Dual Persona

One thing was for sure: the night was dark and the weather was terrible. Snow piles had risen almost a foot since the storm started and the howling winds promised that it wouldn’t let up soon. In the middle of this winter hell, Ebony sat at her dorm window, the only one still lit at this late hour, wondering if it was too late to start writing her paper for media productions class. Despite being assigned a month ago, she had only done the research and had yet to start writing even though the deadline was in a couple days. She was also certainly not the only person still up, as her roommate Ellen was sprawled out on the bed intently focusing on the handheld game she was playing, both legs kicking the air even as her fingers were flying across the controls. 

Their dorm room was small, but it was big enough for the both of them to live together comfortably. One side of the room had been taken over by a small library of books on science and every type of artistic and design theory the college library had available. The other side of the room had a couple binders neatly stacked next to piles of paper, and beside that was a small collection of Nintendo games and movie posters. Ebony let out a long sigh, catching Ellen’s attention. 

“You want to play Let’s Go to get your mind off it?” Ellen asked.

Ebony nearly jumped out of her seat, “NO!”

Through her red hair, Ellen glanced over at Ebony, “you sure? You’ve been looking at that page for the last three hours.”

Ebony shifted uncomfortably in her chair, thinking about the eighteen different beginnings she had already thought about and discarded. “I have been doing my work, I just haven’t written it down yet.”

Ellen paused her game and shifted into a sitting position, “You realize that if you put half the work you put into your side projects into your school projects you would actually be passing?”

Ebony grimaced, she remembered having this conversation almost every day since being in the same room with Ellen, “I find that funny that you say that while you play video games all day!”

“At least I put the work into getting decent marks while all you do is look at a blank sheet of paper when you could be top of the class.”

“You do know I am already top of the class in an alternate universe?”

Ellen groaned and leaned back on the bed. “We aren’t having this conversation again. You know it makes my head hurt.”

Ebony instead pressed on knowing it would get Ellen off her for the time being, “Actually in another universe, both of us are dead, we are both queens, and you actually have friends instead of just knowing everything!”

That was it for Ellen. She had a respect for Ebony however Ellen was now trying to contain her rage at the tiny dark haired girl.  Turning off her handheld console, Ellen and looked straight at Ebony who was realizing she had made a massive mistake.

“Yes I don’t have any friends, however nobody will ever recognize you for all your projects no matter how big they are if you never talk to anybody or fail your classes.”

Ellen realized how harsh her words were as tears began streaming down Ebony’s face. “I didn’t mean it like that Ebony.” 

Ebony looked up trying to figure out if she was being genuine or if she was just trying to make her feel better. Ellen slowly got up and looked over at the assignment Ebony still had spread out over the only desk in the room. Giving Ebony a slow pat on the back Ellen sat down beside her holding out her handheld console. Ebony could only stare at Ellen in disbelief. 

“Take it, take a break, I’ll organize your research notes so you can get right on it tomorrow.”

Ebony nodded, seeing the value in her level-headed roommate’s plan.

Before long the two had changed positions, Ebony on the bed playing a game and Ellen at the desk organizing Ebony’s notes as the winter storm outside slowly calmed.

* * *

A knock at the door made me jump. “Katherine are you up? Cafeteria opens in half an hour!” I blinked in surprise, had I seriously spent all night organizing my notes for this assignment?  I glanced back at the lone unused bed in the room which was covered in Nintendo game cartridges and books on Schrodinger's cat. Shaking my head I realized that the red highlight in my hair was beginning to fade, I should think about doing something about that soon.

Scrambling to my feet I shouted that I would be out soon. After making myself presentable I looked back at my assignment and realized I had been doodling in the margins again. I picked up the paper and looked at the surprisingly detailed sketch of two girls. The one girl was tall and extremely athletic looking holding a small ball making her almost look like a character in a pokemon game. The other girl was small in the amount of space she took up yet seemed content with it as she wore a set of headphones and looked into a book, something to do with literature I would like to think. Putting my assignment down I began to head to breakfast while enjoying the freshly fallen snow.