Danielle had been working for the minor league basketball team in her hometown since she had graduated from college in May six months ago. She had thought a marketing degree would be a great way to get a job on the coast (either would have been fine with her) but her options were limited and although she was back in her hometown, the job wasn't all that bad. She helped come up with and run different promotions for the team, with the long term goal of turning this experience into a big time job with a major league team in any sport (in a big coastal city).
Since the Flyers were a minor league team, there weren't a lot of fans at the games, but they did get their games broadcast on the local TV station. Danielle worked with her boss, Jennifer, to try and get more people to attend the games. Jennifer had been working for the team for the last 3 years and had convinced ownership that she needed some help, which resulted in Danielle getting hired.
Danielle also worked with the mascot team, who took the Flyers mascot, BuzzBee, out to community events and birthday parties. The guy who dressed in the BuzzBee costume was named Jeff, and he had been the mascot for the last year, when the team decided they needed someone to relate to the kids. He was nice but Danielle made it a point not to hang out too much with people from work, especially since she planned on moving away in a couple of years.
It was about two months into the new season and attendance was down from the previous season. The pressure was on Danielle and Jennifer to get it going in the right direction. They held a meeting with the mascot team to brainstorm new ideas. There was lots of talk about ticket giveaways, school promotions, and some sarcastic talk about making the team play better so they could actually win a game or two.
At one point, their discussions were interrupted by the sound of laughter coming from one of the cubicles. It was coming from one of the guys in ticket sales, Martin. Jennifer walked over to his cube to tell him to quiet down but was quickly laughing along with Martin.
We are so going to do this! Jennifer called out to the team. Send me that link, ASAP!
Jennifer gathered the group around her laptop to watch the video that was causing so much laughter in the office. It was from an NBA game in Houston and their mascot was carrying a birthday cake up into the stands, when he trips and pushes the cake into the face of an unsuspecting woman. She looks completely disgusted while her boyfriend sits laughing at her. It was pretty entertaining, Danielle thought to herself.
Look at all the hits this is getting. It was on their local news, on SportsCenter, on Twitter. This is what we need.
Our crowds aren't that big. What are the odds we get a beautiful young woman in the crowd, willing to get caked? Jeff asked.
We put the odds in our favor. We have a perfect person for that sitting right here. And all eyes turned to Danielle.
Wait a minute...why me? Danielle pleaded. Danielle had considered herself to be tall, at least until she had started working for the basketball team. She was about 5'11 but was way shorter than anyone on the team and was shorter than any of the other women in the office. Apparently they had been basketball players as well...
You're perfect for it. We can even do it better. We can have you dressed as a fan of the other team. I remember seeing that you did acting in college on your resume. It'll be fun!
Danielle tried to argue but it was a lost cause. Everyone in the room was on board. It was decided that they should do it when the team's biggest rival, the Lions, were in town. The two teams, and the two cities were fierce rivals. The crowd would love to see someone supporting their rivals get their comeuppance.
Plans were finalized and finally it was the night of the game. Danielle wore a pair of tight skinny jeans with rips in them along with a pair of stiletto heels. They were really trying to play up the stereotypes of people who supported the Lions. She wore a tight, long sleeved blouse that did a great job of showing off her cleavage and then had a Lions jersey on over that. Her long blonde hair flowed down over her shoulders and she had to laugh at her costume. Jeff, the mascot guy, had also given her a pair of fake glasses to wear to protect her eyes.
It was decided that Danielle shouldn't be by herself, so the ticket guy, Martin, was drafted to be her boyfriend for the show. Danielle didn't know much about him, but wasn't too worried about it because the evening would be over soon as they had planned to make this happen at the end of the first quarter.
The game started and much like the season and gone to date, the Flyers were losing and the crowd was small. Danielle was just sitting in her seat, which was about 5 rows up from the court when Martin reminded her that she was supposed to be a Lions fan and she should act more excited about how the game was going.
Danielle decided she had nothing to lose so she started yelling and cheering for the Lions, loudly. There were a handful of other Lions fans in the crowd but Danielle was the most noticeable, with her looks, her outfit, and her willingness to get loud in a small crowd. Jennifer would later tell Danielle that even some of the Lions players were noticing her and that she probably could have gotten some action had she wanted it.
Finally, the first quarter was coming to an end. Danielle stood up as the period ended and cheered loudly. The PA announcer started to announce the birthdays being celebrated that evening. Normally they would have had 1 or 2 but Jennifer had recruited some of the team staff to have birthdays as well. There were now 6 people standing on the platform about 10 rows up from where Danielle was standing.
Then, BuzzBee came out onto the court, with a couple of his handlers, carrying a big birthday cake. He headed up the stairs towards Danielle as the crowd sang Happy Birthday.
Danielle was trying to not look directly at the mascot who was about to slam the cake onto her. She thought back and tried to remember if she had ever been caked or pied before. She remembered a big shaving cream fight that had happened at the end of a run of a play she was part of in college, but nothing else outside of that. Too late to turn back now. She thought to herself.
She looked straight ahead as BuzzBee got close and then it happened. The mascot tripped and slipped sending his fuzzy arms forward with the large cake. It slammed into her face to start, engulfing her head in frosting, which apparently made up most of the cake. She couldn't see anything. She could feel it being smeared down the front of her body, all over her clothes. There was bits of cake and frosting dripping off her head down to her arms and legs. She felt a big blob land right onto her heels. She ran her tongue over her lips and got a good sugary taste of what covered her.
Danielle then remembered she was supposed to act shocked and surprised at what had happened so she went into acting mode. She slowly pulled her fake glasses off and then wiped the remaining frosting out of her eyes, with her mouth agape in surprise. She heard laughter and saw Martin was unable to contain his amusement so she smeared some frosting in his face. She looked down and saw frosting smeared from her neck down to her knees. She ran her hands back through her hair and felt frosting completely covering her long blonde hair.
She just stood there for a second, as she would later see the mascot also laughing and pointing her during that time before one of the mascot handlers, Tammy, grabbed Danielle's hand and led her up the stairs and into a normally locked door, to get her down to an area where she could get cleaned up. You did great. How are you feeling?
Like I need a shower... Danielle laughed.
Well...there's no shower but there's some towels and a sink in this bathroom. I also brought your change of clothes down here. Tammy explained as she opened the bathroom door for the frosting covered lady.
Danielle closed the door behind her and for the first time saw herself in the mirror. Her head was covered, with frosting pushing her hair in all directions. She could barely make out the jersey she was wearing because it looked like she was wearing a top of cake and frosting.
She pulled the jersey over her head, revealing a blouse that had a lot more cake and frosting on it than she had imagined. She pulled it off as well, and then moved onto her bottom half. She slipped her feet out of her heels that were both covered in the mess that had dripped off of her. She slid her stockings in the cake mess on the floor, surprisingly enjoying the sensation on her stocking feet.
Next came off the jeans, which had several streaks of cake frosting on them. She forgot that these jeans were ripped on purpose which meant that her legs showed off some cake mess, even after removing the jeans. So looked back at the mirror at herself and had to laugh. She was standing in her lacy underwear, with a head covered in cake and frosting and streaks of the same on the various other parts of her body.
Danielle rinsed her head off as best she could under the sink and then used up the towels to wipe everything else off. She finally gave up on getting all of the frosting out of her hair, and put on the workout clothes she had thrown in a bag earlier that day. She threw the messed up clothes and shoes into a trash bag she had packed and headed out towards the garage where she was parked.
When she got to her car there was a note on the door along with a bouquet of flowers. She opened up the note.
The Flyers want to thank you for your dedication and efforts tonight. We are truly glad you are part of our organization. Have a great night and dessert is on us! Attached to the note was a gift card to Jenny's Bakery, which was a local bakery that also sponsored the team.
Danielle laughed and got into her car to head home. She was looking forward to a long, hot shower. When she got home, she checked her phone and it was blowing up with messages and notifications. Apparently the clip of her getting caked had already started getting views on YouTube and Twitter. The local news had also aired the clip and the team was getting lots of messages about it on Facebook.
Danielle couldn't believe that people were watching the clip. And really, it hadn't been as bad as she had expected. She actually liked the way the frosting had felt on her skin and had actually wondered what it would feel like if she had been smeared with more cake while she was in her underwear. But quickly dismissed it as just being in the moment.
When she got out of the shower, she had even more messages on her phone, from co-workers, from friends, from family members, and even oddly from some ex-boyfriends. She didn't know what that was about but decided that she wanted to go to bed and would figure it all out in the morning when it all died down.
She listened to music off her phone on the way to work the next morning, not tuning in to the local sports radio station talking about her, wondering who she was, wanting to talk to her, and multiple comments and callers saying that she was "hot." When she walked into the space that held the team offices, she received a standing ovation from her co-workers. Danielle thought they were just making fun of her, being ridiculous, and those thoughts continued when she got to her desk to find a big slice of cake and frosting on a plate awaiting her arrival. "Very funny guys." She said out loud.
Jennifer was suddenly at her desk. "Can you believe it?"
"Believe what?"
"Our website got more hits last night than ever before. The YouTube video we posted was watched more times than all of the other videos we've posted, combined! We've added 50,000 new followers on Twitter and we're getting all sorts of calls from local TV and radio stations, wanting to talk to you. It's like the team won the championship, only better!"
"That seems unlikely. Both the team winning the championship and people watching me get messed up by our mascot."
"It's true," said a voice walking down the hallway of cubicles. It was James, the team president. "That ridiculous stunt actually made a huge impact. Great job!"
"Thanks?" Danielle replied. "Let's hope this keeps going and isn't reliant on me getting messed up. By the way, did we win last night?"
"We actually did. First win in two weeks. You must be our good luck charm." Jennifer said, with a big grin on her face.
"Uh...no." Danielle responded, rolling her eyes at her boss.