Twist's Trouble

Twist had spent the rest of that day sulking, not even trying to make any friends. She just wasn't in the mood like she was that morning. Suri's sneering face always crept up every time she even thought of doing it.

The first week wasn't much better. Everywhere she went, at least a giggle or a chuckle went out in the open. Usually, from there, an eruption of laughter would follow, which didn't make Twist feel any better. What she most remembered was Suri, always joining in on the action, with that constant sneering face.

Two days into school, Twist brought a make-up kit with her in her backpack wherever she went. That way, every morning, every break between classes, and whenever she could, she would find a mirror and put on make-up on her face. Every time she did, however, she could only see the weird girl looking right back at her. So, she would put on more make-up, then check, then put on more, then repeat, over and over, whenever she had a chance, hoping she would finally see something worthwhile in her reflection.

That wasn't the only thing that wormed into her routine, however. Lately, Twist noticed something else she always saw: the janitor.

At least once a day, she would see him, catching her off-guard, staring at her with a face that was neither a total frowny face nor a smiling one, either. His mismatched hands held his mop, or broom, or whatever he was cleaning with, as he looked at Twist in those moments, a brow raised, as if he was thinking something. Or feeling something.

Maybe he is still holding a grudge, Twist would think. Maybe it will stop eventually.

It didn't. In fact, in a way, it got worse. Twist would see him almost everywhere. In class, she would see him at the class window, or at the door window, at least glancing at her. In the hallways, she would see him, watching with those yellow, creepy eyes, occasionally waving to her as she walked past. She was freaked out a bit, but still gave an awkward wave back.

In the cafeteria, Twist had a hard time eating her lunch as it was, with the constant laughing and shouts of "Pudding-Head! Pudding-Head!" aimed at her, but even there, he stared at her as he cleaned up empty tables or messes on the floor.

The worst part was, he took a long time cleaning stuff.

Twist wanted to just get some sort of cover around her to hide herself, because with him added on to the laughs and teasing, this was just ridiculous.

It was the third week of school, and the students still hadn't forgotten the pudding incident. However, the laughing had receded at least a little, which made Twist feel a little better. Of course, she still got an occasional chuckle in the hallways. Well, it's not big, but I guess it'll stay in memory.

It was just before lunchtime. Twist was in the ladies' room, undergoing her make-up repeat ritual for the sixth time.

No, no no!. It still doesn't look right! Twist was getting more and more frustrated with this quest for beauty. Not only did it decrease her in-between class time, even making her late a few times, it was also depleting her allowance! She was constantly keeping her supply of make-up in check, which meant she wasn't able to buy any kind of baking goods for the days to come, which severely limited her cooking time making sweets.

Yet, strangely, Twist only half-cared about that situation. Sure, she was peeved when she didn't even have enough sugar for one cookie today, but what mattered the most right now was this ritual. As of late, it had become her prime mission.

She added more blush and eyeliner to her slightly faded make-up just put on an hour ago. Maybe, just maybe. After finishing that, she stared for a moment. It still didn't look right.

Twist sighed, putting her make-up back in her kit. It's hopeless. I'll always look like this to everyone, no matter *what** I do.* She walked out. Getting hungry, anyway. She groaned in annoyance. For a COOKIE!

Twist walked to her usual empty spot, and sat down. Today, it was a 'Crystal' corn dog, with corn and mashed potatoes. For dessert, pudding. Like always.

Twist immediately threw the pudding in the nearest trash bin, then slowly ate her meal.

She watched Suri eat and talk with her friends, then looked at her own table. She sighed. If only I looked like Suri. She may be a jerk, but she *does** look good.*

Suri turned Twist's way, and Twist quickly turned to her food, hoping to not get into another situation. She felt enough of Suri's stare just not looking at her, not to mention the times she stared in class. Twist was seriously wishing for a hood, or a curtain to keep her sights off Suri.

Twist silently ate from that moment, eating her corn dog, wishing it was a cookie or a brownie.

Plop!

A brownie suddenly appeared next to Twist's food, making her double-take a foot into the air.

She looked up, and saw him. The brown, parted hair. Orange skin. The bowtie. All come together, Twist saw, to make up the very thing that started this: the boy who tripped. The clumsy boy who started this whole problem in the first place.

Twist frowned a little at the remembrance of the event, but looked into the boy's eyes, and decided to scoot over, only a bit.

He sat down, setting a brown bag next to the brownie already on the table. He smiled at Twist, with obvious nervousness on his face.

"Uhhh," Twist said, raising an eyebrow, "Hi?"

The boy sat there, sweat forming on his forehead, his smile fading. He only stared, not saying a word, which made Twist  scoot back just a little more.

Then, he snapped back, adjusting his black bowtie and his brown hair, then replied, "U-uh, h-h-hello!"

Twist's eyebrow remained raised. She offered her hand to him. "I'm...Twitht."

The boy, after a moment looking at it, shook it with his own. "I-i'm.....A-a-artie." He straightened his back, gulping. "A-artie Sm-smartie."

Boy, this boy is struggling. She noticed he was shaking. Might as well keep talking, and be nice.

"Well, uh, Artie," she continued, "is everything going good?"

"O-oh, it's g-going good," Artie replied, "b-b-but it c-could be b-b-b-better."

"Ith, uh..... everything, uh, alright? With your voithe?" Twist knew it was rude to ask, but she just had to.

"Oh, uh," Artie started shuffling around, adjusting himself some more, "I-I was b-born with b-bad s-s-speech processing." He pointed to his head.  "In my brain. A-and I-I-I s-stutter because of i-it." He looked down, twiddling his fingers, shrugging his shoulders. "P-plus, I-I'm just a dork near girls." He looked back up, giving a halfward-awkward smile.

"Oh," Twist said, "OK." She shuffled back closer to Artie, her discomfort now ceased somehow.

Suddenly, Artie knocked his head down onto the table. "O-oh, just s-say it, already. I-i s-sound r-r-ridic-c-culous."

Twist widened her eyes. "Uh, well, it'th, uh, not, well, a bad thing. No, no! It doethn't thound ridiculouth!" She chuckled, hoping he believed her.

"N-no, it is!" he retorted. "I-i sound like a b-bad record p-p-player!" His tone started to shift from stressed to angry. "I m-mean, i tried to g-get it fixed, but ap-p-pparently, that's n-not possib-ble! 'T-too risky f-for an operation-n,' th-they said!" His grip on the table tightened. Twist backed up once more, furrowing her brow at the escalation of the boy's stress.

"I mean, s-seriously, it's not fair! I c-can't help s-sounding like stinkin' P-porky! S-so WHAT?! W-why can't they all j-just taunt someone else, huh?!? WHY C-CAN"T TH-THEY JUST L-L-LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Bang! The moment he stopped shouting, Artie's fists left a small dent in the table, leaving Twist shuddering for a small moment.

Then, she saw him put his head down on the table. His put his arms around his face, blocking any view of it, but Twist could swear she heard sobbing, of some sort.

"Hey, hey, it'th ok, really!" Hearing herself, Twist had an idea. "Lithen to me! I thound weird, too! I, uh, what do you call it, uh-lithp! Yeah, that'th it!" Twist put a hand on his head. "That'th at leatht gotta make you feel a little bit better."

He raised his head. Twist saw his eyes, all teary and wet, with a few tears having escaped onto his cheeks.

"Yeah," he said softly, "I g-guess." He sniffled a little bit, wiping his eyes and nose with his sleeve, then he smiled. "Th-thanks."

Twist smiled. "Heh, no problem."

Then, to her surprise, her hand was met with his.

Artie simply smiled. "H-however, whereas m-my impediment m-makes me a weirdo, y-y-yours j-just makes y-you..."-he began to blush- "cute."

Twist looked, eyes broadened. Then, to her surprise, she smiled back at him, feeling herself blush as well. Her finger began to twiddle with her hair unwillingly.

Wow. For the first time, someone here is being, well, *nice** to me! Maybe this won't be so bad.*

Maybe, just maybe, I have a friend.

"Awww, ain't that adorable!"

Twist jumped, and looked to see who said that, with Artie doing the same.

There stood Suri, a few feet away, staring and pointing at them with that everlasting smile.

"Lookee, everyone! Pudding-Head's got herself a nerdy lover!"

Immediately, the laughter resumed once more. Twist gasped at what Suri just announced. She glanced at Artie, who was shaking and sweating.

Suri walked over. "Wow, got  yourself a real keeper, there, Sweetpea! Now, at least you'll look a little prettier by comparison!"

Suri's audience chuckled and guffawed at Twist and Artie's expense.

"And it's with the guy you tried to save! Dating him out of pity, now?"

Twist gasped again, then winced. "Hey, don't bring him into thith, Thuri! Your deal ith with me, not him!"

"Ooh, now you're protecting him, huh?" Suri' smile increased. "What are you, his knight in sweetening armor?"

The cafeteria resumed laughing once more.

"Thtop it, Thuri! Thith ithn't cool anymore!" Twist shouted.

"Oh, it isn't, Sweetpea?" Suri snapped her fingers, and a smiling student quickly put a bowl of pudding on the table next to her, took one look at Suri, and ran away.

"Well, then, maybe, another dip in pudding will make it cool! That sound nice, Sugarhead?" Suri picked up the bowl, her glee shining on her devious face.

Twist's breath immediately stopped. "No, no! P-pleathe! It took a good long while getting the pudding out before! Don't!" Twist started backing away, as if Suri was offering her poison. Her heart rate went up higher than Mt. Everest.

"Sorry, Sweetpea," Suri continued, "but sometimes, people need to be taught the rules. You complain to me, you get the consequences!" She raised the bowl over Twist's head, Twist being too scared to move. "Like I said, it's a woman-eat-woman world!"

The bowl began to tip, and Twist could only watch. She saw Artie, shaking with fear as other students held a bowl over his head, too.

Well, she thought sadly, here we go again.

The bowl was near vertical. Twist could see the pudding, wobbling to the edge in great suspense. Twist felt herself shed a tear.

But then, the whole situation, out of nowhere, stopped with a single sentence.

"What is going on here, Miss Polomare?!"

Suri lifted the bowl right side up again, and looked towards the entrance. Twist looked too. Her inner sigh of relief could not be loud enough.

A few feet away, Principal Cadence was standing there, her foot tapping and her hands in fists on her hips.

Suri threw the bowl from sight, and put on her best smile. "Miss Cadence!! How lovely to see you here!" Twist wanted to cringe at how fake she sounded.

"Miss, Polomare, is there a reason why you are harassing these two students?"

Suri's eyes widened. "U-uh, well, M-miss Cadence, I was, uh, j-just, uh...." Suri kept stammering, which Twist secretly enjoyed very much.

Principal Cadence crossed her arms, her eyes staring down on Suri. "Miss Polomare, were you about to drop pudding on this girl?" She glanced at Twist, who quickly nodded.

"What? No, no, Miss Cadence! We were just, uh..." She paused for a moment, then lit up. "We were just showing her how gravity-defying the food can be!" She looked at Twist. "Right?"

Twist wanted to say the truth, but Suri's eyes were on her. "Uh, thure. Yeah."

"Are you sure?" Miss Cadence said, "Cause this worker here claims you were going to spill it on her, and that you have done it once already."

She pointed to the person behind her. Twist nearly double-taked. Standing behind her was the janitor, work clothes and mop and all, staring at her with his yellow, unblinking eyes. He waved, and she, not knowing what to do, waved back.

Suri was at a loss for words. "Um..uh, I-I, uh.....but...it was an accident."

Miss Cadence looked at Suri with a raised eyebrow. Twist looked at her and Suri in nervous anticipation.

"Well, then, if that's the case, i'll let you off," she said. Twist mentally facepalmed. Miss Cadence then waved her pointer finger at Suri. "But I hope to not see this in the future, Miss Polomare."

With that, Principal Cadence left, and Suri went back to her table, looking back at Twist, smiling at her lies.

Twist glared right back at her, then turned back to Artie, but found an empty seat.

Sigh. Guess I'm eating solo......again.

It was the end of the school day. Twist was at her locker, opening it to get things out of her locker. She checked her make-up again in her locker mirror. **Groan. Faded again. She sighed, making a note to fix it later.

Then, her eyes caught on something else in the mirror. In it, she saw the Janitor, across the hall standing with a broom, swishing it around like a metronome. His eyes were focused on her.

Oh, good grief!

Twist immediately started stuffing her notebooks in her backpack. She looked in the mirror, and saw he was only a few feet closer.

She put her binders into her bag in a flash, as well. She looked again, and saw he was half the distance.

She quickly put her pencils into the pack sides. She looked again. He was only a few feet away!

She immediately zipped her backpack and closed her locker, and then-

"Hello, Miss Twist."

Twist nearly hit the ceiling as she saw the Janitor right next to her, smiling his usual crooked smile. She took a few minutes to catch her breath, considering taking out that inhaler she hadn't used for several years, with him staring the whole time, as if waiting for something.

"U-uh.." she spurted out, "Hello?"

The janitor smiled and stared still. "Aaaaaaaaaaand?" he simply said.

"Aaaaaaaand," Twist repeated, "uh, have a nithe night?"

The janitor suddenly frowned, and scoffed. "W-well, then, no 'you're welcome' for your rescuer friend, huh?!" He turned around, crossing his arms. "Of all rudeness. And to think I thought we could be friends."

Twist opened her mouth to say something, but the Janitor zoomed behind her, continuing, "Isn't what friends are supposed to do, Miss Twist? Give thanks?"

Twist backed away from him. "W-well, yeth.."

"Exactly, Miss Twist! So, if we are friends, then why is it I have gotten no thanks for saving you from your"-he giggled a little at a sudden thought-"sticky situation?"

"U-uh.." Twist stammered for a moment or two. "I-I didn't know you thought of me ath a friend."

The janitor gasped, his face turning red and his frown drooping more. "Not friends!?"

The janitor then suddenly turned around, his arms crossing again, and began walking away. "You apologize for that wet mess before, you wave to me, you don't insult me-things that nobody has ever done for poor Mr. Discord, the janitor"-he stopped a few feet from Twist, and turned back around-"and you say we aren't friends!?!?"

He turned back around, throwing his hands up in the air. "And to think," he continued, in a calm voice, "I was going to help you with your popularity, pudding problem." He turned his face back towards Twist, a sad/mad look on his face. He gripped his broom, and laid his head on it. "Cause that's another thing friends would do. Right?"

Twist looked into his eyes. "Well, y-yeth, Mr., uh, Dithcord. They do." Twist walked closer. "Did you thay you wanted to help me with my problem?"

"Oh yes, Miss Twist!" Discord's mood immediately went up as he turned back around with a smile. "Your problem involving Miss Polomare."

"Well, didn't you jutht do that?"

"Oh, I don't mean just how she affected you out here." He walked right up to Twist, and put a finger on her head. "I'm also talking about in here."

"What?!" Twist pulled the janitor's grey hand away from her. "Tshe hathn't done anything to my mind!"

"Oh really?" Mr. Discord smirked at Twist. "So perhaps, this constant wearing of make-up was just a sudden fashion choice, then?"

"How did you know I wore make-up?"

"How could I not? It's all over your face! Literally!" The janitor immediately began bouncing with laughter and joy at his quirky joke.

Twist drooped her head. "That notithable, huh?"

"Well, it probably wouldn't be so noticeable, Miss Twist, if you didn't apply more of that stuff every two minutes. And don't try to lie about that. I've been watching!"

"Well, I wouldn't have to if I didn't feel, uh..." Twist began to turn red, from embarrassment, anger and sudden realization, and stammered.

"If whhhaaat, Miss Twist?" Mr. Discord rested his head on his broom, only now with more joy in his expressions.

"If.." Twist spurted out, then she sighed. "If Thuri hadn't made me feel....weird. Plain. Unpopular." She walked over and looked at her reflection in the lockers. "Not normal."

She heard sniffling, and saw Mr. Discord blowing his nose on a hanky.

The janitor looked back, tears in his eyes, and drama in his voice. "Oh, deary me, I apologize! But your situation is just so-gasp-saaaaaad!" He bawled for another moment, then immediately switched back to smiling and holding his broom, putting his hanky in his front pocket. "Well, then, Miss Twist, perhaps I will still help you after all."

"W-what do you mean? Y-you mean you'll..make me...popular?" Twist raised an eyebrow.

"If that is what you desire, Miss Twist."

Mr. Discord then held up his hand, but then immediately put it back down. "However, before I help, I must make sure this is something you absolutely want."

Twist continued to raise her eyebrow. Then, she thought it over a moment. Getting help from a random janitor? It did seem kind of fishy. But then again, he was only being a friend to her. Of course, he was also weird and kooky-looking. On the other hand, he seemed really willing to help out. Plus, she did tire of the constant make-up, not to mention Suri, her goody-goodyness and popularity always triumphing over Twist's honesty and helplessness.

In every single way, every day.

"Ok, I'll let you help."

The janitor smiled. "So be it."

He then raised his hand again, and without another moment, snapped his fingers.

Immediately, Twist became blinded by a bright flash of light that sent her hurdling towards the floor. She went blind for mere moments before gaining her composure again.

She cleaned off her glasses, and looked around. The janitor was nowhere in sight, and none of the lights were broken, which left Twist completely bazzled.

So if it wasn't a power outage, then what was that strange light? And where did Mr. Discord go?

Twist looked around for another minute, before a sudden grogginess overcame her, a headache slowly making its way through her brain. She groaned, half in pain and in annoyance. *Some help he was.*

With that, Twist walked home, having missed the bus, and, her entire body feeling like slosh and her head buzzing with pain, got into her pajamas, and went to bed, instantly falling asleep, dreaming of teleporting janitors, snapping fingers, and bright lights.