Emily was ready for her first class of the day. Well, as ready as anyone ever was for having to go to class, that was. Emily let out a long sigh as she slid into her seat. Why couldn’t her mother have let her keep school starting at noon? It was just a little shift in reality, and she’d been able to sleep in all morning.
Emily glanced around the classroom. There was no shortage of potential targets for changes, she thought to herself. Sitting over there in the far corner were some of the jocks, Greg, Zach and Liam. As usual, they were ignoring everything Mr. Allen was saying up at the front of the class. Greg’s spiky blonde hair was in disarray, as usual, while Zach had longer jet black hair that flowed nearly to his shoulders. Liam, for his part, had short red hair.
In contrast to the guys, Abby and Savannah were hurriedly writing down everything Mr. Allen said, even though it was just going to get repeated on the morning announcements in a short while anyway. Both of those girls were at the top of the class when it came to grades, but Emily honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard them mention anything they did for fun.
Most of the other students in the room were people Emily honestly couldn’t say she’d talked to more than once or twice. She could change any one of them, or even the whole room all at once without much difficulty. It had taken lots of practice, but she’d finally reached a point where she could keep the changes localized to a single room without affecting the rest of the school at all.
Homeroom at Northride was brief, with the teacher usually standing at the front talking while the students either zoned out or frantically tried to get their homework done without being noticed. Emily subtly stretched one of her arms, already contemplating the possibilities.
FLASH!
Now, the walls of the classroom were blue with red polka dots, the curtains for the window a checkered pattern of orange, green, and yellow. From the school intercom circus calliope music.
And everyone in the class was a clown.
Mr. Allen stood in front of the blackboard, giving his lecture in goofy voice like the cartoon moose Bullwinkle. He was a whiteface clown dressed like a stereotype of a teacher or professor with a tweed suit that was baggy even on his now rather rotund frame. A fringe of shoulder length frizzy orange hair surrounded a white bald pate; around his eye were orange patches topped by black eyebrows. At the center of his face was a big red nose that he would occasionally squeeze, giving a loud HONK! or drop his pants to reveal baggy tie-dyed boxer shorts.
The students at their desks were a mix of whitefaces, augustes, and hoboes/bag ladies. Greg and Zach were augustes; Greg had a pinkish complexion and a red smile inside his white muzzle and his hair was the same spiky style only now a neon yellow. Zach's skin was more a peachy yellow, and the mouth inside his muzzle was black, looking like it was always open; his black hair was now dark blue. And Liam was a garish looking whiteface with a cherry red 'half-fro' surrounding a bald head so shiny it looked like he buffed it.
Abby and Savannah were both whitefaces with simple, elegant 'make-up,' and red clown noses the size of golf balls but there the resemblance ended. Abby was dressed in a classic one-piece blue and yellow jumpsuit with a ruffled coller around her neck and ruffles at her wrist and ankles. Running down the middle Abby's suit were red pom-poms that almost match her red curly afro and her clown nose was shiny with glitter. Savannah, on the other hand looked more like a clown caricature of a nerd girl; her hair was rainbow colored and tied into bushy twintails; she wore a tie-dyed blouse and skirt and glasses with rainbow-colored frames.
Emily looked down at her own self. She was wearing a pink blouse with a blue apron dress; the skirt was fluffed up with a petticoat. Her legs were covered with bloomers that matched her blouse and blue and white striped socks. On her feet were bubbled toes blue clown Mary Janes and on her hands were blue gloves.
Emily was aware of a touch of red at the bottom of her field of vision. She gingerly reached for her nose; through the gloves she could feel it was a perfect sphere, about the size of a tennis ball and felt somewhat rubbery. She reached into her purse and took out a compact. Opening it, she looked in the mirror and saw...