Walking from her locker to Study Hall was familiar and disturbingly surreal at the same time for Olivia. The basic layout for the school building was the same but now the halls were filled with nearly five hundred teenaged clowns chuckling, giggling, honking their noses and behaving, well, like clowns. More than once Olivia had been covered in silly string or had to duck to avoid getting sprayed with seltzer water. For a wonder nobody threw a pie or something equally messy.
Suddenly circus calliope music played over the intercom. 'Oh no, I'll be late!' Olivia thought.She tried to walk faster but unused to her new clown feet she tripped and fell.
Instead of landing flat on her face however, Olivia's body instinctively clutched her books to her chest and automatically rolled into a somersault that took her through the hallway until she turned to the right and came straight into the Study Hall room.
All on impulse, as soon as she passed through the door, Olivia made a short jump and landed right on her feet. She blinked as she looked around in amazement-then realized an entire room full of clowns were staring at her.
HONK! Startled, Olivia looked to her right and saw a thin clown lady whose white skin did little to hide the wrinkles on her face. Granny style glasses rested behind a nose as big and red as a ripe plum and the clown markings on her face only exaggerated her look of disapproval. Unlike most clowns this one's red mouth seemed turned down into a frown instead of a smile. "Do you have any more plans to disrupt Study Hall, Miss Olivia?"
"No Mrs. Pruneau." Now Olivia was resisting the urge to laugh. The entire world's population had been turned into clowns and the Study Hall teacher was still a sourpuss.
"Good." Mrs. Pruneau gave a slight nod. "Now get to your desk and study." She gave her nose another honk that somehow sounded stern instead of funny.
As Olivia waddled to her usual desk her eyes darted all over the room. Some of her clowned classmates had books out and looked like they were studying, others were talking to each other-but in hushed tones. They were even touching their own or their companions' clown noses but no honks came out. Evidently Study Hall was still expected to be quiet.
At the desk to the right of Olivia's sat one of her best friends Tracy. Tracy had been a chubby African-American girl and was now a chubbier auguste clown with a bright ruddy orange complexion that contrasted sharply with the patches of white around her eyes and mouth. Inside her white muzzle Tracy's clown mouth was dark black, giving the impression it was always open. She was dressed in an orange and yellow baby doll dress that went quite nicely with her hair-which was now bright green and tied into two bobbing dreadlock ponytails. Her red nose was the size of a peach.
In sharp contrast to Tracy was Amelia, another friend of Olivia's, who sat to the left of Olivia's desk. Amelia was a whiteface clown like Olivia and her sisters but her complexion had a porcelain sheen as if she buffed her skin. The markings on Amelia's face were simple blue eye shadow, slightly pink cheeks and bright red lips that extended no further than ordinary women's lipstick. Only her nose, which was slightly bigger than a golf ball and covered with sparkling red glitter hinted at silliness-well that and the red and white one piece clown suit with silver bordered ruffles at her neck, wrists, and ankles and with red pom-poms that match her red hair done in a curly afro. Still it quite suited Amelia and made her look the very model of clown elegance.
As Olivia sat down at her desk, Tracy leaned over to her. "How'd you do that?" she asked. "Every time I try something like that I crash into the wall."
Amelia simply smirked. "That's because you spend too much time eating junk food and sitting around watching TV. If you'd come with us to spin class or cross fit once in a while..."
Her friend's conversation continued; Olivia was listening and trying to sort what everything she's seen so far meant. Evidently most people still had the same basic personalities only exaggerated and given a comical spin. Tracy was still the loveable but lazy girl who she been friends with since 3rd grade while Amelia likewise was still the stylish yet blunt spoken athletic diva.
Olivia was so caught up in her thoughts however that didn't notice one clown get up and walk to her desk-until he tapped her nose.
Olivia blinked and looked up. "Melvin?"
Melvin was a heavyset nerdish boy who none the less was a good friend to all 3 girls. "Here's the chemistry notes you asked for."
"Thanks," Olivia said, doing her best not to stare. Melvin had become a whiteface clown but he also dressed in a mostly white suit offset only by his jacket's red facings, blue shirt, red clown shoes, and large multcolered necktie. And his face-Melvin had a bulbous red shiny nose, big red clown mouth, arched blue eyebrows that gave him an inquisitive look accented by his big Urkelesqe glasses, and a bulbous bald head surrounded a thick horseshoe of curly blue hair. Some of the cruelest kids had called him egghead but now his head truly did look like an egg.
Tracy gave her own nose a poke but without a sound. "We still studying together tonight?" she said; somehow her tone hinted she was thinking about more than studying.
Melvin blushed; somehow the red spread from his cheeks all the way to the top of his bald head. "Yeah sure. 5:00, my house." Tracy nodded, them all of a sudden Melvin entire shirt rolled up to his neck. It wasn't a shirt at all, merely a cardboard cutout that revealed the tie-dyed t-shirt underneath.
Still blushing, Melvin folded his fake shirt back down and waddled back to his own desk.
Olivia saw the glint in Tracy's eye. She didn't know what to make of this; she had no idea that Tracy and Melvin liked each other that way.
She glanced at the clock; only 10 minutes had passed since Study Hall began. There would be time to ponder her friends' relationship later. Right now Olivia wanted to do find out about this strange world she and her sisters woke up in. She got out o w of her books and began to read.....