The last time I fell asleep in class

So, why do I drink so much? Well, at first it was to help me get to sleep. Believe it or not, I’m terrified of sleeping tablets--Ambien, Valium, those kinds of things. My mother, however, has taken such things as long as I can recall. I think she’s as hooked on them as I am on booze (not that she’d admit it). Okay, tangent time:

Anecdote: when I was in high school, my mother worked graveyard shift. I was too afraid to sleep those nights when I was alone in the house, so I’d pull all-nighters. It wasn’t bad: we had cable and MTV was still in its infancy. I’d drink coffee and stay awake with Toto Coelo, Duran Duran, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and a few other bands I'm too ashamed to admit I enjoyed.

One day I went to school after one such all-nighter, and I dozed off in class (admittedly, it wasn’t the first time I’d done this). My teachers discussed my naps, and decided to phone my mother. One did and asked if she had any pills I might have been taking because I was falling asleep in class (funny that drugs ranked first in their suspicions and that no one had thought to speak with me about the situation).

My mother responded by counting out her pills; as I’d been nowhere near her tablets, the counts must have been acceptable. Even so, she still asked me if I’d been into them. This wasn’t the first time she’d falsely accused me of something when I was innocent, so I didn’t overreact. I just said “no,“ and left it at that. But I went to school the next day with a good deal of guilt and shame knowing that all my teachers were convinced of my “drug abuse.”

I’m sure this little scenario isn’t uncommon; I assume it’s happened to many, many teenagers--then as now. Especially now with our drug paranoia at such an extreme--and mine were merely the days of “just say no.”

I should add that, for various reasons (none drug/alcohol related), I was enrolled at an “alternative” high school. Three teachers (addressed by their first names), 60 students. A very cozy situation lacking none of the power struggles and angst of “regular” high schools. There were, however, fewer jocks because we had no gym.

Why is this important? It might not be. Like I wrote: it's an anecdote.