Clowntopia : Prom Night

Part One - The Plan

It had been a mostly quiet day for Chuckles The Clown as he watched over his Joke Shop in the "human" dimension, as it was known in Clowntopia. Only one curious customer had made his way into the shop and after Chuckles showed him how to get in touch with his inner clown, he vanished into the doorway between the worlds and that was that. All in all, a slow day.

Chuckles stood behind the counter, reading an issue of Clown Weekly waiting for that horn above his door to honk.  "Ah, Jen-Jen made the front page!" he chuckled seeing a former customer of his in print. The photo of her next to the article gave no hint that she was once human. He read on it talked about her quickly becoming a very popular performance clown, when suddenly the horn honked and there in the doorway stood a short, mousy looking girl. She adjusted her glasses as she entered, and upon seeing Chuckles, cracked a huge grin.

"I knew it. It is True!" she said with excitement.

"True? What's true, my dear?" Chuckles said as he walked over, extended his gloved hand and introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you, Chuckles." She said "I am Sarah Dennings. And it's true that this shop…" she then lowered her voice to a whisper "…is a portal to another dimension, isn't it?"

Chuckles tried to hide the look of shock on his face, but failed entirely.

"Oh My God, It is true."  She laughed.

The clown stood there looking at this human and frowned a bit, which with his painted smile looked pretty silly.

"How did you find out?" He said, placing his hands on his hips.

She smiled. "Well, The Internet is a powerful tool."

His frown lessened, but he still wore a quizzical look on his face.

"Well, if you know my little secret, why are you here? Did you want to become a clown?" he said raising a cartoonish eyebrow.

"Oh No, nothing like that, but I was looking for some assistance with a…plan of mine." She said sounding very mysterious.

"Well, Sarah Dennings…what sort of plan is this?" he asked.
"Well, as you can tell by looks, I am not the most attractive girl in school."
Chuckles looked her over, and shrugged. "I think you look fine."

"Well, thanks, but the rest of the school hardly agrees…but anyway, as Class President, I want to give the students of my class a Prom Night they'll never forget, and I figured you could help me provide some..unique entertainment."

Chuckles look of confusion melted away into one of excitement. "Now that is quite the plan, my dear…and you know what? I think I have just the thing. Follow me" he said leading her through to the back of the store. As he passed one of the shelves he grabbed what looked like a necklace.

"Now, Put this on…It'll make sure you don't become a clown whist visiting my world." He said giving it to her. She put it on, and looked at him strange.
"I am going to Clown World?" she asked.

"Yes. I have someone you should meet. If I am not mistaken, she'll be the perfect clown for the job…now Hold on tight. This can get a bit..weird" he said as he pushed her towards the door, which vanished into a swirl of colors, and she felt as if she were falling from a very high height, very fast. She tried to let out a scream, but the fall was stealing the breath from right under her.

And suddenly she wasn't falling at all. She was standing, and as the colors around her faded, she saw something that made her gasp. She wasn't in the small joke shop any longer, but standing in the middle of a busy city street. This, however, was no ordinary city street. She felt as if she had stepped into a drawing by Dr. Suess, as there were no straight lines anywhere, and everything had a level of cartoonish charm. She let out a laugh as she turned around. Several of the clowns on the street looked around as she stood there standing, staring. They whispered and giggled as she just took in her surroundings.

"Having fun? " Chuckles said after he arrived, popping into the street like a cartoon teleporting in.

"Wow…just…wow…" she gasped.

"Follow me." He said with a laugh as he started walking up the street. She followed behind, and several of the clowns waved, or did tricks to try and impress her. She waved back as best she could.

"So everyone here is a clown?" she asked.

"Yep. Well, except you of course…" he smiled. "Ah, here we are" he said as he reached what looked like an apartment building for rich clowns. The clown doorman chuckled and honked his nose.

"Ah, Chuckles. Here to visit Jen-Jen?" he asked.

"You bet" Chuckles said patting the man on the shoulder. "Buzz me in, will you?"

The clown nodded and pressed a rubber button the wall, and the door opened. Chuckles let Sarah walk in first, and then entered himself. He then lead her to the elevator, and took her up to the top floor. When they got off, there was Jen-Jen, giggling, her red curly hair bouncing a she waved vigorously to Chuckles.

"Chuckles!" she squealed as she ran over and hugged him. "Ith thooo Good to thee you" she said, lisping through her two front teeth. "And who ith thith?" she asked pointing at Sarah.

"This is Sarah Dennings from the Human Dimension. She would like to contract you for your clown services…"

"Oh, really?" She giggled. "Well, come on in-sthide and tell me all about ith" she said as she lead them into her apartment. Over the next hour, Sarah laid out her plan to teach her class-mates a lesson, to help them "lighten up" as it were. Jen-Jen was ecstatic.

"This'll be a real thh-rill." She said. "count me in!" she added with a laugh and a honk of her red nose.

"So it's settled. Jen-Jen here will provide the entertainment, and I will provide the magic, and together we'll show those classmates of yours a thing or two about having a sense of humor."

"Excellent." Sarah said, thrilled that her plan, however illogical, was actually going to work.

"And what about you?" Jen-Jen asked. "Don't you want to be a prettthy clown too?"
Sarah turned and raised her eyebrows. "Uh, No. Not what I had in mind."
Jen-Jen frowned, but then shrugged it off.  "Your Loss-th" she lisped.

Chuckles then went over to the door and took out a key from his pocket, locked the door, then unlocked it, and opened it, revealing the wall of colors.

"Time to go, Sarah." He smiled.

"I'll thee you on Saturday, Sarah!" Jen-Jen said with a wicked grin. "Ith gonna be a blath…blath…Fun!"

"I agree." Sarah said as she walked towards the swirling colors, and in a bright flash she was standing outside the open door to the Joke Shop.

"Have fun on Saturday." Chuckles said from the inside as he switched the sign on the door to closed.

"Oh, do you want this back?" she said, as she went to remove the necklace he had given her.

"Keep it, my dear!" he smiled as he closed the door.

=========

Saturday came quickly for Sarah as she prepared for the Prom. Besides her "little" prank, she was also doing legitimate planning to make sure the prom looked good, and everything seemed normal. She stood in the middle of the dance-hall of the hotel that the class had rented, and looked around, making last minute checks on everything.

"The DJ is set up. The Snack bar is all ready to go, Everything is in place except…"

"Oh, Sarah!" said a sweet voice from behind her. She spun around and saw a clown standing there, wearing a very pretty dress with hearts patterned all over it.

"I'm ready for my close-th –up!" She giggled. She carried a large purse that had hearts on it as well.

"Chuckles sends hith love. Oh! " she giggled as she took out a piece of gum and began to chew it.

"Chuckles said I should have normal teeth" she said as her two buck front teeth receded and grew back into her mouth until they looked normal…well, as normal as perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth on a clown could ever look.  "Make things easier for our friends to accept." She smiled.

Sarah nodded her head. "So how is this gonna work?"

"Well, I figure, you can introduce me, and then I'll mingle, entertaining individuals…sound good?"

"You are the expert here, not me" Sarah said as Jen-Jen giggled, snapped her gloved fingers, and vanished. Sarah could hardly believe it.

A little less than an hour later, the hall was filled with students, dressed to the nines in nice formal attire, and the DJ was playing high energy pop music.  Sarah stood looking, barely able to contain her excitement for what was to come.

Suddenly a tap on the shoulders made her spin around, and she saw Jen-Jen standing there, grinning.

"Showtime." Sarah said as she walked up onto the stage and tapped the mic a few times to get everyone's attention.

"Hey everyone, before the evening continues, I just want to inform you of a little surprise this evening. We have a special brand of entertainment, a blast from the past, memories of youth, that sort of things. Making her way around the floor tonight will be Jen-Jen!" she said as she nodded at the clown who walked on the stage. "The Clown!"

The crowd's reaction was very mixed. Some laughed, some made fun, and some just stared.

"I assure, you I am like no other clown you've ever met" Jen-Jen said with a giggle. "We'll have some real fun. See you on the Dance Floor" she added.

"I know it's unorthodox, but hey, we are an unorthodox class, are we not?" she said.

The crowd stared for a second, but then agreed with a loud cheer. Sarah grinned. They were in for quite the shock, and she couldn't wait.

TO BE CONTINUED...