In one short breath things start to go wrong. Her face begins to get red and itchy. Hives form along her neck. She can feel her throat beginning to close. She immediately gets out of her seat and walks out of the room, hoping this reaction won’t end up with her in the emergency room. This has become junior Kylie Hauge’s reality. Hauge has a serious allergic reaction to the fragrance, Pure Seduction, from Victoria’s Secret. In April of 2010, Hauge had her first reaction. Since then she has had seven more reactions, three of which have ended up in the emergency room. She had two less severe reaction just last week; this led to the written announcement in first hour. “I can’t prevent it besides staying away from the scent,” Hauge said. Once a reaction begins, Hauge must leave the room. She then takes the allergy medicine, Clariton. Breathing is the hardest thing for her during a reaction. Her throat swells until the opening is the size of a pencil. Hauge carries around a short straw that she breathes through to help her catch her breath, but it’s also important for her to stay calm. “I freak out during a reaction, and it’s hard to calm down,” Hauge said. She hopes the reaction doesn’t get any worse, and that she’s able to control it. But if Hauge gets too close to the scent or the scent is strong, then it is far from over. If she can’t get her breathing under control, she goes to the office where they call the ambulance and give her a shot with her epi pen. The epi pen is an allergy shot that shoots adrenaline into the body and makes the heart race. Hauge carries it with her always in case of a reaction. Angie Barker, the attendance secretary in the office, was trained to give the shot when the nurse was absent. And the nurse has been absent both times Hauge needed the shot. “You leave it in for ten seconds then rub the area to help it spread more quickly,” Barker said. After the reaction is finally addressed in the hospital, Hauge still isn’’t fully recovered. For the next one to two weeks, she will deal with the side effects of the reaction. She will experience things like loss of voice for a week, lack of sleep, chest pain, weakness, and headaches. “I feel like I got hit by a car,” Hauge describes her reaction and recovery as feeling. The solution to this problem seems like such a simple one: don’t wear the scent. And yet Hauge has been exposed four times to it at Albert Lea High School. The school has done its part by making announcements and trying to inform students, and yet the fragrance is still used. Erin Everhard, a close friend of Hauge’s, is concerned for her friend and frustrated by the situation. “It’s frustrating that people don’t respect what’s going on,” Everhard said. “They don’t realize how big of a deal it really is.” Hauge’s allergic reactions are not just a sneeze and runny nose. They can be life threatening if she’s not treated immediately. Hauge’s health isn’t the only thing being effected by her allergic reactions. It also affects her education, job and family. “I hate being affected by something that can easily be prevented,” Hauge said. Junior Ashley Tewes used to wear the Pure Seduction perfume, but has stopped since she found out about Hauge’s allergy. “People need to be respectful of Kylie and use something else,” Tewes said. “We need to make sure she feels safe about coming to school.” Unless the school decides to become a scent-free building, it is left to personal choice. Use the lotion to smell pleasant, all the while putting someone’s life in danger. “Put yourself in her shoes,” Everhard said. “What would you want?”