Art by: angerissue on DeviantArt!! Also thank you for 200+ reads and 15 votes omg!!

His hand loosed from around mine and he let it go. His eyes darted to the left and then back at me, visibly more relaxed.

"The Principal is gone!" he said, a small smile spreading across his face.

I raised an eyebrow. "H-How do you know? He's walked away a while ago," my voice echoed softly through the white hallways.

"I could hear." He points to his ears, "I'm known for my hearing."

That's why he could hear Reese and I whispering in the back of the class earlier today...

"I knew something was in the closet, but I assumed it was Gotta Sweep." He said bluntly. "Speaking of which, don't be alarmed, he's our janitor."

Baldi's mood was light and cheery, almost as if he was giving someone a welcome tour.

I couldn't help but smile.

"So why did you stay... I hit you on your first day here." Smile slightly dropping, he gave me a concerned look.

"I-I stayed because I knew there was something wrong with this school." I stuttered, at a loss on how to explain.

A small laugh emitted from the teacher. "There's plenty of things wrong with this school... this whole town," he motioned for me to come towards him. "If you came wanting to know more, then you can."

I nodded shyly and walked with him, looking around at the obnoxiously coloured posters containing the school rules. There were soda vending machines and tons of faculty only rooms dotting the sides of the halls.

"ș̸͚̲̗̜̊c̶͕̜̙͑͌ḣ̶̡̙͒̃o̸͎̭͚͐̽ó̷̪̤̣͎͈͝l̵͎̱̂͛͛͝ is so out of place," he explained, seemingly walking no where. "It's as if it almost doesn't exist. I wonder that sometimes myself. I've never seen any other teachers here, just myself."

I quietly pull him out of his rant with a question. "Why does the Principal make you..." I trail off, looking up. "punish us?"

Baldi stops walking and turns to me, folding his hands. He pauses, thinking.

The tall man opens his mouth to speak in a hushed but serious tone. "He's never told me why. He's just told me to do it."

His eyes glance down at my hands multiple times. Without any warning or permission, he reached down and gently took my uninjured hand, pulling me down the hallway.

My face flushed and I resisted. "Where are you taking me?!" Even though he seemed to have no ill intent and wasn't even pulling me hard, my heart still pounded in fear. "Let go of me!"

He instantly let go and whipped around to look at me. "Was that your bad hand?" He quickly asked, pulling his hands back.

"What?... no, just, where are you trying to take me?" Stuttering, I stepped back a little.

"To get you an ice pack. For your hand." A nervous smile spread across his face. "If you don't want one-"

I shook my head and laughed in relief. "Heh, I do, actually."

~

After a few minutes of walking in rather uncomfortable silence, Baldi opened a door to a small office with a small bed, a desk and rows of cabinets. He flicked a light switch and a dim bulb lit up the room almost eerily.

Anyone could tell that the room wasn't put to much use. There was paperwork sitting on the desk that held half finished signatures and ink stains.

He reached into a small fridge that behind the bed that I hadn't seen when we walked in. He held a small cloth pad out to me and shut the door.

"Just try to bring it back to school tomorrow," he laughed.

I took it and placed it on my hand. The coldness cancelled out the burning of my skin. I held it on with my other hand.

Everything felt so odd. He was like a completely different person. He seemed human now, and for some reason, that I couldn't pinpoint, wanted to help me.

Almost impulsively, I threw my arms around him and gave him a thankful hug.

He flinched at the gesture and then laughed, slowly lowering his arms to weakly hug me back. He was afraid to touch me, I could tell.

I didn't even know what pushed me to hug him in the first place, but my heart fluttered afterwards. It fluttered even more when I saw that his cheeks were bright red.

With the teachers at my old school, it took me months, usually until the end of the school year to give them a hug. Most I just didn't interact with at all. But on the first day at a new school filled to the brim with questions, I hugged him.

"Thank you," I said with a bright smile. "You really aren't bad, are you?"

Shrugging, he opened the door for me and walked out. "You should be getting home," he reminded. "Aren't your parents waiting for you?"

My parents. Well... my mom. She never really waits for me. She doesn't even really care. She never used to talk to me, and I realised that this wouldn't be much different.

"My mom is at work," I answered truthfully. "Before I moved here, we barely ever interacted, and I don't even know where she is now..."

Baldi sighed, putting his hand on my shoulder. "I have to close up the school, so you might want to get out of here. I'll have to delete the security footage of you being here..." he looked up at the ceiling.

Nodding, I gave a quick answer. "Y-Yeah, of course." I'd have to get my bag from inside the janitor's closet. "Well, have a good day Mr. Baldi. I'll see you tomorrow."

I turned back to give him a small awkward wave, still holding the ice pack on. He gave a simple wave back with a genuine smile. Not the plastic, fake one he gave when teaching. That one was anything but inviting.

Making my way down the hallways trying to remember where the janitor's closet was, I bumped into a unreasonably large broom.

It seemed to be standing on it's own, doing nothing. I remembered the mentioning of 'Gotta Sweep' multiple times, but I just assumed it was a nickname for a regular old janitor, not... that. It looked like any old broom with a few stray bristles.

I tried to squeeze past it, but it didn't move. It stood completely cemented onto the ground.

A grunt of frustration sounded from my throat.

"Come on, can you move please? I just need to get my bag and then I'm gone," I pleaded with the somewhat sentient broom. "I just-need to-get through-" I stumbled on my words through miserable attempts to push past the cleaning tool.

Every time I made a move, it shifted it's position to create a blockade.

I threw my arms up in the air and spun on my heel, giving the broom a dirty look. "Then I'll just go the other way." I felt rather stupid using sass on a broom. I wasn't even certain that it could hear what I was saying.

Before I could go too much farther, I felt something stiff against my back and feet.

Gotta Sweep!... That damn thing.

The green broom pushed me and caused me to scream as I gripped onto the handle backwards for safety. I loud "GOTTA SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP!" rang through my ears from behind me as I was mindlessly being pushed through the halls.

"What the hell is going on!" I tried to scream over the broom's obnoxious chant as I was zipping through the halls at speeds faster than I thought possible.

I shook the hair out of my face and saw I was being pushed straight towards Baldi in a dead-end hallway.

"Watch out!" I yelled, but he already saw it coming. He just turned around and had a somewhat amused and frightened look on his face.

The broom came to a sudden halt, and I jerked, flying forward, making a bee-line for Baldi.

~

Sorry for the delay in uploads! I felt a little stuck with writing. Anyway, I'm glad you guys are enjoying this! *sweats* I didn't think this would get that far actually lol