Identity Crisis (BWWM) COMPLETE

Chapter One: Challenge Accepted

A/N: For all my faithful readers, I just wanted to warn y'all that this book is written differently, and that there aren't any specific POVs! Love you guys, and I hope you enjoy!!!

Her life was perfect. Her parents had worked hard to make sure had attended only the best schools that stretched her brain, and challenged her mental abilities. She was perfect, in their eyes, everyone else's eyes and hers. To herself, she was a fearless, independent, and successful woman, and everyone went along with who she saw in herself; after all, it was true.

DC had been the perfect place to begin her law career some two years ago. It was a place bustling with dirty politic scandals, and she, being who she was, was determined to fix and tweak every last one of them that were presented to her. With her pumps that pounded Big Brother's pavement, and a strong head on her shoulders, she entered into her office. It took her a year to build it from the ground up with her own money she had scraped together. It was her baby, the only thing she could call hers. She sighed after she pulled off her hat and coat as she sat at her desk, slowly opening her laptop to prepare for the day.

It was six o'clock, and the sun hadn't even begun to rise before her fingers were on her keyboard, typing away furiously as she documented her thoughts. No one knew about her personal file, no one even knew about the laptop. Her daily journaling was a large part of the whole justification as to why she arrived at the office so early; it was her time to cleanse, and generally get her mind in order for the day. Some people wrote manually, leaving their concerns behind on a piece of paper, but she felt that was too risky for the things she wanted to express. For instance, if someone were to be looking for a certain case file, and happened to stumble upon the papers, and discovered the things she usually pondered, they would have lost all respect for her.

Yes, to herself she was fearless, independent, and successful, but she was other things also; and those things belonged and stayed in the laptop in a secure file.

Identity. I'm not sure what that word means. There are definitions for that word, identity, but I have yet to read one that soothed my mind, and assured me that I did have it, so I'm still searching. Everything was taken care of for me, and, considering I grew up in a strict household, I was raised a certain way. I wasn't allowed to find out who I am because everything was figured out for me. I was the smart girl. The girl who everyone looked to when they needed a leader. The girl who happened to be there for everyone, yet was distraught and absolutely alone when she struggles with something. Yes, that was my identity, but there has to be something deeper, right? Your surroundings define you, but how can you be defined unless you are removed from those surroundings?

That was her entry for the day. A similar one had been written the day before, and the day before that, and she still had yet to answer that question, and it was angering her. Naomi Elise Washington knew the answer to everything: it was one of the main reasons why she was elected peer mediator in high school. But now, especially when she wrote, her conscience and everything she knew to be true abandoned her, leaving her alone with... Well, she didn't know what it left her alone with; she didn't even know who she was unless she had wisdom and knowledge! How could she possibly answer her questions when the intricate parts to answering them forsake her each time? She couldn't, and that was what frustrated her most.

The laptop slamming was what Sheila heard upon entering the office, and somehow, Naomi knew it, and scrambled to put away. Sheila, the only other person who came to the office prior to her clock-in time, suppressed a face of utter fear as she knocked onto her boss's door. She was the new girl around the office, and she was desperately trying to be in her boss's good graces. Naomi liked her, otherwise she wouldn't have hired her, but no matter how many times Sheila assured herself of that, she didn't believe it.