A/N: I hope you guys have fun reading this. For my fiction fans, it's a break from the norm. For everyone at work, I hope no one is offended because it's all in good fun and I love each and every one of you very much, and I really love my job.

General Theater

Part II: Mysteries

Monday night had befallen to the theater, and it was minimal staff, Egg and Kermit were manning the show, Alana and Gwendolyn on concession and Jezebel and Nelly at the door. Practically commotionless, Crash was leaving at eight but before that he had to splice up the night with a little box-wearing.

"What are you doing?" asked Alana, looking him over like he was crazy.

"I'm wearing a box!" he said, as he hoisted it up around his waist, but it wouldn't go any higher. Then it burst and they both laughed. "I'm Box-man!" he proclaimed.

"And what exactly is the point of Box-man?" asked Kermit. "I mean what does he do?"

"He annoys people." Alana laughed as she handed a popcorn to a customer and Crash adjusted another box around his waist. "You are so ridiculous Crash."

"He's funny." Snapped Gwendolyn, "It would only be funny just because he's Crash." They all laughed as Crash put his candy stocks away. "Can I help the next person? After this one I'm going on break." she took the last customer before the rush would die and then left.

Crash walked by, his box rubbing up against the backside of Alana, intentionally. "Oh, excuse me…so sorry there…" and he rubbed up against Kermit too. "Oh so sorry there…" they both rolled their eyes and watched Crash spin around like some super hero before dropping the box again.

Alana walked over to the door to the back room, standing in the way. Kermit knelt to the cabinet and began to stack cups as Crash walked over to the door. "Move ho." He said to Alana playfully.

"You had better ask nicely." She smirked and he rolled his eyes.

"Alana please move out of the way?" she nodded and smiled at him, letting him go into the back room and she followed as he stepped out of his box.

"That's so nice of you to be sweet, so unusual for you," she said teasingly.

"Shaddup ho." He laughed as he walked over near the big black dumpster.

"You better take that back! Or I'll throw you in this dumpster!" she raised an eyebrow to him, knowing full well she couldn't lift him even if she wanted to, and quickly grabbed her arms around his waist.

"No!" he shouted, half a laugh half a cry as he began to struggle and squirm against her.

"You're ticklish!" she exclaimed and began to tickle him as he stumbled forward trying to break free of her grasp. "Oh you're ticklish!" she squealed and tickled him harder.

"No! No! Stop!" he was laughing and tripped, falling down into a pile of garbage bags on his back, laughing extremely hard. She stood atop him laughing as well before slipping in the garbage water and landing atop him. The laughing stopped as he gasped.

She just looked down into his eyes. "I'm sorry. Are you ok?" she said, still smiling, but not moving.

"I'm fine." He nodded and looked up to her. Suddenly the back door flew open and Jackson walked in.

"Hey Kermit can you-" his eyes froze on Alana as she lay atop Crash. "I don't even wanna know." He sighed and walked back toward the door. "I'm just going to walk back through that door and pretend like I didn't just see what I think I just saw because I know I don't want to know why I saw what I just saw!"

"Get up!" Crash scrambled and Alana jumped to her feet. "Jackson wait!" he hollered and they both chased after him.

"We were just taking out the garbage!" she bit her lip realizing how bad that sounded. "Er…"

"Alana shut up! You're just making it sound worse."

"She doesn't need to. What I saw was bad enough!" he rolled his eyes and stormed over to the office. Crash looked to Alana and she back to him, and both held about five seconds of silence before bursting out laughing.

"What was that all about?" asked Gwendolyn as she came strolling back over from her break.

"Nothing." They both said.

Alana smiled and brushed past him as she walked back behind concession. He just watched her walk and then joined her.

Meanwhile inside the office…

"Do you think anyone will know?" asked Annie in a soft squeaky voice.

"The door's locked," said Egg.

"But Kermit has keys…and so does Jackson…"

"Nah, Kermit's busy counting stocks and then he's got to go and start movies."

She breathed a smile of relief, crossing and uncrossing her legs on the desk. "Wait…" the smile faded. "What about Jackson?"

"No worries there either…" he smiled, walking to her, taking off his suite jacket and hanging it on the back of Ken's chair. "He just came in here mumbling something about Alana and Crash making out in the trash, dropped his keys and left out the back."

"So we're…alone?" she asked, taking her keys off from around her neck.

"Yep."

Back out at concession…

"What were they doing back there?" asked Gwen, as Kermit stood there.

"Couldn't tell you to be honest, didn't see them. Just heard shouting, a crash and then saw Jackson storm in, and turn right back around and storm out. And you saw the rest from there."

"You don't think they-" she shook her head. "Nah."

"Yeah, nah is right." And they fell silent as another customer came to the line.

Two hours later, after Crash had left, Gwen Kermit and Alana were working on register. "God!" whined Gwen, "I want to clean up and go home!"

"Well look I'll finish up, just ask Kermit if you can leave."

"He won't let me!" she whined, taking the butter machine in the back to pump it out and clean it.

"Sure he will!" she hollered back. "Hey Kermit, if I clean up? Can she go early?" he nodded. "See?"

"Great! I'm gone!" she darted to the back room, punched out and left.

"Hey…the gate's down…can I clean my popcorn bin?" Alana asked.

"Oh sure, I closed it ten minutes ago."

"Alright, I'm just going to run my star money over to Egg in the office and I'll be right back." He nodded and she picked up all 23 of her promotional stars as well as the money and headed toward the office.

"Hey there," said Jezebel who was standing at the door when Alana came over. "What's up?"

"Not much…just wanted to give these stars to Egg. So he can cash me out and I can shut down and go home." She rapped loudly on the office door thrice. "Is he even in there?"

"Yeah, Jackson left well over an hour ago. He seemed really disturbed by something…"

Alana blushed. "Er…no idea. Jeez Egg, hurry up." She knocked loudly again. "I wonder what's keeping him?" Jezebel shrugged and suddenly the door flew upon. Egg stepped out, pinning his head between the door and the wall, not allowing anyone to see into the office. His suite jacket void of his body and the top three buttons on his dress shirt undone, his shoes gone from his feet.

"What do you want?" he asked, sounding almost nervous.

"To give you my star money…why do you look so nervous?" Alana asked suspiciously.

"Me? I'm not nervous. Not nervous at all!" he spoke and his voice seemed to raise just slightly as he did. Alana stepped forward to hand him the money and he quickly pulled the door shut tighter behind him.

"Uh huh." Jezebel laughed, standing behind Alana. "Then what are you hiding in the office."

"I'm not hiding anything! Don't you have a floor to be sweeping?"

"Right, it's not what he's hiding…" snickered Alana. "It's who…" she smirked, handing him the money and turning back to the concession. Egg grunted slightly and slammed the office door.

"Oh my god!" laughed Jezebel. "You don't think- But she-"

"I thought Annie went home early." Both girls laughed.

Back At Concession…

"Who was it that was in Chicago again?" asked Kermit. "Richard Gere got leading role…"

"No he didn't…" added Alana as she squirted out her popcorn bin. "It really wasn't."

"Yes it was…I'll bet you a dollar." Just then the phone rang and Egg's voice came over the mini intercom.

"Alana?"

She rushed to pick up the phone. "Yes?"

"Did you have other stars that were picked up before these?"

"Uh yeah. Annie took them from me before I went on break."

"How many?" he asked and then Alana heard a feminine voice in the background.

"I don't know…she counted them…did she forget to write them down?"

"Uh…" there was a silent pause. Alana strained her ears and heard the feminine voice say 'I thought I counted eighteen…ask her if that sounds right…" Then Egg's voice hit the phone. "Does eighteen sound right?"

Alana snickered and tilted the phone up so he couldn't hear her laugh. "Um yeah. Do you have my report?"

"Uh yeah…give me a minute to…uh…come over in a minute." And he hung up the phone. As she did, Alana burst out laughing.

"What was that all about?" asked Kermit.

"Oh like it isn't obvious…when I went over to give Egg my star money, he came bolting out of the office, looked a hot mess and was definitely trying to hide something…or someone."

Kermit laughed. "I'm sure he's just trying to do that to get a rise out of you Alana."

"Whatever you say…I'll sign my report on the way out, can I go?" he nodded to her and she walked over to the office, popped in but only saw Egg. "You're alone?"

"Yeah. Jackson left a while ago saying something about Crash and-" he smirked. "Well just something about you and Crash."

Alana blushed but recovered quickly. "Oh. That's alright, I'm sure Jackson didn't want to stick around for the show between you and Annie either…" she leaned over and signed her report.

"What?" he asked in disbelief. "Annie left hours ago."

"Oh," she shrugged. "That's right." She turned to go from the office. "Say Egg…how many stars did she tell you I had from before?"

"She said eighteen but went back and recounted, it was twenty-two."

"Thanks."

"Shit!" he squenched his face up as Alana laughed and left the office.

No one noticed the door to the upstairs just slightly ajar, nor the dark figure moving about down near theater #8.

Tune in next time to find out just what is going on between Annie and Egg, as well as Crash and Alana. Will she owe Kermit a dollar? And who's upstairs? And on the next episode, be careful, Leslie has a big surprise for everyone. Be sure to watch the next installment of "General Theater."