Vignette: Obfuscate

obfuscate
Syllable breaks: ob|fus|cate
Pronunciation: /ˈɒbfʌskeɪt/

verb [with object]
1. Make obscure, unclear, or unintelligible: the spelling changes will deform some familiar words and obfuscate their etymological origins
1.1. Bewilder (someone): the new rule is more likely to obfuscate people than enlighten them

Origin late Middle English: from late Latin obfuscat- 'darkened', from the verb obfuscare, based on Latin fuscus 'dark'.
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"Obfuscator, obfuscate, make my brain as flat as a cake," muttered the new girl, tapping her sparkly pen against the page. Her book was most definitely not open to the chapter on European colonialism. Janet shifted on her chair, attempting to stretch her legs while looking at the movement of the new girl's fingers. What was her name? Helen— no, Ellen? Worth a try.

"Ellen," she hissed. No reaction. "Ellen!" she tried again, this time reaching over the gap between their desks just enough to poke the neon-green-clad elbow that jutted out towards her. Grey eyes flashed to Janet, then made an exaggerated roll in their sockets.

"It's Lena, you twit," the girl hissed back. Then she shushed Janet and pointedly turned her attention to Ms Ramsworth.

Lena. Right. Janet glanced at her watch, shrugged, and tuned in.

~

"Hey! Lena!" A girl's voice pierced through the instrumental solo currently blaring from her headphones. She simultaneously lifted an ear pad and an eyebrow, sweeping a glance over the person currently encroaching on her personal bubble. Her gaze paused briefly at the unicorn pendant dangling just above neckline, then at the lip piercing, before she flicked it up to deep yellow eyes.

Lena blinked, quirking a smile. "Nice contacts...twit," she said. The other girl blew out a short breath through her nose, her forehead scrunching ever so slightly. "You're Janet, right?" Lena steered to the side and sat on the corner of a table covered with leaflets in a hundred screaming colours. Janet the twit perched right next to her.

"Yeah. So what was that word you used just now? In class I mean."

A faint scent of peppermint drifted to Lena's nostrils, and she absently rubbed at the bridge of her nose. Then she grinned. "From what I can tell so far, it's Ms Ramsworth's favourite pastime." Janet blinked at her, and she sighed. "To obfuscate means to deliberately make something confusing."

She pushed off the table and read the direction signs hanging from the ceiling, then plucked a long red hair off her sleeve. Before she let it fall to the floor, she grasped Janet's chin with the fingers of her free hand and planted a lipstick print right at the corner of the girl's mouth.

"See you tomorrow, twit," she said.

"Later, Ellen," said Janet, pulling her hair back into a ponytail.