Steve waved to Carol, the receptionist, as they made their way to their desks. She was a nice lady, really kept things running smoothly around the office. They both got to their neighboring cubicles and began to log in to their computers. As Steve sat down, he heard that faint crackling sound again. He started looking around.
"You hear that?" He asked Ryan.
"Hear what?" Ryan said.
"I dunno. Sort of like static or something."
"Probably Lena playing with her damn radio again. I keep telling her nobody in the office wants to hear that boring Christian Rock station all day!"
Steve was sure that wasn't it, but tried to put it out of his mind as he started his daily ritual of checking his email. As he turned back to his computer, something caught his eye. On the wall of his cubicle, between the stray post-it notes of appointments and deadline reminders, was something very different. A sticker. It had cartoon outline of a big cat, colored yellow, and the word "COUGARS" in blue block letters. But it looked a bit old. The colors were faded and the design seemed pretty retro. It was like someone had stuck it there years ago.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Steve wondered to himself. And yet he had the strange feeling it was something he remembered seeing every day. Whatever, he really had to get to work. He was sure Mr. Edwards would be riding his and Ryan's asses all day if they didn't get going. And sure enough, the first thing he had to deal with was an email from the boss:
Alright team,
It's been a slow year and I need everybody to step up their game. We've got a big quarter coming and we really need to focus on getting our numbers up. Our investors are counting on us. They put everything on the line for us and we need to pump them up! I need everyone to be ready to go over the routine at 3:00. And I want to remind everyone that our fitness goals are important too! We should all be doing 30 squats and 15 lunges a day. And absolutely NO EATING after 8:00pm. We need to be ready to shake our booties by Friday!
Your captain,
Dave (Go Cougars!)
"What the hell is this?" Steve said.
"I know, right? Where does he get off with this stuff. I've been doing that many squats & lunges for weeks! Really it's Peter who hasn't been pulling his weight... literally!"
"What? No, I mean... what does this even mean? What routine? "Shake our booties"? Is this some kind of prank?" He looked over at Ryan and froze. Ryan was giving him a quizzical look, but Steve didn't really notice that because his hair was suddenly very long. And not just long, but blonde. And pulled back tightly in a high ponytail, with a bright yellow ribbon tied around it in a perfect bow. Steve's eyes went wide.
"What's wrong?" Ryan asked, "Did my ribbon come undone?"
