Insanity it might well be called, that grin that seemed ever so slightly too fixed, but Charlotte's best friend was Artie. Everyone else avoided the cupcake centred man, but she hung out with him and skipped alongside him when he had one of his happy episodes where he ran around for no reason. His friends were violent, but she would chat with him happily, and he would often hug her with that same grin on his face. Maybe people wondered about it, but he was her friend no matter what. No matter how many poisons he slipped into his baking, she would always trust him not to poison her. That was what started this odd friendship. She'd heard about him and his cakes, but eaten the one he'd given her out of the theory that a baker wants his products to be tested. He had clapped his hands and just like that they had somehow become friends.
It was fun, too… she could probably not stand normality after this. If that meant she was mad, so be it! It was too much fun hanging out with him for her to stop. He'd taught her to bake, and the names of three different poisons that went well with pink icing. The swirls in his eyes just amused her, and she thought it was funnily cute that he wore bow ties like he was straight out of Alice In Wonderland.
Honestly, she was just afraid of Mattie, who looked like he might murder everyone in the room when the swear jar was produced, and she liked the others. And only then was she afraid of Mattie – she'd even hugged him without consequence on her birthday as Artie chuckled, telling him to grin and bear it.