Kira and Megan exchanged icy glares as they sat beside one another in the empty office. They wouldn't normally have been caught dead together if not for one thing: They both had the same boss. That same boss who called them to a mandatory meeting at 4:30 PM on a Friday the day after Halloween.


Kira looked especially perturbed, the gorgeous redhead's dour expression not helped by the comical black nose and kitty whiskers still on her face from last night's costume party. Not wanting her Halloween cat costume to get smudged, she'd taken Megan's advice and used a pen. A pen that Megan had handed her from the shipping department containing a waterproof, oil-and-grease resistant dye for marking industrial equipment. An hour of scrubbing had left Kira's porcelain lightly freckled skin raw but had failed to put even the lighted fading on her kitty costume makeup. She'd been forced to work like this all day, every hallway interaction punctuated with alternating sympathetic glances and playful 'meows' from her colleagues. Safely back at her desk in the inventory planning department for the large warehouse box store they worked in, she even thought she heard purring coming from behind her cubicle wall, but when she'd leapt up to check she only saw Megan working busily away with a smirk.


Megan lounged lazily in the chair beside Kira twirling a strand of her raven hair in her finger, her long leg dangling her high heel off her gorgeous foot playfully, and annoyingly snapping her gum. Megan was always chewing gum. That sound drove Kira up the wall. Their boss Ryan entered the small office and closed the door behind him with a heavy sigh. He sat in his office chair facing his inventory planning team and slowly shook his head. "Hello Ladies. Would you both please describe the events that led up to you ordering 90 gallons of black and orange cake frosting for the bakery?" he sighed.


"That was Kira's idea." Megan exclaimed, throwing her coworker under the bus early. Kira scowled but maintained her professional demeanor.


"How do you figure that, Megan, I'm curious." Kira growled.


Megan gulped, but proceeded. "I asked how much we'd need for Halloween pastries and cakes in the Bakery and you said to use last year as a guide."


"You ordered three times as much as last year!" Kira shot back.


"I know, but last year Halloween was on a weekend, it was midweek this week. I simply took what we used on Halloween last year and tripled it since there were Halloween parties on the weekend before and the weekend after, not to mention D de los Muertos." Megan explained matter-of-factly. Kira stood wide-eyed and speechless at her colleague's twisted logic. Ryan just set his head on his desk, burying his hands in his hair in disbelief.


Ryan collected himself and stood. "I'll make this simple. You will find a creative, ethical way to get this frosting off our department's books. If you don't, let's just say I'll have to find a creative way to cut our team's budget permanently. Do I make myself clear?"


"Yes Boss." both girls responded glumly.


"Good." Ryan's face softened and he stood up. "Then enjoy your weekend. I look forward to hearing your plan Monday."


Both girls glumly treaded back to their desks. "This place is a circus!" grumbled Kira. Megan snapped her fingers. "That's it!" What's orange and black?" Megan asked excitedly.

Kira rolled her eyes. "Basketballs, pumpkins, traffic cones, the charred remains of my career?" Megan groaned.


"No, circus tigers!" grinned Megan. "We throw a circus themed promotion. We can put on a couple of tiger costumes and make a bunch of tiger-colored pies with the leftover frosting. Customers can line up to Pie a Tiger!" Megan offered.


Kira scoffed. "That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard!" she grumbled.


"Dumber than having to go to your next job interview with a kitten nose and whiskers?" grinned Megan. Kira sighed, but knew she was right. And the store could write off the frosting as a promotional expense and pawn the bill off on Marketing. It was Kira's time to break into a grin.

They both abruptly spun in the hallway just as Ryan was locking up his office. "Oh BOSSSSS!" they grinned. Ryan's face went white when he heard their idea, but making his team's budget problem someone else's outweighed the risk. "Ok, make it happen." he rolled his eyes. Kira and Megan high-fived in the hallway and rushed to the backroom to prepare. Rifling through the unsold Halloween costumes, Kira found two thin spandex tiger costumes. "They're too small!" Megan complained.


"They're spandex they'll stretch." offered Kira, not actually believing it herself. A few calls to facilities and the plans were set for Monday.


Both girls couldn't believe their eyes when they entered the store Monday morning. A cardboard cutout of a circus tent greeted shoppers. Two circus style animal cages were positioned in the front of the store. Balloons and free popcorn were being handed out on either side. Between the two cages was an enormous table loaded with orange and black cream pies. Some had tiger stripes, some were swirls of black and orange, a few were banana cream and lemon meringue pies past their sell-by dates rescued for a higher purpose. Above all in vintage script was a sign that read PIE A TIGER! Both women hurried to the employee washroom to don their tiger costumes.


As both women feared, the cheap spandex strained under their gorgeous figures, orange and black stripes only accentuating the women's curves. the small zippers were going above the call of duty to preserve their modesty. They pulled on tiger ear headbands and returned to the front of the store.


In each cage was a metal chair. Above the chair only now did the women notice a series of buckets and ropes hovering above them like Damocles' sword. "Let me help you up." offered Kira to Megan who was surprised but grateful for the help. Kira gave Megan a lift up into the cage before handing her a pair of tiger paw mittens. "Here, put these on while I fix your makeup." Kira smiled sweetly leaning in to add a kitten nose and whiskers onto Megan while she struggled with the plush paws. "Hey, there's something sticky in these!" wailed Megan. Kira just smirked and held up the same industrial marker she'd been tricked into using and an empty tube of adhesive to Megan with a giggle.


Megan took her position in her cage while Ryan stepped towards the table wearing a ringleader costume. Raising a megaphone, Ryan announced with a flourish that all were invited to try their luck to pie a tiger. The tiger with the most pies at the end of the day would receive a special surprise. Ryan then thanked the local TV News station for sending a reporter and camera. The beautiful blonde reporter seemed to relish today's assignment, eagerly egging on the crowd while the cameraman took B-roll. Soon a line of customers snaked through the entrance.


The first customer approached, a young college student on his way to class. He selected a vivid orange pie and let it fly, colliding with Megan's shocked face with a wet splatter through the bars of her cage. She tried to clear her face but her fluffy orange and white paws only streaked it around a bit. Ryan recorded the first hit on a chalkboard.


Next was a single mother who selected a chocolate cream pie well past its prime, choosing Kira as her target. The pie fell short, landing with a wet splat into Kira's lap. The cold filling had a strong old whipped cream smell, and Kira couldn't tell if she'd been lucky yet or not by avoiding a direct hit.

Soon the crowd found a rhythm, and both girls suffered a barrage of orange and black pies heavily coating their faces and chests, costumes straining with the weight of the messy desserts. The score stayed nearly even however, and soon there were only a few pies left. The crowd thinned, and finally closing time approached, both girls unrecognizable blobs of cloying sweet black and orange goo.


Ryan consulted the score. "It seems we have a tie!" he told the women who by now were well over the novelty of the day's events and would have done anything to be clean once more. Ryan pulled two chains, unleashing a thick purple deluge over the head of each of the girls. Thick gelatinous canned beets slapped heavily over Kira, while sticky melted cranberry sauce slapped over Megan. Both girls let out squeals of disgust. Ryan chuckled. "You girls overbought for Thanksgiving too." he laughed and snapped his own pictures of his unrecognizably sticky team.


Megan and Kira exchanged knowing looks, stood smoothly and stepped out of their cages, rushing their boss and snatching up the remaining pies, smushing his head in a very thick pie sandwich, obliterating his features under the thick frosting. While he clawed at his eyes to regain his vision, both girls gently pushed his chest, guiding him backwards towards the cage on the right, mounds of thick frosting, smelly whipped cream, thick pie filling and cranberry sauce deeply covering the cage floor. He tumbled backwards onto his butt and Kira and Megan giggled, closing the cage door with a clank. "Goodnight, Ryan. See you in the morning!" Ryan faced them with a heavy sigh and puppy dog eyes while both girls giggled as they turned and headed for the employee showers.