Ok, first things first, Tara is ringing the doorbell, and there is a second ME, right in front of me!

“Ahh, geez, what do I do?” Diesel started barking, probably ‘cause Tara was at the door. And of course he wanted to go greet her, so he started trotting down the hallway, towards the front door. “No, no no no no, get back here!” I grabbed his collar and dragged him away from the door, his whines increasing. Why was he so needy today?

“Uh, Rhiann, are you there? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll… I’ll be there in a sec. Just grabbing Diesel!” Why can’t anything be easy?!

“Ok…”

I had just finishing shoving Diesel back through to the kitchen, when a voice, eerily familiar, made me jump five feet.

“Do you need some help? What would you like me to do?”

“Fu-shi-nahh!” I forgot about my double. And how my voice sounded, ugh.

“Rhiann? I’m just going to open the door now.” Oh come on. My head whipped from the front door back to the… me… in front of me.

“Uhm, you, just hide, disappear, until I come get you. Cool?”

“Very well.” And she just disappeared. Like ‘poof’. I blinked a couple of times, to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, and then Tara walked into the kitchen.

“Where were you? I’ve been ringing the doorbell for three minutes!”

“I, uh, I didn’t notice?” I had. It had only made me panic more. Not that I could tell her that.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, perfectly fine, why?”

“Because you are trying to strangle the dog.” I had forgotten Diesel was there, and in my fear, twisted the collar, causing him to make dying, strangled sounds that I finally started hearing. I let go, and he ran towards Tara, wagging his tail viciously.

“Oh my god, puppy, I’m so sorry.” Tara was patting Diesel (more like rubbing his back with her foot), and giving me a concerned look. “Anyway, how was your engineering test?” Wanting to change the subject. She started complaining about the starting time of the test and the teacher supervising, giving me a chance to compose myself.

Tara’s back home, I have a double wandering around somewhere, and I can do magic. Should I tell Tara? Is she a witch too? How would I know? It’s not like I can just say ‘hey, by the way, I’m a witch now, are you one too?’ Oh, I know, the book!

“Sorry to interrupt.” And she did look annoyed. “But, uh.” I walked past her and into the lounge room, scooping up the book from the lounge where I had left it. “Can you… read this?” I promptly shoved it in her face.

“What?” Seeing my earnest expression, she relented. “Sure, ok.” She stared at the cover for a couple moments, her face growing more confused and frustrated. “Eye… parra-lipp-o-men-onn… ar-gin-tum… uh, python-is-sum?” Oh. She can’t read it. Does that mean she’s not a witch? “Is this that book you found?”

“Uh, ye-yeah, I wanted to see if you knew what it meant.”

“How should I know? You’re the nerd.” And with that, she walked down to our room to get changed.

I let out a sigh. Nothing is going right this morning. And I don’t even know where she’s gone. Kind of glad though, she creeps out a bit… ok, a lot.

-+= A few days later=+-

Finally, exam block is over, and it’s the last week of school. God it feels like weeks ago. And so does Monday. Though it was actually a week ago. I haven’t done any magic since then, and the book has disappeared too, so I’m almost convinced that it didn’t happen. Almost. Because tonight, when I was despairing over all the assignments I had due next term, I wished that double was still around to do them for me.

And she appeared. Right next to me. It was safe to say I got quite a shock. Then it got weirder. My parents came to see what's wrong (probably 'cause I screamed like i was dying), and I desperately hoped that they wouldn't see her (despite her, you know, sitting right next to me).

And I think it worked.

All my parents did was look at me with panic-stricken expressions. Which were growing by the second.

"Oh, uhm, yeah, I'm alright. I-I just... almost fell off the bed. Sorry." Now they looked more annoyed than freaked out.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's all good."

Throughout the exchange, I kept glancing to the side of me, and low-and-behold, she was still there, yet it seems my parents didn't notice or care. Though the former is most likely. But, seriously, do I need to get their eyes checked or something? Or did... did I do that?

After they left, muttering to each other, I jump into the hallway and check where everyone is. Ok, Tara is in the lounge room with Dad, and Mum is working in the office. I look back at my double. Here goes.

"Can you take my place until I come back?" She nods and leaves the room. Down the hallway, I can hear her talking to Dad and Tara.

"Watch'a guys watching?"

I slip out of the house unnoticed.