Beth shivered as she made her way along the seafront towards the theatre. The October weather had turned in the few days that had passed since the freshers fair and a biting wind was occasionally whipping in from the North Sea out to her right. She pulled the hood of her hoodie up to try to shelter from the wind a bit more but shivered again as another gust of wind whistled through her legs, with her black leggings not offering much in the way of defence from the wind chill.

She finally arrived at the Promenade Theatre which was looking very smart having been completed just a few months before and having just finished its first summer season. Beth made her way round the back and was greeted by a girl at the door. "Hi there. Are you Beth?" she said. Beth nodded, still shivering as she started to warm up again now she was inside. "I am yes." "Ah brilliant," said the girl "My name's Heather. I'm the stooge team captain. It's really nice to meet you. If you come with me I'll show you to our dressing room so you can get ready." She turned and took off quickly up a flight of stairs. "We're quite lucky with dressing room space as we're right next to the stage. The powers that be didn't want us to be dripping gunge all over the building. Health and safety and all that. Everyone else is up a couple more flights of stairs which is a bit of a killer on the legs!"

Heather arrived at a door and held it open for Beth. "Here we go. Welcome." Beth walked in and looked around. "Let me give you a quick tour," said Heather, "to your left is the shower room. The route from the stage to hear is all waterproofed and able to be mopped down easily so after each routine you'll go in there to get cleaned off. There's a stock of towels and robes in there so you don't need to worry about that. There's also a chute straight down to the laundry room for any clothing that has got messy. Next we have the dressing rooms. There's three dressing rooms with two people in each. Currently we have a team of five. We have Matt and Jay in the first one here. Sarah and Kate in this middle one and I'm currently on my own at the end. If you do ok today then you'll be joining me." Heather walked past the dressing rooms into a room at the end. "This is our green room. We are only on stage for a few parts of every show so there can be quite a lot of sitting about." Beth looked round at what looked like a lovely cosy room. There were a couple of comfy looking sofas with a coffee table, a small telly showing a live view of the stage and a kettle, water cooler, fridge and worktop running along one wall.

"We raided a few second hand furniture places to get all this together but we've found it comfortable so far," said Heather. "Behind you there is a door that takes you out towards stage left." Heather turned back towards the dressing rooms. "Lets get you ready then. I've laid out some of our training gear for you in the dressing room. I wasn't sure of sizes so have brought up a few options. If there isn't a good fit there then give me a shout and I'll pop back to wardrobe. There's underwear supplied too so that your not ruining your own. You'll have your own sets issued to you so its all hygienic. I'll wait here and take you to the stage once you're all set." "Cool. Thanks. I'll see you in a few minutes then," replied Beth with a smile. She headed into the dressing room and closed the door behind her.

In front of her was a twin dressing table with lights round mirrors above them. Excitedly, Beth approached them. On the tables were neat piles of clothing items and as Heather had said, Beth could see that there were small, medium and large versions of each item. As Beth started to take her own clothes off she eyed up the tan sports knickers and sports bra, black leotard with a slight sheen to it and boxes of new black tights. She hurriedly got dressed but was careful to not ladder the tights as she pulled them up her legs. Butterflies started to fill her tummy as she pulled the cool, stretchy material or the leotard up her nylon clad legs, up her body and carefully got her arms into the long sleeves. She didn't look half bad, she thought to herself as she checked herself in the mirror. She rummaged in a box of ballet shoes and dug out a pair of size fives. She slipped them on her feet and made her way back out to Heather in the green room.

"Looking good!" said Heather with a smile, "are you comfortable in the costume?" "Absolutely" replied Beth enthusiastically. She hadn't worn a leotard since she'd been to her childhood ballet lessons but was loving the feeling of this one. She certainly felt sexy with the lycra material showing off her curves and cleavage. She glanced at herself in a full length mirror on the wall, admiring how her legs were been accentuated by the tights and turned slightly to check out how cute her bum looked in the leotard. "Right! Stop checking yourself out and get going!" exclaimed Heather with a giggle as she gave Beth a playful spank on the backside. "Follow me. It's time for you to meet your fate!" Another wave of adrenaline hit Beth as they made their way out of the dressing room and towards the stage. She knew roughly what to expect with the mess as her flatmate had helped her experience that for the first time in rather spectacular fashion only a few days ago. However, she wasn't sure quite what to expect with working it into routines in front of a paying audience.

The two of them made their way out on stage. Slap bang in the middle was a large white and red stripy sheet covering something large and circular underneath. The sheet was attached to a long black rope stretching up into the fly space above them which Beth noticed was almost invisible when looking at it against the black backdrop. A few meters to the side was a small table with matching red and white striped table cloth and a chair facing side on to the banks of seating that curved around the front of the stage. To the other side was a long work bench with two large cream and custard pies and an empty pie crust.

Two lads joined them on stage dressed in black tracksuits with comically large white chefs hats on their head. "Beth, may I introduce Matt and Jay who are fellow members of the stooge team. They have agreed to run you through one of the simple routines, Judging by the set up you'll be doing the pie factory scene today." Jay and Matt both came to shake Beth's hand. "Pleased to meet you," said Matt, "although I'm not sure you'll be very pleased with us in the next five minutes or so!" "Oh don't worry," said Beth with a giggle, "do your worst!" "Oh! Fighting talk ay!" replied Jay with a grin. "Like it! Well anyway Heather, we're ready to go whenever you and Beth are."

Heather turned to Beth, "I just want to see your improvisation skills first so I'm going to throw you in at the deep end with this one and just see what you make of it. Just remember we need to see big reactions so that people can read them wherever they are in the auditorium. Once your finished with this one then we'll get you cleaned up and changed to try out one of our other set pieces. Once that is done then we might have time to do one last thing with you but we'll see how we are for time. Is that all ok with you?" Beth nodded with a smile. "Cool. Take it away then." Heather turned and jogged off stage and an upbeat music track began to play out across the empty auditorium.

"Oh hello young lady!" said Matt excitedly, his voice now amplified by a mic somewhere on his person. "You must be here for the factory tour. Jay come and say hello." Jay bounced towards her, moving more like a child now than a grown man. With a grin he gave her a very exaggerated wave before taking her hand and kissing it. Beth, remembering what Heather had said, bent kicked one leg up behind her and fanned her face with her free hand, trying to give the impression that she was charmed by Jay's greeting. Jay responded by acting feint and like his legs had gone to jelly. "Stop messing around with the girl" said Matt in a reprimanding tone. We've got lots to show the young lady. Step this way miss." Taking her hand he swiftly led her around the front of the stage and stood her behind the workbench.

"So this is where we make our famous pies," Matt explained. "Should we show her how we make them boys and girls" he added, suddenly addressing the empty seats. "So we start with a big dollop of custard" he stated as he poured a mass of custard into one of the crusts. "Plenty of cream" he added as he emptied a bottle of whipped cream onto the top, forming a large heap. "And finally the cherry on top" he said, dropping a cherry into the cream which disappeared into the mass of custard and cream with a splash. "So this is yours to try. Lets take it over to the table." At this point Jay ran past and swept the pie from the workbench. "That's not yours is it Jay? Come here!" said Matt sternly. Jay bowed his head and slowly shuffled back towards them. "Now that pie is the young ladies Jay. Now give it too her!" Jay looked up with a stupid grin on his face and slowly turned his head towards the imaginary audience, clearly pretending to play to them. At the words "give it to her" Beth had figured what was about to happen and so was ready to give her best horror struck expression as Jay thrust the pie into her face.

Beth's face disappeared into the mass of cream and custard with mess squirting behind her. She felt to cool mixture against her skin and deep within the mess gave a tiny squirm of excitement as she felt the custard drip off her face and down her cleavage. As Jay pulled the pie away, she could feel a dribble of custard slowly oozing down her stomach within the lycra material. "Good heavens!" shouted Matt. "Jay! What have you done?! Oh I'm so sorry miss. Whatever must you think of us. Here, clean yourself up" he added, handing Beth a towel. She snatched the towel and quickly removed the majority of the cream and threw the towel back down in disgust.

"Jay... come here" said Matt in disgust pointing his finger at the floor in front of him. Jay shuffled over looking dejected and stood between Matt and Beth. Matt picked up another pie from the workbench and raised it ready to strike. Beth had been watching what was happening and had guessed what was about to happen. As Matt thrust the pie forward, Jay suddenly ducked, leaving the pie to soar past his head and hit Beth square in the face. Although Beth had been expecting it she took a few short steps back to sell the impact. Once again the custard and cream engulfed her face and hair. However, with no one holding the pie against her face, it quickly started to slide downwards. Beth couldn't help but let out a yelp as she felt the mess smear down her cleavage and onwards down her stomach. As the pie crust fell to the floor it struck her legs, smearing custard down her tights.

Beth turned slowly to the seats and with exaggerated disgust wiped the cream from her eyes and threw it to the floor. She was loving it though, she could feel the pie mixture soaking through the fabric of her leotard across the front of the leotard and it just felt simply fantastic. "Oh my. I am so sorry miss. Let me help you," said Matt in a grovelling tone. He had deliberately grabbed Beth's discarded towel from the first pie and had quickly coated it in some of the mess from the puddle on the stage so that as he went to wipe away the pie filling from her front, he in fact was making sure that the entirety of the front of the leotard was now covered in cream. "Oh dear!" He added with a laugh. "It's all down your legs as well. Let me get that for you." He enthusiastically ran the towel up and down Beth's legs, smearing the cool pie mixture up and down until the black tights were now completely coated across the front. Beth stood there with a look of horror on her face, trying to hide the fact that the sensation of the cream soaking through the tights to her smooth legs below was giving her a rather pleasant feeling.

"I think that's got the worse of it," said Matt proudly as he stepped back to admire his handy work. "Why don't we move on to the tasting. Jay grab a pie and follow me." Matt led her back across to the table, Jay following clutching another of the large pies in both hands. "Right. Get the chair for the young lady Jay," said Matt sharply. Jay dithered for a second, miming to the imaginary audience that he had both hands full. With a grin he then indicated that he'd had an idea and placed the pie on the chair and stood behind it to hold the chair for Beth. Beth pretended she hadn't noticed this and allowed Matt to gently guide her over to the table to sit down. She still had a hold of Matts hand as she sat back into the pie and gave in a slight squeeze as she felt the cold pie mixture engulf her backside and start to soak through the leotard to her knickers. Pie filling squirted out between her legs, giving an amazing jolt of pleasure as the cold cream forced its way past her crotch.

"Well Jay! Where's the pie?" Matt asked, looking at the table and then over to Jay. Jay acted confused and started to walk himself back through his actions from before. Thrusting a finger in the air he indicated that he had worked it out. Grabbing Beth by the hand he pulled her back out of the chair, span her round so she was facing the back of the stage, bent her over slightly and then stepped back and proudly pointed at her custard covered backside.

"Oh no Jay! Why?" shouted Matt as he gave Jay a push. "Go and get something to clean the young lady up." Jay ran away towards the workbench. "I'm so sorry miss. Whatever must you think of us. Just wait there and we'll get you cleaned up." As he moved away, Beth just had a split second to register Jay who was running towards her with a bucket. He took aim and launched a wave of cold water at her front. She stood motionless as the water struck her, soaking her almost completely. She barely had time to recover when another bucket was aimed at her back, presumably by Matt. Jay came marching towards her, slower this time, with a third and final bucket. He looked her in the eyes, winked, then lifted the bucket above her head and tipped. A cascade of freezing cold water struck her head and ran down her body. She gasped with the cold shock as she felt the cold water saturate her leotard and tights. She could feel her nipples becoming erect with the cold and hoped the sports bra beneath would stop them from showing through the leotard. As the last of the water left the bucket, Jay lowered the bucket onto Beth's head and left it there.

Beth grabbed the bucket with both hands and lifted it slowly from her head. She made sure that she had a scowl on her face as it was revealed before angrily thrusting the bucket back towards the boys. "There we are. Good as new!" said Matt proudly. "I'm so sorry about the mess. To make up for it I'll let you have a sneak peak of our exciting new project." Matt proudly gestured towards the red and white sheet in the middle of the stage. "Ladies and gentlemen," Matt announced grandly as a drum roll played. "May I present... the worlds... largest... pie!" With a cymbal crash the sheet shot upwards and away into the fly space above. Beth gazed upon what had been revealed. It was a large pool, at least ten to twelve feet in diameter and a good two foot deep, but the edges had all been decorated to look like a pie crust. It really was a work of art. Within the pool was a mass of a thick white foamy substance standing in for the whipped cream and through a few gaps here and there, Beth could make out a yellow substance beneath. Not custard though surely, it looked far too thick.

"Come and have a closer look young lady," said Matt, beckoning her over. Beth walked towards the pie, enjoying the feeling of the saturated fabric of the leotard sliding against her skin. The feeling of excitement swelled within her. She wasn't stupid so had worked out as soon as the giant pie was revealed that she would somehow end up in the middle of it and she was intrigued to find out how they were going to do it. "Isn't it marvellous!" Matt exclaimed enthusiastically. "Contained within is exactly one thousand gallons of our homemade award winning custard." He turned and gestured to the empty auditorium, presumably to get an "Ooooooo" from the audience. "And another two hundred gallons of whipped cream!" Another pause was left for a future reaction from an audience. "We're incredibly proud of it and can't wait to show it off to a Guinness World Record judge next week. I hope you'll wish us luck."

Beth looked back at Matt and scowled. Slowly she shook her head. "What. Why not?" said Matt with a dejected look on his face. Beth looked down at her costume, her leotard dripping with water and her tights glistening under the stage lights. She gestured to her soaked costume and looked back to Matt. "That's not fair we cleaned you up. You enjoyed the tour though didn't you?" asked Matt. Beth shook her head again. Matt looked more and more upset. "You'll leave us a good review on Tripadvisor though won't you?" Another shake of the head from Beth. "Oh no. Well let me just say I think you're being very high-handed about this. It's not fair is it boys and girls?" After leaving another pause for a reaction he continued, "whatever can we do?" Jay bounced over and pulled his sleeve. Gleefully he pointed at the pie and mimed whispering into Matt's ear. "Push her in? We can't do that!" Jay nodded his head with a grin. "What do you think boys and girls? Should we throw her in the pie?"

Matt and Jay turned slowly and started moving slowly towards her. Beth look round at the pie with a worried look on her face then back at them. Shaking her head she brought her hands up to plead with them not to throw her in. They each grabbed an arm and span her round to face the pie. Jay, who had positioned himself to be facing away from the audience quickly whispered in her ear, "we'll need you to jump as we push you." Each holding her arms and with a hand on her back they moved her swiftly towards the pie. As Beth arrived next to the edge of the pool she felt the boys shove her gently in the back. As she tipped forward she did as she had been asked and jumped forward. She closed her eyes as she fell forwards anticipating the mess she was just about to experience.

She hit the pie chest first followed a slit second later by her face, arms and legs striking the mixture with a splash. She quickly disappeared through the white foam on the top and sank down into the yellow slime underneath. She was immediately aware of the thickness of the slime that was now surrounding her. This must be similar to the stuff she remembered seeing on kids TV shows when she was younger but she never remembered it looking as thick as this. Still, it was a pleasant sensation as she felt it flowing around her shapely body as she continued to sink. With a tingle of pleasure she felt the gunge flowing across her back and bottom. She was now completely submerged. She calmly lay there for a few moments, enjoying the way that the cool slime surrounding her was making her acutely aware of every inch of her body. She waited another second or so then pushed down, finding the bottom of the pool with her hands and legs. Pushing herself upwards, she emerged back above the mess.

The thick gunge clung to her face and hair in a think layer as her head emerged back above the surface almost to the point that her facial features weren't recognisable. Beth continued to push up and out of the mixture until she was knelt up in the middle of it all. She slowly lifted her hands out of the mixture, enjoying the feeling of the gunge oozing and dripping from her lycra clad arms. She brought her hands up to her face and wiped the thick goo from her eyes and mouth. Flicking the gunge away, Beth crossed her arms and pulled an exaggerated scowl.

"Cut there guys," echoed Heather's voice through the auditorium. "That looked good from here. How was it for you boys?" "All good for us," replied Matt, "She'll be a great addition to the team." "Fantastic!" said Heather enthusiastically, "and Beth, how was it for you?" Beth burst out laughing. "That was fantastic!" she said while wriggling herself around in the slime. "Enjoyed every second of it! What is it that I'm sat in by the way?"

"Oh. It's called Natrosol," said Heather. "It's one of the things they use for gunge on TV. Although our props department mixes it a fair bit thicker for sketches like this as it's a bit more visual and gives a far better coverage as you've just demonstrated." Beth sat back in the gunge and submerged herself up to her head. She stretched her legs out in front of her and gave them another wriggle just to enjoy the feeling of the gunge against her tights once more. "It's fantastic stuff," said Beth with a giggle. "You can throw me in this stuff whenever you want! It feels amazing."

Heather smiled "Well I'm happy to say that after that performance we would be delighted to welcome you on to the team. Given it's not long before the general auditions are starting we'll need to get you off stage and cleaned up. I had another trial in mind so if your ok I'd like you to take another messing in front of the auditionees."

"Absolutely," said Beth with a grin. "I'd love that." What an amazing time she was having. She'd made the team, had great fun getting messy at the hands of her new colleagues and there was still another gunging to face before the day was out!