Chapter 8: Time to Hustle

Xia's POV

The next day (which was a Sunday because it was the weekend), me and Mei kept trying to come up with a Plan B but nothing would work! Hot air balloon? Too expensive. Giant slingshot? Too conspicuous. Enormous wooden horse? Too Greek!

The next day, when we went back to school, we both decided to tell Miriam, Priya, Kendra, and Abby everything during dodgeball in PE.

"That presentation was ! We cited all our sources!" Mei vented.

"We even had sparklers, and she still refused to let my cousin go!" I groaned. I threw a ball angrily.

"My dad allowed me only if he accompanies me there. What am I, 5 years old?" Kendra complained as she jumped to avoid a ball heading in her direction.

"My parents said I could go when I'm 30," Priya sighed in annoyance while perfectly dodging every ball coming her way.

"Mine called it stripper music. What's wrong with that?" Abby shouted before catching a ball in her teeth.

"Mine said 'yes', but I have to buy the ticket," Miriam complained while catching a ball and dodging another one coming to her head, "Who the heck's got that amount of cash?"

"I know my mom's worried, but sometimes she's just so..." Mei started while dodging.

"Controlling?" "Wacko?" "Overprotective?" Kendra, Miriam, and I corrected before the six of us turned around to see Auntie Ming in a car looking at us. Once again, the security guard tried to stop her but then she swerved and drove away. Then we heard someone laughing at Mei; it was Tyler.

"Mei's such a little mama's girl!" he teased while laughing, "No wonder Mei is such a loser,"

I turned and saw Mei becoming angrier and angrier, oh no. I could tell what was going to happen. Tyler continued to laugh at her. Mei dug her fingers into the ball she was holding in anger.

"MeistaycalmeverythingwillbealrightjustfortheloveofgoodnessMeistaycalm!" I quickly muttered. My attempt at reassurance didn't work at all. She all of a sudden got her red panda fist and threw the ball at Tyler. It was literally on fire due to how fast and powerful the throw was. Tyler screamed and ducked down. The ball smashed through a nearby classroom's window. I looked at Tyler, there was a hole in his hair due to the ball. It caused me to giggle a tiny bit as part of me knew he had that coming. He looked at me and went red, he was clearly quite embarrassed. It was kinda strange how Tyler decided to pick on Mei and not me, even though he knows her mom is also my aunt. Could he have liked me? No, Xia, how could he like me when my friend group was the main victim of his teasing? The teacher shouting interrupted my train of thought.

"Illegal throw! You're out, Mei!" he yelled.

"What! But, Mr. K he-" Mei started before me, Miriam, Priya, Kendra, and Abby decided to drag her to the girls' bathroom to discuss a plan B for the 4 Town concert.

"Calm down, Mei," Miriam told her before she struggled out of our grip.

"Dude, keep it together," Priya reassured her.

"I can't! We need to see this concert!" Mei groaned, "Why doesn't my mom get that? I never asked for anything and neither did Xia!"

"She's got a point, you guys," I added, "For as long as I know Mei, she's been Auntie Ming's perfect little daughter. Temple duties, grades-"

"Violin!" Abby added.

"Tap dancing!" Priya added.

"Yeah! We've all been so good!" Mei complained, "If they don't trust us anyway, then what's the point?"

"Wow, who are you guys?" Miriam grinned, "I love it!"

"Fight the power!" Abby yelled.

"Yeah... yeah!" Kendra smiled and the six of us held hands, "Girls, this isn't just our first concert. This is our first step into womanhood. And we have to do it together."

"I'm in, girl!" Miriam agreed, "We'll say it's a sleepover at my house."

"The perfect crime!" Abby grinned.

"Yes! My mum will never know!" Mei smiled, "Now we just need to raise the money for tickets. Come on, girls, think!"

The six of us shut our eyes and started trying to think until Abby spoke, causing us to open our eyes.

"You know what'll help me think?" she giggled, "A little panda like the ones at the Toronto Zoo!"

"Abby," Mei sighed.

"Come on, Mei, it'll clear my mind!" Abby squealed, "Just a little hit! It's so cute!"

"Fine," Mei sighed and Abby jumped onto her and clung on.

Mei shut her eyes and clearly thought of something exciting (knowing her, it was most likely Robaire as amerman or something). She then poofed into her red panda form.

"Happy?" Mei smiled.

"Oh yeah, that's the stuff!" Abby sighed happily while hugging her. The moment was ruined when we turned to see Stacy Frick and two other girls behind Mei, staring at her animal form.

"O.M.G.," the three of them exclaimed.

Mei noticed and hid in a cubicle and Abby got off her.

"Aah! Go away!" Mei exclaimed.

"That was you in the bathroom!" Stacy figured out, "I didn't imagine it!"

"Yeah, you did!" Miriam hissed.

"We want to be left alone," I told them.

"This is our private time," Kendra added.

"Yeah. Get lost, Stacy," Priya said, holding her hands up like she was about to curse them or something.

"So she's like a magical bear?" one of the girls with black hair asked.

"Red panda!" the six of us corrected.

The three girls' faces went from shock to excitement.

"You are the cutest thing ever! Come out please!" Stacy squealed.

Mei poofed back to normal.

"Wait, so you like the panda?" Mei asked, confused as the came out of the cubicle.

"Like it? I love it!" one of the girls with brown hair exclaimed, "I'll give you anything! Money?"

"My kidney!" the girl with black hair shouted.

"My soul," Stacy smiled.

The three of them started waving money at us. That's when the six of us exchanged looks, we had an idea!

The six of us had a plan to raise money for 4 Town! We also recorded funny videos on my video camera. You might be wondering what the plan was. Well, you're lucky because I will explain exactly that! The boys were coming to the SkyDome on the 18th of May. Our goal was 6 tickets: and they cost $1200 in total, so it was a lot to save up for but we could do it with the help of panda power! I'll put it into steps.

Step 1: Neutralize the empress (a.k.a. Auntie Ming)!

We called Auntie Ming and told her that me and Mei were joining the extracurricular club Mathletes. So that was a good excuse to stay after school without Auntie Ming getting paranoid about where we were. When we called her, it worked like a charm!

Step 2: Spread the word!

That day, during maths class, Abby made a note to tell people that panda pics would be in Room 202 afterschool and to pass it on to as many people as possible. Abby passed the note to Stacy (who sat next to her in Maths) and since Stacy was so popular, she had lots of people's numbers. She texted everyone whose numbers she had that went to our school and told them to pass it on. So I guess that the message got sent to almost the whole school.

By the end of the day, many students were queueing outside the door and Abby and Kendra let them in. She was going to guard the door and she was in charge of letting us know if Auntie Ming was visiting and when to act like we were "at Mathletes".

And finally, step 3: Hustle the panda and squeeze every last loonie out of those kids!

Mei would take photos with almost every kid at the school. We took more and more photos on a daily basis and we were fortunately receiving lots of money quickly! Mei even got a photo with her crush, Carter. Also, to receive even more money, we made red panda-themed merchandise for people to buy! This included red panda ear headbands, red panda tail belts, red panda shirts, red panda hats and so much more! We advertised it to Stacy and once again, due to her popularity, when she started wearing it around the school, everyone noticed and wanted their own panda merch like her! Money was rising quickly due to the merch and the photos. At that rate, we were gonna get to $1200 in no time! Our genius plan was in full swing!

One day, I assumed Tyler found out about the panda pics and decided to try and have one. It was the end of the day when Abby and Kendra turned him away because "no Tylers allowed". I mean, he did tease us and all that but maybe we could've forgave him for once and let him have a picture? But to be honest, we decided not to forgive him that easily.

A few days later, we all panicked because Abby and Kendra spotted Auntie Ming visiting "Mathletes" to bring us dumplings as a snack. When Abby and Kendra noticed her, they hid the money she was counting and knocked on the door, signaling us that she was on her way. Me, Mei, Miriam, and Priya hid all of the panda merch, the camera and the giant Canadian flag that we were using as the backdrop for the photos.

We spun the chalkboard that originally had a chart showing how much money we had and how much we needed left and we pretended that we were doing maths. Mei poofed back to her human form and when Auntie Ming arrived, we all acted innocent as if we were doing maths.

I remember one of our most fun days was when we recorded a video of the five of us dancing and singing to U Know What's Up by 4 Town while wearing sunglasses and our merchandise.

By the end of the day, we all had fun and when me and Mei went home, we quickly made ourselves neat for our parents. Mei got rid of her panda ears, we took our merch off, got rid of our stick-on earrings that we wore for style (I replaced with the ones I usually wear), straightened up our clothing, high-fived each other and went in.

We hurried to our room and shoved all of our merch, our calendar and stuff that we didn't want Auntie Ming to see under our bed. Then we had dinner!

Our plan was going smoothly perfectly and we hoped it would stay that way! Little did we know, something would slightly change about our plan...

A/N: Did anyone see the Easter Egg I made here?