Brontie was a classically trained musician who desperately wanted to achieve fame as a singer. She had signed with a major record label earlier in the year and had been brought together with two other young women to form a new girl group. As the other two young women had an "alt" vibe, Kate had purple hair and tattoos running up both arms whilst Vanessa had pink hair and was covered in piercings, it had been decided to play up on this image.

The group were named the Rocket Girls and their manager, a short dumpy middle-aged woman called Debbie, had insisted that Brontie do something to her appearance to better fit in if she wanted to remain part of the line-up. Not wanting to permanently mark herself with either tattoos or piercings, Brontie had reluctantly agreed to shave the sides of her head and dye her remaining hair blue.

With their image now decided the girls had been given studio time to record a couple of demo songs. The first was a hastily re-written version of a popular girl group hit from a decade before that everyone knew wasn't going to go anywhere. The second was an okay song with a decent beat behind it that had a chance of becoming a minor hit. So, with an image and now a song sorted they now needed publicity.

"I've got you a booking on a new music show" Debbie announced.

The show was on some obscure channel that only about a third of the country could tune into, but at least it was a start. Brontie and the girls were excited to be finally getting their chance for stardom.

* * *

When they got to the studio it was all a little less impressive than they'd imagined. Even the ever-enthusiastic Debbie appeared to be momentarily disheartened by the place. It was distinctly shabby and smelt of spilt alcohol and stale tobacco. One of the crew mentioned that it used to be an adult movie theatre up until six weeks ago when the channel had acquired it. It wasn't the best of starts and it only got worse for Brontie when they arrived in the changing room.

Debbie was excited to show them the costumes the company had dreamt up for them. Basically, they consisted black boots and spiked leather jackets over the top of white one-piece swimsuits. Kate loved them immediately, Vanessa's reaction was more neutral but Brontie was horrified by them. They showed off a lot more flesh than she was comfortable with and in any case, she thought they looked ridiculous.

"Now strip off quickly girls and get changed" Debbie instructed.

Not seeing any alternative, Brontie did as she was told and soon all three girls were standing there in their new stage attire. Brontie thought they looked at bit like rejects from a bad nineteen eighties science fiction show. However, she had to admit that they did look sexy especially Kate whose impressive chest was barely contained by the swimsuit. They were then ushered from the changing room to the studio area.

There were two presenters for the show, called Joe and Amy, sitting behind a counter-like desk. Both were typical kids' TV presenters with Joe being a lean twenty year old with hair much like a mop and Amy being a bubbly blonde with just enough curves to keep the dads watching. This was apparently a step up for both of them to teen/adult television and both seemed desperately keen to make the show a success.

"The guys will interview you shortly once they've done their introductions" one of the stagehand announced.

"Where's the audience?" Brontie asked.

"We're not bothering with a live audience for these pilot shows," the stagehand explained "we'll add in a laughter track and some applause during the editing process before transmission. We informed your manager about this, didn't she tell you?"

Before Brontie could respond the lights in the studio dimmed and everyone was told to keep quiet. When the lights came back up Joe and Amy waved at the camera and introduced themselves. They then announced that they had the newest girl group in the studio for a chat and some games. Brontie didn't like the sound of that especially when seconds later a custard pie appeared in Joe's hand and he hit Amy in the face with it.

Amy didn't seem to object to her colleague's conduct and simply wiped most of the pie filling from her face before announcing the Rocket Girls as their guests tonight. The three young woman walked on to the stage and sat down beside the two presenters. Amy asked them to introduce themselves and after they had done so Joe brought out another custard pie and splattered Kate in the face with it.

"What the fu..." Kate began.

It was clear that Kate hadn't been expecting the pie but there was little she could do about it now. The interview continued with Amy complementing them on their style and attire. As she did so Joe retrieved two pies from behind the desk and deposited the first one on top of Amy's head before leaning forward and placing the second one in Vanessa's resigned face. She'd obviously been anticipated something similar after Kate's fate.

Brontie dreaded what she knew was about to happen but as her only other choice was a run off and kiss her music career goodbye she sat there nervously waiting for her inevitable humiliation. It came at the end of the interview as Joe bought out another couple of pies, the first he rubbed into Amy's face before suddenly Amy grabbed the remaining pie off him and thrust it into Brontie's face.

"Sorry girls I must have forgotten to mention the pies," Debbie their manager apologised "but you've got to expect a little mess on these kinds of shows. And after all it's fantastic publicity for the single."

Brontie wasn't impressed with Debbie's explanation but at least it had only been a single pie in the face, and whilst she wasn't looking forward to the teasing she knew would be coming from her friends and family, it could have certainly been a lot worse. She recalled game shows from her youth where unfortunate contestants would get gunged or slimed for losing and was just thankful they'd not been subjected to such treatment.

One of the stagehands showed the three girls back to the changing room so they could get cleaned up. It didn't take too long to wipe the custard from their faces, out of their hair and off their jackets. Unfortunately, Vanessa had messed up the front of her swimsuit and when she dampened it to clean off the custard it turned partly transparent. What was worse the stagehand then announced that the girls were expected back in the studio for the next part of the show.

"What next part?" Vanessa demanded.

"The gunge drop," the stagehand answered, "we agreed this all with your manager, didn't she tell you?"

The girls made their way back to the studio. Kate actually seemed to quite like the idea of getting gunged. Vanessa wasn't so keen but was committed to do whatever was needed to achieve fame and success. Brontie was reluctant to go back but couldn't see any way out of the situation and just hoped the gunging wouldn't be too extreme. She'd certainly wanted to have a few words with their manager later.

The studio has undergone a minor transformation and where the counter had been there was now inflatable pool with three plastic chairs in it. Suspended from the ceiling were three large barrel-like objects each positioned above one of the chairs. The three girls were instructed to sit down on one of the chairs and then straps were produced and their arms were secured to the chairs.

Then to make matters worse the stagehands pulled the girl's leather jackets off their shoulders and rested them over the backs of the chairs; so, in effect the girls were sitting there in just their swimsuits and boots. This provoked more than a few admiring glances from the male stagehands, especially for Kate's impressive chest and Vanessa whose somewhat transparent swimsuit did little to hide her assets.

"Now to avoid the gunge you each need to answer your question correctly and together earn forty points" Joe explained.

Joe asked Vanessa the first question which she got right. He then asked Brontie the second question which after a moment's hesitation she also answered correctly. Then came Kate. Brontie knew that Kate knew the answer but she appeared in two minds about saying it. Whether Kate really did want to get gunged or was just building up the tension she wasn't sure but luckily when Joe pressed her for an answer Kate gave it.

They had actually got all the questions right and Brontie couldn't believe how fortunate they'd been. She smiled in relief at her two bandmates. However, looking round at the presenters and stagehands present she got the feeling that things were far from over. Suddenly she started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Well done, you've correctly answered all three questions for ten points each," Joe stated, "unfortunately that still means you're ten point shy of the total needed."

"But that's not fair!" Brontie blurted out.

The presenters found Brontie's outburst amusing and collapsed into fits of giggles. This soon spread to the stagehands and even to Debbie the girl's manager. She didn't seem to be the least upset about the rigged games or the girl's impending degradation. In fact, if Brontie didn't know better, she'd have sworn that Debbie had planned the whole thing.

Then to a chorus of "Gunge 'em" Amy stepped over to a series of levers and pulled the first one. Thick pink gunge poured down over Kate and soon she was completely coated in the stuff. Then Amy pulled the second lever. Brontie cringed as she anticipated the gunge falling upon her but she felt nothing. Instead it was Vanessa who suffered the second gunging as she was covered in thick blue gunge. That just left Brontie.

Amy pulled the third and final lever and a torrent of thick green gunge struck Brontie on the top of her head before flowing down all over her body. The gunge even managed to find its way inside her swimsuit and soon she felt the odd sensation of it pooling around her crotch. She was absolutely mortified by the whole experience and just wanted to get cleaned up and leave. Unfortunately, like her bandmates she was still strapped to the chair.

"That's about all for this week" Joe said to the camera.

"See you next time" Amy added.

As soon as Amy had completed her line Joe attacked her with a couple of pies to either side of her head. As he did so one of the stagehands bought out another plastic chair and placed it into the pool alongside those already occupied by the Rocket Girls. Joe manhandled Amy over to the chair before securing her to it. Then he and the stagehands began to assemble buckets of various messy substances.

Amy struggled to escape the chair but it was no use. Soon the first bucket, containing cold soup, had been thrown over her. And the torment continued as more buckets were thrown over her containing custard, gravy and porridge. Of course, the Rocket Girls didn't escape this barrage of buckets and Brontie was especially upset when she received a large quantity of baked beans in the face, her least favourite food. What was worse, it had been Debbie who'd thrown it at her.

The deluge of mess continued for quite some time and all four women were eventually reduced to piles of brown sludge. Amy was released first and allowed to escape. But as a final indignity for the Rocket Girls their boots were removed, filled with whatever mess was left lying around and then returned to their feet before they were freed. It made for a very uncomfortable walk back to their changing room.

* * *

The Rocket Girls' first single reached number nineteen in the charts but was considered a failure by the record company. They were dropped and shortly afterwards split up. However, they remained long in the memories of those fortunate few who had actually seen the show or the hundreds of thousands who saw the video on social media and kept watching it again and again.

Kate became a TV presenter hosting a late night show about sexual fetishes. Vanessa married a minor league football player and was soon appearing on a reality show. Brontie gave up the idea of being famous and enrolled in college to become a librarian.