Chapter Text
As far as the school staff goes, Cindy would rank the Janitor at the very bottom of the list, right below Ms Applegate.
Cindy and the Janitor never got along. To be honest, neither of them got along with almost anyone. Cindy is glad she has pretty privilege, she snickered to herself.
It seemed like Cindy had a thing for making everyone's lives a living hell.
Lily, Kid, Ms Applegate, the Janitor, she even hated the hall monitors. And the principal. And Ozzy, he was annoying. And Carla, she's insufferable. And Nugget, he was gross and weird and Cindy could go on and on...
Due to this, her mother was called into school more often than either of them would like to admit.
This was one of those days, Cindy was sitting outside the principal's office, waiting for her mother to show up so they can go talk to her.
The Janitor was there, doing his thing. Sweeping or whatever, she didn't really care at the moment.
Until she got bored.
She grabbed her water bottle from her backpack, and with an obviously loud "whoops~!" She spilled some of it on the ground.
The Janitor whipped his head around, and cursed at the scene before him. "Damn it, kid! I just cleaned that!" He shouted.
"Well clean it again then, it's your problem now." Cindy pulled her legs up onto the bench she was sitting on, not wanting to get her shoes wet.
"Shut your filthy mouth, who are you to tell me what to do?" He grumbled under his breath as he aggressively grabbed his mop and headed over to do it regardless.
"It's your job, not mine." Cindy said with a shit eating grin, she really knew how to get under people's skin. Huh. That rhymes.
The Janitor gave her side eye as he mopped the floor. Suddenly he held his mop up higher, and before she could react, he turned around quickly and ended up slapping her in the face with it.
The girl gasped as she instinctively rubbed the water out of her eyes and shook her head, she realized her hair was wet now too, dripping onto her dress and backpack.
She was furious as she listened to him laugh. His laugh was boisterous and annoying as all hell. He only laughed like that when mocking others. Her, specifically. He knew how much it must've gotten onto her nerves, judging by the way her face got red from embarrassment.
"Ugh! God-- you-- asshole!" Cindy stumbled over her words as she couldn't decide between glaring daggers at him or turning her head away in humiliation.
What she did decide on however, was to get him back.
"Ahaha! You should've seen the look on your--agh!" The Janitor couldn't finish his sentence as Cindy took her half-full water bottle and poured as much as she could reach onto him.
Due to the size difference, and the fact Cindy was sitting down, she only managed to get his shirt and pants wet, which was in his opinion, worse than what she got, wet hair and face. ( considering he didn't have hair to begin with ).
Now, it was Cindy's turn to laugh. And laugh she did, she pointed her finger at him and laughed as her mascara streamed down her face. She wasn't upset at all. Not anymore, at least.
"Stupid fucking brat! What the hell is your problem?!" He yelled, waving his mop around. He really wanted to hit her with it, he really did. And if they weren't right in front of the principal's office, he most likely would've done it.
"You're the one who--" Cindy wanted to throw an insult his way before the door to the principal's office swung open, seemingly startling both Cindy and the Janitor, and the person who opened it.
"What is going on here?" Cindy gulped as she recognized the voice. She faced the principal.
She would've put on her victim act if the Janitor wasn't right there. She hated being vulnerable to anyone if she didn't need to, adults especially. She mostly plays the victim when she's alone with the principal in her office, not with anyone else there to see her like that, even if it was an act.
"Uh..." she wasn't sure which one of them that was, because both of them were struggling to try and explain what has just happened.
"I was-- uh-- I was just over there doin' my damn job when she spilled water all over the place and when I--"
"He hit me! In the face! Don't you see?!"
"No I didn't! Stop lying, ya little shit!"
"Don't listen to him! He did this! Are you really gonna believe a creepy old man over a cute little girl?!"
"Yes she is, and I'm not creepy, you're the creepy one!"
"Shut it, old hag! Don't you have anything better to do then to pick fights with kids?!"
"I could say the same thing to you, you self centered, spoiled rotten--"
"That's enough!" The principal raised her voice at them. The two looked over at her. Her face twisted in something else, something angry.
Something that definitely didn't want to have to deal with today.
"Mister Janitor, you're the adult here, please, for the love of god, act like it!" The principal scolded. Then she turned to Cindy, 'here we go again' Cindy thought.
It definitely wasn't the first time she was scolded for her behavior, and all three of them knew it was far from the last, but It never failed to make her cringe. Especially when the Janitor is included.
There was something about him Cindy especially hated. She was always suspicious of him doing something to her dog biscuit. Since he was the last one to have seen him. She didn't know what she'd do If she found out the Janitor did something to her poor puppy. She'd loose her mind.
She hated his guts already, she would've tore him to shreds.
"And you, Cindy! Cut the poor man some slack, I'm already tired of you acting out. Speaking of which, where is your mother?"
"How am I supposed to know? She was supposed to be here already." Cindy hadn't meant to give the principal attitude, but she did it anyways, it seemed like that just came naturally to her.
The principal sighed. "Alright, Cindy, since you clearly can't be left on your own without causing trouble, you're going to wait for her in my office."
It took everything in her not to roll her eyes at that. She never liked the principal, despite her being a little nicer than her old one. The woman was horribly boring. And sometimes too perfect for her liking. ( the same thing she didn't like about her daughter Penny. 'What is up with that girl anyway?! Trying to be better than me?! No one likes her anyway!' )
"Cindy! I'm-- what on earth...?" Her mother's voice called out, and Cindy didn't know whether she should be grateful or not.
It seemed like the hall monitor walked her to the principal's office, since he also followed up the stairs, Stevie went with him, scolding him for something Cindy was too far away to hear.
"Ah, hello Mrs. Donovan." The principal greeted, unsure of where to start. It wasn't all that odd for something like this to happen at their new school.
"Why don't we go inside?" The principal gestured to her office, and as Cindy grabbed her bag and got up, she saw the principal grab the Janitor by his arm "You too."
His eyes looked like they were gonna pop out of his skull. The janitor wasn't the nicest to the kids, to say the absolute least. He has faced the wrath of protective parents before, and since he hasn't met Cindy's mother yet and had no idea what she was like, he was on edge.
He wasn't in the mood to get sued. 'Hey, that also rhymes. I'm on fire today' especially not after facing the wrath of the Huxley Twins' parents. He made sure to stay away from those two at all costs.
Cindy would've giggled at his dumb face were it not for the circumstances.
Cindy was already embarrassed about the fact that the Janitor saw her like that, the principal, her mother and the hall monitors seeing her was the very last thing she needed right now. And hearing the door of the smart-class classroom opening sealed the deal as she basically dragged her mother into the principal's office. She didn't need all the snobby "smart" kids and their snobby "smart" teacher seeing her too.
---
The talk with the principal went about as well as one would expect. Cindy's mother asking questions, Cindy explaining her side of the story, and then the Janitor explained his. Both of them were almost dry at that point. There wasn't a lot of water in her water bottle.
"Please let me explain Mrs, uh..."
"Donovan."
"Mrs Donovan! Right, It was all a huge misunderstanding." The Janitor tried to lie his way out of it. It didn't seem to get him far, until he proposed an idea.
"We can talk more about this outside, alright? I'll promise I'll make it up." He said with a wink as the principal ushered him out, since Cindy was originally supposed to be here for a different reason, that's why she was waiting in the first place.
She stared in disbelief as he got a small amused smile from her mother. 'what the? She's supposed to he on my side!'.
The rest of the meeting with the principal was over before she knew it, something about bullying Lily again, she wasn't paying attention. As the meeting finished, Cindy asked her mom to go wait in the car since Cindy wanted to fix her make up, in case anyone saw her in the hallway. Her mother agreed, having no reason not too.
Cindy prayed the whistle she heard from the Janitor as her mom passed by was just her imagination.
---
After she was done, she spotted the Janitor outside the girls' bathroom, like he was waiting for her to come out.
"Your mom is quite the looker." The Janitor was on his bullshit again, Cindy thought as she passed him in the hall.
"Duh, where else would I get my looks from?" She flipped her hair with a bold smile.
"Say, she Is free tonight, ain't she?" He asked, his eyes glaring down at her maliciously.
There was silence for a moment.
"You wouldn't..." the girl whispered, horrified by just hearing what he said. She didn't even want to fully comprehend it.
"Watch me, brat." The Janitor spat as he turned around and existed the building, leaving her standing alone in the hallway dumbfounded.
She noticed a few worried glances from Stevie and the other hall monitor, the latter must've told Stevie about just how horrible their Janitor could be. It was then that Cindy took the hint and left, anxiety pooling in her stomach with each step she took.
He couldn't be serious, right? Sure he was creepy and weird and a total a psycho but he wouldn't actually do this to her, would he?
She wanted to scream when she saw him outside, speaking to her mother who got out of the car to talk, a smile on her face.
'There's no way this is happening!' Cindy thought as they waved each other good bye and went back to what they were doing.
If he was doing what she was hoping he wasn't, he was dead meat.