#FSharp, <strike>~207</strike> 177
Count includes whitespace since its significant for f#

    let f w=
     let r=System.Random()
     let e = Seq.length w
     (w|>Seq.mapi(fun i l->if i=0||i=e-1 then i,l else r.Next(1,e-1),l)|>Seq.sortBy fst|>Seq.map snd|>List.ofSeq).ToString()


Run with:

    printfn "%s" (f "apples")