Chapters “Homework; fuck that,” Screwball said to herself. She needed to do something though. Her dad was getting nosier about her school life. He might even want to look at it soon. It was bullshit though. Keep the work at school; let me have my life to myself. Ms. Cheirelee said she should apply herself in class studies. I’ll apply myself in other ways. She got on her bike and rode away from her house.
Past fuck ups and negativity did not get to her when she was on her bike. Society ostracizing her did not exist when the winds was blowing on her face. The only negative vibes that ever came from her bike was when she tried doing tricks on it. It was quite amusing for the other kids at the park watching her wipe out. The closest anyone came to giving a shit was the one boy who told her to stop before her dumb ass kills herself. The wind in her face did not dry her tears on the ride home. Her dad had demanded to know why she was crying and jumped to the conclusion of other kids picking on her. She didn’t want to tell him what happened though. Why bring it up and be embarrassed of it? It’s better to gulp it down and convince yourself it never happened, isn’t it. Trying to hold in sorrow turned it to anger, and then he yelled back. More tears were shed afterwards.
That was then and this was now. There was a nice trail in the woods that was only a 30 minute bike ride from her house. She had never seen anyone there before. It was so calm being surrounded by nature: the trees and all the nice woodland creatures. There was a stream there so there were always turtles, frogs, and fish to say hello to. Maybe even a salamander. She turned into the thicket and began the bumpy ride.
What the fuck is this bullshit. There was another girl there right now, throwing off the positive aura. She had big wavy pink hair that almost looked like a heart from the right angle. An upperclassman to; great, which means after getting teased and hazed by her, soon more high schoolers would fester over here, and her sanctuary would be overflowing with beer cans and weed ashes. The animals would have to find a new place to. She quickly turned around and rode out, but it looked like she was spotted.
After killing 20 minutes riding around the area, she mustered up the courage to go back in. The bitch was definitely gone by now, but she went in slow anyway. Lucking she was gone. There was a paper placed under a rock there, obviously left by her. Probably telling me to fuck off, thought Screwball. To her surprise, it said ‘You don’t have to be so shy.’
It was almost five o’ clock when his daughter finally got home. As usual, she went straight into her room. Maybe that egghead teacher was right about her being on drugs. Why else would she be so afraid of being out in the open after disappearing for the afternoon. Discord would deal with it later. No way has some egghead known more about drugged out people than me. If she was using, I would know.
There was dinner to make; after the Amazing World of Gumball. There’s nothing wrong with an adult watching cartoons. American Dad and King of the Hill are cartoon’s too, how is this any different? He used to always watch cartoons with his daughter. Sometimes he thought he enjoyed them more than her. Screwball was outgrowing cartoons, but he was never going to. There dad got his kids a snapping turtle for a pet instead of a dog. That’s just good comedy. At one point in the episode, the turtle dies and the fish’s tears revive her. It feeds on misery. Is there some kind of chaos god getting stronger off of out misery and weakness?
“Dinner’s ready,” said Discord. Screwball came out of her room and helped herself to some American chop suey made from pasta and hamburg meat. The first half of dinner was quiet.
“So where did you go this afternoon?” asked Discord. He didn’t want to bring up school work.
“Nowhere,” mumbled Screwball.
“Well you weren’t here. You had to be somewhere.”
“Riding my bike,” she replied after a few moments of awkward silence.
It was time to pull the plug on this. “How’s schoolwork going?”
“Umm…it’s going good.”
“Your teacher’s don’t say so.”
“Well…How’s work going?”
“One topic at a time.”
“It’ll get better, I’ll do my homework.”
“Why haven’t you done it yet?”
“I’ll do it, just leave me alone.” Her voice was starting to rise. With that she put her dishes in the sink and went towards her room.
He didn’t want to say anything, but did anyways. “What’s bothering you,” he said firmly.
She stopped for a few seconds and then went into her room. He thought he heard her mumble “Someone found my spot.” What the fuck does that mean.
***
His alarm clock obnoxiously beeped him awake for another day of work. He caught the end of Aqua Teen Hunger Force before drinking a cup of coffee and waking his daughter up. The universe will never know the true genius of that show. He drove his truck to work early for the mundane morning routine and trusted Screwball to get herself to school. He shouldn’t though, because she is tardy almost every day. It wasn’t that long of a bike ride for her to get to school. She could take the bus, but that would mean more interaction with the other students. How the hell could that egghead think she’s on drugs? You need friends to be on drugs. She would never talk to anyone to get that crap, and no one was talking to her to give her them.
The big thing going on at his job was wood chucks burrowing beneath the gym. Well, it sucked, but they wouldn’t go peacefully. Of all the places in town to nest, and they chose here. Nature and humans just aren’t going to co-exist. He made his way towards their territory to see how things were with them. One ran away when they saw him. The other’s gone back under the building. Damn, some of them were getting huge. The easiest thing to do would be to kill them or fence up there dirt cave. If some of them like the young were trapped in their to die horribly after feasting on the weaker before going crazy while starving to death, so be it.
That weird quiet girl was there. She turned around to walk away when she saw him, but then turned back. “Umm..well,” she stuttered, refusing to look him in the eyes.
“Spit it out already,” he said, growing impatient.
“You see,” she said quietly. Discord had to listen very carefully to hear her soft voice. “I live near a place where these guys could live peacefully without bothering anyone; if you don’t mind trapping them, I could bring them there.” She got a little louder at the end.
“I’ll think about it.”
“I could help, maybe.” She said the sentence just above a whisper.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
The shy girl looked about to say something, but then quickly walked away.
So nice it’s disgusting, he thought. Gumball would say something like that to the pussy balloon kid he goes to school with. Discord had no idea where to get have a heart traps. Have a heart; that’s all but faded away. If it wasn’t for Screwball…
She seemed like a really nice girl though. Discord had no doubt she was hording fucked up thoughts and hate spewing devils deep inside of her; everyone did. Discord began to think that what Screwball needed was a positive influence in her life; someone to look up to, like a big sister. Discord hypnotized himself into believing that he was not any kind of positive force in anyone’s life. This thought of a mentor for Screwball was an illusion though; she was an only child, and did not look to be making any kinds of friends soon. Better that way. It means no bad influences.
After fixing some broken desks, Discord made a call to his…acquaintance, Smooze.
“Discord, what the fuck’s up,” said Smooze.
“Usual, do you have any have a heart traps.”
“Yeah, I got some; swing by my place tonight and blow me for ‘em.”
“Fuck off.”
“What, you never call me just to hang out.”
“I get enough of your fat ass on some weekends.”
“That’s working, it’s different.” Discord did general construction work on weekends to make ends meet and have money saved. What for, at this rate Screwball ain’t going to college. It was usually nothing major, just carpeting, painting, paving drive ways and landscaping. Sometimes he would join Smooze, who did big projects full time. “Fine you prick, you can mooch off of me.”
“Don’t expect a Thank You.”
All right, Dad’s leaving. I’ll have the house to myself for a little bit. Time to waste it doing…homework. Her father had left after some left over dinner. He made sure to remind her to work on her studies before he left and told her to expect him to look it over. He was probably just going to look to see if it’s completed. There was no way he was going to review it to make sure it’s right. She convinced herself that he did not have the willpower or knowledge for that. Still, it couldn’t hurt to try. They say to try, and even if you fail at least you put effort into it. The grades were still the letter they were, regardless of how much ambition went into them.
She opened up her book and got ready to do some math. It was all bullshit to her, but Ms. Cheerilee wasn’t a complete bitch and seemed to believe in her somewhat. She couldn’t say that of anyone else. If it wasn’t for the measly pep talk she got after class that made her late for History after deciding to raise her hand to answer a question that she got wrong anyway, she would have not been thinking of this class at all; instead passing it off as malarkey that would never be used in the real world. I’m confident that if you focus on these questions, you’ll do fine. Why don’t you stay after school today for some extra help? Screwball emptily said she would show up. She actually thought of doing that, really she did. So much thinking that it blew off her focus during a quiz later in the day and she could not finish it. That angered her. Why spend more time here than the required six hours? No, I’ll get better my way, on my own.
As she put the pencil to the paper to do the work out, her thoughts were taken over by the other girl invading her sanctuary. A whole afternoon was wasted by her not going there and instead staying in her house, engulfed in negative aura. She could not deal with meeting the Interloper. Confrontation is not her strong suit. Buy why let someone else take over her woodland retreat? The note raised some thoughts, but she came to the stark conclusion that it was obviously just her being fucked with and lured to a false sense of security. She figured that out before crumpling it down and throwing it in her trash. Everyone else liked to confuse her, why should this girl be any different. After wrestling with her thoughts, the negativity hit a splash from the top rope and got peaceful resolution down for a three count. But the ref was down when peace had negativity beaten and anger came in and laid it out with a steel chair.
She decided she was going to go to her place tomorrow and tell the girl to find a new place to be, this was her spot. She didn’t care if she was older than her. Consequences would be something to worry about afterwards. But thinking and doing are completely different things, whispered her personal demons haunting the black back spaces of her brain. Fighting thoughts took more time to do then she thought. Her dad would be home soon, and he expected homework to be done.
She scribbled nonsense numbers for some of the questions and rushed through others, skipping important steps to completing them. This will fool dad. But then she quickly ripped up the paper. She decided she wasn’t going to lie to him because being told the truth would probably surprise him. It wasn’t fair to her. Teachers only told him about her shortcomings because he worked at the school with them. Those teachers can’t tell the other student’s parents about their problems because they don’t know them. That was the only reason her dad was so anal about school work. And everyone is just as bad as me, if not; close enough to not make a difference. She heard the door open.
He knocked at her door to ask her how homework was going. “Good,” she lied instead.
Her dad walked away and left her alone for the night. She taped her paper together to pass in tomorrow.
Screwball was getting ready to ride home. The traitor Ms. Cheerilee just gave her a cold look for no showing extra help. What difference did it make? Then the bitch rolled her eyes at her when she passed in her taped up nonsense homework. She could hear other students laughing at it, and Screwball had no choice but to laugh along with it. That put Ms. Cheerilee in a bad mood for the duration of the class. At the end, Screwball decided to redeem herself by asking the teacher if she could attend extra help today. “This has been addressed before, that’s for Wednesday’s, not Thursday’s.” When the hell was that addressed, she thought, wishing she had paid more attention when that was said. If it was even said. She left the room with thoughts of a conspiracy against her clouding her mind.
She was on her way to the bike rack to go home. She always waited until most people had already left to avoid hostile interaction. She noticed a caterpillar in a tree on the way. She let it be, but while walking away, thoughts of it freezing, starving, or getting eaten by a predator invaded her mind. Shouldn’t it be a butterfly of moth by now? She was now sure it was going to die before even becoming a cocoon. Most of the jerks here would stomp it or flatten it for no reason but their sick amusement. She would deny them that pleasure and take the insect home with her to raise.
Getting a jar and filling it with a stick and some leaves stalled some time to delay her confronting the interloper invading her peaceful place. After telling her new caterpillar friend to wish her luck, she set out on her bike to go to her fate. She decided that she would take the scenic route… for the view.
Screwball took a deep breath when she came to the clearing, and then kept riding on the road. She delayed it further by riding around, and then decided to give up completely and go home. Half way on the ride back, she turned around impulsively, and rode as fast as she could to her spot. Riding in the woods was extra bumpy, but she knew that if she slowed down fear would win again. She came to a screeching halt when she came to her spot. The other girl was not there, but the same woodchucks that were nested under the gym lived there now.
It was past five o’clock and Screwball was finally coming home. Discord had no idea where she had gone for this long. He was only sure she hadn’t had been working on her studies. He thought he really should be more protective of his daughter. One thing he had noticed was a jar with a caterpillar in her room. Hadn’t he pondered running one of those over with his truck not too long ago? Another thing about today was that he had decided he was going to demand to look over her homework after the she was given time to do it. He wouldn’t remind her to do it when she got inside, rather see if she took the initiative to do it on her own. Whether he had told her to do it or not made no matter though, as she went straight to her room as soon as she got inside. She even feels awkward around her father, and you feel the same towards her.
An hour and a half passed and a frozen pizza was freshly cooked in the oven for dinner. Discord had spent an hour planning out a conversation to have with his daughter and did not want to jump right into potential negativity. “So, you gonna tell me where you went on your bike ride?” he said almost jokingly.
“This place in the woods not too fat from here.” Screwball surprised him by giving him a straight forward answer. Before he could respond, she added, “You know those woodchucks that were under the gym, they’re all in this really neat place off of this thin forest trail!”
“Where exactly is this place?” he asked, thinking of the weird, creepily quiet girl who helped him get rid of the varmints.
“Straight up that way,” she said pointing towards the road, “no more than a 20/25 minute bike ride, and then you turn on that street with the weeping willow and ride for about five minutes, and there’ll be a clearing off of the road. Why do you wanna know?”
Fuck, I need to think of a way to get those traps back. “I was just curious as to where those woodchucks I got rid of went.”
“Didn’t you bring them wherever yourself?” Discord was really surprised at how talkative his daughter was being tonight.
“No, I gave them to some girl to get rid of.”
“Who?” Screwball looked really curious as to who it could have been.
“Some high schooler, I doubt you know her, she must live around that place.”
“Oh,” she said. Discord would take any excuse not to bring up homework and probably arguing. He was too surprised from how talkative she was tonight to want to ruin this night.
***
Discord had made his way to the school for another day of work. Now he had to figure out how he was going to get those have a heart traps back. The shy girl probably wasn’t going to come find him and neither was the southern girl. He would have to find one of them without being a total creep in the process. Another thing on his mind was that Fluttershy lived near this place where Screwball liked to go. He thought back to how similar they were in that they were both lacked social skills and how his daughter could use a friend in her life.
Fluttershy had just finished her favorite and last class of the day, biology, and was about to start the weekend. One thing she couldn’t get off her mind was the traps that she had borrowed from the mean janitor to get rid of the woodchucks. She had put off looking for him for the whole day because she doesn’t know how to tell him that she didn’t have the traps. They were with Applejack and her brother, Big Mac. She was worried that would make the janitor, Discord’s his name, right?, angry, and didn’t feel like dealing with that, but she could put off the inevitable no longer.
The janitor was making his way towards her right now as she was walking down the hall. Before Fluttershy could say anything, he said “Fluttershy, what a relief. I’ve been looking for you all day. Do you have those traps I gave you?”
Fluttershy stood their silently for a minute before looking down and quietly saying, “I don’t have them.”
She was so worried that the janitor would be angry. “Well, that’s not a big deal. Did you really think I’d be mad? I just need to know where they are.”
“They should be at Sweet Apple Acres, with my friend Applejack. I was going to go there today. I could figure out a way to give them to you.”
“No need, I know where that is. I’ll just swing by and get them today. Where exactly did you set the woodchuck’s free?”
“I live near a forest; I just went in there and let them go.” She was curious as to why he wanted to know, but didn’t want to ask him. Now it seemed he was the one uncomfortable with the conversation as he struggled to get something out.
“My daughter rode her bike around there and said she saw them.”
“Oh, I might have seen her.”
“She’s in junior high, with purple and white curly hair. She seems to go there a lot.”
“Yeah, I’ve definitely seen her, but she rode away before I could talk to her.”
“About that,” Discord seemed to be fighting with his thoughts about saying more, but he let his feelings pour out all the same. “She is very shy and not comfortable around people. She’s never really had a mother or anyone to look up to. But she seems to care for animals a lot, just like you. Why don’t I bring her with me, and we can see if you two have anything else in common?
“Umm…okay,” Fluttershy said, before walking away and hurrying up before she missed the bus. She had not expected that from the janitor.
Screwball’s dad wanted her to go with him to some farm to pick up the traps he borrowed. He said something about them being the traps he used to relocate the woodchucks she was now getting more acquainted with. She was surprised that he remembered her telling him about them and she was planning on keeping an eye on them to see how they were doing. She had always liked all kinds of animals. If only there was a way to be with them more? She thought, putting green leaves in the jar for the caterpillar to eat. It seemed to be healthy and growing a little. It better be a cocoon before the leaves change color. They probably won’t taste as good when they’re red, brown, and yellow. She was worried about the survival of her new insect friend. After debating with herself as to whether or not she would go with him, she decided she would. It’s a Friday and it’s not like I have any friends to hang out with, like how most of my classmates start their weekends.
It wasn’t a long ride to Sweet Apple Acres. There was a girl in her grade, Apple Bloom, who lived there. She hoped she was not going to run in to her. They pulled into the driveway and got out of the truck and Screwball’s anxiety went up while they walked behind the house to find Apple Bloom and her brother going through apples to give to their grandma, who was also the lunch lady, to bake into deserts. That seemed like a lot of work for an old lady to do on top of preparing food for the school. She didn’t know that Apple Bloom worked like this to. Screwball considered talking to her, or even helping with the work, but fear of rejection and failure froze her solid. While she stood there, her dad asked them where to find their sister and her friend. Almost mocking Screwball’s shyness around others, Apple Bloom had no problem talking to them. She told them they were in the orchard.
They walked through a thin forest of beautiful apple trees before finding the two girls her dad had lent the traps to, and one of them was the person who had invaded her sanctuary. They were both picking apples. Her mouth went dry with the thought of this girl recognizing her. She was even nervous of this girl knowing the bad things she thought of her and calling her out on them, which is ridiculous. The other girl, who had her long blonde hair, tied loosely, green eyes, slightly sun tanned skin, and freckles noticed them first and let the girl with the wavy pink hair know they were here. It was as if they had been expecting them, as neither was surprised to see the pair.
“Howdy, how ya’ll likin’ this here Sweet Apple Acres,” said the girl who lived here in a heavy southern drawl.
Screwball wanted to tell them it was lovely, but the word’s got caught in her throat and her dad answered first. “It’s nice.”
“The traps you gave us are in the barn, umm, I could maybe help you get them.” The invader said this in a high pitched, quiet voice.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m all set. Screwball, why don’t you stay here while I get those? I’ll come get you when I’m all set.” She wanted to protest and go with him, but hear fear of talking took over, and she just nodded her head.
These two girls didn’t seem as mean as she would have taken them for. The southern one asked her name and she whispered “Screwball” just loud enough for them to hear. Neither made fun of how her goofy that name was.
“I’ve seen you riding you’re bike around where I live. That’s a nice spot, isn’t it? What do you think of the woodchuck’s I’ve released there?” The other one added; if Screwball was going to go through with her plans to confront her about that, it all went out the window now.
“Umm, they’re nice I guess. I’ll stop going there,” she said, meekly.
The southern girl just looked at her funny, but the other one made sort of a smile and said, “Well, you don’t have to stop going there. I think it’s nice that other people visit. You know, if you’re interested in animals, I volunteer at the animal shelter downtown every Saturday morning. You could swing by tomorrow, if you want.”
The thought made Screwball excited. Any thoughts of this being some kind of cruel trick were not going through her mind right now. She gave her a weird smile and said she’d come by and help out. Then, without really thinking about it, she helped them pick apples. The southern girl thanked her, told them their names were Applejack and Fluttershy, and said that she could take some apples home with her if she wanted. Not too long afterwards, her dad returned and they went back to their house. She even waved Apple Bloom goodbye on the way to the truck, and to her surprise, Apple Bloom waved back instead of pretending not to notice her like most kids would.
Discord, the janitor at Canterlot High School, was finishing up his work for the day. The halls were swept and he just had to finish scrubbing graffiti off the bathroom walls before he would go home. No one puts any effort into vandalism anymore. He thought, scrubbing penises and petty insults away. There was a phone number on the wall with “cAll foR A blowJoB” written on it. An arrow was pointing to this, with “better be Celestia’s #” written at the end. Bring Luna in to; make it a three way, Discord brooded, thinking of past failures. Why did you have to do that?
Work was done and he was on his way to his truck. Not much use this time of year but when snow comes he’ll need to use it to plow the school driveway. September was ending and leaves were about to fall off to their leaf deaths. A girl with the green skirt and long wavy pink hair was putting a caterpillar on a tree branch so it wouldn’t be on the pavement. Who gives a fuck. Let me run the pest over. If it doesn’t die from the elements because it didn’t grow up fast enough a bird or frog’s just gonna eat the damn thing. He gave the girl a friendly wave when she turned his way for the hell of it. She frowned, turned her head down, and half waved at him while turning around and walking away. Awkward brat, he thought, getting in his truck. He stared at the steering wheel for a few minutes before turning the ignition on. Grow up fast enough, why couldn’t you have grown up fast enough?
The only thing that kept him going was his daughter, Screwball. Why’d you have to let your girlfriend name her? If you could even call her that. She was in seventh grade, and Vice Principal Luna was already informing her of slipping grades and spacing out in class. One teacher was sure she was on drugs. Bullshit, she’s not even in high school. Hasn’t this teacher ever seen an avid day dreamer before? Discord knew he had been one. Screwball had barely passed sixth grade and appeared to have no friends. He couldn’t really recall her ever having any, but now it was obvious she was very alienated and the outcast of her grade. And what did you expect? Every time the topic of friendship came up, the discussion ended with Friends will just fuck you over. There was that night in the summer when he yelled, “Your mother’s ‘friend’s’ were really looking out for her when they let her fucking DIE, WEREN’T THEY.” He didn’t remember how the conversation started, but it ended with a teary eyed Screwball screaming “YOU LET HER DIE, ASSWHOLE,” along with any interaction with his daughter for over two days.
Another day, another pay, thought discord getting the traps ready for the wood chucks.
“Finally doing your job,” said Iron Will, the douchebag gym leader.
“Well, when you gonna do your job. You’re supposed to be the gym leader, and all’s I see is a bunch of fat fuckletts waddling around school.”
“It’s America fucktard, they’re all chubby. You just can’t drill ‘em like they used to.”
“Bullshit and you know it. I fucked off just as much in gym class as most students do now.”
Iron Will laughed and walked away. Discord may be the janitor, but he was still higher on the educational pecking order than the gym teacher. The weird girl appeared from around the bend with a bag of stuff. Was she seriously hiding back there until Iron Will left? What the fuck’s wrong with her?
“I got some vegetables…for the critters,” she said quietly.
What else they would be for, he thought. He grabbed the bag from her and she shied away at his approach. Damnit, you really do suck. Without the weird girl you’d be screwed. Then again, without her you’d be covered in rodent blood and guts right now.
She went to walk away. “Wait,” he almost shouted. She almost jumped at that. She turned around slowly. “Thank you,” he said, trying to sound sincere.
“Okay,” she almost whispered, and then damn near ran away. Holy shit she’s just as socially fucked as your daughter. As he was placing the carrots, celery and cabbage in the traps he thought, you should have asked her for her name. He didn’t know why he thought that.
***
After another mundane day at of work, it was time to check the traps and meet the weird girl to take the woodchucks wherever she was going to take the. Discord really couldn’t care less where. The girl brought her southern friend with her to help out with everything. Some of the woodchucks were wary about entering with traps after seeing their brethren in them. Discord managed to get between their nest and the traps and chase them in.
“Umm…you don’t have to scare them like that,” said the weird girl.
“Well, I’ll ask politely next time,” said Discord. That slipped out before he realized how surprising it was that she would say something like that at all. The southern girl shot him a dirty look and the other one just looked away, somehow hurt by his sarcasm. A big fellow who appeared to be one of their brothers pulled up in a car to help load the creatures away. “So, what are your names?” asked Discord, not knowing why he asked that.
After a pause of silence, the weird girl mumbled something incomprehensible. “I’m Applejack, and this here’s Fluttershy,” said the hillbilly in a heavy southern drawl.
“Well, thanks Applejack and Fluttershy,” said Discord, almost as quietly as Fluttershy.
