Here is the second chapter of Jane's First Tickle Tournament. Many thanks for the feedback on the first chapter. I have included one or two ideas received and will try to include more in later chapters. I look forward to hearing what you think of this one.
Chapter 2 Practice Tricks and Flying Kicks
Jane enjoyed the success of her first win. Her family were quietly pleased for her. They took her out to dinner on the night of her first victory. The tickle pill still had not worn off by then. So they enjoyed tickling her whenever they got the chance while they were out, as Jane reactions were even more extreme than normal. Mandy agreed to practice tickle fighting with her every couple of days, in return for Jane doing her share of the household chores. Jane had tried to buy some tickle pills to make the practice more like the tournament, but they were not available to the public. It did not matter much; Jane and Mandy were both naturally ticklish anyway, both particularly on their feet. Mandy was two years older than Jane and a similar height and build. Both girls were quite athletic, having enjoyed a range of sports at school and university. They both went to the gym regularly.
So long as Jane could keep her feet away from Mandy, she usually won the practice matches. She had several strategies that were almost always successful if she wanted an easy victory. If Jane approached Mandy slowly circling her sticks and teasing her verbally, Mandy would usually be giggling before Jane reached her, desperately trying to use her sticks defensively. Jane would usually give her one or two tickles to the upper body at this stage that would have Mandy in a fit of giggles and vulnerable to any number of attacks. This was good for Jane as it meant she could practice setting up submission holds. One of the most effective was to drop one of her sticks and pick up one of Mandy’s feet. She could hold this with her empty hand and tickle her with little resistance. So long as she kept Mandy’s leg straight, she could not reach to retaliate. Mandy would usually lose her balance and Jane would continue holding and tickling her foot after she collapsed. When lying down Mandy would try to block the tickling of her trapped foot with her free one. But this only exposed the sole of her free foot to tickling. Jane would attack that one until Mandy moved it away again and then return to the trapped foot. Mandy would be in hysterics by this point and Jane would usually relent.
Jane knew she might come up against opponents whose feet were not particularly ticklish so she practiced submission holy that targeted other areas as well. In early attempts Jane had tried to scissor her from behind but this left Jane’s vulnerable feet in Mandy’s lap. This usually ended badly for Jane. Instead she found the best tactic was to wrestle Mandy until her arms were stuck before applying the submission tickle. One hold she practiced was to sit on her upper chest, facing her feet and pinning her arms to her sides with her thighs. This meant Mandy could not tickle her at all and that Jane had unrestricted access to her middle and waist. Jane practiced catching Mandy’s feet in this position as she often kicked wildly.
As well as practicing even tickle fights, Jane also practiced from positions of strength and weakness. Following her fight with Clarice, Jane thought disarming her opponent would often be a good strategy. She practiced snatching Mandy’s sticks during melees to perfect this skill. Usually she would drop one of her own sticks and stand on it so that Mandy could not kick it away, in the same movement she would try to grab one of Mandy’s sticks and throw it away. Whether she was successful or not she would then use her remaining stick to keep Mandy busy while she bent down to retrieve her own stick. Often this meant waving her stick in quick circular patterns around Mandy’s arms and in front of her face. Mandy would usually be so worried about where this stick was going to attack her that she would back off and Jane could retrieve her other stick from under her foot.
Once she had Mandy down to one stick, Jane practiced ways of making her advantage count. Initially she would try to grab her second stick as well, but she found this was difficult as Mandy now had a spare hand to defend with and to grab Jane’s own sticks. Instead she developed methods to use her stick advantage when tickling Mandy. One of her favourites was to “play swords” with Mandy. She would hold one of her sticks by the feathered end and adopt a mock fencing pose Then she would try to knock Mandy’s remaining stick from her hand with her sword stick and tickle Mandy with her spare stick whenever the opportunity arose. She would also try to poke Mandy with the sword if a gap appeared as this produced a very ticklish reaction too. Jane had checked with the Tournament organisers that this was a legal form of ticking so long as the pokes were gentle and controlled. Even if Mandy did not drop her remaining stick, Jane was very good at tickling her during the sword play. Sometimes Mandy would collapse from the onslaught and submit without Jane even needing to pin her.
Jane also practiced situations where she was at a disadvantage. She practiced starting with only one stick against Mandy with two. She had already found that dropping one stick was sometimes an advantage as she could do a lot with a free hand. So she didn’t find turning the tables too difficult in this situation. She found she was quite good at keeping Mandy busy with just one stick. Sometimes she did this by playing swords and sometimes she used the stick conventionally. She then used her spare hand to gently wrestle Mandy, either grabbing an arm or a leg to force her into a compromised position.
They also practiced situations where Jane had no sticks and Mandy had one or two. Jane found this much harder. She would usually try to snatch one of Mandy’s sticks but with no means to tickle or threaten to tickle Mandy, Jane usually found Mandy could keep the upper-hand. Mandy would tickle her upper body with the sticks until Jane was no longer in a position to fight back. Jane was pleased that Mandy was able to win sometimes. She wanted her sister to enjoy practice and hoped that Mandy might one day take part in the tournament, particularly if there was going to be a tag-team event.
*****
Jane received a Tickle Tournament letter two weeks after her first match. Her next match was in the following week. Jane increased her practice schedule to everyday. Mandy was fine with this as it meant she did not have to do any chores. Jane found practice and double housework duties were taking up most of her spare time. She was looking forward to her next match though. She had trouble getting to sleep the night before.
Her match day routine was the same as last time, with Mandy dropping her at the gym. She offered to come to watch this time, but Jane declined, saying she was feeling nervous enough already. Again the gym seemed very quiet and Jane assumed there would not be any audience for the match. Jane was pleased to find Jenny was there again at the registration desk and was going to referee once more. Jenny seemed genuinely pleased to see her as well and they enjoyed the pre-assessment together. Once again Jenny had Jane on the floor when she tested her feet. Jane did not meet her opponent during the pre-assessment this time nor did she hear her opponent’s pre-assessment laughter. Jenny told her that they had set up two assessment stations in different parts of the gym to avoid competitors meeting before the match. Apparently this was on her direction following Clarice’s unwelcome intrusion during Jane’s first pre-assessment.
Once again Jane sat quietly reading her opponent’s pre-assessment with some coffee. She was called Tiana and there was not too much useful information here. It said this was Tiana’s first tournament and she had won her first round match by disqualification. Jane wondered what had happened while she checked over Tiana’s tickle-spot diagram. Like Clarice, Tiana was medium-high ticklish all over, with no major weaknesses. Almost unconsciously Jane rubbed her feet together as she thought about her own weakness.
Jenny called Jane into the hall after her five minutes with Tiana’s pre-assessment. Tiana was in the hall already and Jane felt herself tighten up with nerves at first sight of her. Tiana was smaller than Jane, probably by two or three inches. She had long blonde hair tied into a pony tail. She looked four of five years older than Jane and she was in great shape. Tiana’s black bikini revealed that she had a slim and athletic build. She was stretching as they arrived and Jane was shocked to see how flexible she was; Tiana was doing a full splits. At their first match Clarice had not done any pre-match stretching so Jane had not thought to either. However, seeing Tiana stretching, Jane decided she would do some exercises as well. She felt a little self-conscious doing this. Although she was fit and more supple than most of her friends, she knew she could not match the virtual contortions that Tiana was performing on the other side of the mat. She wondered what Tiana did that kept her so flexible.
While Jane was still stretching, Tiana came over with a big smile and extended her hand to shake Jane’s. She spoke quickly and Jane found it was quite hard to keep up. “Hi, I’m Tiana, You must be Jane?” Jane did not have a chance to reply before Tiana continued “It is SO exciting to be at Tickle Tournament. I can’t WAIT for our match. How was your first match?” Again she did not pause to give Jane a chance to reply. “Mine was terrible. I was up against this AWFUL girl with tattoos. I don’t know why she entered. She said she wasn’t even ticklish so the tickle pill meant this was the first time she had ever had a ticklish reaction. She absolutely hated it! Jenny couldn’t finish the pre-assessment. In the match I put her in a lotus hold straight away and tickled under her arms. She went ABSOLUTELY crazy and tried to bite me! She couldn’t reach, fortunately, and Jenny disqualified her. I didn’t like her. You won’t bite me will you?”
Jane was a bit taken aback by all this information but she could not help liking Tiana. “I don’t bite” she replied with a smile. “You know a lotus hold?” Jane had heard of this before and thought it might mean that Tiana had a wrestling background. She was hoping not though.
“Oh yes, I used to use them all the time when I was wrestling at Jake’s Bar.” Jane did not know Jake’s Bar, but she could imagine the sort of place it was. Tiana continued, “I haven’t wrestled for ages properly though.” Jane was starting to feel a little relieved at this news until Tiana said “I have just focussed on karate recently and gymnastics. And now tickling!”
“Karate, wrestling and gymnastics, wow, that is quite a CV” Jane said, unable able to hide her admiration. “Anyway, I am really looking forward to our match too. You’d better go over to your side of the mat as it looks like Jenny is nearly ready for us to start. May be we can chat afterwards?”
“Sure, I’d like that, good luck!” Tiana replied and she turned and walked over to talk to Jenny. Jane smiled after her. She liked Tiana’s bubbly.
Jenny was not quite ready yet as she was a tickle stick short. She went back to reception to get another. Tiana followed her, still chatting away. Jane was pleased to have a few moments alone to plan her strategy. Tiana’s background was certainly intimidating; people that made it through to the televised stages of Tickle Tournament often had similar experience. However, Jane was accustomed to looking on the bright side. She hoped the tickle sticks in Tiana’s hands and the rules about no pain would limit her opportunities to use her grappling skills. At least the tickle pill would ensure Tiana was ticklish and she did not seem to have much tickling experience. Also Jane thought it was unlikely that Tiana had spent much time planning tactics herself as she never stopped talking.
Jenny returned with Tiana and apologised for the delay. She called them to centre of the mat, gave them their sticks and went through the rules. These were exactly the same as the previous round. Jenny motioned for them to go to their starting positions and begin the match. Tiana grabbed Jane’s hand and shook it again, saying she thought this would be fun. Jane smiled but she hurried to her starting position, turning quickly.
Jane was right to turn quickly because Tiana came racing out of her corner. She turned an aerial cartwheel, which allowed her to keep one stick in each hand, and landed in front of Jane with a big grin on her face. Jane was taken aback for a moment and Tiana took advantage. She executed a perfect high kick to remove the stick in Jane’s right hand. It landed well off the mat and Jane knew she would not be able to get it back.
Tiana did not press home her advantage but retreated a little way from Jane and adopted a mock martial arts pose. “How do you like my karate? Cool huh?” she giggled. “Now let’s see what you think of my tickling!”
Jane did not panic. She realised she could not match Tiana at grappling so she needed to change the focus to something she was good at. She decided she would try playing swords as she had practiced with Mandy. The thought that Tiana might be an expert fencer crossed her mind, but she decided that all she could do was hope this was one sport that Tiana did not excel in.
“You’re good at karate,” Jane said with a smile, “How about sword fighting?” Jane swapped her remaining stick from her left to her right hand, holding it by the feathered end. She adopted her mock fencing stance, side on to Tiana, her stick pointing at her opponent. Her knees were slightly bent and her left arm raised above her head. Although Jane had only based this pose on watching sword fights in the movies, the pose had some natural advantages for tickle fighting. The side-on stance reduced the body area that was immediately exposed to Tiana and her tickle-stick sword offered her a good chance to block Tiana if she attacked the exposed side. Jane realised she would be in real trouble if Tiana tried to kick her remaining tickle stick away, but she thought Tiana might play along with the sword fighting game, given her friendly attitude, at least to start with.
“Wow, great idea, Let’s sword fight!” Tiana enthused. “Two against one!” she continued, brandishing her two tickle sticks to emphasise her advantage. In order to keep both sticks pointing towards Jane, Tiana faced Jane front-on. Jane was hoping Tiana would take this stance. It showed Tiana was no fencer. The front-on stance meant a large area of her ribs and tummy were relatively exposed, with only the sticks to defend them. Mandy often took this stance in practice sword fights where she had two sticks against Jane’s one. Jane was usually able to poke through Mandy’s defence to get to her tummy before Mandy could attack her. She hoped she could do the same to Tiana.
“Come on then!” said Jane as she advanced towards Tiana, with a confident smile on her face, “on guard!” When she reached striking distance she circled her stick to try to confuse Tiana of where she would target and then lunged towards Tiana’s tummy.
Tiana tried to block, but Jane deliberately targeted her attack in the middle of her two sticks and Tiana was momentarily unsure which to use. She ended up with both sticks crossed in front of her, one impeding the other. Jane dived below Tiana’s sticks and delivered three pokes to Tiana’s tummy. She was careful to be gentle as causing any pain would risk disqualification. Tiana let out a quiet yelp and jumped back while bending forward at her waist, trying to limit the target.
Jane followed Tiana’s retreat and lunged again while her defence was still in disarray. She attacked over Tiana’s sticks this time, poking her left side. Tiana was starting to giggle. She backed away again, trying to turn her right shoulder towards Jane to protect her left side that had just been poked. Jane followed again and this time prodded the right side of her ribs, underneath Tiana’s ineffective block. Tiana jumped back further this time and managed to reorganise her sticks into some sort of defence. Jane followed and lunged high this time, feigning an attack at armpit level. Tiana raised her sticks to defend. Jane swooped low at the last moment. Again she was able to deliver a few short, gentle, pokes to Tiana’s tummy.
“Gotcha!” Jane cried with a triumphant smile. Tiana was in full retreat and chuckling hard. Jane chased her and sped up her attacks, poking Tiana repeatedly around her middle, waist, sides and occasionally under her arms. Jane made sure she kept her arm extended, so that Tiana was always a long way from her own body, just in case she counter-attacked. But Tiana was too busy laughing and desperately defending to launch an attack of her own.
“Come on karate-girl, what’s so funny?” Jane was really pleased to be back in the match. She was still wary of her opponent though. When practicing with Mandy in this situation Jane would usually have tried to knock her sticks from her hands while she was distracted by the tickling. She decided not to do this with Tiana,however, as she wanted to keep her hands full of the sticks so she could not use them for grappling.
As the ticking took its toll, Tiana’s retreat slowed and finally she stood still, offering only weak defence against Jane’s pokes and prods. Tiana was not trying to block with her sticks anymore, she was trying to use her arms to cover her tickle spots. Jane found it easy to find targets that Tiana was not covering. Sometimes she had enough time to wiggle the end of her stick into Tiana’s vulnerable areas rather than simply poking her. This sent Tiana even further into hysterics.
Believing that Tiana was unlikely to offer any offence, Jane decided she could relax her fencing pose to bring her left arm in reach of her opponent. She was still cautious though, a front-on stance made Jane more vulnerable so she waited until she thought Tiana was not looking before changing position. Tiana’s attention was largely focussed on Jane’s poking anyway and Jane tried to encourage this with a little tickle commentary.
“Ooh, tickle tickle, Tiana, under that arm, where next? Ribs! Now where? Armpit? No! Tummy button!” Jane gently wiggled her stick into Tiana’s belly button and Tiana doubled up in silent laughter. “Woah! That looks like a spot!” said Jane happily, “I guess Jenny missed that in the pre-assessment.”
Tiana’s reaction to the navel tickle gave Jane the opportunity to step forward into a front on pose. She immediately grabbed Tiana’s right wrist with her empty left hand and gently but firmly pulled it across Tiana’s middle towards her left arm. Jane also started to take small steps around Tiana’s left side. As she moved she continued poking Tiana with her stick and tickle-talking her the whole time.
“Now under that arm? Yes! Round and round…. Where next? Tickle tickle…”
Jane glanced at Tiana’s face to ensure she was still in hysterics before she completed her move by dashing around Tiana’s left shoulder, taking Tiana’s right arm with her. Jane carefully lifted Tiana’s right arm as she went, ensuring that it went over the top of her left arm. So when she arrived behind Tiana, she was able to constrict the movement in her left arm while clinging on to her right. Jane had to take a break from poking Tiana while she moved and she was terrified this would give Tiana an opportunity to retaliate. She did not need to worry as Tiana hardly had time to take a breath before Jane settled into position behind her. Jane hugged her close with the left arm that was trapping Tiana’s arms. Tiana still held both her sticks, but Jane had positioned her so she could not use them. The stick in her right hand was now pointing behind her. Jane was careful to make sure that Tiana could not reach round to tickle her with it, by staying slightly to the right of Tiana’s body. Tiana’s left stick pointed forward but could hardly move as it was pinned to her side at the elbow by her right arm that Jane was holding There was no way she could get it behind her to tickle Jane.
Jane had practiced tickling Mandy from this position before. Usually she would brush up and down her exposed right side with the feathers of one stick at this point. She could not do that this time, however, as she was still holding her sick by the feather end. She could not turn it round while her other hand was occupied holding Tiana’s arm. Therefore she needed to improvise. She carefully pushed the handle of her stick under Tiana’s right arm and gave it a quick wiggle. Tiana tensed and then giggled and struggled to get the stick out without success. Jane had learnt that anticipation of ticking could be more effective than actual tickling in her match with Clarice. She stopped wiggling and held the stick still in Tiana’s armpit.
“Wait for it…” Jane teased her, “…Now!” Jane gave another wiggle. Tiana fought desperately to dislodge the stick from her armpit but her strength was failing from her laughter and she could not break Jane’s hold. Jane continued stopping and starting tickling Tiana’s underarm. Eack short wiggle from Jane’s stick brought a convulsion of silent laughter from Tiana. Jane took the opportunity to strengthen her hold on Tiana’s right arm, moving her grip slowly up towards Tiana’s elbow, allowing her to hug Tiana more tightly and make escape more difficult.
Unlike when tickling Clarice in her last match, Jane felt no malice towards Tiana and did not want to make her suffer any more than necessary. She said “Do you want to submit yet Tiana?” in as friendly a voice as she could muster under the circumstances. Tiana did not reply but Jane was fairly sure that she shook her head. “You want some more?” she checked, regaining her playfully dominant attitude. Again Tiana did not reply but she kept struggling. “Ok” said Jane, “just tell me when you’ve had enough.”
Jane decided she was going to have to pin Tiana down to the floor to tickle her into submission. Wrestling a wrestler was daunting, but Jane felt confident that Tiana was sufficiently weakened by the tickling to make it possible. While she continued to tickle her armpit, Jane slowly started to pull her backwards to unbalance her. At the same time she pushed her right knee into the back of Tiana’s right knee forcing it to bend forwards. Tiana quickly lost her balance and Jane gently lowered her onto her back.
There was little fight left in Tiana now and Jane felt confident letting Tiana’s arm go as she lowered her to the floor. Once she was down, Jane knelt behind her head and reached over her to pin her arms to the floor with her hands, one still holding her stick. Jane looked down at Tiana as she pinned her. Tiana was still recovering from her laughing frenzy and looked exhausted. Jane hoped Tiana would submit without much more fight. Knowing Tiana’s flexibility, she was still worried that she might be able to flip her legs round and may be trap her head between her ankles or something. Next Jane put all her weight in her arms for a second as she shifted her body forward to pin Tiana’s shoulders with her knees. Now she had both her hands free to defend against Tiana’s feet if needs be, and also to get her tickle submission.
Jane genuinely wanted to finish the match with the least suffering for her opponent possible. She decided a bit of friendly domination might persuade Tiana to submit earlier. So she winked at Tiana, whose face she could see upside down between her thighs. Then she reached down and grabbed the stick in Tiana’s left hand with her empty left hand and started to wrestle with her for it.
“I don’t think you’ll be needing this anymore”, Jane said sweetly. Tiana put up more resistance that Jane was expecting and held on initially. Jane was still holding the stick in her right hand by the feather end. She gave Tiana a mock disapproving look and then put the stick down on Tiana’s middle. Because she was pinned by Jane’s legs Tiana could not do anything except watch as Jane slowly picked the stick up again by the handle.
“Give me that stick Tiana” Jane teased, “otherwise, these soft tickly feathers are going to be paying a visit to your cute little tummy button.” Jane slowly moved towards her target saying “a-tick-a-tick-a-tick-a-tick-a.” An expression of panic crossed Tiana’s face and she let go of the stick they were fighting over before Jane had even touched her.
“Thank you!” said Jane as if Tiana had just given her a birthday card. Jane threw away the stick that she had just won. She then switched the stick she was holding from her right to left hand and grabbed the stick in Tiana’s trapped right hand. Tiana did not give it up immediately, so Jane started advancing on Tiana’s belly button again. “Ut oh! Here it comes…” she teased.
Tiana was still resisting when Jane’s stick hovered over her navel. “Ok, you asked for it!” she said. She hovered the stick less than an inch above Tiana’s belly button and said in a sweet voice “Can you feel this yet Tiana?”
Tiana tensed and looked terrified again. “No, no! Keep that way from me!” she pleaded.
“Can I have your stick?” Jane said patiently.
“You just wait, I am going to reverse this hold and tickle the living daylights out of you!” Tiana said this with as much conviction as she could muster, which really was not very much.
Jane looked unimpressed and simply said “Ok, going down!” She lowered the stick a fraction so that the very edge of the feathers grazed the edge of Tiana’s belly button. Tiana shrieked and let go of her stick immediately.
“Oh you’re too easy!” said Jane triumphantly. “OK, now you haven’t got any sticks, are you going to submit?” As she said this, Jane slowly and gracefully waved both the sticks above Tiana’s defenceless body, threatening to tickle her, but really hoping that the teasing would be enough to get her submission.
Tiana said nothing. Jane thought her face looked defiant, although she found it hard to tell, looking at it upside down. This put a seed of doubt in Jane’s mind and, rather than starting to tickle, she dropped her playful dominant act for a moment and said with a hint of exasperation “Oh come on Tiana, I don’t really want to tickle you any more. Just give in and we can go for a coffee!”
This broke the spell that Jane had over Tiana and her face became even more defiant. “I’m not giving in to you! I’m going to get my sticks back. I am going to school-girl pin you and then I am going to make you laugh like a hyena!”
With that Tiana started struggling wildly. First she tried to roll to the left and then to the right. Jane’s strong legs pinning her shoulders held firm. Although Jane had no formal wrestling training she was sporty with excellent balance. Jane decided not to tickle at this point as she should thought this might make Tiana’s struggles even more desperate and then one or both of them might get hurt. Jane was at least pleased to see Tiana using up her remaining energy.
Tiana finally realised that she was not going to roll out of Jane’s hold. Next she tried to kick her legs up and push Jane off her. Tiana’s gymnastic skills made it easy for her to reach, but she was slow due to fatigue and she could get little force into her feet. Jane saw her attack coming and lifted her arms up as Tiana’s feet approached. Then she pushed down on the backs of Tiana’s calves as they arrived. Tiana flexibility meant Jane could push her calves down hard without worrying about hurting Tiana. She pushed them all the way to the floor and Tiana seemed to fold neatly in the middle. This put an end to Tiana’s struggles as she was now securely pinned. She looked up at Jane with a frustrated expression on her face and Jane smiled back.
Jane decided she wanted to end things quickly now. She had regained her playfully dominant attitude and said “Well bendy-Wendy, you seem to be a little bit stuck!” As she spoke she dropped the stick in her left hand and manipulated Tiana’s legs so they were both on her left side and she could pin them with one arm. “Now, it’s tickle submission time. Where shall we start? I have feet here…” She briefly brushed up the soles of Tiana’s soles as she said this, bringing a yelp from Tiana.
“No? Well what about the backs of your knees? They are easy to reach.” Jane flicked her brush up and down behind Tiana’s knees as she spoke. Tiana giggled and tried to pull her legs away from Jane. Jane’s hold did not budge but again Jane stopped.
“No? Well how about I try to find that tummy button again. There’s lots of legs here now, but it must be under here somewhere...” Jane started to poke her stick under Tiana’s legs, looking for her navel. “Ah, there it is!” she beamed.
Jane had hardly started tickling when Tiana screamed “No! No! No! I submit, I submit!” Jane jumped off immediately and rolled away as Jenny came over to confirm the end of the match. Jane was vaguely aware that Jenny was congratulating her, but her attention was on Tiana. She genuinely liked Tiana and hoped she was ok. She wanted to become friends but she thought that was a bit unlikely after the intensity of the match they had just had.
After what seemed an eternity to Jane, but was really less than two minutes, Tiana sat up. “Wow” she said, smiling weakly, “Well done Jane, you are a sensational tickler.” With each word she sounded more like the girl that would not stop talking before the match. Jane was pleased she did not seem angry.
“Thanks Tiana” Jane replied. “You were a great opponent. Your cartwheel and kick were fantastic. I thought I was going to lose for sure at that point.”
“Yes, I thought I was going to win too!” Tiana exclaimed, “but I didn’t even tickle you ONCE. You tickled me everywhere. When you put the end of your stick into my armpit I was FREAKING out. I thought I had pushed you off a couple of times but then you started poking again. Then my belly-button… You were a tickling nightmare!” Then she looked at the clock on the sports hall wall and corrected herself. “Well, more of a mid-morning-mare I suppose!” Jane laughed enthusiastically at the joke even though she did not find it that funny, to try to make Tiana feel good.
“Oh look, Jenny, I’ve finally made Jane laugh! Jane, do you want to submit? That will make it one all!” They both laughed at this joke and Jenny looked up from the forms she was filling in and smiled too. Tiana added “Actually, I do need to talk to Jenny, coming?” Jane nodded and they walked over to Jenny. Jane was eager to find out about her next round.
Chapter 2 Practice Tricks and Flying Kicks
Jane enjoyed the success of her first win. Her family were quietly pleased for her. They took her out to dinner on the night of her first victory. The tickle pill still had not worn off by then. So they enjoyed tickling her whenever they got the chance while they were out, as Jane reactions were even more extreme than normal. Mandy agreed to practice tickle fighting with her every couple of days, in return for Jane doing her share of the household chores. Jane had tried to buy some tickle pills to make the practice more like the tournament, but they were not available to the public. It did not matter much; Jane and Mandy were both naturally ticklish anyway, both particularly on their feet. Mandy was two years older than Jane and a similar height and build. Both girls were quite athletic, having enjoyed a range of sports at school and university. They both went to the gym regularly.
So long as Jane could keep her feet away from Mandy, she usually won the practice matches. She had several strategies that were almost always successful if she wanted an easy victory. If Jane approached Mandy slowly circling her sticks and teasing her verbally, Mandy would usually be giggling before Jane reached her, desperately trying to use her sticks defensively. Jane would usually give her one or two tickles to the upper body at this stage that would have Mandy in a fit of giggles and vulnerable to any number of attacks. This was good for Jane as it meant she could practice setting up submission holds. One of the most effective was to drop one of her sticks and pick up one of Mandy’s feet. She could hold this with her empty hand and tickle her with little resistance. So long as she kept Mandy’s leg straight, she could not reach to retaliate. Mandy would usually lose her balance and Jane would continue holding and tickling her foot after she collapsed. When lying down Mandy would try to block the tickling of her trapped foot with her free one. But this only exposed the sole of her free foot to tickling. Jane would attack that one until Mandy moved it away again and then return to the trapped foot. Mandy would be in hysterics by this point and Jane would usually relent.
Jane knew she might come up against opponents whose feet were not particularly ticklish so she practiced submission holy that targeted other areas as well. In early attempts Jane had tried to scissor her from behind but this left Jane’s vulnerable feet in Mandy’s lap. This usually ended badly for Jane. Instead she found the best tactic was to wrestle Mandy until her arms were stuck before applying the submission tickle. One hold she practiced was to sit on her upper chest, facing her feet and pinning her arms to her sides with her thighs. This meant Mandy could not tickle her at all and that Jane had unrestricted access to her middle and waist. Jane practiced catching Mandy’s feet in this position as she often kicked wildly.
As well as practicing even tickle fights, Jane also practiced from positions of strength and weakness. Following her fight with Clarice, Jane thought disarming her opponent would often be a good strategy. She practiced snatching Mandy’s sticks during melees to perfect this skill. Usually she would drop one of her own sticks and stand on it so that Mandy could not kick it away, in the same movement she would try to grab one of Mandy’s sticks and throw it away. Whether she was successful or not she would then use her remaining stick to keep Mandy busy while she bent down to retrieve her own stick. Often this meant waving her stick in quick circular patterns around Mandy’s arms and in front of her face. Mandy would usually be so worried about where this stick was going to attack her that she would back off and Jane could retrieve her other stick from under her foot.
Once she had Mandy down to one stick, Jane practiced ways of making her advantage count. Initially she would try to grab her second stick as well, but she found this was difficult as Mandy now had a spare hand to defend with and to grab Jane’s own sticks. Instead she developed methods to use her stick advantage when tickling Mandy. One of her favourites was to “play swords” with Mandy. She would hold one of her sticks by the feathered end and adopt a mock fencing pose Then she would try to knock Mandy’s remaining stick from her hand with her sword stick and tickle Mandy with her spare stick whenever the opportunity arose. She would also try to poke Mandy with the sword if a gap appeared as this produced a very ticklish reaction too. Jane had checked with the Tournament organisers that this was a legal form of ticking so long as the pokes were gentle and controlled. Even if Mandy did not drop her remaining stick, Jane was very good at tickling her during the sword play. Sometimes Mandy would collapse from the onslaught and submit without Jane even needing to pin her.
Jane also practiced situations where she was at a disadvantage. She practiced starting with only one stick against Mandy with two. She had already found that dropping one stick was sometimes an advantage as she could do a lot with a free hand. So she didn’t find turning the tables too difficult in this situation. She found she was quite good at keeping Mandy busy with just one stick. Sometimes she did this by playing swords and sometimes she used the stick conventionally. She then used her spare hand to gently wrestle Mandy, either grabbing an arm or a leg to force her into a compromised position.
They also practiced situations where Jane had no sticks and Mandy had one or two. Jane found this much harder. She would usually try to snatch one of Mandy’s sticks but with no means to tickle or threaten to tickle Mandy, Jane usually found Mandy could keep the upper-hand. Mandy would tickle her upper body with the sticks until Jane was no longer in a position to fight back. Jane was pleased that Mandy was able to win sometimes. She wanted her sister to enjoy practice and hoped that Mandy might one day take part in the tournament, particularly if there was going to be a tag-team event.
*****
Jane received a Tickle Tournament letter two weeks after her first match. Her next match was in the following week. Jane increased her practice schedule to everyday. Mandy was fine with this as it meant she did not have to do any chores. Jane found practice and double housework duties were taking up most of her spare time. She was looking forward to her next match though. She had trouble getting to sleep the night before.
Her match day routine was the same as last time, with Mandy dropping her at the gym. She offered to come to watch this time, but Jane declined, saying she was feeling nervous enough already. Again the gym seemed very quiet and Jane assumed there would not be any audience for the match. Jane was pleased to find Jenny was there again at the registration desk and was going to referee once more. Jenny seemed genuinely pleased to see her as well and they enjoyed the pre-assessment together. Once again Jenny had Jane on the floor when she tested her feet. Jane did not meet her opponent during the pre-assessment this time nor did she hear her opponent’s pre-assessment laughter. Jenny told her that they had set up two assessment stations in different parts of the gym to avoid competitors meeting before the match. Apparently this was on her direction following Clarice’s unwelcome intrusion during Jane’s first pre-assessment.
Once again Jane sat quietly reading her opponent’s pre-assessment with some coffee. She was called Tiana and there was not too much useful information here. It said this was Tiana’s first tournament and she had won her first round match by disqualification. Jane wondered what had happened while she checked over Tiana’s tickle-spot diagram. Like Clarice, Tiana was medium-high ticklish all over, with no major weaknesses. Almost unconsciously Jane rubbed her feet together as she thought about her own weakness.
Jenny called Jane into the hall after her five minutes with Tiana’s pre-assessment. Tiana was in the hall already and Jane felt herself tighten up with nerves at first sight of her. Tiana was smaller than Jane, probably by two or three inches. She had long blonde hair tied into a pony tail. She looked four of five years older than Jane and she was in great shape. Tiana’s black bikini revealed that she had a slim and athletic build. She was stretching as they arrived and Jane was shocked to see how flexible she was; Tiana was doing a full splits. At their first match Clarice had not done any pre-match stretching so Jane had not thought to either. However, seeing Tiana stretching, Jane decided she would do some exercises as well. She felt a little self-conscious doing this. Although she was fit and more supple than most of her friends, she knew she could not match the virtual contortions that Tiana was performing on the other side of the mat. She wondered what Tiana did that kept her so flexible.
While Jane was still stretching, Tiana came over with a big smile and extended her hand to shake Jane’s. She spoke quickly and Jane found it was quite hard to keep up. “Hi, I’m Tiana, You must be Jane?” Jane did not have a chance to reply before Tiana continued “It is SO exciting to be at Tickle Tournament. I can’t WAIT for our match. How was your first match?” Again she did not pause to give Jane a chance to reply. “Mine was terrible. I was up against this AWFUL girl with tattoos. I don’t know why she entered. She said she wasn’t even ticklish so the tickle pill meant this was the first time she had ever had a ticklish reaction. She absolutely hated it! Jenny couldn’t finish the pre-assessment. In the match I put her in a lotus hold straight away and tickled under her arms. She went ABSOLUTELY crazy and tried to bite me! She couldn’t reach, fortunately, and Jenny disqualified her. I didn’t like her. You won’t bite me will you?”
Jane was a bit taken aback by all this information but she could not help liking Tiana. “I don’t bite” she replied with a smile. “You know a lotus hold?” Jane had heard of this before and thought it might mean that Tiana had a wrestling background. She was hoping not though.
“Oh yes, I used to use them all the time when I was wrestling at Jake’s Bar.” Jane did not know Jake’s Bar, but she could imagine the sort of place it was. Tiana continued, “I haven’t wrestled for ages properly though.” Jane was starting to feel a little relieved at this news until Tiana said “I have just focussed on karate recently and gymnastics. And now tickling!”
“Karate, wrestling and gymnastics, wow, that is quite a CV” Jane said, unable able to hide her admiration. “Anyway, I am really looking forward to our match too. You’d better go over to your side of the mat as it looks like Jenny is nearly ready for us to start. May be we can chat afterwards?”
“Sure, I’d like that, good luck!” Tiana replied and she turned and walked over to talk to Jenny. Jane smiled after her. She liked Tiana’s bubbly.
Jenny was not quite ready yet as she was a tickle stick short. She went back to reception to get another. Tiana followed her, still chatting away. Jane was pleased to have a few moments alone to plan her strategy. Tiana’s background was certainly intimidating; people that made it through to the televised stages of Tickle Tournament often had similar experience. However, Jane was accustomed to looking on the bright side. She hoped the tickle sticks in Tiana’s hands and the rules about no pain would limit her opportunities to use her grappling skills. At least the tickle pill would ensure Tiana was ticklish and she did not seem to have much tickling experience. Also Jane thought it was unlikely that Tiana had spent much time planning tactics herself as she never stopped talking.
Jenny returned with Tiana and apologised for the delay. She called them to centre of the mat, gave them their sticks and went through the rules. These were exactly the same as the previous round. Jenny motioned for them to go to their starting positions and begin the match. Tiana grabbed Jane’s hand and shook it again, saying she thought this would be fun. Jane smiled but she hurried to her starting position, turning quickly.
Jane was right to turn quickly because Tiana came racing out of her corner. She turned an aerial cartwheel, which allowed her to keep one stick in each hand, and landed in front of Jane with a big grin on her face. Jane was taken aback for a moment and Tiana took advantage. She executed a perfect high kick to remove the stick in Jane’s right hand. It landed well off the mat and Jane knew she would not be able to get it back.
Tiana did not press home her advantage but retreated a little way from Jane and adopted a mock martial arts pose. “How do you like my karate? Cool huh?” she giggled. “Now let’s see what you think of my tickling!”
Jane did not panic. She realised she could not match Tiana at grappling so she needed to change the focus to something she was good at. She decided she would try playing swords as she had practiced with Mandy. The thought that Tiana might be an expert fencer crossed her mind, but she decided that all she could do was hope this was one sport that Tiana did not excel in.
“You’re good at karate,” Jane said with a smile, “How about sword fighting?” Jane swapped her remaining stick from her left to her right hand, holding it by the feathered end. She adopted her mock fencing stance, side on to Tiana, her stick pointing at her opponent. Her knees were slightly bent and her left arm raised above her head. Although Jane had only based this pose on watching sword fights in the movies, the pose had some natural advantages for tickle fighting. The side-on stance reduced the body area that was immediately exposed to Tiana and her tickle-stick sword offered her a good chance to block Tiana if she attacked the exposed side. Jane realised she would be in real trouble if Tiana tried to kick her remaining tickle stick away, but she thought Tiana might play along with the sword fighting game, given her friendly attitude, at least to start with.
“Wow, great idea, Let’s sword fight!” Tiana enthused. “Two against one!” she continued, brandishing her two tickle sticks to emphasise her advantage. In order to keep both sticks pointing towards Jane, Tiana faced Jane front-on. Jane was hoping Tiana would take this stance. It showed Tiana was no fencer. The front-on stance meant a large area of her ribs and tummy were relatively exposed, with only the sticks to defend them. Mandy often took this stance in practice sword fights where she had two sticks against Jane’s one. Jane was usually able to poke through Mandy’s defence to get to her tummy before Mandy could attack her. She hoped she could do the same to Tiana.
“Come on then!” said Jane as she advanced towards Tiana, with a confident smile on her face, “on guard!” When she reached striking distance she circled her stick to try to confuse Tiana of where she would target and then lunged towards Tiana’s tummy.
Tiana tried to block, but Jane deliberately targeted her attack in the middle of her two sticks and Tiana was momentarily unsure which to use. She ended up with both sticks crossed in front of her, one impeding the other. Jane dived below Tiana’s sticks and delivered three pokes to Tiana’s tummy. She was careful to be gentle as causing any pain would risk disqualification. Tiana let out a quiet yelp and jumped back while bending forward at her waist, trying to limit the target.
Jane followed Tiana’s retreat and lunged again while her defence was still in disarray. She attacked over Tiana’s sticks this time, poking her left side. Tiana was starting to giggle. She backed away again, trying to turn her right shoulder towards Jane to protect her left side that had just been poked. Jane followed again and this time prodded the right side of her ribs, underneath Tiana’s ineffective block. Tiana jumped back further this time and managed to reorganise her sticks into some sort of defence. Jane followed and lunged high this time, feigning an attack at armpit level. Tiana raised her sticks to defend. Jane swooped low at the last moment. Again she was able to deliver a few short, gentle, pokes to Tiana’s tummy.
“Gotcha!” Jane cried with a triumphant smile. Tiana was in full retreat and chuckling hard. Jane chased her and sped up her attacks, poking Tiana repeatedly around her middle, waist, sides and occasionally under her arms. Jane made sure she kept her arm extended, so that Tiana was always a long way from her own body, just in case she counter-attacked. But Tiana was too busy laughing and desperately defending to launch an attack of her own.
“Come on karate-girl, what’s so funny?” Jane was really pleased to be back in the match. She was still wary of her opponent though. When practicing with Mandy in this situation Jane would usually have tried to knock her sticks from her hands while she was distracted by the tickling. She decided not to do this with Tiana,however, as she wanted to keep her hands full of the sticks so she could not use them for grappling.
As the ticking took its toll, Tiana’s retreat slowed and finally she stood still, offering only weak defence against Jane’s pokes and prods. Tiana was not trying to block with her sticks anymore, she was trying to use her arms to cover her tickle spots. Jane found it easy to find targets that Tiana was not covering. Sometimes she had enough time to wiggle the end of her stick into Tiana’s vulnerable areas rather than simply poking her. This sent Tiana even further into hysterics.
Believing that Tiana was unlikely to offer any offence, Jane decided she could relax her fencing pose to bring her left arm in reach of her opponent. She was still cautious though, a front-on stance made Jane more vulnerable so she waited until she thought Tiana was not looking before changing position. Tiana’s attention was largely focussed on Jane’s poking anyway and Jane tried to encourage this with a little tickle commentary.
“Ooh, tickle tickle, Tiana, under that arm, where next? Ribs! Now where? Armpit? No! Tummy button!” Jane gently wiggled her stick into Tiana’s belly button and Tiana doubled up in silent laughter. “Woah! That looks like a spot!” said Jane happily, “I guess Jenny missed that in the pre-assessment.”
Tiana’s reaction to the navel tickle gave Jane the opportunity to step forward into a front on pose. She immediately grabbed Tiana’s right wrist with her empty left hand and gently but firmly pulled it across Tiana’s middle towards her left arm. Jane also started to take small steps around Tiana’s left side. As she moved she continued poking Tiana with her stick and tickle-talking her the whole time.
“Now under that arm? Yes! Round and round…. Where next? Tickle tickle…”
Jane glanced at Tiana’s face to ensure she was still in hysterics before she completed her move by dashing around Tiana’s left shoulder, taking Tiana’s right arm with her. Jane carefully lifted Tiana’s right arm as she went, ensuring that it went over the top of her left arm. So when she arrived behind Tiana, she was able to constrict the movement in her left arm while clinging on to her right. Jane had to take a break from poking Tiana while she moved and she was terrified this would give Tiana an opportunity to retaliate. She did not need to worry as Tiana hardly had time to take a breath before Jane settled into position behind her. Jane hugged her close with the left arm that was trapping Tiana’s arms. Tiana still held both her sticks, but Jane had positioned her so she could not use them. The stick in her right hand was now pointing behind her. Jane was careful to make sure that Tiana could not reach round to tickle her with it, by staying slightly to the right of Tiana’s body. Tiana’s left stick pointed forward but could hardly move as it was pinned to her side at the elbow by her right arm that Jane was holding There was no way she could get it behind her to tickle Jane.
Jane had practiced tickling Mandy from this position before. Usually she would brush up and down her exposed right side with the feathers of one stick at this point. She could not do that this time, however, as she was still holding her sick by the feather end. She could not turn it round while her other hand was occupied holding Tiana’s arm. Therefore she needed to improvise. She carefully pushed the handle of her stick under Tiana’s right arm and gave it a quick wiggle. Tiana tensed and then giggled and struggled to get the stick out without success. Jane had learnt that anticipation of ticking could be more effective than actual tickling in her match with Clarice. She stopped wiggling and held the stick still in Tiana’s armpit.
“Wait for it…” Jane teased her, “…Now!” Jane gave another wiggle. Tiana fought desperately to dislodge the stick from her armpit but her strength was failing from her laughter and she could not break Jane’s hold. Jane continued stopping and starting tickling Tiana’s underarm. Eack short wiggle from Jane’s stick brought a convulsion of silent laughter from Tiana. Jane took the opportunity to strengthen her hold on Tiana’s right arm, moving her grip slowly up towards Tiana’s elbow, allowing her to hug Tiana more tightly and make escape more difficult.
Unlike when tickling Clarice in her last match, Jane felt no malice towards Tiana and did not want to make her suffer any more than necessary. She said “Do you want to submit yet Tiana?” in as friendly a voice as she could muster under the circumstances. Tiana did not reply but Jane was fairly sure that she shook her head. “You want some more?” she checked, regaining her playfully dominant attitude. Again Tiana did not reply but she kept struggling. “Ok” said Jane, “just tell me when you’ve had enough.”
Jane decided she was going to have to pin Tiana down to the floor to tickle her into submission. Wrestling a wrestler was daunting, but Jane felt confident that Tiana was sufficiently weakened by the tickling to make it possible. While she continued to tickle her armpit, Jane slowly started to pull her backwards to unbalance her. At the same time she pushed her right knee into the back of Tiana’s right knee forcing it to bend forwards. Tiana quickly lost her balance and Jane gently lowered her onto her back.
There was little fight left in Tiana now and Jane felt confident letting Tiana’s arm go as she lowered her to the floor. Once she was down, Jane knelt behind her head and reached over her to pin her arms to the floor with her hands, one still holding her stick. Jane looked down at Tiana as she pinned her. Tiana was still recovering from her laughing frenzy and looked exhausted. Jane hoped Tiana would submit without much more fight. Knowing Tiana’s flexibility, she was still worried that she might be able to flip her legs round and may be trap her head between her ankles or something. Next Jane put all her weight in her arms for a second as she shifted her body forward to pin Tiana’s shoulders with her knees. Now she had both her hands free to defend against Tiana’s feet if needs be, and also to get her tickle submission.
Jane genuinely wanted to finish the match with the least suffering for her opponent possible. She decided a bit of friendly domination might persuade Tiana to submit earlier. So she winked at Tiana, whose face she could see upside down between her thighs. Then she reached down and grabbed the stick in Tiana’s left hand with her empty left hand and started to wrestle with her for it.
“I don’t think you’ll be needing this anymore”, Jane said sweetly. Tiana put up more resistance that Jane was expecting and held on initially. Jane was still holding the stick in her right hand by the feather end. She gave Tiana a mock disapproving look and then put the stick down on Tiana’s middle. Because she was pinned by Jane’s legs Tiana could not do anything except watch as Jane slowly picked the stick up again by the handle.
“Give me that stick Tiana” Jane teased, “otherwise, these soft tickly feathers are going to be paying a visit to your cute little tummy button.” Jane slowly moved towards her target saying “a-tick-a-tick-a-tick-a-tick-a.” An expression of panic crossed Tiana’s face and she let go of the stick they were fighting over before Jane had even touched her.
“Thank you!” said Jane as if Tiana had just given her a birthday card. Jane threw away the stick that she had just won. She then switched the stick she was holding from her right to left hand and grabbed the stick in Tiana’s trapped right hand. Tiana did not give it up immediately, so Jane started advancing on Tiana’s belly button again. “Ut oh! Here it comes…” she teased.
Tiana was still resisting when Jane’s stick hovered over her navel. “Ok, you asked for it!” she said. She hovered the stick less than an inch above Tiana’s belly button and said in a sweet voice “Can you feel this yet Tiana?”
Tiana tensed and looked terrified again. “No, no! Keep that way from me!” she pleaded.
“Can I have your stick?” Jane said patiently.
“You just wait, I am going to reverse this hold and tickle the living daylights out of you!” Tiana said this with as much conviction as she could muster, which really was not very much.
Jane looked unimpressed and simply said “Ok, going down!” She lowered the stick a fraction so that the very edge of the feathers grazed the edge of Tiana’s belly button. Tiana shrieked and let go of her stick immediately.
“Oh you’re too easy!” said Jane triumphantly. “OK, now you haven’t got any sticks, are you going to submit?” As she said this, Jane slowly and gracefully waved both the sticks above Tiana’s defenceless body, threatening to tickle her, but really hoping that the teasing would be enough to get her submission.
Tiana said nothing. Jane thought her face looked defiant, although she found it hard to tell, looking at it upside down. This put a seed of doubt in Jane’s mind and, rather than starting to tickle, she dropped her playful dominant act for a moment and said with a hint of exasperation “Oh come on Tiana, I don’t really want to tickle you any more. Just give in and we can go for a coffee!”
This broke the spell that Jane had over Tiana and her face became even more defiant. “I’m not giving in to you! I’m going to get my sticks back. I am going to school-girl pin you and then I am going to make you laugh like a hyena!”
With that Tiana started struggling wildly. First she tried to roll to the left and then to the right. Jane’s strong legs pinning her shoulders held firm. Although Jane had no formal wrestling training she was sporty with excellent balance. Jane decided not to tickle at this point as she should thought this might make Tiana’s struggles even more desperate and then one or both of them might get hurt. Jane was at least pleased to see Tiana using up her remaining energy.
Tiana finally realised that she was not going to roll out of Jane’s hold. Next she tried to kick her legs up and push Jane off her. Tiana’s gymnastic skills made it easy for her to reach, but she was slow due to fatigue and she could get little force into her feet. Jane saw her attack coming and lifted her arms up as Tiana’s feet approached. Then she pushed down on the backs of Tiana’s calves as they arrived. Tiana flexibility meant Jane could push her calves down hard without worrying about hurting Tiana. She pushed them all the way to the floor and Tiana seemed to fold neatly in the middle. This put an end to Tiana’s struggles as she was now securely pinned. She looked up at Jane with a frustrated expression on her face and Jane smiled back.
Jane decided she wanted to end things quickly now. She had regained her playfully dominant attitude and said “Well bendy-Wendy, you seem to be a little bit stuck!” As she spoke she dropped the stick in her left hand and manipulated Tiana’s legs so they were both on her left side and she could pin them with one arm. “Now, it’s tickle submission time. Where shall we start? I have feet here…” She briefly brushed up the soles of Tiana’s soles as she said this, bringing a yelp from Tiana.
“No? Well what about the backs of your knees? They are easy to reach.” Jane flicked her brush up and down behind Tiana’s knees as she spoke. Tiana giggled and tried to pull her legs away from Jane. Jane’s hold did not budge but again Jane stopped.
“No? Well how about I try to find that tummy button again. There’s lots of legs here now, but it must be under here somewhere...” Jane started to poke her stick under Tiana’s legs, looking for her navel. “Ah, there it is!” she beamed.
Jane had hardly started tickling when Tiana screamed “No! No! No! I submit, I submit!” Jane jumped off immediately and rolled away as Jenny came over to confirm the end of the match. Jane was vaguely aware that Jenny was congratulating her, but her attention was on Tiana. She genuinely liked Tiana and hoped she was ok. She wanted to become friends but she thought that was a bit unlikely after the intensity of the match they had just had.
After what seemed an eternity to Jane, but was really less than two minutes, Tiana sat up. “Wow” she said, smiling weakly, “Well done Jane, you are a sensational tickler.” With each word she sounded more like the girl that would not stop talking before the match. Jane was pleased she did not seem angry.
“Thanks Tiana” Jane replied. “You were a great opponent. Your cartwheel and kick were fantastic. I thought I was going to lose for sure at that point.”
“Yes, I thought I was going to win too!” Tiana exclaimed, “but I didn’t even tickle you ONCE. You tickled me everywhere. When you put the end of your stick into my armpit I was FREAKING out. I thought I had pushed you off a couple of times but then you started poking again. Then my belly-button… You were a tickling nightmare!” Then she looked at the clock on the sports hall wall and corrected herself. “Well, more of a mid-morning-mare I suppose!” Jane laughed enthusiastically at the joke even though she did not find it that funny, to try to make Tiana feel good.
“Oh look, Jenny, I’ve finally made Jane laugh! Jane, do you want to submit? That will make it one all!” They both laughed at this joke and Jenny looked up from the forms she was filling in and smiled too. Tiana added “Actually, I do need to talk to Jenny, coming?” Jane nodded and they walked over to Jenny. Jane was eager to find out about her next round.
