Maybe Girls Are Better

Did you know that women weren't allowed to vote until 1920? Ever since voting for the governor or the president started, women weren't allowed to vote until 1920. There's always been some type of gender inequality in America, and definitely throughout the world.
Picture this: at age nine, you try to get into a sport. You already knew that it was a low chance, because you were a girl. But that shouldn't matter. You've been practicing soccer and basketball with your dad for a long time. You've beat him thirty times. After you sign your name on the sheet and practice starts, you receive the glares. There were at least another two dozen people here, but they still give you glares. All because you're a girl.
Can you imagine this? The sad part is, this isn't something new that happened in the world. There's many people that have had to deal with this. From the time that people could talk, to today, there's always been some injustice in this world. From not being able to fight in the military to not being able to play a sport, it's always been there. We are here to try to stop this injustice.

We hope you enjoy!

Mr. Thompson started to go on about the new music that would go with the pacer test that day, how it was so much better than the music that he had had for the past nine years. After that, he started to tell us that for our ages there were requirements for the Pacer Test that day.
"For 10 year old boys, you should get 34 through 60 laps. For the ten year old girls, you should get 9 through 43 laps." Rachel's mind began to spin. Only nine? "For 11 year old boys, it's 43 through 76, and 11 year old girls it's only 19 through 54."
"Hghm." Haden huffed quietly.
Rachel silently tapped Haden on the shoulder
"This is so stupid, and so annoying that people are targeting girls. I want to do something about this."
"But what are we going to do about it exactly.?" Haden quietly snapped in return.
Mr. Thompson called for everyone to line up, so Rachel and Haden stood up and started to walk towards the black line. On the way there, Rachel discreetly whispered to Haden, "I'll tell you later."
While the two girls waited on the black line, they both seemed on edge. Clearly, they weren't going to let this slide. They wanted this whole thing to stop.

~Chapter 1~

~Chapter 2~

As the recorded voice started talking on the pacer, Rachel started vaguely whispering to Haden.

"You know how they said that eleven year old girls are only supposed to get fifty-four laps?"
Haden paused, thinking about that for a second. "Yeah, but what's that to us?" Haden quietly snapped in return.

"Well I'm going to get 55 laps!" Rachel whispered. Then the pacer test started. 7 laps in so far. Haden already felt like she was going to faint, since she was not the athletic type. But of course Rachel kept going. She really wanted to prove people wrong. She felt like she had a need too. Like she had to do it or she would never be satisfied.

Rachel had always been the type to get mad at stuff like this. She grew up in Milwaukee, so it was just her way of life. She always got incredibly frustrated when people were racist. Don't even start with gender inequality. Haden on the other hand, just agreed with Rachel. Yes, Haden did get mad about things like that too, but Haden didn't nearly pay as much attention to it as Rachel did. Haden grew up in a small town, that was extremely safe. Everyone knew everyone, so whenever someone saw a car that looked sketchy, they would tell everyone in the neighborhood. Haden was also a little more on the soft side, while Rachel was a little more on the tough side. That's what made them best of friends.

30 laps in, Rachel was still doing great, while Haden was slowing down. A lot. Of course she wanted to prove everyone wrong too, but she knew if she couldn't do it, Rachel would be the one to. That was just how their friendship worked. It was always that way.
5 laps later, Haden gave up. She was panting like a dog on a boiling summer day. But she wasn't surprised, this had happened because it happened every year.

30 laps in, Rachel was still doing great, but Haden was slowing down. A lot. But Haden knew if she couldn't do it, Rachel would be the one to.

That was just how their friendship worked. It was always that way.
5 laps later, Haden gave up. But she wasn't surprised this had happened, because it happened every year.

But Rachel wasn't even surprised, since Haden had health issues.

While Haden was sitting with some of the others girls that were finished, Rachel came over to sit by her.
"How many did you get?" Haden asked with curiosity in her voice.
"Only 59," Rachel said. Then she sighed and looked up towards Haden, who's face was still red.

~Chapter 3~

There were still a couple boys, but only three girls. Rachel wanted to keep going, but it was too late, and she had had a fever the day before, so she was almost bound to get sick again.

Then 4 boys came over to Haden and Rachel.
"Gosh, girls are horrible at running! For 11 year old girls 19 is the lowest!" Josh said while laughing. They were obviously meant to hear that.

Rachel's face turned red. Haden turned away, and tears started to fill her eyes. She was never going to forget that, and how much it hurt. Rachel, on the other hand, was never going to let the boys forget, and she stood up, fists clenched.

Rachel was very tempted to grab Haden and bring her over to the boys with her. But she didn't, she knew that Haden hated getting in trouble. Rachel walked over to the boys, and when Josh saw her, he motioned for them to stop talking. "I'm sorry, WHAT did you just say?"

"I said girls are horrible runners. God, are you deaf of something?" Josh asked Rachel.

Haden could hear him from where she stood across the gym, and she wiped the tears from her face so that she could watch. She almost was completely sure of what was about to happen, but she wanted no part in it. She saw how white Rachels knuckles were from her clenching them.

Josh pushed Rachel down to the floor, and Haden let a small gasp out, even though she was across the room. All that Haden could see was the anger flickering in Rachel's eyes, while Rachel stood up. There were three less people running. Two of them were girls.

This made Rachel look away, because of how miserable they looked. They were all slouching, sweating, and panting. This was just enough time for Josh to push Rachel back down, and Haden started to come over. By the time that Haden was back, Rachel had gotten back up and pushed Josh over. "How'd you like that Josh?!" Rachel yelled.

Josh then stood up. By that time, everyone was watching. Even the people that were still doing the pacer test stopped and stared.
"STOP IT!" Haden screamed. "You guys are acting like kids fighting over candy! So stop it already!"

Rachel was waiting for Josh to make a move, but all he could do was stare at the ground like a kindergartener losing his favorite toy.

Rachel didn't like his response, so she talked first. "You can call girls slow and stupid and "not good'"-she put air quotes around this-"but you cannot tell ME what to do! You're going to get us all in trouble, all because you're jealous that I'm going to get more than you on Friday!"

Mr. Thompson then walked over and started screaming at Josh, Haden, and Rachel.
"ALL OF YOU, DETENTION! THIS IS RIDICULOUS THAT YOU ARE ACTING LIKE THIS! NOW GO TO THE OFFICE RIGHT NOW BEFORE YOU GET INTO EVEN MORE TROUBLE!" Haden broke out into sobs. She felt like everyone was watching her. Sadly, she was right.
"Now Haden," Mr. Thompson said with anger in his voice. "You got yourself into this.. Its always a girl to pick fights she doesn't belong in.."

~Chapter 4~

As soon as Haden's mom walked into the door, she went up to Haden and started screaming at her. Then she slapped her across the face. Everyone watched in disbelief. Even Josh had a look on his face that looked like he felt bad for Haden. But soon after, Rachel realized Josh looked sorry for Haden. Rachel realized, he just wanted to show off to his friends and the other boys, so he looked powerful. She then felt bad and apologized to Josh. He apologized too and finally admitted, that maybe girls are better than boys at some things.
That would be enough for then. But just then.

About the Authors

Lily Rittmann and Olivia Tomashaski have been friends ever since the 3rd grade. We do everything together! Well, almost everything. We have always worked together on projects whenever we can, and its even better because we are both in the same advanced reading class, so we work on almost all the projects together in here. We both have a lot in common too! We both love animals, we both like to dance, we are both smart, and we are both crazy. So it works out well! We both hope you enjoyed our story about trying to stop gender inequality.

Lily Rittmann (to the left), and Olivia Tomashaski (to the right), are both dancers, writers, and best friends. We've been really annoyed by the gender inequality, and it really pushed them when they found out the required/average scores in the pacer test - which is basically an endurance test for running - that they were taking in November. Later on in the week they were presented with an opportunity, they knew that they needed to take it.