It had been a quiet day at work with very few customers popping in due to the holidays, so for once Kayleigh's boss had let her go early. And as she still has a couple of hours left on her parking ticket she decided to spend the time window shopping. She made her way to the town's main shopping centre and started leisurely meander from one dress shop to another; clothes being her great passion.

The first couple of shops failed to spark her interest and she was marking her way to a third when she noticed a colourful poster advertising a new TV show called Primetime Payback which would be filming in the town shortly. Apparently, members of the public could get revenge on their friends and family for various misdeeds usually in messy and humiliating ways. Besides the poster was a snack of forms to apply for the show and a box to post the completed forms into.

Kayleigh smiled to herself, she thought it would be very amusing to see some of her friends get messed up even if they hadn't done anything to deserve it. She grabbed a handful of the application forms and a pen and looked around for somewhere to fill them in. She noticed a coffee shop across the way and as she could also do with a drink headed over there.

"Vanilla latte with whipped cream" Kayleigh said to the barista.

After paying and waiting for her drink, Kayleigh took a seat and started looking through the forms. They seemed straightforward, your name and contact details, the name of the person you wanted payback on and the reason for the payback. There was also a fair amount of small print at the bottom of the forms which Kayleigh didn't bother reading.

Kayleigh completed the first form for her friend Sue claiming she'd stolen Kayleigh's last boyfriends. If truth be told, it was probably the other way around. She then did one for Danielle saying she'd borrowed Kayleigh's favourite dress and never given it back. This was a blatant lie as Kayleigh never lent out her dresses even to her best friends. Next up was Lydia who she wrote had pushed Kayleigh's face into her birthday cake last month, which was again untrue.

At that point Kayleigh ran out of ideas and discarded the remaining forms she'd picked up. After finishing her drink, she went back over towards the poster and posted the three completed application forms into the box.

* * *

A couple of days later Kayleigh got a phone call from a number she didn't recognise. Initially she was inclined to ignore it, assuming it was someone trying to sell her something. But at the last moment she changed her mind and answered the call. It was the Primetime Payback production company and they were keen to invite Kayleigh to appear on the show but just needed to review a few details about her friends first.

"Oh yes," Kayleigh said, "that love cheat Danielle, dress stealing Lydia and cake smashing Sue."

"But according to your application forms it was Sue who stole your boyfriend, Danielle who didn't return your dress and Sue who pushed your face into a cake. Isn't that correct?" the production assistant queried.

"Yes that's right, sorry it's a bad connection here" Kayleigh said, trying to cover her mistake.

Luckily the production assistant accepted Kayleigh's feeble excuse. Kayleigh went on to confirm the lies she'd told about her friends and provided their contact details, so they could be sent tickets to the show. This was going to be hilarious she thought.

* * *

The following weekend Kayleigh arranged to meet up with her three friends at the local pub for drinks before heading to the show. Her friends had expressed surprise at receiving the tickets through the post and wondered what the show was about. Kayleigh explained she'd seen an advert for the show and had managed to scope free VIP tickets for them all but plead ignorance about the content of the show.

"I guess we'll just have to wait until we see it" Lydia said.

After a couple of drinks, the four friends left the pub and headed to the theatre where the show was being filmed. There was a long queue of people waiting to enter the theatre, but Kayleigh and her friends flashed their special tickets at the ushers and were allowed to jump the queue and enter first. They also picked up free drinks and snacks before being shown to their seats on the front row.

"Great seats" Sue commented.

The friends drank, ate and chatted as the theatre began to fill up. Soon the lights dimmed and the show's warm up act took to the stage. He told a few jokes that had the audience laughing before explaining about some of the aspects of the show. It has a brand-new entertainment show to be shown on primetime television and would include surprises for both the guest stars and some members of the audience.

"I wonder if I one of us might receive a surprise?" Danielle whispered.

Kayleigh almost lost it at that point and had to pretend to cough to cover the huge grin that had been spreading across her face. Her friends looked at her with concern, but she signalled she was okay and they went back to watch the warm-up guy whilst Kayleigh tried harder to keep a straight face.

Next the shows two hosts Joe and Amy made their way on to the stage to introduce themselves. Joe was a fairly attractive young man despite his unkempt hair, and his partner in crime Amy was a short blonde with a large chest which Kayleigh instantly out down to breast implants. Apparently, the duo uses to host a kids show on an obscure satellite channel.

Then the warm-up guy took over again, telling a few more jokes and asking the audience to clap and cheer at various points throughout the show. He then waved goodbye as the lights dimmed once again, the cameras started recording and the show began.

* * *

"Hello and welcome to the first ever Primetime Payback!" Joe announced.

Kayleigh, her friends and the rest of the theatre crowd cheered and clapped as they'd been coaxed to by the warm-up guy. The cameras planned over the enthusiastic audience before returning to focus on the presenters again.

"And let's introduce tonight's guest star, Robbie Dreams!" Amy stated.

Robbie walked out on stage to thunderous applause. He was an American movie star with a reputation for being somewhat conceited and just happened to have a new film coming out. He had almost reached the two presenters when a couple of stagehands dressed as ninjas and bearing custard pies ambushed him; they thrust the pies into his face before rearming themselves and hitting him all over with the creamy desserts.

Kayleigh along with most of those present was initially quite shocked to see what was happening right before their eyes. And more was to follow as the stagehands acquired buckets of gunge and emptied them all over an incredulous looking Robbie. By this time the audience was going absolutely wild as they watched the Hollywood actor being completely, utterly and totally humiliated.

* * *

After the show's unexpected start there was a musical interlude courtesy of an up and coming pop group before the two presenters reappeared on stage to address the theatre audience. Joe had in his hand a small stack of papers.

"I have here," Joe said indicating the papers "requests for payback on three people sitting in the audience here tonight. So, let's welcome on to the stage Kayleigh, Sue, Danielle and Lydia."

The lights dimmed, and the theatre spotlights highlighted Kayleigh and her friends in the front row. Joe's partner Amy had left the stage and encouraged the four of them to stand up and follow her on to the stage. She kept Sue, Danielle and Lydia together with her whilst indicating for Kayleigh to join Joe, which she did.

"Now Kayleigh, I understand we have you to thank for bringing these people to our attention?" Joe asked.

Standing in front of the packed theatre, Kayleigh was a little nervous all of a sudden and didn't trust herself to speak. Instead she just nodded towards Joe and smiled at the audience as she tried to avoid the accusing gaze of her three friends. Joe meanwhile quickly flicked through the papers he was holding pretending to review them.

"So, Sue here stole your boyfriend, Danielle borrowed your favourite dress and never returned it and Lydia pushed you into your own birthday cake last month," he continued. "Personally, I'm surprised you're still friends with them all."

The audience reacted with "boos" and derision at Kayleigh's three friends and she started to feel slightly guilty for setting them up. But, not guilty enough to back down and admit her deception.

"Wait a minute Joe, none of that is true and I can prove it!" Amy exclaimed.

Kayleigh was surprised at Amy's outburst and looked over at her three friends. All three were grinning at her and none of them appeared to be overly concerned about being bought up on stage or of being falsely accused. Could it be that all her plotting had been for nothing? The audience certainly didn't know what to make of this new information.

"Let's check with your ex-boyfriend if Sue stole him off you" Amy stated.

The theatre lights dimmed once again and this time the spotlights revealed a cute looking guy sitting in the sixth row. Kayleigh instantly recognised her former boyfriend Warren and hoped forlornly that he would back up her lies. But he told the truth, about how he had previously dated Kayleigh but had in fact dated Sue before that. So technically it had been Kayleigh who had stolen him off Sue.

The audience began to turn on Kayleigh, with some booing at her and others shouting "liar". But, for Kayleigh things were only going to get worse as Amy walked off stage and returned moments later holding Kayleigh 's favourite short black dress up for everyone to see.

"Look what we found in your wardrobe when we snuck into your flat earlier," she said accusingly "and let's see some video from your recent birthday party."

The curtains at the rear of the stage opened to reveal a giant screen on to which was projected various still images and fragments of videos from Kayleigh's last birthday. In none of them did it show Lydia pushing Kayleigh's face in a cake. However, what it did show was Kayleigh miming that she was going to throw some cake at Lydia, which she didn't do but it didn't look good.

"So, what do you think we should do?" Joe asked the audience.

The theatre audience screamed for Kayleigh to be punished and it was clear that her three friends wholeheartedly agreed with them. The two stagehands from before, still dressed as ninjas but minus the custard pies, came out and escorted a bewildered Kayleigh backstage.

* * *

Kayleigh was shown to a changing room and told to wait for a change of clothing. She certainly didn't like the sound of that but at the same time was glad she wouldn't be wearing her own clothes when whatever punishment they had planned was inflicted upon her. It seemed as if she'd really managed to drop herself in it this time.

As she sat down to wait, Kayleigh started to wonder what was happening on stage. Had they messed up another superstar or found another poor unsuspecting member of the audience to humiliate? Kayleigh was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she jumped when the door opened and the stagehand gave her the dress Amy had displayed earlier.

"But that's my favourite!" Kayleigh remarked.

"It's either that or you go back on stage in just your underwear" the stagehand said.

Kayleigh was tempted to make a break for it and flee her upcoming fate, but it seemed the show's producers had already thought of that and there was a stagehand planted right outside the door, conveniently blocking her exit route. So, with no other options she reluctantly stripped off and put on her little black dress.

* * *

Kayleigh was led back towards the stage and she could see that there was now a huge vat sitting in the middle. Against the vat was a ladder leading up to a precarious situated seat. The two presenters and her friends were standing off to one side and Sue had what looked like a remote control in her hands whilst there was a lever beside Danielle. Kayleigh was accompanied by boos as she walked onto the stage.

"I think you can guess where you belong" Joe stated.

The audience laughed at the presenter's jibe and Kayleigh stepped over to the vat and began to climb the ladder. As she did so there were several wolf whistles as her short dress rode up to reveal her shapely legs. Reaching the top of the ladder she could see the vat was half filled with thick green gunge. She slowly lowered herself into the seat being careful not to prematurely end up in the gunge.

"Kayleigh you falsely accused your friends of various misdeeds and tried to get them humiliated" Amy said as she turned to face the audience. "What do you think we should do to her?"

They responded with an enthusiastic chorus of "gunge her". So, Joe turned to Sue and indicated for her to press the button on the remote she was holding. Sue looked up at Kayleigh and smiled before firmly pressing the button.

Kayleigh expected her seat to give way and to be dumped into the vat of gunge. Instead she was showered with runny pink slime from above much to the amusement of her friends and the watching audience. The slime was cold and wet and soon both Kayleigh and her dress were soaking wet. Before she could recover from her sliming, Danielle pulled the lever.

The seat beneath Kayleigh suddenly gave way and she plunged face first into the vat of green gunge. The gunge was incredibly sticky and by the time she managed to gain her footing and stand up in the vat, Kayleigh was completely coated in the stuff. Blinded, she reached out and managed to grab hold of the front of the vat before attempting to clear some of the gunge from her eyes.

Once Kayleigh could see again she was confronted by Lydia who was now standing next to the vat and had in her hands a large white sheet cake. Before Kayleigh could say or do anything, Lydia thrust the cake into Kayleigh's face. Much like Robbie Dreams beforehand, Kayleigh was completely, utterly and totally humiliated.

"Let's give a big hand to Kayleigh and her friends!" Joe yelled.

The audience clapped, cheered and laughed as the stagehands wheeled the vat with Kayleigh still in it off the stage.

* * *

Kayleigh was once again shown to a changing room although this time accompanied by her three friends. They kept their distance until Kayleigh had managed to clean off most of the cake and gunge from herself and then proceeded to give her a group hug.

"I'm sorry for trying to set you all up" Kayleigh apologised.

"Well I guess we can forgive you considering you did just get humiliated on primetime television" Sue replied looking questioningly at Danelle and Lydia.

"Only if we can borrow your dresses?" Danielle said hopefully.

"And we get to push your face into a cake on your next birthday?" Lydia added.

"Deal" Kayleigh said.

The End.