Friday had soon rolled around. Millie was sat in her sat outside Lacey’s house waiting for her friend to come out. What had they agreed to? In the next hour or so, she knew that both of them would be very messy indeed, having said that it was a nice little earner.
The pair of them had managed to keep it a secret from everyone, they had agreed they didn’t want anyone knowing about this. Millie was adamant that no-one was to find out, especially not Ed.
Lacey got in the car and the pair headed off to the MAD studio.
“What do you think we’ll be doing?” Lacey asked.
“I’ve no idea, let’s hope they ease us in gently”, Millie replied.
When they got to the studio, Shona was there to greet them, she was always very good at making people feel welcome, and made sure they had a drink before they got started.
The three of them were sat there chatting, when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in”, Shona called.
Into the room walked another blonde, that Millie and Lacey didn’t recognise. She smiled and waved, and Shona got up to give her a hug.
“Millie. Lacey. This is Sophia. She’ll be the host of today’s film, the first game in our new series Millie v Lacey”.
Sophia, had short blonde hair, and was in her late 20s. She smiled and waved at the two new recruits, “pleased to meet you both”, she said sincerely, “look forward to working with you”.
Millie and Lacey looked at each other, truth be told, they were both a little nervous but grateful that they would be doing this together.
“Right, I’m going to go and set the studio up”, said Shona, who would be behind the camera today, “I’ll leave you three to get to know each other a little better”.
Shona left the room, leaving Millie, Lacey and Sophia to have a chat.
Sophia took the time to reassure both newbies that it would all be fine, and that she felt nervous on her first shoot too. She reminded them they wouldn’t be on their own, they didn’t have to anything they didn’t want to, and that it was all harmless fun. Sophia also reminded them that MAD was all about being Messed and Dressed, and that many models did this sort of thing with very few clothes on.
A few minutes later, Shona invited Millie and Lacey to go and get changed. For this first head to head battle, they would be wearing white blouses, with opposing colour skirts, red for Millie, and blue for Lacey. Once they were changed, they made their way to the studio. Bothe girls wore their long hair down over their shoulders, though Millie did worry what any gunge might do to her blonde highlights.
Both ladies took a seat on a plastic chair and Shona began to explain how everything would work. As she did this, Millie and Lacey could see Sophia, who had also got changed and was now wearing a short black dress, preparing a number of buckets. They looked at each other, both with a little bit of concern, but at the same time with a strange sense of anticipation.
Eventually, everything was set up and they were ready to start filming. Sophia introduced the shoot and then allowed Millie and Lacey to introduce themselves. Sophia explained their would be three rounds, and that the loser of each round would be gunged, there would then be a larger gunging for the overall loser.
The first game was Two Truths and a Lie, this would be a chance for viewers to get to know Millie and Lacey a little better. They would both come up with three facts about themselves and if Sophia guessed correctly what the lie was they would score a point. Sophia tossed a coin and Lacey would go first, she started to think.
“Erm, ok, let me just think about this, right ok, I think I have three”.
“Ok. Take it away”, invited Sophia.
“Right, number one, I have starred in two versions of Bugsy Malone. Number two, I was egged and floured on my 18th birthday. Number three, i have pied somebody in the face”.
“Ooh, ok, all messy facts. I like it. Well I’m pretty certain that number 3 is true, and I think you’re a singer aren’t you, so I’d guess one is true, so I’ll say that number two is the lie”.
“Correct!”, smiled Lacey.
Millie now knew that to stand a chance in this game, Sophia had to get hers right too. She also felt under pressure to make the stories about mess, but couldn’t think of two truths.
“Ok, Millie, your turn”.
“Right, ok, number one is that I once fell face first in a puddle of mud, number two is that I once had a bucket of water thrown at me on stage, and number three is that a waitress once accidentally dropped a dessert on my head”.
“Ooh, this is a little trickier”, said Sophia, “I think that two is true, and I know you’re a singer too. I like the idea that three is true, so I’ll say number one is the lie?”
Millie frowned, “oh no”, she said, “number three was the lie”.
“Oh no indeed”, laughed Sophia, “that means you have lost this round Millie, and you know what that means in this game”.
Sophia picked up a large bucket and walked round behind Millie. Lacey watched on in part awe, and part borror, as Sophia took great delight in emptying a vast quantity of thick pink gunge straight over Millie’s head. She squealed as the cold, thick gunge rained down on her, instantly covering her from head to toe. She thought to herself, if this was the smaller gunging, what would the large loser’s gunging be like.
Dripping in gunge, and not looking best pleased about it, Millie now had to get herself ready for the second game. This would be a really simple best of five game of Rock Paper Scissors. Sophia explained that the winner of each individual game would get to pie the loser, and the overall loser would then get the bucket of gunge.
The game played out, with Millie winning the first two heats, and taking great pleasure in getting Lacey a little messy, splatting two yellow and white cream and custard pies in her face. Lacey won the next two and was able to get her own back on Millie, it all came down to this.
“3…2….1….”, Sophia counted down.
Lacey went for scissors, but Millie had gone with rock and took the win.
Lacey put her head in her hands, she knew what was to come, but had forgotten one thing, and as soon as she looked up….SPLAT! The final winning pie from Millie hit her square in the face. Meanwhile, Sophia had prepared herself and was in position with a bucket of thick blue gunge, which she once again took great delight in emptying over Lacey’s head. Both girls were now completely covered, they looked at each other and both started laughing.
“Right”, said Sophia, “it’s time for the final game, and this is a great one”. She winked at the camera.
“All you have to do is call someone in your phone, don’t tell them where you are, or what you are doing, but you have to get them to say the word GUNGE! The person whose contact does it in the fastest time wins!”
Millie and Lacey looked at each other in horror. How on earth were they going to manage that?
“Right Millie, as you won the last game, you have the choice of whether to go first or second, oh, and you can’t both ring the same person, and don’t forget, the loser faces purr Big Gunging!”
Millie sat there frozen. She didn’t know what to do, or who to ring. She was handed a towel to wipe her hands and was then handed her mobile phone. She opened it up and scrolled through the contacts.
“Ok Millie, who you gonna ring?” Sophia asked.
“Erm, I’ll have to ring my friend Zoe”, she said tentatively.
“Ok then, let’s ring Zoe, remember all you have to do is get her to say the word gunge, I’ll start the stopwatch when she answers the phone. Good luck!”
The phone started to ring and was put on speaker.
Zoe answered, “Hi Millie, everything OK?”
“Yeh, fine thanks, just a quick one, what’s the word for that thick gooey stuff they used on telly in the 90s?”
“Oh, erm, gunge? I think, why?”
“Ah yes, that’s it, listen, I’ve got to go I’ll explain later!”
Millie hung up and Sophia showed her the stopwatch. “Very impressive”, she said, “9.2 seconds. Right, Lacey, you know that’s the time you need to beat in order to avoid our Mega Messing, Gigantic Gunging, or whatever you want to call it. Who you gonna ring?”
“My friend Ed”, she said with a smile.
Shona, from behind the camera, suddenly looked very concerned, and took out her own mobile phone. She raised her left hand to pause the recording.
“Everything OK Shona?” asked Sophia.
“Yeah, just give me two seconds”, she said, frantically tapping away on her phone.
She had of course sent a message to Frank, and while she sat to wait for a reply, the others began to wonder what was going on, not least Millie and Lacey, who were now both starting to feel the cold of the gunge.
“Can we carry on?” asked Sophia impatiently.
“Fine”, Shona said, trying to hide her reluctance, she too could see the effect the long delay was having on the two debutant models. The film began to roll again, and Lacey began to call Ed. As soon as he answered, Sophia started her stopwatch.
“Hey Lacey, everything alright?”
“Yeh, I just need your help, dead quick”.
“Oh, ok, no problem, what can I do?”
“What’s the name of the stuff , oh, erm, Americans call it slime I think? I can’t think of the word?”
“I’ve no idea what you’re on about Lace, sorry, what do you mean, slime?”
“Oh, come on Ed, you know, that stuff they use on kids TV, does it begin with G?”
“Oh, I know what you mean, you mean gunge, I used to love shows like that when I was little. Why?”
“No time to explain, something to do with uni, I’ll catch up with you later”.
The call ended, Sophia had already stopped the clock at the mention of the word gunge, but it was fairly obvious to all four girls in the studio what the outcome was. Lacey looked petrified.
“Well Lacey, as you know, the time to beat was 9.2 seconds, I can tell you, that the time it took Ed to say the word gunge was 13.8 seconds”. Lacey put her head in her hands, while Millie put her arms in the air and began cheering.
“So Lacey, you will be facing our Mega Mess! Millie, you go one-nil up in the series, how does tha feel?”
“That feels great! I can’t wait to see what happens to Lacey!”
“And how do you feel Lacey?”
“Not great obviously, I’m going to kill Ed when I see him!”
Shona was still looking slightly distracted behind the camera, she had still heard nothing from Frank. She knew what was about to happen to Lacey, and that Ed was partly responsible for it.
Meanwhile, Sophia was preparing more buckets, there were 10 in total, eight were filled with black gunge and two bright yellow.
“Are you ready Lacey?”
Lacey nodded gingerly.
Sophia picked up the first bucket, walked behind Lacey and poured it straight over the brunette’s head. She immediately walked back round in front of Lacey, before picking up another bucket of black gunge and throwing it in Lacey’s face.
Lacey was already covered, but Sophia invited Millie to repeat this process. Millie took great delight in emptying another load of thick black goo straight over Lacey, whose white blouse was now completely destroyed. She then took a fourth bucket and threw it at her friend, laughing as she did it.
Next, both Millie and Sophia took a bucket each, this time Sophia chose one of the yellow buckets. The two buckets were poured simultaneously over Lacey. She was completely covered now. This really was the mother of all gungings.
There were still four buckets left, and the final three buckets of black gunge were emptied onto the 20 year old’s head. Millie then took the final bucket of yellow gunge and threw half the contents straight into Lacey’s face, then finally poured the last bit over her head.
“And how did that feel Lacey?” Sophia asked cheekily.
“Gross! I definitely wanna make sure I win the next game”, Lacey said.
The filming was brought to a close and the girls were helped out of the studio, in order to get a shower. Millie and Lacey had a chat as they made their way to get cleaned up, and agreed it wouldn’t be so bad to do a couple more of these. They also agreed not to tell Ed the real reason why they wanted him to say the word gunge.
Once she was showered and dressed in her own clothes again, Millie made her way back to the office. As she opened the door, she could see that Shona was on the phone, so shut the door again and decided to wait outside, for Lacey, who was still trying to get clean. Just as she did, she overheard Shona shouting, presumably still down the phone, “how the hell was I supposed to know she was gonna ring Ed, or that our new model was gonna be your nephew’s potential future girlfriend”.
Millie couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing, she stayed outside the office door, waiting quietly, listening to see what else she could find out.