The Second

Introduction to the second personality.

It took me awhile, I'll admit. Originally I thought that Claire was an imaginary friend; she was something that all little girls had. Claire was just.. special. She had her own mind and we could talk hours upon hours upon hours, all within my little noggin. It wasn't until the second personality developed that I realized that something about me was different. I was about 10.

Me being a dorky little girl, I had used to wear pigtails all the time. I thought they were the coolest thing, but apparently nobody else did. My mother used to tell me not to let anybody else judge me, and to be who I wanted to be. Nobody could change me unless I gave them permission to do so. I had believed her up until this one day at school.
Dorothy Shallots. An evil name, a cruel name. She was the most popular girl in the fourth grade, and everybody wanted to be apart of her crew. Everybody knew that if you were in her crew, the group of her closest friends, you could pretty much get away with anything. Dorothy's father was the principal of the school, and he strongly believed that neither his precious little girl nor her group of friends could do anything bad. And so it was that Dorothy rose in the social ranks of school. Somebody like me could never be one of her friends. 

Well on this particular day, Dorothy came up to me at recess. She was flanked by her two best friends, one on her left and one on her right. Shauna and Lizzie. They always seemed to surround her, as if she required body guards. I had been kicking around rocks, being anti-social as usual. I didn't make friends very easily, but that didn't bother me. I looked up as she approached.

Dorothy: You know, you could be one of my friends if you really wanted to. Nobody would ever question you ever again.

Me: Well.. you say it as if there's something I have to do before I can be your friend.

Dorothy: Yeah, there is one small thing. It won't even bother you though. You won't notice the change

Me: What is it?

Dorothy: Change your hair. Since its almost the end of the day, just come to school tomorrow with your hair different. We can be best friends!

She said that last bit with a creepy smile. I felt a presence on my shoulders, as if there were warm hands there, comforting me. Before I knew it, my vision went black, just like it had when Claire first appeared.

When I regained "consciousness", I was looking at Dorothy. Her eyes were wide with shock, her mouth agape. Lizzie and Shauna had a look of horror on their faces, as if I had crossed an unseen boundary. I later found out that I had basically told Dorothy that she was pathetic and that if she thought her reign of power would actually stay, she was just plain stupid. Of course, I used vocabulary that was way over my level, and I said way more complex things, but the point got across. She had left the playground crying, and I was sent to the Principal's office.

Later that night, I climbed into my bed, ready for sleep. As I was closing my eyes, I heard a gentle voice from within my mind. 

I'm sorry for having taken over like that. I truly did not mean to, but I couldn't stand what that little girl was doing to you. It wasn't fair of her to take advantage of you like that, and I had to speak up.

Her sudden appearance had shocked me so much, that I physically jumped out of bed.

Sorry, I should have warned you that I was here.

And so she began to introduce herself. Augustine, her name was.

Augustine was a very quiet lady. Shy, yet wise. Although she chose to remain silent most of the time, she would speak up and advise me through situations that I struggled in. Although I originally thought that she was just a cheat sheet for math, I later found that she was essential to my life. Not only did she help me achieve good, she also repelled the bad. She helped me to fight through the storm and to not let my head fall. Something told me that she knew what it was like.
I always thought of her as a 30-something year-old, which was a curious thing. I was 10, so why was there a 30 year-old inside my head? To top it off, I had realized years before that unlike me, Claire didn't grow. She was forever a child stuck inside my mind, a "figment of my imagination". 

Honestly, I don't actually know when or how Augustine showed up. She was so quiet that I didn't even know she was there half of the time. She never answered me when I asked. I could never figure that part out.