**My Entry for AMLKoski's Give Back Contest: Bitter Winter**
Alexandra Winters didn't have a problem --she had a diagnosis. It just so happened that her ADHD made it necessary for her to take amphetamines, and it just so happened that her school...
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Alex is positively certain she now knows what a cornered animal feels like. Harsh breathing, trembling, eyes darting around the room, the internal battle between fleeing or fighting. This was not how she expected her Oil Painting class to go and it was quite the shock when all of the rooms in her hallway were asked to get in line for a drug screening. Lucky for her -or maybe not so lucky, considering she just has more time to freak out- she is towards the end of the line. With every step forward, it feels like the space around her is shrinking, smaller and smaller until the hallway ends with them hunched over and a mouse-sized door for an exit. It's like she's living in some trippy, anxiety-induced version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. There's no oompa-loompas though, just some beefed up security, looking all imposing in their campus police uniforms and stun-guns. They're staring at her. She doesn't look at them to try and confirm it, she just knows. She's pretty sure that everyone is looking at her by now, whispering to her classmates, laughing and pointing at the basket-case at the end of the line.
How did this even happen? A year and a half, dozens of drug tests, and not a single slip-up! When was the last time she had checked Matt's phone? She was going to the other night, but Ezekiel was awake...Freaking Ezekiel! It's all his fault! ...No, that's not right. Not really. Alex has had plenty of opportunities since then... she had just....forgot.
The line moves forward a few steps...
Yeah, she forgot. So wrapped up in this showcase. Her chance to impress the school, maybe even her parents. A milestone in her budding career as an artist: her first time being featured in an actual art gallery.
Another three paces...
And now, it will most certainly be the last time. Will they even leave it up long enough for the public to see it? The grand opening is tonight, will there be a space on the wall where her painting used to be?
Five more steps this time, Damn this line is moving fast.
Is that what it will be like when she's kicked out of school, a blank space? A moment of "oh hey, that's where that one girl sat." Or "where did the gray-haired chick go?"
Alex isn't paying attention when she moves on auto-pilot and bumps into the girl in front of her. They hadn't actually moved forward yet...
What about her friends? Or...Oh God, Matt... She should have told him, she's had so many chances to confess. Did he really mean it when he said they could work anything out, together? She wonders if he's at the front of the line like last week. Has it really only been a week? No. He's not there, he's in Art History. Two blocks down in Marlowe Hall. If she ran fast, she could probably make it in less than five minutes.
Only two more ahead of her now...
Maybe she'd make it in time to ask him to run away with her before the big-bad-campus-police tackle her to the ground and taze her into unconsciousness. Maybe they could get away before she's hog-tied and a scarlet letter carved into her chest. What letter would it be? "D" for drugs? "A" maybe, for addict? Or they could keep it simple, like "F" for failure, fuck-up, faker, future-ruiner... She should beg Matt to take her somewhere, like Tybee island and make a mini-vacation out of it. Anything to get her away from the inevitable fallout.
