"WHY ARE YOU TAKING SO LONG!?"
The girl stormed off forward while I was sliding my feet back into my flats. Jeez, was she in that much of a hurry to leave? When I finally caught up to her, something occurred to me.
"You're not gonna put your shoes on?"
"Why? It's not the first time I've gone out barefoot."
Hearing that sent a chill up my spine. But forget about the bare feet. Her exposed body concerned me more than her getting a pebble stuck in her foot.
"Can you change the swimsuit into something more… presentable?"
She rolled her eyes. "We're not going out that long."
While walking through the castle, the girl left a trail of dirt behind. Whoever's job it was to clean the floor, I felt bad for them. Rich kids could get away with anything.
"You never told me where we're even going," I mentioned.
"Playroom."
My eyes widened. That place was constructed by a devil hellbent on sucking out your coins.
"Why the Playroom— OW!"
This little brat kicked me right in the shin. "Wait until we're out the castle."
Once we left the castle grounds, the girl wiped her forehead. She fell to the sidewalk below her, sticking a finger up. With all this huffing and puffing, something told me she needed an inhaler.
But she got up, taking one last look at the castle. "I always lose coins, huh? Well I'm about to win me a bunch of them, and Mother's not getting a single one."
"Because rich people totally need more money."
"I barely got money from Mother in the first place. And if she's gonna limit my coins, I wanna earn some on my own."
"Heh, good luck with that," I chuckled. "They have a jumping game and a hammer game. And I know a little girl like you can't earn more than a single coin without some strength."
More importantly, she wouldn't have a lot of time to play these games anyway. Up in the sky, the clouds were getting into position to block the sun. Grey clouds only meant one thing. Rain. And I wasn't looking forward to getting my clothes ruined by some mucky rainwater.
The girl kept trying to rub her sandy toes on my leg. For a royal, she sure didn't understand cleanliness.
"You must've gone ages ago. Have you never seen the Tickle Attack game?"
I paused. "Tickle a-what now?"
"It's been there for two years now. One person gets tied to a chair, and that chair's bolted to a giant machine. The second person tickles the victim's feet like a monster, and the laughter fills the meter. The more the meter rises…"
She did a backwards somersault. Kind of. That face-first landing looked like it hurt.
"The more money we make!" She dusted herself off, giggling. "You and me, Miss…"
"Toadette," I corrected. "And what's the deal with this? I'm supposed to be tickling you?"
The girl went still for a bit before shrugging. "Sure. My feet aren't super ticklish, so I need you to try very hard."
Oh, if I were reaping some of the benefits from this, I'd tickle to her to death.
As we got closer to the pipe that lead to the Playroom, Her Highness's daughter mentioned that we could earn a maximum of 950 coins. Half of 950 is 300, right? That's a higher amount of coins than I'd have had in months! Ooh, I could start buying myself some new make-up or better-quality food.
"The time limit is 60 seconds," the girl said as she climbed atop the green pipe. "Hope you can handle it."
I dove in after her, cruising along the suction of the warp pipe. Dang, these things always sucked. Nothing was scarier than temporarily getting stuck in a pipe as the suction pulled against your face. Luckily, I plopped right on the other side.
The scent of cinnamon sent me down a trip of nostalgia. The hours I'd spend in this place were limitless. Its fuzzy orange and brown walls, years later, still comforted me.
"Well, lookie here!"
That high, singy voice was all too recognisable.
Minh T.! With me playing babysitter today, she was the last person I wanted to see. And ew… Even with her flip-flops on, her toes managed to make me green in the face. How does someone get so much dirt caked into them when half their time is spent indoors?
I swatted her foot away. "Didn't expect to see you here."
"Neither did I, Ms. I-Swear-I-Won't-Gamble-All-My-Coins-Away-Again."
Four years later, and she still wouldn't let that slide. It wasn't like I spent her money in the first place.
"And I'm not gambling my coins away today."
"Uh-huh," she folded her arms.
My response? Pointing to the yellow-haired girl who stood on her toes to talk to the Toad behind the desk. Minh T.'s head creaked towards the girl, then back to my smug face. Confused didn't describe how clueless she was.
"Why is Her Highness a baby person?"
"That's her daughter, stupid."
"WHAT!?" Her shrill scream made the lights flicker, and it took twelve seconds for it to echo out.
I pinched the Toad's arm. "I'm just as lost as you. But I gotta watch her, okay?"
Minh T. put her feet up on the waiting bench, yawning.
The one thing I could say about her: she was a hard worker. Sometimes I'd be scared she'd work herself to death. My attempts to get her to rest a bit more had been in vain, but as of recent, I'd seen her taking more off-time to heal her body.
"Wait a minute," I snapped. "The hell are you doing here!?"
"Just came from the Li'l Oink Farm. Managed to snag myself a Super Mushroom snack. Then I saw it was about to rain, and well, I'm camping out here."
"What if it doesn't stop?"
Minh T. sighed. "Then I'll go to sleep here. Why do you make me want to think so hard?"
Before anything, the little girl tapped my shoulder. "The Tickle Attack pipes are on their way."
"TICKLE ATTACK!?"
As if she snorted the largest batch of S'crow Dust, Minh T. rocketed out her seat and shook me back and forth. "Let me play! Let me play!"
I pushed the foot freak off of me and grabbed the girl's hand. "Sorry. Two people only."
The Toad at the counter yelled, "Actually, it supports THREE players! One in the chair! One on the right foo—"
"You shut up!" I was looking forward to having at least 300 coins, not having to split it even further. Or 450, or whatever half of 950 freaking was!
"It's fine, Miss Toadette." As she skipped to one of the blue pipes, the brat declared, "I'll take 50% of our prize, and you and your girlfriend can take 25% each."
What a rip-off! But a few hundred coins at max was better than nothing. And I refused to let Minh T. take half of those winnings. I went to the massive pipe only to be hit in the face by the kid.
"You go to the pipe next to this one. The one I'm on is for the chair."
I followed those instructions, hoisting myself into the second pipe.
Oof. Did I land… in a chair? My legs were propped up on some kind of table. And as I checked my right, a Toad was tying me up with belts. What the hell was going on?
Minh T. dropped flat before me, with the girl already rubbing her hands.
My energy was at an all-time high. "You little demon! You told me YOU were being tickled!"
"I did consider that," she smirked. "But I kinda wanted to see you get tickled, Miss Toadette."
If I weren't her babysitter right now, I'd have clawed her hair out.
"But don't worry. My fingers are masters at wiggling."
These heavy belts didn't break one bit. No matter how hard I struggled, even lunging out, they restrained me to this giant contraption. Suddenly, my feet felt wind. The tops of my toes were barely visible.
Oh no…
This was the reddest I'd ever seen Minh T. in a while. Her jaw dropped and without haste she got on her knees, giggling like a psycho.
"Question. We allowed to use our tongues in this game?"
The Toad nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
She probably had an orgasm right there on the spot. "Sorry Toadette," she licked her lips. "I've waited years for this. I ain't holdin' anything back."
EW! She scrunched her nose against my toes and took a huge whiff. Gross, gross! She moaned out some Spanish gibberish before taking another sniff.
"So the rumours about you having naturally smelly feet were true after all!"
Her horniness was interrupted by the room's lights reaching a high brightness. Then came a whirring sound. From the ceiling, half of a block encased itself right behind my feet.
My legs were prisoners, too!?
"We start in ten seconds!"