Breakfast went, to Olivia at least, in a rather surreal manner. There was none of the foodfighting and slapstick she might have expected from a table full of clowns. But the conversation, which she refrained from joining, was punctuated with giggles, chuckles, and nose honking-well Mom's nose gave more of a beep and the two youngests' noses didn't seem able to honk. They all used exageratted facial and hand expessions; the stange markings on their faces exageratted the former even more. Even their clothes seemed to join the conversation-Dad's polka-dot tie would every now and then roll up, and the small bow tie Patrick wore would spin. Tiffany joined in with total enthusasim; to a lesser extent so did Nicky.
Mom got up to clear the table; as she walked past Olivia she poked her daughter in the nose. HONK!
Olivia stared at her mother; underneath the milky complexion, round red nose, and distorted facial markings she could still recognize her mother. "Why are you so gloomy this morning?" Mom asked.
Olivia looked away. "I'm not gloomy."
Mom faced her again. "Don't look at me and say that, the way you've been sitting there all quiet and picking at your food like that." Olivia rolled her eyes. One thing hadn't changed-she couldn't look her mother in the face and lie to her.
She tried to think of something to say when her mother glanced at the clock. "Oh my, you kids better get going. It's seven o'clock already, you don't want to be late for school."
Th triplets and their siblings all rushed upstairs, grabbed their schoolbooks and headed for the garage. Mom drove Nathan to school but the triplets, Patrick, and Nelly rode their bicycles. Although the family was well off, Dad was a bit of a tightwad. After the three of them managed to get their driver's licenses, he told them he could get them a car but they'd have to give up their allowances. Since none of them wanted that, they rode their bicycles.
Or at least they had in their old lives. When they got to the garage, they found what looked like their Dad's Taurus all white and covered with various polka-dots, their mom's SUV shrunk down to an eighth of it's size, two unicycles, and one three-seat tandem bicycle.
"I guess that's ours," said Nicky, gesturing towards the last one.
Mom and Nathon got into the mini-mini-SUV(Olivia wondered how ONE person bigger than Nathan could fit into that thing, let alone both him and Mom. She was just glad Mom wasn't taking them to school as well). Patrick and Nelly got the unicycles and pedaled away with practiced ease.
Olivia sat on the very back of the bike, with Nicky between her and Tiffany. The way to school seemed to remain unchanged, although Olivia didn't pay much attention.
In the lead seat, waved to people she somehow seemed to recognize, sometimes honked the bicycle horn or sometimes her nose. Nicky, meanwhile, was talking to Olivia. "I've noticed some things-about our parents, our siblings, and how we all look." Olivia didn't say anything but kept pedaling. "Dad's hair-or what hair he has-is mainly red, green, and pink. The three of us each has hair in one of those colors while Nelly and Nathan have Dad's hair exactly. Patrick had blond hair like Mom, now it's neon yellow." She gigled. "Or it is for now; soon he'll be bald like Dad.
"But it's more than just hair. I noticed other features too-like how Dad has both orange patches and blue crosses over his eyes; Tiffany and I both have one of these features while you have blue triangles underneath your eyes the same as Mom. Each of our sibling has one or the other or a varied combination-like Patric has patches around his eyes simlar to Tiffany's or Dad' but they're blure like your triangles. We seem to have the same shape of nose and mouth as Dad but more feminine looking. Nelly's dot on the end of her nose is pink, like Mom's nose. It may grow to about the same size-but she's too young for me to tell."
In spite of heself Olivia chuckled. Nicky had always been the brainy type who noticed stuff like that; it was good to see something hadn't changed about her.
Tiffany steered the three seater bicycle into a parking lot. Olivia looked up and groaned.
The Building did looke a little like her high schol used to, but otherwise was designed to look like a circus Big Top tent. A big sign over the main entrance red: EMMETT KELLY HIGH. She didn't know who Emmett Kelly was but she would have bet he was a clown.
And there were clowns all around the, going into and out of the building, coming off of bicycles or unicycles, flopping out of cars even smaller than Mom's SUV, or coming off of the most gaudy painted school buses. Some were white-skinned like her and her sisters. Others had pink, orange or yellow complexions with white patches around their eyes and mouths. Their was another group that looked simalar but their hair was either black, brown or dark red, and even the girls among them had black around their mouths resembeling beards.
Nearly all of them, with a few exceptions, had big red noses and big floppy feet. Nearly half the boys were bald or balding, and only the group with the beard shadow had normal colored hair. Oliviaeven gigled when she thought she recognized Mr Williby the chemistry teacher. The one she knew had been bald; this one had a full bushy green afro.
And they were all acting like clowns. One boy tried to feel up a girl's petticoat; she turned and instead of slapping or yelling at him squirted him from a flowere in her purple hair.
Tiffany was ecstatic. "I'm really going to like school today!"
Nicky, to Olivia's relief, was trying to remain down to earth. "Okay, so far we have to assume our lockers and our class schedules are the same. Let's go to them, go to our classes, and meet again at lunch. OK?" Olivia and Tiffany both nodded.
The three sisters walked into the school building and...