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// Barbara's Disorder 
// Story: Canterlot High's Newest Student 
// by Darth Severus 
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Barbara hadn't been feeling so good the last few days. She had been waiting to hear from Canterlot High about her entrance exam, and it was killing her. She couldn't even watch her favorite TV show without thinking about it. Something was definitely wrong. She decided to try to forget about it by going outside and lighting a cigarette.

As she inhaled and exhaled her smoke, her father Star Shine came out and asked, "Something wrong Barb?"

When her father came out she said, "I can't stop thinking about the Canterlot High entrance exam, I can't even watch TV without thinking about it. It's not normal, I could care less if I got accepted or not!"

Her father sighed and said, "Maybe it's from stress? Why don't we take you to the doctor and see what he has to say?"

As much as she hated the doctor's office, her father had a point, she'd been dealing with a lot of stress lately, her long time crush Elusive had a girlfriend now, and Dusk wasn't exactly helping. Gleaming Shield seemed distracted by something, and whenever she tried to ask about it, she got extremely defensive. She finally said, "Fine, I'll go to the doctor's."

Her father called the doctor and scheduled an appointment for the next day. When dinner came along, Barb had barely touched her steak, and it was her favorite meal. Her mother asked, "Is everything alright sweetie? You've barely touched your food."

She sighed and said, "I'm just not that hungry I guess. Is it ok if I go to my room?" When her mother nodded, she went back to her room and looked out the window. She could hear the late night birds chirping, and it seemed so loud that it was painful. "How the hell can a bird be that loud!?" she said as she tried to get some sleep.

The next morning, the family got ready to go to Barbara's appointment. Barbara couldn't help but notice lots of little details as they went down the road and towards the doctor's office. When they got there and the doctor called her in, she decided to go alone.

The doctor asked her questions about how she'd been feeling the past few days, and she seemed to answer that she felt distracted and stressed. The doctor ran some tests on her, some of which to her seemed pointless, like those stupid ink blot tests. The doctor called her family into his office and said, "After some careful consideration, I believe that your daughter has attention deficit disorder."

That was worse than what Barbara was expecting when she came to the doctor. She had been diagnosed with a mental illness. In her mind that made her a freak who needs pills to function normally in society. But she kept herself from crying and asked, "So am I going to need to take medications?"

The doctor nodded and said, "Yes, there's plenty of medications that work wonders for ADD, but I'll write a prescription for the one I've found most effective." before printing out a piece of paper and handing it to them.

When they were done at the doctor's office they went to pick up her pills. Her mother said, "Honey, I know what you're thinking, you need to erase those thoughts from your head. You're not a freak, but you are special. Everyone is special in their own way, some more than others. Having a mental disorder is nothing to be ashamed of."

Gleaming Shield nodded and said cracking her knuckles, "And if anybody at school gives you a hard time cause of it, come to me and I'll teach them a thing or two."

Dusk Shine rolled his eyes at his older sister, but then looked to his younger sister and said, "Listen Barb, not a lot of people know this about me, but I'm a high-functioning autistic. Most people consider autistic people to be dumber than a bag of bricks, but I've gotten to where I am in life because of my autism. And nobody can say that I'm not smart"

Her family's words actually made her feel a lot better, she didn't need to feel like a freak, her mom was right, she was just a little more special than other kids. And it made her feel even better when her brother said he had a mental illness too. She giggled at her sister's words and said, "Thanks Gleam, I'll be sure to do that."

When they got back home, Barbara went out to get the mail and saw a letter from Canterlot High for her and yelled out to her family, "It's here!" Her family rushed downstairs and into the living room as she opened the letter and read it. "Dear Miss Barbara, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Canterlot High! We look forward to seeing you freshman year."

Her family congratulated her on her acceptance, and she seemed genuinely happy she was accepted