Erin was having a lucky day. A kindly older woman paid for her latte this morning, afterwards she found a 5 dollar bill lying on the ground by the bus stop. When she heard that HR was holding a raffle at lunch time, she felt like she was bound to be walking away with something! Her company had decided to spend a little bit of money to buoy morale after the busy season had wrapped up, there were a number of nights out on the town available. A couple co-workers each snagged a meal at a nice French restaurant and a voucher for a massage respectively, but then Erin heard her name called out. She had won two tickets to... the circus? She felt momentarily disappointed; it wasn't quite as exciting as finding that money! But she quickly recalled that a friend, Kelly, had recently mentioned her daughter was getting interested in gymnastics. Maybe she'd get a kick out of the acrobats! Smiling, she collected the tickets and sent her friend a quick message.

***

Later on in the afternoon, Kelly contacted Erin to let her know her daughter wasn't feeling well, they wouldn't be able to make it to the show. Erin scrambled and sent a few more messages to other friends and family, but no one else could use the tickets on short notice. Coming up short, she decided to make the best of it and just go herself.

Pressed for time, Erin left for the circus grounds shortly after resolving to go. She didn't even change out of her work attire! Upon arrival, she wound her way through the grounds, meeting people, enjoying some cotton candy. She slipped into a sense of nostalgia, remembering coming to the circus when she was young, getting caught up in a sense of merriment about the place. Eventually she made her way into the big top, the show was going to start soon. The tent was half full with people already, a number still milling about outside, a pair of clowns were performing some sort of pre-show routine as a taste of things to come.

Erin found her way to her seat in the front row with an empty seat next to her courtesy of her unused second ticket. Now that she had gotten a little closer, she saw the two clowns, a man and a woman, were both dripping wet from some kind of water gag. Sponges laid about the ring along with a couple discarded buckets. The male clown was busy chasing the female clown around the ring with a final bucket. They were weaving all about, the female clown eventually made eye contact with Erin and gave her a little grin before suddenly leaping off to the side away from Erin as she ran by. On cue, the male clown launched his bucket straight at Erin, and... confetti washed over her! Erin's mouth fell open in shock as she involuntarily stood up from the surprise of the situation. Titterings of laughter came from the crowd as a heavy blush cascaded up Erin's cheeks; she thought she was about to get splashed!

The clowns wave to the audience as they take their leave, the final few people find their seats in the crowd. Erin eventually remembers to sit back down. Her heart still racing, the act began transitioning to the first scene. An acrobatic display was coming up, so some safety equipment needed some last minute adjustments. During the transition Erin was tapped on the shoulder by a vested member of the staff who, with some prompting, got her to come out for a moment. Outside the performance area, the man promptly got down to business, pulling an errant piece of confetti out of her hair.

"Sorry about that!" The man offers with a sheepish grin, "We didn't intend to startle you, but unfortunately the front row at the circus can be chaotic at times. You had quite the comic reaction! Tell me, have you had any acting training?"

Erin carefully runs her hand through her hair and the picks off a few more pieces of confetti from her dress. That's not the first time she's been told she's had a very dramatic reaction. She replies, "No, what made you think that?"

"Oh, not me. The clowns noticed! Heather and Jack have an eye for these things. On that note, would you be interested in talking to them about filling in for a gag? We had our special guest call in sick, seems like there's a bug going around."

Though it was a little outside her comfort zone, Erin eventually agreed to go meet the clowns backstage after speaking with the stagehand.

***

Erin looked down at her ill-fitting new outfit and felt a wave of nervous energy wash over her. This was not how she was expecting the night to go! A baggy baker's smock covered her once (quasi) fashionable look, her delicate makeup scrubbed away and replaced with a thick layer of paint that made her practically unrecognizable as she stared at herself in the mirror. A big, bulbous nose dominated her facial features. The face blinking back at her was practically unrecognizable!

Heather was putting away her makeup kit as she caught sight of Erin transfixed. "It's quite the dramatic change, isn't it? We're pressed for time so I just went with a simple, classic circus look: whiteface with a wide mouth, arching eyebrows, heavy blush and a good sized nose. Great for projecting your facial expressions all the way to the back row!" As she explained, Erin reflexively wiggled her eyebrows and contorted her face in every manner she could think of. She let out an involuntary giggle at the exaggerated display in the mirror. Heather grinned as Jack walked over to give some last minute words of encouragement.

"Okay, so there's nothing to panic about, we wrote this sketch to rotate in minor local celebrities from the town. Your only responsibility is to remember to close your eyes and react big!" Jack explains as Heather throws her arms up wildly in the air, eyes wide and mouth agape. "Oh, and try to keep some ammunition ready to go on the table. Not a big deal if you get distracted or overwhelmed, we'll figure it out!"

Jack turns to Heather, asking if she has anything to add. "We're not out there performing rocket surgery, just try to stay loose and have fun!" Heather leans forward and places the back of her hand against her mouth in an exaggerated stage whisper before adding, "By the way, there's an extra pie for the very end. Your choice on who gets it, but I'm thinking him!" Heather tilts her head and gestures faux-conspiratorially to Jack while he shakes his head and points back at Heather. Closing one eye and sticking her tongue out the corner of her mouth, Erin mimes winding up to pitch a pastry at one clown then the other, each of them upping the silly antics as she aims back and forth between them.

"Hopefully it's not too slippery out there, otherwise I might just fall into it myself!" Erin jokes, her fellow clowns laughing along with her. Before the conversation can continue the other two hear the music cue that the previous act is wrapping up. They shout out some final words of encouragement and remind Erin of her own cue before they head out to the stage. Erin carefully walks up to the staged prop cart with three big goopy clown pies and lets out gulp. Those are about to be thrown at her!

Erin is momentarily lost in thought about how the night has progressed, but before she has time to fully parse her feelings she hears her cue and scrambles to the cart and quickly wheels it up the ramp and out the doors. The ring is mostly cast in darkness, a bright spotlight is focused on the two clowns as they animatedly argue with one another across the far side of the ring. Both are once again dripping with water, the start of the scene had involved a continuation of the escalating argument that saw them all soaked with water earlier. The conflict was escalating at a rapid rate, perfect timing for a change of pace.

Suddenly, just a few beats after Erin stops on a conspicuously marked location, a spotlight hits her. She's momentarily blinded by the lights, but quickly blinks away the stars in her eyes as she hears nonchalant whistling play over the speakers to attract the attention of the bickering clowns. Resolutely, they both march over to the bake cart while throwing each other dirty looks. The last vestiges of nerves flutter about Erin's stomach; there's no backing out now!

Jack arrives first, a pantomimed dollar is offered as he slides one of the pies onto his palm. Heather stops in her tracks, mock afraid as Jack hams it up. He presents the pie to the crowd, who collectively groan and cheer; they know what's about to happen! Sizing each other up, Jack stalks about the ring as Heather makes a bit of a stumbling, pleading show of positioning herself directly in front of the cart. Noticing her placement, Erin tries to subtly square herself. She lowers her chin and swallows, as she can do nothing but await the inevitable. Time slows to a crawl as Jack gestures to the crowd, the audible excitement washes over Erin. She sees Heather suddenly drop to the ground just as the big, heaping pie leaves Jack's hand. It slowly grows bigger and bigger before softly splattering against Erin's temporary nose. Cream flies everywhere as Erin is suddenly engulfed in mess. Her vision disappears and her sense of touch is overcome with the new experience, the laughter in her ears heightening things even further.

Jack, surprised and sheepish look upon his face, quickly marches over to the cart and starts to help clean up the shocked Erin. Having narrowly avoided that fate, Heather pops up and dusts herself off, gives the audience a wink before grabbing a pie of her own. She presents it theatrically to the crowd as Jack and Erin are still trying to wipe the cream up. Winding up almost to the point of falling over, Heather whistles to grab Jack's attention. Turning, Jack reacts as one would, a startled yell escaping his lips as he too drops to the floor and the poor, somewhat-cleaned-up Erin once again is plastered with a fresh pie.

This time both Heather and Jack look aghast and apologetic as the audience laughs at Erin's predicament. Both veteran clowns circle the ring, hamming it up with the audience while Erin clears her eyes with her knuckles. Giving a heavy shouldered sigh, Erin grabs the final pie and stalks to the centre of the ring. An anticipated hush falls over the crowd, Jack and Heather each begin protesting their individual innocence and pointing the blame at one another. Erin seems to be mulling things over when an idea strikes her: she'll put it to an audience vote!

Gesturing to the crowd, she first points to her pie, then to a worried looking Jack. The audience cheers and Erin appears to consider it momentarily. Next, she then gestures over at Heather and receives a similarly enthusiastic response while Heather is waving her fist at the crowd in mock indignation. Erin tries to pull off a look of confusion and attempts to get a clearer response from the audience by gesturing to both in turn once again, but the audience seems to be equally happy for either clown to get their comeuppance.

Erin tries her best to look comically befuddled before hesitatingly gesturing to her pie, then tentatively pointing to herself. She hears laughter throughout the crowd and a rising chorus of cheers egging her on. Looking momentarily dejected, she shrugs her shoulders as if to say, "Oh well, what can you do?" before slamming her pie directly into her own face. Cream explodes theatrically past her as she almost knocks herself over with the force of the hit! Her fellow clowns trot over and join her in a stage bow as she's still blinded by the mess and they all walk off together.

The trio disappears backstage, Heather and Jack congratulating Erin on her fantastic improvisation at the end. Jack hands Erin a towel and she clears her face off - cream has gotten absolutely everywhere!

"You're such a natural clown! I knew from that very first shocked look on your face you'd make a wonderful stooge." Heather beams before continuing, "That last pie hit was so hard I thought you were going to splatter the audience!"

"Yeah, it was great! I was totally expecting to get it too, I can't remember the last time I got through a pie gag unscathed. Maybe we should be calling you in to be our official stunt clown!" Jack excitedly followed up, a hand clapping Erin on the shoulder in congratulations.

Erin blushes at their effusive praise. "Not bad for an office worker! That was a lot of fun. Honestly, I was planning on throwing that pie at Heather, but I got caught up in the moment." Heather's jaw drops in mock scandal and Erin laughs. "What's with that look? Don't act like you didn't have it coming!"

"You scoundrel! I was thinking of letting you get a bit of revenge, but that was before I learned you had it out for me. Remember, you always have to be careful with your words as a clown!" As the trio walks towards the change rooms, Heather throws a towel off a partially obscured storage bin, revealing a final pie. Picking it up, she gives Erin a diabolical grin who barely has time to stutter out a half protest with her hands raised before Heather places one hand on the back of her head and expertly smooshes the pie against her face, swirling it around and around.

Erin feels a sympathetic pat on her back as she hears Heather laughing and running away. Jack directs her towards the showers, and as she cleans herself off she reflects on her day... it went a little differently than she was expecting!