Thy True Self
A girl sat on a wooden bench, tapping her fingers against the wooden table in front of her, which was laden with strings, beads and glue. Other girls were busy constructing various pieces of jewelry, but the girl simply sighed heavily.
"This is ridiculous," she whined, catching the attention of the other girls. "If I wanted jewelry, I could just ask my father and he would buy it for me. Instead they have us making this, working like we are 'laborers' or something, producing this horrible mess of beads that are supposed to be attractive somehow..."
"Uh, it's, like, just a project. Stop acting like its so hard," one girl scoffed.
"Yeah, prep. Next time ask your daddy not to send you to a camp then. Or maybe pay someone to go for you?" another one suggested, and the other girls giggled.
The girl looked startled that the others didn't share her sentiments. She sniffed haughtily as the others kept laughing at her, and flipped her brown hair over her shoulder in a huff and left the craft hut.
She secured a pink hat on her head as she entered the sunlight. She walked over and then sat jerkily on a boulder behind a patch of trees. She was pouting severely and making sighs of annoyance, but both died down when she seemed to realize no one was around to see or here it. Instead, she stared sadly at her perfectly matching gloves and cowboy boots.
The girl stiffened as voices neared her. She turned slightly, but the trees blocked her view of the speakers, and their view of her.
"...told us that her daddy would buy her anything she wanted, basically. So pathetic..." A female voice said, voice dripping with venom.
"Yeah, and earlier at the lake, she kept complaining about the water temperature and how she wished she could go to a spa instead..."
"I dunno, I think she looks kind of cute," a male voice defended.
There was a tittering of giggles from several girls.
"Oh, pretty. That's the kind of girl she is, alright. The only was she'll ever make friends is if she never talks and just bats her pretty eyelashes. A personality like that is harmful to her health, and anyone else's," the female voice replied.
The girl sat completely still till the footsteps had died away completely. Then she gathered her legs to her chest, and cried into her knees. She stayed hidden for the rest of the day.
"You didn't make one friend, Mimi?" a woman asked the girl as she sat at table inside a nicely furnished apartment.
The girl shook her head.
The woman sighed. "Sweetie, it isn't that hard."
The girl stared harder at the table top, as if willing it to hide her from the conversation.
The woman walked over the girl and knelt beside her. She pushed back the golden brown hair from her eyes and forced the girl to meet her eyes. "What happened, Mimi?"
The girl took a shuddering breath.
"I thought that it would be so easy to make friends, since you and daddy like me so much. But it wasn't! Nobody agreed with me and they...hated my personality..." the girl explained, tears dripping from her eyes.
"Well, Daddy and I love you no matter what. But to make friends, you have to change a little. If you act more like how others want you to, then they will become your friend...get it?"
The girl nodded slowly, as if what the woman said didn't make sense, but she was going to listen to it anyway. If she couldn't trust her mother, she couldn't trust anyone.
"Do you know what to do now?"
"The only was she'll ever make friends is if she never talks and just bats her pretty eyelashes..."
The girl nodded, just once. The woman smiled and went back to the kitchen.
The girl did what had been suggested to her. When school started soon after the camp, the girl made many new friends. Surprisingly to the girl, they were all boys. They seemed to like her presence, constantly telling her how cool she was because she never talked about girly stuff. She never talked, unless necessary, but no one really cared.
After a while, girls came seeking her friendship, figuring that her popularity with the boys would be advantageous to them. She was soon at the top of the social ladder, but had never said more than a sentence or two to one person each day.
The girl knew something was wrong with this situation. She would often lock herself in her bedroom at night, reading novels about best friends who shared all their thoughts and secrets. Neither had to change for the other.
The girl had long ago learned that complaining and whining annoyed others, as she had observed this from others who made the same mistake as her. She convinced herself that minus her complaining that now she could make friends by being herself. At night, she would practice talking and laughing like the girls in the books. She would plan on talking like that the next day at school, only to have the day come and never do it. The rejection she had experienced at camp haunted her. At any moment, they could just leave her and never look back.
The girl desperately didn't want to be friendless. The irony was that she was and she realized it in her heart, but never in her mind.
"What was that out there!" a woman screeched, her fancy up do flopping oddly.
The girl looked back innocently, standing in her frilly yellow dress.
The woman sighed. "I don't care how you act around your friends at school, but this is polite society. You can't just stand like a silent lump at a party! Your father worked hard to get this far. To think, if he had taken that position in America, we would still be simply upper middle class... But now we are the top of the top, Mimi! And since this is the case, we must act differently."
The girl narrowed her eyes slightly. "What do you want from me?"
The woman narrowed her eyes in return. "I want you to act like a respectful, attentive, bright young girl. Its rather simple Mimi. We all play different parts, even if they really aren't who we are. It is a constant game of pleasing others...get it?" she said in perfectly clipped tones.
The girl nodded slowly, as if what the woman said didn't sit right with her, but she was going to listen to it anyway. She couldn't trust her mother, but then, she couldn't trust anyone.
"Do you know what to do now?"
"A different personality...isn't that what I do every day?"
The girl nodded, just once. The woman smiled and went back to the party.
So the girl became practiced at acting, switching her personality to suit the people around her. It made sense in a twisted way. It seemed wrong that being so fake would attract people, but it did. In the girl's world, being yourself didn't work.
But, she did still have her real personality, somewhere deep inside. She only let it out when no one was around, most often when in her room in her empty house.
And once with someone else. But even that didn't last long.
"Come in here Mimi," A voice called as the girl entered her home. She walked up to a man sitting at the kitchen table.
"Where are my parents?" she asked, sitting with him.
"They had another dinner to go to tonight. They won't be home-"
"-till around 1 am, I know," the girl replied, obviously used to being left behind by her parents.
"Well, now to why I called you in here," the man explained, "Your father asked me to find out where you have been going after school. I told him I would look into it after I finished another ongoing project. I will finish it tomorrow, so I will be starting the investigation on you two days from now. I am obligated to report everything I find, because I am an employee before I am a family friend, but if I can't find where you've been going since you have stopped going there, there won't be anything to report."
The girl nodded, but asked, "Why does he care where I've been going?"
"He's more worried about who you've been with. Because of your family's pristine reputation."
The girl nodded again, face and eyes blank. "Well, then. I had better make sure to stay at home then, after tomorrow."
The man nodded solemnly, and the girl stood and walked away, not allowing the man to see the sad, heart broken look she allowed onto her face.
The girl stood with a boy at school in a hidden corner. He was talking to her, but she was simply writing on a piece of paper. She folded it and handed it to the boy, before pushing him away a few seconds later.
The note had only two simply scribbled lines:
I'm dreaming of angels, but I'm living with demons,
I'm reaching for heaven, but I'm stuck here in hell.
The girl smiled wistfully as the boy was joined by his surprised looking friends, thinking about the blonde wig and blue contacts hidden in her room, and the only time she had let her true self shine.
Tai sat up painfully fast in bed, everything coming full circle and smacking him in the face.
"Holy s-"
The cat looked up from the yell in the other room; bird scattered from their perch on the apartment balcony; Their neighbor simply shook her head and muttered, "Kids and their language these days..."
As Tai walked down the hallway that day at school, he realized that knowing what happened really didn't help in anyway. Their pasts were so complicated that Tai didn't know how to even begin fixing them.
Or was it really that hard? Didn't they both really just want friends. Real friends, more exactly. With friends like the ones they had, who needed enemies?
Tai sat on a bench and pulled out a pad of paper, a plan forming in his head. He walked to up to a locker and discretely slipped the note inside. It seemed odd, but somehow scrap paper with confusing messages were the only things holding everything together.
Tai only had to wait till lunch for the next part of his plan to fall into place. Tai had realized that the mini-clashes between Yamato and the popular girls happened everyday. It had happened his first day here, when Yamato had tripped one of them, and gotten increasingly violent since then. It was reaching the breaking point soon.
Today, Tai corrected in his mind.
The three girls, minus Mimi, rounded the corner and headed toward Yamato, who was sitting at a table by himself, listening to his headphones. All the conversations died down as everyone turned to watch today's drama. It was unusual for the girls to go out of their way to find Yamato. They knew they had the upper hand now, and they wanted to use it.
The blonde flicked off Yamato's headphones. "Eating alone, loser? No surprise there..."
The other two snickered, but he didn't move, didn't react. They had broken his will yesterday. It was strange, because he was always lashing back physically and verbally.
The blonde seemed to glow in satisfaction. "Cause who would waste their time on you...?"
"I would."
Everyone turned and gasped as Tai walked forward. It would be a funny sight for Tai, all of the stunned faces, the fact that it was all playing out like some cheesy teen flick, if he weren't so focused. Yamato seemed surprised, just as much as the on lookers.
The blonde sneered at Tai. "Always trying to rescue people like lost animals, aren't you? Don't you get it? He's incapable of anything resembling friendship. He doesn't want it or understand it."
"Doesn't matter if he doesn't want me. I'm always gonna be here, offering him my friendship. I won't leave or quit. He's stuck with me. With us," Tai finished, nodding his head in the direction of the nine people behind him. His group of friends stood, determination on their faces as well.
"He's kind of stubborn, but we'll work on that," Tai said, winking at Yamato, who looked like he couldn't believe what was going on.
"Taichi, you are-" the blonde started.
"A wonderful person?" a female voice finished from behind her.
Mimi stood there, smiling lightly. She walked around the stunned girls, and up to Yamato.
"Taichi there sounds pretty stubborn himself. I think it would be in your best interest to listen," she said.
Yamato stood up, swinging his bag over his shoulder. His spark seemed ignited again, and he smile cheekily at her. "Only if you come too."
Mimi seemed to falter, but squeezed something in her pocket and nodded. Yamato started to lead her over to Tai, but the girls all cried for her to stop.
"What do you think you are doing, Tachikawa? Come back-" the blonde started, but was cut off by Mimi.
"I don't like you. At all. I think that you are a horrible person who doesn't deserve any shred of respect from me or anyone."
The blonde drew herself up at the insult. "And who are you, Tachikawa? The boring mute who can only make friends by not talking and just batting her pretty eyelashes?"
Tai stood in shock temporarily, recalling the same words from his dream.
"It's been five years, get a new line," Mimi snapped, furry filling her face. "I may not be perfect, but I am tired of others controlling me. Friendship is compromise. You shouldn't have to change yourself for anyone. You make concessions, but only cause you want to.
"They," Mimi said, gesturing to Tai and the others behind her, "help one another and embrace each personality. There are conflicts and problems, but everyone helps everyone else change for the better. You three just poison everyone you are around.
"And Yamato is worth ten times more than all of you put together," She said with a finality in her tone, staring down each girl.
The three girls' jaws dropped, along with all of the onlookers'. "You should all reevaluate your attitudes towards others," Mimi said as she took in their shocked faces and smiled.
She turned around and walked away with Yamato, who was beaming, an unfamiliar look for him .
"That must have felt good," he said.
"It did," she said, smiling brilliantly.
The pair reached Tai and Mimi pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket. Everyone around them was whispering excitedly at the display, but Mimi seemed unaware.
"Thanks for the note," she said, hitting him with the smile that she couldn't stop.
Tai took the crinkled note and smiled back as their friends gathered around them, patting Yamato and Mimi on their backs and welcoming them.
"Let thy true self be thy only self"
"Wise words," Takeru said by his shoulder.
Tai grinned. "I got it from a fortune cookie."
AN- See, this chapter was just the opposite of last, sad in the beginning and happy at the end! Only two more chapters to go, too! We're so close to the end...
Anyway, I would like to say this. I didn't want to make Mimi the clique spoiled rich girl, because I don't think life works that way. I don't think Mimi had the persuasive personality to make others like her even though she acted snotty. The only reason it was tolerated somewhat in the digital world was because they had to stay with her, they couldn't just leave her, or ignore her. I think life wouldn't be so kind if she didn't go to the digital world. AKA, this chapter. This is of course, fanfiction, so you may not agree, but this story is my lame attempt at entertainment for myself, so I'm not going to argue semantics.
Oh, and I didn't actually get that from a fortune cookie. I did have Chinese food today and my fortune was "If you're happy, you're successful." I was marginally disappointed it wasn't better, but that in turn meant I wasn't successful, which made me sadder, and well...It was basically a downward spiral from there. Great story.
And finally (I don't know if anyone is actually reading this anymore) PLEASE go read Been There by Pied Piper. I absolutely adore the story, but it never gets a lot of reviews, so I'm doing my part to advertise. It's so much better than anything I can write, so please go check it out.
As always, thank you to all of you great reviewers! Hearts to you all!
mirai3k,Vigatus, Rayana Wolfer, Crimson Blademaster, Winter Sapphire, Litanya, digimon-Taiora, taichis-girl208, BenignUser, KazamaFangirl, Marie Darkholme
Thunder Demon- Did you really make those up while reading the story? That's amazing! Do you mind if incorporate them in one of the next chapters? I'll give you credit, of course. Let me know.
Reluctant Dragon- Oh, you guessed so right! I was wondering if anyone would get it...