So I'll start from the beginning:

Augusta (ex cousin, still friend(?)) posts artwork on her DeviantArt page and MySpace page all the time. I like to critique her art so she actually gets honest opinions instead of "LIKE TOTALLY OH MAI GAHWD THAT'S LIEK AWESOME" all the time. What respected artist WOULDN'T want critiques? Well I guess according to her little sister, Shelby, Augusta would be that artist.

So Shelby sends me a hateful little MySpace message after I leave a comment on one of the things Augusta posted. So I send her one back, that wasn't in a nice tone, no. But when someone jumps down your throat about you trying to HELP someone else? Oh fuck that. Needless to say she replied and attempted to verbally attack me via insults to me/and my family (big ouch there.. her mother was the one cheating, not my uncle, and its really hard to piss me off by saying shit about me if the accusations are 100% inaccurate. Maybe just maybe if you get a fact about me right in an insulting manner I might be slightly offended but when your darts aren't even on the board.. lol.... Just lol.)

So I reply like the smart ass I am and left that at that. I could care less what her sister thinks of me.

So back to Augusta. Let me break down my entire life history with Augusta:

Meet: I'm about 14-15 years old, I'm an angsty goth teen. (Lol yes!) She's preppy girl trying to please mommy. She sees me and instantly becomes infatuated with: the color black, baggy pants, dying her hair strange colors, heavy metal, and (my favorite) art.

Fast forward: Not only do countless things of my own always end up missing when she comes over, but other members of my family complain of the same thing. We all know the culprit. Proof you ask? Okay here's your proof: Black T-shirt that has a skeleton man/pirate on it that says "worst pirate ever" goes missing when I move into the apartments Augusta lives in. Search high and low for shirt, still don't find it even after move. One full year+ after moving into house from apartment shirt "mysteriously" appears while Augusta is over. Not only that but it appears right next to the very computer chair I find myself sitting in day in and day out for the past oh lets say eight years. I think I would fucking notice a shirt sitting next to my chair after a year of living in the God damn house. Also note: I was in the room, vividly remember no black shirt on white carpet, exit room, re-enter. Black shirt.

Occasion two that I have 100% proof. When moving from Windchase to the apartments I had a drawer full of letters and notes I had written to various friends throughout high school. They had little doodles and pictures all over them. When I "write letters" I usually end up drawing everyone pictures. Augusta helped me pack things in my room. After moving into the apartment I figured they were in storage. One night while babysitting my little cousin Lacy (and Shelby/Augusta weren't present; visiting their father I believe) my uncle asked me to go get a blanket from their room so I could sleep on the couch. Upon entering the room, what's sitting in plain view on the floor? Folded up pieces of paper with drawings that just happen to look exactly like the ones I had doodled. Upon further investigation (picking said items up off the floor) I unfolded them to realize that every single one of them were present in the wad. Not only this but there were new sheets of paper added where Augusta had traced what I had drawn as well as attempted to re-draw what I had drawn and imitate my form of bubble writing. And here's the kicker, right smack dab in the middle? A letter, headed to yours truly (in my own bubble letter style). So I read. The note details about how Shelby and Tyler had made fun of Augusta for being a virgin and told her she needed to lose her virginity. Then went on to explain how Augusta had done so to someone and felt it was the biggest mistake she had ever made in her life. What exactly am I supposed to do when finding this? I, being ~17-18 at the time, was utterly baffled as to what action to take so I simply re-folded up the letters and placed them back, in plain view. Why, do you ask? To me it seemed that she had hidden the letter in a wad of others because she didn't know if she wanted to give it to me. She also lived two apartment buildings away from me at the time. A short walk from handing me the note, or even slipping it in my room for that matter. I thought that just letting her come to me about it was the best plan of action. Time past and that never happened. Yes, I should have confronted her about it, no I didn't. Stupid teenage mistake, whatever.

Moving on: My favorite sketch book. The one I had spent literally days cutting out magazine articles and pictures and organizing the perfect arrangement then gluing and finally taping the pictures down to the cover. It had my favorite drawings in it, ones I'm still proud of to this day. Last seen: apartment building, while Augusta was browsing through it. Tore the apartment up looking for it when we moved (when I realized it was missing.) A couple months later while visiting my uncle and co Augusta shows me her new sketch book. This sketch book has drawing in it that look like EXACT mimics of sketches I had done in my own. I test the theory and start quoting a line from something I had pasted to the front of my prized book. She finished the sentences as if it were second nature. Mind you that was by no means a famous quote, nor that short. 3-4 sentences, not something like "got milk?".

I could go on naming countless other things but why bother? I named the three important ones to me. Why did I never confront her, do you ask? Put yourself in my shoes. You're a teenager yourself, confronted by someone slightly younger who upon meeting you, starts dressing, acting, talking like, and doing everything that you do. And to top it off you talk to your parents about it and they tell you "imitation is the best form of flattery".

I didn't confront her because I didn't want to hurt her anymore than her parents and sister already have. I didn't want to be just another one of those people that left her high and dry in life. Coming to the realization that she had gone so far as to steal my artwork broke my heart. It felt like someone had taken away a part of what made me who I am. But that didn't seem to matter comparatively to maybe helping just one more person feel a little bit better about their part in the world.

So tell me.. grinning and baring it while you watch someone try to become you, picking them up and taking them out to eat when you yourself only have $10 in your wallet, talking to them about anything and everything and letting them vent about how shitty their mom/dad/sister/stepdad is, being the only person to support them when they want to get married at 17, calling them, e-mailing them, sending them e-notes with your phone number constantly... Is all that bad? Was that wrong? Is that cause to say that I'm, as Shelby put it, "always mean to Augusta"? All I can do is sit back and laugh.

How quick the world is to turn on you when you utter something they don't want to hear.