Paige Greer, Vocal Focal

There is this voice that lives in the back of my mind.

It’s not the same voice that tells me not to forget to brush my teeth or to check my mirrors before I change lanes.That voice is called Ava--she only tells me about pure and productive things. The voice I’m talking about is Vexatious--Vex is galling and grating against the infrangible walls of my mind.

Vex is the type of voice that tells me to forget about that math quiz because we’re not going to be doing polynomial long division for a career. Vex is the type of voice that will tell me to sneak a sip of my Dad’s vodka when he’s left the room because why should four years stop us. Vex is the type of person that tells me to disobey my Mom because she must be delusional if she thinks she’s going to control us for the rest of our lives. Vex is the type of person that tells me to shred my sister’s Soft and Sexy shirt from American Eagle because we just lent her our skirt last Tuesday.

I remember Vex being present ever since kindergarten. All the little kindergartners had their knit blankets spread out around the classroom since that 2nd recess required a power nap beforehand. Snowy blond hair glowed in the darkness of the classroom--the sight of it had Vex growling. That blond hair would always whip me in the face, leaving a stinging sensation on my cold cheeks. To make matters worse, the owner of this pretty blonde hair stood in front of me for the class’s number order line and she LOVED wearing her hair in a ponytail. I wasn’t vindictive towards the girl because by the way that hair moved, it was alive and savage. It couldn’t be tamed. No matter how hard I tried to grab onto it’s powerful tail before it snapped at my eyelid. Vex knew what needed to be done. Now,...

I couldn’t tell my teacher that the voice in my head was to blame when she caught me trying to scalp my classmate with Play-Doh scissors while she was napping. Ridding of that platinum leviathan was tempting, but being banned from using scissors from kindergarten till the second grade was humiliating. Lesson learned: Vex is apathetic towards others’, (and sometimes my own), well-being.

Ava is the angel to my Hell, while Vex is the demon to my Heaven. As back-