Pao thought it couldn't get any worse until she heard a gaggle of people walk by.
"Looks like they made a few changes to the temple last year," said a blonde girl snickering. She wore a baseball cap and a ponytail and appeared to have just returned from practice, eating some potstickers. She held a nickel over Pao's face and then ran it against Pao's stretched out legs, then plopped it in the box.
"Xia Xia," Pao said, offering a weak smile.
"One more time." She reached under the cheongsam and stroked another nickel on the bottom of Pao's legs this time, making the chinese girl squirm. "Stop it!" Pao said.
"Smile for me then," laughed the girl. The Tickler 10000 chose that moment to tickle Pao's armpits again under her cheongsam and the poor girl squirmed, heaving on silent laughter. Pao heard the plink of the nickel entering the box and forced herself to smile, saying thank you again, between giggles.
The blonde got a call and tucked her phone beneath her ear, before jingling a bag of nickels at Pao. She sat on the table, running nickels up and down the poor girl's legs. While blathering about some boy to her phone, she began tickling Pao whenever she said anything besides "xia xia."
Just then the rest of her baseball team - all girls - found her and they crowded Pao Ting, amused by her vulnerable, trembling pose.
"Who's your friend, Amy?" One tall brunette asked.
"I call her Xia Xia because that's all she ever says." Amy said, showing off Pao Ting. "I punish her if she doesn't by tickling her legs. See?" Down went the nickels in the box and Pao found herself yelling 'thank yous' in chinese to Amy's joy. She suddenly called, "Hey, Claire, aren't you like super into feet? She's just helpless here so if you want, you can take her shoes off."
A short haired brunette grinned and bent down, Pao felt her black flats pulled off, followed by her socks, baring her feet. "I don't think they had Bill Nye socks in ancient China!" Claire chortled, shaking them in Pao's face. "For authenticity's sake, I'll have to keep these!"
The girls took selfies with her and TikToks with her chanting embarassing thank yous. Pao Ting was furious. Her street cred as an evil genius! But Amy kept tickling her bare legs, keeping her in check along with the sudden bursts of tickling from her robot. Claire took a dozen pictures of her soles, getting her to spread her toes or flex her feet. "I love her feet," she gushed, holding them and squeezing them and pressing her palm flat against her soles. "So tiny and pale and helpless. I wish more girls like you went barefoot at this festival." Pao groaned at the ticklishness as Claire rubbed her feet. "Who's a good little foot girl? Yes you are, Xia Xia."
I'm not a foot girl! I'm a genius who will conquer the world, Pao thought through a haze of giggles.
Finally, their coach came and took the girls away. As a parting gift, the baseball girls erased 'smiles' from the sign and wrote in sharpie 'tickles' instead. 'Tickles for Good Luck." it read. Claire was even devious enough to suggest they all tickle her for ten minutes to prove it. Ten long, horrible minutes later, Pao was heaving on the table, hair tangled, feet twitching.
"Bad girl detected," said the Tickler 10000 when they left. Tendrils snaked closer to her sweat clung cheongsam.
"Nooooo," moaned Pao Ting, on the verge of tears.
More people came, intrigued by the sign or wishing better luck. Coins and bills filled the box as fingers danced over the poor girl's body. Pao danced on the glass table, squirming helplessly and dissolving into giggles. A few smaller boys were mean enough to even smack the bottoms of her feet with their chopsticks. "Laugh harder," said one old woman. "I need a lot of good luck this new year." Her fingers burrowed into Pao's exposed armpits. Some boys from Pao Ting's grade recognized her and hooted with laughter. They had a lot of fun making the proud girl beg and squeal. "This is for calling me dumb!" Aaron from class said. "Who's dumb now?"
Finally, she heard the blessed sound of her mother walking by. "Oh thank god," said Pao. She was sniffling and angry. Science had betrayed her today. She had been tickled and teased by inferiors and worse yet, no closer to defeating Summer, her rival. At least her humiliation was over...
"Oh Ms. Salt, is that you?"
"Why if it isn't Ms. Ting. Me and my daughter were just leaving. Why don't we catch up."
The footsteps receded to Pao's horror. Instead a new, chipper, set of footsteps echoed closer. It was all too familiar. The footsteps of a tall good looking blonde girl with admittedly passable intelligence and a keen sense for mystery.
Pao threw her head back and sighed. Oh, the trials of genius.
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