offered. When writing IOUs, she makes extensive use of the word only to show that she is not offering anything beyond what is written down.

She and Chris become friends, although not close ones. They never talk about the IOU and he is never again assigned to discipline her. He introduces her to his girlfriend over video chat, but they do not meet in the flesh. Layla has a few short term relationships and encourages her boyfriends to brag about what she does for them in the bedroom, but she is always monogamous. Her reputation as a skilled but selective lover helps when negotiating reductions for chastisements.

She graduates with an upper second class degree and gets a good job, thanks to excellent references from her college tutors. There, she meets her future husband and eventually starts a family of her own. She is quite content when her children both attend different colleges from her.

Eventually, she stops thinking about her first IOU.