Waiting for their friend to get back, Leo said to Pete, "Rick sure is taking his time, isn't he?"
"He sure is." Pete glanced at Leo. "Uh, Leo, you've got a spot on your nose too."
"Do I?" Leo touched his nose, and looked back at Peter. "Pete, your nose is all red!"
"Huh?" Leo touched the organ in question. "It's-it's getting bigger!"
Pete felt his own nose again. "Mine is too!"
The two boys looked at each other, their noses growing big, red and round.
And suddenly their shock was replaced by giddiness, and they burst out laughing. The fits grew so hard, they fell to the ground, laughing as hard as their bodies allowed.
As they laughed, more changes happened to them. Peter's skin became a dull ruddy orange, while Leo's dark African American complexion, ironically, faded to a pale white hue. The hollows of Leo's eyes filled with orange ovals that reached halfway up to his forehead, matching white patterns appeared on Pete's face. A big red smile emerged on Leo's white face and his cheeks became rouged with soft red. A white muzzle appeared around Pete's mouth with his lower lip becoming bright red. Around Pete's cheeks, muzzle and neck, black shadow formed, giving the impression of a beard. Both boys' eyebrows disappeared, replaced by black arches on top of their respective eye patterns. Inside said patterns, vertical black bars appeared, and their eyes became outlines in black, giving the impression of exclamation marks.
Along with their faces the rest of the two boys' bodies changed. Leo and Peter's waists expanded as they both became rather fat; their t-shirts and swim trunks even stretched to appear baggy on their new bodies. Their bare feet also stretched to ridiculous proportions, while on their heads, the boys' hair thickened and curled into bushy afro-styles; Leo's hair became bright green while Pete's went pitch black.
And next, the hair at the very top fell out, leave Peter and Leo each with a thick curly fringe surrounding a bare smooth pate.
As their bodies changed, new clothes appeared. A red and white striped turtleneck formed on Peter, followed by a worn looking black baggy pants and vest, both covered her and there with red or orange patches. A slight yellow shirt with green buttons appeared on Leo , with red pants and a red vest and matching puffy bow tie. On their oversized feet, pancake toed shoes and socks formed, both color-coded to fit their new appearance. Immaculate white gloves appeared on Leo's hands, Fingerless black ones on Peter's. Finally on top of their bald heads, a little derby sat at a jaunty angle, Peter's black with a dull red band a wilted flower, Leo's red with a green band.
Finally, the two stopped laughing, got to their feet, and looked at each other.
After a couple of seconds, Peter said, "We-we turned into clowns, Leozo," his voice a little deeper and with a jolly lilt.
Leo, or rather Leozo, simply sniffed through his big red clown nose and rolled his eyes. "Nothing gets past you, does it, Peewee?"
"You guys too?" The two newly clowned fourth graders turned to see their friend Ricky, now the Auguste clown Rizzo, step out of the house and waddle his way up to them.
The three friend bumps each other's fat bellies, then poked each other's big red clown noses. HONK! Finally they took off their hats and rubbed each other's smooth bald heads. And they laughed at how silly they all looked, and how the similarities between their cloths, facial markings, and hairstyles marked them as a trio. They now all had complete knowledge all jokes both practical and impractical, of their particular routines and roles: Leozo the pompous, sardonic whiteface, Rizzo the zany mischievous Auguste, and PeeWee the dimwitted happy-go-lucky hobo. They all knew they had been completely ordinary fourth graders a few minutes ago and this was not natural but they didn't care.
"So," Rizzo asked after honking his nose, "what silly thing do you guys think we should do now?"