Chapter One

As you looked out across the classroom, surveying the line-up of everyone you had your hopes high, Alex was the guy you wanted he was in his early 30's, well-built with big muscular legs, the v-shaped torso most guys could only dream of and his laid-back personality seemed like the sort of guy you'd love to work with.

It's the first day of your six month intensive personal trainer internship and the final step in getting your qualification so getting paired up with an expert for this part of the course is going to be critical to getting your degree, and if you manage to get the hottest mentor in the programme then that's a pretty solid bonus as well.

As they work through the class, pairing-off the rest of your class-mates who come from all walks of life, of varying age, size and athleticism the number of available mentors starts to dwindle, it's finally announced that you will be getting paired up with your dream mentor - Alex.

Jumping to your feet you walk across the room to shake his hand and introduce yourself, he has that innocent smiling assassin look all personal trainers have and as you reach out to shake his hand, he grabs your hand, pulling you close and gives you a few firm pats on the back, and runs his hands through your hair giving it a messed up look. Instantly you can tell this is going to be a fun internship.

You get to introductions and learn that he grew up in Australia and moved here after he finished school, worked as a model and aspiring actor for a few years before falling into personal training where he made a name for himself, got qualified and now runs his own studio out of a warehouse just outside the city.

Over the next six months, he promises he is going to make you work harder than you have ever worked in your life but by the end of the course he promises you are going to be the best personal trainer in the area and are going to have everyone falling over themselves to give you a job.

You tell him that you're up for the challenge if he is and agree to a bit of a benchmarking session tomorrow after work to see where you are personally before getting started on the mentoring programme.

The next day you meet up in a city park for him to put you through your paces he looks even hotter in his tight fitting training gear, the shirt tight around his chest and shorts barely fitting his massive quads. He greets you with his signature embrace and tells you he hopes you are prepared to sweat he's not going easy on you just because he's your mentor and orders you straight into the press-up/plank position so he check your form.

Getting down on all fours, the ground is soft under your palms after a couple of days of rain making it hard to hold position and show off the form your capable of, arms shaking as the fit trainer stands over you analyzing. "Mate it's impossible, this ground is so soft!" You protest, not that he pays much attention and orders you to keep going. He's a completely different person in training mode and is dishing out the orders like a drill sergeant.

Eventually it's not just your arms shaking as the pain moves through your entire body t-shirt starting to stick to you as beads of sweat run down your back. "Keep going" he orders as you try and breathe through the pain eventually collapsing into the soft ground. "I was kinda hoping you'd be a bit better than that to start with we've got a lot of work to do" as you lay there in the soft ground, the moisture from the dirt soaking through your shirt and shirts, the toe of your shoes brown with mud.

"Right" the personal trainer cum drill sergeant orders "Burpee time" as you get up and move into sets of burpees, followed by squats, jumps, jackknife's and pressups. Set after set you repeat, tearing up the soft grass underfoot and leaving a muddy patch behind where he's been torturing you.

"Almost there bud one last thing for today and we are done" he says as you lay on the ground trying to suck any air you can get into your lungs, covered in a mixture of sweat and dirt. "Let's check out your sprints" you groan and lay back in the mud, exhausted and intimidated by this punishing session.

Rolling over slowly, trying to recover as much as possible, you steady yourself into the starting position and try to focus on the task at hand. He counts you down and you try to launch off into a sprint sliding in the mud as your shoes slide backwards and ending up face down in the ground.

Alex laughs at the state you're in and says you're getting nowhere fast in those shoes "Let's see what your form is like barefoot" he suggests. He watches as you bend down, sliding off your trainers and socks before standing in the mud, oozing between your toes. It feels amazing you think the cold mud helps you cool down after working up a sweat and gives you a fresh boost of energy.

"Try it again" he orders as your clean feet roll through the mud, quickly becoming as messy as the rest of you. You rise up into the starting position, feet arched and mud clumped to the bottom of your feet. He orders you off again as you sprint out making progress but it's far from your best ever effort. "Sweet that's probably enough to get us started" he says "But lets start with a few tips at the end of the session for you to work on" as he kneels down and unlaces his shoes. In one straight move he steps out of his shoe, slides off his sock and places his bare foot in the mud, repeating with the other".

He kneels down getting a bit muddy doesn't phase him in the slightest and rises up into the starting spring position adjusting his hands and feet into precision correct position. "Check out my form" He suggests "Look at the way my toes point forward, legs rise up into clean angles that's going to help propel you forward as you check him out. As he explodes up and off his feet you acknowledge to yourself that he definitely knows his stuff and are looking forward to what the next six months are going to bring.

As he returns after the sprint you both pack up your things sweaty, muddy and feet far too muddy to put shoes back on, you start to walk back to the changing rooms talking about interests and hobbies. Maybe it's the exhaustion, but you're completely trusting in this guy and tell him that you enjoy getting messy, whether it's messing up someone else or getting messy yourself, but the most fun you have is when you either set or get set challenges that have messy consequences.

He laughs, and asks with intrigue "Like what we did there in the mud?" You respond "Yeah, kinda but more the kinda stuff you see on TV where they have gunge tanks as a punishment". "Oh yeah? I think we can work with that" he says "Can you get your hand's on some of that gunge stuff?" You nod and smirk back at him "Easy what do you have in mind?" He suggests that the next time you catch up you bring along some gunge to play with, depending on how it goes he'll let you mess him up a bit and if it works out he'll think up some forfeits you can play for.

He talks about his studio which isn't open for classes on weekends and recommends it could be a good location plenty of equipment to use and easy to hose down once you were done.

Chapter Two

The day before your first months internship assessment, Alex sent you a message seeing if you were still on for tomorrow's assessment - checking you had done all the prep work required, nothing too intense for the first month but still detailed on checking all the equipment, how to set everything up and pack it down correctly - as well as the first few basics on technique, checking form and coaching in the gym.

You replied with a "Yeah - I guess?" And asked if he was still up for a challenge with a few messy consequences. He laughed with his response, making it clear this was his territory and he'd be the one setting the rules.

He had a pretty good idea of how to scope out your knowledge and that he was going to be firm but fair, if you had done all your homework and prepared there was every chance it'd be him getting messy and he'd take the consequences but he wouldn't be making it easy for you in the slightest.

For the rest of the evening you bantered backwards and forwards on everything you'd need to know for the assessment, areas he's be examining on - and of course set some ground rules around getting messy. You'd agreed that four buckets would be plenty to get messy with, and that all of the buckets would be used on you if you didn't pass the required assessment - but if you did meet the 90% pass mark required for the course then he'd happily step up and take the buckets instead.

And with that, you rummaged through your stockpile of gunge supplies, found a few different colours and packed them in with your gym bag ready for the next day.
When you arrived, it was a pretty cold but sunny spring day, the car park was completely empty being the weekend, except for Alex's car - he was inside waiting, and you were filled with excitement knowing that in just a few hours one of you would be returning to their car having been completely trashed in layers of gunge.

He must have heard you arrive as he opened the side door to the gym, shouting "Mate - come on in!" Grabbing your gear bag, slinging it over your shoulder you raced towards him - locking the car behind you and heading inside. As your eyes adjusted, the gym looked exactly as it did every other day you had interned there, today just felt a bit different with that building excitement in the air you get every time you're just about to have a messy session.

Alex was wearing his usual gym gear for this time of year - a compression shirt he'd had branded for his gym, pair of football shorts and his Nike trainers with ankle socks - it was something you saw pretty much every day this week, but you could just imagine how it'd look covered in gunge.

He sat you down on one of the workout benches - taking a serious approach to the assessment as he towered over you, the only person in the gym and talked through everything you'd be assessed on - finishing with a quiz at the end which would be submitted back to the university to sign you off for this stage of the course.
After he finished the official business - his more playful side came out again - "check this out" he said and lead you outside the other side of the gym to the outdoor workout area.

What you saw next almost made you jump out of your skin. One of the rungs on the monkey/climbing bars had one of the weight benches from the gym sitting underneath it, and between a couple of the rungs was a large road cone which had been flipped upside down the small opening at the top pointing directly at the bench below. "How did you get a road cone?" You asked.

He didn't answer the question - but he was the sort of guy you'd expect to have acquired a few souvenirs after big nights out on the town. "Reckon we can work with that?" He asked "Absolutely" you replied, telling him you just needed to mix up the gunge and then it would be ready to go.

He asked if you needed any help mixing it up (you didn't), but his curiosity followed you back inside to your gym bag where your picked up the four brightly coloured packages and headed to the bathroom with some empty buckets. He followed you in, watching as you mixed up the blue, yellow, pink and green buckets of gunge - mixing as it got thicker and thicker - showing Alex exactly what this looked like in real life rather than the YouTube video's he'd checked out since you mentioned it.

Starting to look a bit nervous about what he signed up for, he lent in towards you and put his finger in one of the buckets, pulling it out quickly and shouting "Dude, that's nasty as!" You teased him about looking nervous which he shook off telling you he had nothing to worry about - you might be a good student but no-one passed the assessment first try, and it was definitely going to be you getting covered today.
You both joked for a bit, but realised as time was ticking on it was time to get started so he suggested you get changed into your gym gear and meet him back out on the main floor.

A couple of minutes later, you emerged wearing your standard kit for when you weren't working, an old white t-shirt, black Nike shorts and an old pair of trainers with sockettes that had seen better days. He checked you out as you returned from the bathrooms joking that it looked like you'd given up already - wearing clothes that needed to be thrown out anyway, the gunge would pretty much finish them off.

Eventually serious Alex returned, shooting some quick fire questions at you to set the tone of a proper academic assessment - it felt like you were being tested on things you'd definitely never heard before - and maybe it was the impending mess clouding your memory, but the knowledge just wasn't flowing today. He pushed you through techniques using each of the equipment, quizzing you on correct form and technique for each one - working up a pretty good sweat along the way.

For the second of three parts he got you to set up a cardio circuit with medicine balls, ropes, ladders, kettle bells and anything else you could find and got you to put him through a circuit, pushing and training him through each stage. As much fun as it was to take a breather for a moment, this was your moment to prove you knew everything he had taught you over the past month but more importantly get a few points back to avoid the gunge.

After a couple of circuits, he was definitely sweating and you could see he was starting to struggle a bit so he called time and sat down on the floor with drink bottles in hand - ready for a bit of a re-group. He told you that the assessment was going relatively good so far, it wasn't looking good for a pass mark but a good starting point anyway and he's seen people do far worse one month in.

He takes the opportunity anyway to show you what he would have done differently, re-arranging the order of the stations and switching things up to put you through your paces. Definitely more challenging than what you set for him - after only a few minutes the muscles were already starting to fatigue but at thee same time it felt like you were getting a really good workout.

After a couple of circuits of him shouting at you to push harder, and tighten up all the techniques he had shown you he finally called time as you collapsed down on the ground - him handing you a drink bottle as you fought to drink as much as possible between the heavy breathing. "Well' he said "that was a really good starting point, but we've got lots to work on over the next few months as well. It's not looking very likely you'll pass this time - it'll need to be a perfect score for the Q&A to get you through"

At that point you stopped listening as he carried on his feedback. You were desperate to see this guy covered in gunge - finally getting a chance to get something back on the guy who had been constantly challenging you for the past month. "Let's head outside and get this wrapped up" he said - sending you a cheeky wink as if he knew all along you didn't stand a chance passing the assessment first try.

Leading you outside, it was like being lead to the gallows - you grabbed a couple of buckets of gunge each, he grabbed a ladder and began setting things up. "Why don't you take a seat on the bench under the cone, and once the questions are over we can see what you look like covered in gunge" he joked. It was a slim shot you had to reverse fortunes - you'd need a perfect 10/10 score to get through this round of testing and more importantly cover him in 80 litres. You agreed and took a seat on the workout bench. "One more thing' he said - racing back inside and grabbing some exercise bands.

"Can't have you escaping" as he came over, using the bands to tie your chest against the seat back - it was fixed at a 45 degree angle and you could see straight through the road cone to the blue sky on the other side. He grabbed another exercise band and did the same across your waist - by now you were completely restrained, ready for whatever came at you - even being gunged by this guy would be an awesome experience.

"Oh and lets get rid of those shoes" he says, bending down, unlacing your shoes and sliding them off along with each sock and taking them away. As you sat on the bench now, just your toes touched the soft grass underfoot, feet arched but if you really tried to stretch you could put your feet firmly on the ground.

The cool air against your skin felt good after the intense workout and as the only part of your body you could freely outside of the restraints you played around, flexing your feet into the dirt and pushing against the restraints while Alex watched the struggle.
"Right - you get comfortable there and I'll be back in a sec" he said, putting his phone down next to you on the bench and heading off to the bathroom.

You thought to yourself this could be the opportunity you needed, squirming on the bench and using your feet to push against the bars on the workout bench to get the angle you needed to push the phone into your hand. As you did, it lit up - unlocking straight away and open to his notes page. In front of you were all the questions and answers needed to pass, it was an absolute gift, and with a quick scan you could easily remember these answers.

After a quick scan, you relaxed and started to think of Alex's face as he realised he would be sitting under this waterfall of gunge. Not wanting to take any chances on getting caught, you locked the phone again and slid it back to exactly where it was before. Without a moment to spare he re-emerged from the bathroom, picking up his phone - he did a quick scan and the restraints were definitely too tight for you to have done anything with his phone while he was away.

He leaned against the side of the building, opened his phone and asked if you were ready. Of course you were. He asked the first couple of questions, which of course you got right as you relaxed back on the bench. The restraints were actually pretty comfortable when you weren't fighting them.

A couple more questions and the tables were starting to turn, you could see him getting more nervous and you answered questions five and six with ease too. "How are you doing this?" He scolded "You were so...average back in there, and now you're a genius??" You laughed back, acting slightly offended by the accusations. Alex carried on, questions seven and eight you took a bit more time with, hoping you didn't trip up at the final hurdle.

'I'm actually pretty impressed" he said, "If you get these last couple correct, you'll be the first student I've had in a couple years to pass this first shot" You joked back "I bet you're feeling a bit less confident about staying clean now aren't you?" He smirked, but didn't say anything. The look on his face gave it away - he wasn't cocky the cocky teacher anymore, and he was pretty bad at hiding how nervous he looked. Eventually he asked the last couple of questions, you answered correctly and breathed a sign of relief.

Against the cool spring air you could feel your feet cold with sweat - all in all it had been a pretty stressful session. You looked up at Alex, who was staring into the buckets of gunge. "Mate" he started "We don't really have to do this right, like we could and grab a drink right now - both staying clean, you've passed the first assessment which is great, no need for anything else..." You laughed. As if you were going to let him get away that easily. "Untie me and we can discuss" you shoot back - the tables turned, you're the one in control now and he unties you - releasing you from restraints and standing up next to him.

"I think it's time you took a seat" you ordered Alex, as much as he is a taskmaster a deal is a deal and fair is fair - he was absolutely ready to trash you. He took off his shoes and socks - he wasn't going to get a pair of shoes worth a couple hundred dollars messy - before sitting down where you had been just moments before - pleading one last time for you to let him off.

"Mate go through with this and you know I'll only get you back a million times worse" he said. You thought to yourself he had no idea how much you would love for that to happen. "I'll take my chances" you replied, strapping him down to the bench - his bare feet now sitting exactly where yours were, in the trampled grass, sliding around as he nervously awaited his fate.

You grabbed the first bucket of green gunge and ascended the ladder above him, the metal rungs cold under your bare feet, you thought to check the temperature of the gunge, putting your finger in as the gunge coated it in a nice thick translucent slime. It's definitely cold - no need to tell Alex that though, he'll work it out soon enough. "Are you ready?" You asked "Mate - I'll never be ready for this" he laughed - at least he was being a good sport about it.

Without pausing, you lifted up the bucket and began pouring slowly down the inside of the cone. You'd never thought of using it before but this makes a perfect gunge funnel. It shot straight out the bottom, landing a direct hit straight on his face and cascading everywhere - the speed it was coming out caused it to splash off his face covering everything nearby including your legs and feet on the ladder.

Under the torrent, you could see his face all scrunched up as it took a face-full of mess for the first time. You have no idea if he's enjoying it yet but so far it'd be impossible to enjoy this more than you are.

You slowed down the pouring so it was more of a stream running down him - he was silent under the deluge as it flattened his hair, covering his face and began running down his compression shirt to pool between his legs on the side of the bench.
Unfortunately the first bucket had run out, but it gave him great coverage, in a deep green layer of mess which at least half covered him. As the last bit dripped out, his protesting started up "Dude this is so gross....and cold!" You laughed, coming back down the ladder to grab the next couple of buckets. "Hope you are ready for more" you called back, ascending the ladder again.

"Dude, c'mon - it's freezing and I can feel it soaking through my shorts!" You could only laugh - it was hilarious seeing him restrained, and covered in gunge - this was the perfect role reversal and you couldn't wait to unleash the rest. "Ready for some more?" You asked.

You didn't wait for a response - and started slowly pouring the pink gunge down the cone. The first bit mixed in with the green gunge, covering his face and pushing the slime further down his chest, covering his shorts and now streaks of green and pink gunge cascaded down his thighs and pooling at his feet.

You could see his toes clenching as more and more gunge pooled at his feet, eventually covering them in thick loads of multicoloured mess. His entire body was now a canvas of pink and green, the lines of mess defining his muscles under the shirt. He played with the gunge between his feet, squeezing it between his toes and sliding the soles of his feet against each other with the new sensation of slime covered skin.

His arms draped over the sides of the bench, gunge running along the definition on his biceps and dripping off the end of his fingers - the complaining had stopped, probably because he was just barely blowing gunge bubbles with his face completely covered.
"How is it?" You asked "Dude I had no idea what I was getting myself into, its so thick - I can feel it everywhere - down my shorts, between my toes - I'm literally covered" "Perfect' you responded and dumped the entire bucket of blue gunge down the cone and climbed down the ladder.

It came out the bottom like an absolute typhoon, as Alex tried unsuccessfully to move his head to dodge the torrent. There was so much gunge it took a few good seconds to empty out of the cone as you stood at the bottom watching it empty out all over your boss, mentor and trainer - it was a dream come true.

In the grass you could see the rings of colour in the gunge from each bucket as it covered Alex and then ended up on the ground. It spread so quickly there was no way around it, you just stood in it - feeling the thick smooth gunge and grass between your toes. He was right is was definitely cold and you were actually glad it was him that took the mess.

Feeling a bit bad you decided to give him a minute to relax after this third bucket, completely trashed already - if there was any way he would have thought he would have ended up looking like this you don't think he would have ever agreed to it. In the moment, you stood there, admiring your work as the gunge slid around his body creating swirls and patterns as it went, anyone else could have thought this was an art project.

You walked over to wipe the gunge from his eyes so he could at least see the final bucket coming his way, shaking the slime off your hands onto his chest and walking away. Picking up the last bucket of bright yellow gunge, you could feel the extra weight as it pushed your feet into the gungey dirt. "Ready for the last one?" you asked. "Hah - bring it" he responded.

With that you swung the bucket back and with one smooth motion covered him from head to toe in the bright yellow slime. Looking back at a job well done, your newest victim was covered, absolutely trashed and dripping with gunge. You stepped closer and began to untie him, chest first as he sat up, regaining the use of his arms to wipe away all the gunge from his face and sit up in the mess, pulling his feet back so only his toes were in the slime.

He ran his hands down his body, scraping off as much gunge as he could as it continued to run down his legs. "Mate how am I going to get all this off - I'm going to be showering for weeks!" He joked, checking out how his entire body looked covered in mess. "You know I'm going to get you back right?" - you ignored all his protesting, it was hard to take a guy covered in a rainbow of gunge too seriously.

As he stood up and head to the showers in the bathroom, the last bits of gunge caught in his shorts released down his legs - leaving gungey footprints leading to the bathroom. You cleaned up a bit outside and gave the place a bit of a hose down for when he returned. Eventually out of the bathroom he returned, towelling his hair dry, shirtless and wearing just the shorts he was wearing before "Mate that was something else" he said. "At least you passed which is the main thing I guess"

You let out a guilty laugh, knowing you were just booking yourself in for a revenge session on a future day "Yeah about that..." you started, confessing what actually happened...

Chapter Three

Towards the end of the semester, the class was due to host their seasonal community engagement event, the idea behind it to raise some money, drum up some enrolments for the following semester and network between the current students and mentors in a bit of a relaxed day out of the classroom. It usually got pretty good attendance of a few hundred people across a morning and the mentors always got together with their student to put something together.

A couple of weeks before the event the class got together to decide who would be picking up the various categories - you and Alex arrived together, catching up on each other's weekend, how the gym was going - by now he was happy to leave you as the only trainer at the gym and you would regularly cover his days off.

The class eventually gathered and started, finishing up with the tutor writing up about 15 odd categories on the whiteboard, ranging from all the usual fitness circuits to food options, to entertainment and stalls selling fitness equipment. They announced a target of raising $15,000 for various causes an almost 5k increase on the year before and by no means a small target.

As talk turned to what you two wanted to do, you suggested a few easy recipes that were super cheap and easy to put together. A bake sale would be the easiest way to go, with guaranteed return on investment and didn't require much thought.

Alex however wasn't having a bar of it "Not a chance dude - I'm signing us up for entertainment." "Oh yeah - why's that" you ask. Alex was a classic schemer and there was no way this was a spur of the moment decision. "Well there's this small matter of revenge that's been brewing for the past few months, and this feels like the perfect opportunity for you to pay up" he replied.

You were more than a bit shocked, months had passed since that day you covered him in buckets of gunge and you were pretty sure that it had been confined to the history books by now - not a chance that he could be still holding a grudge right? "Ever since you pulled that cheating stunt..Mate - you are going to be getting messier than you could ever imagine" - he said. And then those fateful words "I have a plan".

Over the next couple of weeks he slowly started to release details of his plan to you, drip feeding you as if you were on tenter-hooks and hanging on his every word. - and you weren't disappointed. The goal was obviously to raise as much money as possible and make it fun and engaging for everyone, he suggested finding an actual gunge tank to use and getting a couple of tubes people could get tokens when they bought from all the other attractions/stalls and put them in whichever's tube they felt was more deserving of a total trashing. Whichever tube had more tokens at the end of the day would receive a massive trashing in the tank, in front of everyone watching.

It sounded fair, but was still lacking a bit of something you thought - "how about we play a game?" you suggested. "It'd get everyone involved and engaged and hopefully draw a bit more money out of the punters as well."

"Works for me, what did you have in mind?" You thought back to some of the messy videos that you had watched on YouTube and thought the 'eat it or wear it' type videos could be pretty fun to play. You suggested it and showed him, but he didn't seem massively interested. "How about -" he suggested "We play a variation of that game, where one of us is locked in some stocks and the item is poured over our feet, The other person then has to lick the food off and we both guess what the item is. If we both get it right we stay clean, but whoever gets it wrong gets the bucket contents poured over them - how does that sound?"

You were taken aback, not only had he just proposed an intensely messy session - it was clear that he was up for getting super messy as well and a few laughs along the way. This wasn't just a revenge session you got the vibe he was enjoying the idea as well. In his eyes this was a way of getting people to stick around longer, draw out the fun a bit and get to inflict a bit of extra mess on you.

Of course you agreed, absolutely you were down for that, and now just had to get everything organised - stocks, a gunge tank, buckets of slime - and you'd agreed to let someone else host it - the tutor would definitely do it and probably enjoy dishing out some mess as well. With plans made and decisions agreed on, you both went about organising the various elements for the day you'd cover the gunge and finding a tank, and he would build some sort of stocks to sit in.

The day came around quicker than expected, the box filled with gunge had arrived just a couple of days earlier and you had (somehow) managed to find a gunge tank that could hold a couple hundred litres of mess at short notice.

Early in the morning you woke up, grabbed your bag filled with clothes and gunge and headed off down to the local football fields where the event was taking place. It was near the end of summer, the nights getting cooler and at 7am there was a heavy mist across the football grounds. Every breath you took instantly turned to steam with the tracksuit and beanie you were wearing being exactly the right choice for this early start to the morning.

You pulled up nice and early in your car to meet the courier dropping off the gunge tank who drops it just outside the club houses, in full view of where everyone would be only a few hours later and signing the delivery paperwork you got your first full view of the gunge tank which looked even more intimidating in real life than it did in the pictures.

The four glass walls were spotlessly clean and the metal barstool inside looked like it had never been messy. Most importantly though was the tank sitting above the box which could easily fill with the couple of hundred litres of gunge you now had to prepare. The handle and ripcord off to the side of the tank you could just imagine pulling in a few hours and releasing a tank full of gunge onto your trainer locked in the box below.

Estimating that it was going to take 15-20 buckets to fill the tank, you started up the hose mixing the gunge powder and water together, making the perfect lump-free paste to be delivered to the tank. One-by-one you slowly started to fill the tank up, mixing the colours into a swirly, rainbow coloured mess hanging above the tank. Given the temperature of the morning this gunge was going to be freezing even when things warmed up in a few hours.

Eventually an hour later the tank was full, the sun was up and it looked like a fun day ahead the rest of the class had arrived, setting up their various stalls and training sessions, everyone had taken the time to put their best effort in. Just before 9 Alex rolled his pickup truck into the parking lot and the first thing you noticed was the medieval stocks loaded onto the back and the same weights bench that you had used from your previous messy session with him.

"What do you think?" He said, jumping out of the car "I picked these up online for next to nothing and I reckon they should lock us up in there pretty tight." You agreed not sure what their previous life had been, but they looked like they had come straight out of a dungeon, the leg holes covered in rubber padding and a strong flip lock on top if you were locked in here there was no way out.

Helping Alex get the set down from the truck and positioned, you made the final plans for how everything was going to run passing out tokens to all the stall holders for them to sell for donations, and placing a couple of tubes next to the gunge tank with your faces on them which people could start filling up.

You decided to give it till 11:30am, just before lunch when most people would be there before playing the stocks game and then someone would be going in the tank at 2pm. Plenty of time to drum up as much money as possible for donations and more than enough time to get cleaned up in between.

Soon enough, the clock started to roll around, past 9am, 10am, 11am and eventually time closed in on 11:30. Your tutor arrived and joked with Alex about how intense the setup was and by the looks of things already it was going to be lots of fun. He estimated there was probably already a couple of grand worth of tokens in the tubes for each of you roughly level at this stage, maybe with a slight lead to Alex which he wasn't that impressed about.

He brought out six buckets, each one covered by a towel and placed next to the stocks. As the clock slid past 11:25 Alex mentioned it was probably time to get ready, slid off his shoes and socks and took off his track pants, revealing a pair of running shorts on underneath. You did the same and had the same idea with running shorts as well. "Did you want to leave your stuff in my car?" he motioned, as you grabbed your things together and followed him to put your belongings on the truck where the bench and stocks had been earlier.

Walking back together, you could hear a bell ring as your tutor gathered everyone around, easily there were 300-400 people so far a pretty good turnout for this time of day. He explained the game to everyone, one of you would be in the stocks and would have to guess the food item based on the texture poured over your feet, while the other one would guessing based on taste after licking the other persons feet. The audience found it hilarious and a massive crowd-pleaser as you two walked to the front.

Introducing the two of you, Alex offered to go first in the stocks and took a seat on the weights bench placing his feet in the two holes in the stocks before they were closed and locked. A couple of blindfolds were brought out one placed over Alex's face and after you were in position directly next to his feet, one given to you as well.

The rules of the game were clear, one of Alex's feet would be covered each round and you would have to write what you thought the food was after each round. In three rounds time, you'd switch over and at the end of the game you'd be covered in whatever you each got wrong. Confirming you both understood the blindfolds were secured and the game was on.

"The first bucket please" your tutor beckoned while you sat in total blindness. There was a momentary pause before an "Oh f***" cried out from Alex as his feet thrashed around in the stocks. You put your tongue close and licked the sole of his left foot this was an easy one, baked beans in tomato sauce. You didn't need to taste any more and sat back down with your whiteboard to write your answer. "Alex" the tutor said "You can't sit there all day playing with your feet write down your answer please".

Another pause as the audience laughed, you would have loved to have seen his reaction to the beans. "Ok, time for the second bucket" the tutor ordered keeping the game moving along. You felt around with your hands and found his right foot getting your mouth ready. There was a long pause, and then you tasted something. It was sweet, sticky but could have been any of a number of things.

You moved around and sucked his big toe Alex shouted out your name "stop!". You laughed it could have been honey, molasses, treacle or any number of syrups so just had to go off instinct. You wrote down molasses not feeling confident, but with your face covered in beans and something sticky from all of Alex's squirming around and feet constantly hitting you in the face, it was the best you could do.

"And finally the third item" was called. You went back to his bean-covered foot and tried to wipe it clean "Mate that tickles!" he cried out, as you carried on it got a good audience reaction and given the freezing cold tanking later in the day, you definitely wanted the audience on your side.

The third item was super easy, it ran down his foot and into your mouth strawberry syrup! It tasted great and you licked all over poor Alex's foot to enjoy it. "Hah looks like you enjoyed that one!" the tutor calls out to you as you sit down and write your final answer.

"OK, time to reveal your answers!" he called out, as you and Alex both took off your blindfolds at the same time, making eye contact over his mess covered feet and laughing. The tried to reach out his feet to rub the mess into your face again, but you manage to dodge giving him a cheeky stare. Staring down at his feet you can see the second one was definitely honey so you got that wrong but nailed the other two.

Looking up at Alex's board, honey was the only one he got right with just a question mark for the other two. "Looks like we have our leader, 2:1" the tutor shouted, embracing his role as master of mess. "Time to switch places". You unlocked Alex from the stocks as he slid his feet out, slippery on the ground at first while the mess wiped off and then he bent down at the stocks, ready for his turn.

You took your seat on the bench, lifting your feet up and into the stocks as the were locked in. The whole courtyard was staring at you and the soles of your feet, all locked up with nowhere to go. As you looked around, there was a steady stream of people adding their tokens next to the gunge tank and by the looks of things Alex still had a healthy lead.

"Blindfolds on please" as you lowered yours, taking one last look at his face in front of your feet. "Time for the first item" You flexed your toes, ready to identify whatever was coming your way. The first item was cold, felt coarse like a high-end shower gel but you couldn't really identify it. You felt Alex's warm tongue pressed against your foot and he was going back for more so it must have been something nice maybe jam? You wrote it down anyway and his licking stopped. You rubbed the soles of your feet together and got a bit more confident, it felt a bit like seeds and pressed fruit so that was probably it.

"Two more to go" the tutor called as the second item was dropped on your foot. This one was quick and over in a heartbeat. It was cold again and thick for a second but now it just felt thin and slimy. "Yuk" announced Alex, clearly not enjoying this one. But neither were you you had absolutely no idea what it was and had to leave a question mark on it, there was no way to work it out.

"Finally, the last one" and something ice-cold and thick covered your other foot again. This was easy ice cream, but it was freezing cold and you tried to reach your feet together to wipe it off. You felt Alex's face moving around and imagine it must be covered a lot like yours now, before the temperature started to warm up and you stopped, leaving your feet hanging in the stocks imagining what they must look like dripping in mess.

"Ok, you can both remove your blindfolds" the tutor announced as you both ripped them off to see what you got wrong. On his board you were disappointed to see he managed to get all three correct and the one that you got wrong was raw eggs. Gross you could already imagine how a bucket of those would feel.

"Before we release him can I just say something" Alex called out. You were confused this wasn't part of anything you discussed. Something was going on. "A while back we were playing a similar game" he continued "Except for one slight change he cheated!" "And not just in the game but on the course too so while you are voting today for who you want to get messy, let's fill up his tube and take some collective revenge on him for all my troubles".

You were shocked. He had completely just thrown you under the bus and didn't even know how to protest. The tutor looked a bit stunned too. "I think what we should do first of all" the tutor said "is make it clear that we don't tolerate cheating at all in this course". He grabbed a bucket and headed over to the gunge tank. He climbed a ladder behind it and scooped up a buckets worth of gunge from the top "Who thinks we should punish this cheater with a bucket?" he called out to the audience.

You rolled your eyes as they all chanted back "gunge him!". He stood in front of you, passing the bucket to Alex who stood directly in front of the stocks, ready to throw the bucket at you. "Mate" you said "This is so uncalled for!" He didn't take any notice, and to be honest you thought this was probably exactly what you deserved too, as he swung the bucket and emptied its contents all over you.

It had perfect coverage, the mix created a rainbow effect as it coated your face, shirt and legs washing some of the food off your feet as well as you sat there now dripping from all the gunge. You wiped the gunge away from your eyes to see people taking photos and laughing Alex was clearly enjoying this moment and being able to share this with everyone as well.

"Right now we just have one thing to sort out" as he released you from the stocks "Punishments for incorrect answers". He lifted up the bucket of honey above your head and poured it down all over your face and body, it was so thick and heavy it felt like your skin was melting off. As you sat on the bench still he picked up the other bucket of eggs and poured them on the top the yolks running straight off and splashing on the ground, bursting and covering your bare feet in orange yolk.

Standing next to you, Alex was ready for his punishment as well the tutor lifted up the bucket of strawberry syrup high above his head and poured it down as it ran the full length of his body down to the ground. He picked up the second bucket of beans and poured them on top, Alex shivered with shock to the feeling and texture of beans "This is so gross!" He'd called that out so often to you now you didn't really even take much notice any more.

As soon as the buckets stopped, you stood up, ready to go shower off before the finale this afternoon, but Alex wasn't quite done with you yet. He grabbed you, rubbing your messy bodies together, messing your hair up shampoo-style and covering you in another layer of mess. Some reporters got together to take some photos of you as you stood, covered from head to toe but in front of that nice clean gunge tank.

Eventually the crowds started to dissipate and it was time to go and get cleaned up you walked off to the showers together, splitting off into cubicles and could hear the splat of his mess covered clothes hitting the ground before the showers were turned on.

Chapter Four

After you both cleaned up, you regrouped again outside wearing clean singlets and shorts the day had warmed up pretty well and could easily have been a day at the beach if it wasn't for this event. He joked with you that he promised he'd get his revenge and was a an of his word. You both checked out the updated tubes of tokens and his plea to the masses had definitely worked in his favour you were now in the lead by what looked to be close to $1000 and overall reckoned there was probably a good 7-8k there between you.

During lunch you both walked around in your singlets, shorts and bare feet with people coming up to you and asking how the mess felt. As fun as it was it was nice to be clean again (at least momentarily) and enjoying the sun on your skin. There were plenty of food options with food trucks and ice cream stands around along with hoards of sweaty people after completing the various workout classes that had been put on in support. Regularly looking back you could still see a steady stream of people adding to both of your tubes, but you had a commanding lead and was looking pretty unlikely that you'd be escaping the deluge of freezing cold gunge today.

As the afternoon progressed, you both jumped in on a couple of fitness classes doing a few core and chest workouts, a great way to pass the time and you thought that if you were going to end up covered in gunge you may as well look good in the tank too. By now everyone was pretty hot and sweaty walking around in the summer heat, filling in time before the big gunge finale later in the afternoon.

By 1:45 people started to congregate again and the tubes were covered up so that people could still donate but couldn't see who was winning at what point. From what you both could see though, the day had been a massive success and there was still hundreds of dollars worth of tokens being added every few minutes.

You and Alex decided it was time to get ready for the final mess taking your places next to the gunge tank and waiting for the clock to inch it's way towards 2pm. With a final flurry of donations, the tutor came over and took the tubes away for someone to count up they looked pretty heavy under the weight of all the tokens and the tutor looked pretty impressed with the effort as well.

With everyone gathered around, the leadership team did a few thankyou's for everyone who had supported the day, did a plug for joining the course in the future and encouraged everyone to get involved in local sports. The two of you nervously awaited your fate off to the side, watching a couple of people count and calculate just how much had been earned. It took a few minutes, and the speeches had to pad a bit for time, but eventually an envelope was delivered.

The tutor did a big build up, announcing that over $17k has been raised across the day their biggest fundraiser so far and a massive achievement for everyone who had put their time in. He created the build-up like some reality tv show, and announced "that the person going into the gunge tank, with a $700 lead is" You and Alex looked at each other intensely, before you realised that people had started chanting your name.
H
e looked at you with a massive grin on his face YOU had been announced the winner/loser and would be going into the gunge tank today to face the hundreds of litres of gunge you had prepared in the freezing cold morning. Alex gave you a big hug and a pat on the back as he sent you on your way walking up to the gunge tank.
The tank looked ominous, spotlessly clean as you stepped up onto the raised floor of the tank and turned around to face the crowd.

You sat down on the barstool and raised your feet up to rest your toes on the metal bar. Everything inside the tank felt a bit surreal surrounded by people outside the world was a bit distorted, you could hear everyone talking and having fun outside here you were sitting in a tank underneath a couple hundred litres of gunge.

Excitement was definitely building outside the tank, everyone was noisy as the tutor tried to calm everyone down and regain control. He came over and locked the front door of the tank so you were completely sealed in alone in the gunge tank as you felt the sweat build up on your skin. He asked for a countdown from the audience, 54.321

And then he stopped, you looked up ready to face the gunge but nothing happened. He addressed the crowd once more "Who thinks we should just gunge both of them?" The crowd roared. You looked up and across at Alex who was shocked. He thought he'd escaped and as reality sunk in, the grin he had from ear to ear started to look like he wanted to punch the tutor.

Somehow, even after everything he had done he was still going to end up in the tank but there was no point fighting it, after all it was for a good cause. He approached the tank and unlocked it, stripping off his singlet as well and stepped into the tank with you. You could see the beads of sweat rolling down his chest and abs as he squeezed past you, back muscles pressed against the side of the tank.

He stood directly behind you you could feel his core against your back, and staring down you could see is tanned feet standing either side of the barstool your feet were resting on. The tutor came back over and once again locked the door shut. You joked with him "Welcome to the gunge tank bud how're you feeling now?"

Alex laughed back "how do you always seem to twist this?" as he stood in tight underneath the nozzle of the tank above. "Right" said the tutor "I think we are ready now" motioning for another countdown. The crowd started slowly, 54.3..2.1 and the tutor pulled the cord.

You both looked up simultaneously to hear a click as the nozzle opened so quick the first thing you felt was the downpouring of gunge, instantly closing your eyes. You put your face down wiping the gunge away from your eyes and leaned back against Alex's core to get more of the gunge all over you, looking up as the stream coated your face and body.

Behind you, you could feel his hard body push against you now to get himself under the deluge of gunge as he lifted his arms up into the gunge stream and running his hands through his hair as the stream continued to rain down. It just kept coming as you looked down and around colours of pink, blue, green, yellow, purple and orange all clear and swirling through the mess.

As it dropped down and pooled in the seat there was a steady stream running off the front, hitting your ankles touched together and coating your feet. Looking down at the bottom of the tank you could start to see Alex's bare feet disappear under the gunge and around the rest of the tank waves of gunge had been hitting the walls and bouncing back onto both of you. Both of you had well defined muscles under all this gunge and the workouts before were definitely helping define them.

The two of you continued to rock backwards and forwards sharing the load of gunge between you as the stream started to slow down. He joked that it looked like a unicorn threw up on you and you replied that he didn't look much better. Alex took one last face full of gunge as the last of it dribbled out and then started to pick up handfuls of gunge from the floor of the tank and drop it on your head.

The tutor joked "Looks like our guys are having a good time in the tank there thanks for supporting us and look forward to seeing you next year!" You and Alex didn't take much notice of what was going on outside the gunge tank as you stood up, placing your bare feet into to the pool of gunge and grabbing handfuls of gunge to sling around the tank as well.

It lasted a few minutes as the crowds started to leave and then you joked with each other you should probably get cleaned up. You beckoned for someone to come over and open the tank as they did the wave of gunge escaped and caused another wave of laughs from the few remaining people. A couple of nearby reporters came over and took a few photos for the local press and then headed off leaving just the two of you to slowly make your way to the showers underneath all the slippery mess.
"That was fun dude" Alex said to you, joking as he wiped the gunge away from his eyes. "Although I'm pretty sure there should be revenge for getting me in that tank with you." You laughed and rolled your eyes. Here we go again.