Because I'm a Girl

Chapter 3

I was strolling through the hallways, heading to my Calculus classroom. It was still lunchtime, but being the overachiever I was, I was heading to class early. For some reason I liked being the first person in class, so I always made sure to head to class as early as I could.

As I walked through the quiet hallways that only had a few students littered in them, I jumped when someone shouted. The voices of a few boys arguing echoed out of a hallway and I turned into it, thus becoming surprised to see a few members of the Gamers Club were there. They were standing in a circle, arguing about something.

Jerry was there, passionately explaining something, and the overweight guy, Ben, was arguing back. Josh was also, but he was just leaning against a blue locker next to them, looking incredibly bored. His eyes were on the ceiling as if he wished to be anywhere but there.

My classroom was passed them, so I kept walking. But, for some reason I couldn't help but stare at Josh, who's eyes remained on the ceiling. Because as I observed him, a realization dawned on me.  

Josh was attractive. Very attractive, actually. He had black hair and these stunning dark, blue eyes. His height had to be six feet and it suddenly made sense why all of the girls in our school had their eyes on him. He was gorgeous. It sucked his personality ruined it, however. So shaking my head, I scowled as I remembered what he said to me.

When I was right in front of where Josh stood, his eyes sailed to me. It caught me off guard and I stared back momentarily, unable to think straight as his blue eyes held my brown eyes. His face was expressionless and his body was still, and I wondered what he wanted. But, remembering what a jerk he was, I just narrowed my eyes at him. I then pulled my eyes away and kept walking, pretending he didn't exist. After what he did, I didn't want to give him any of my time.

*****

I entered my house and spotted my older brother, Aiden, lying on the couch. He had a bowl of popcorn on his stomach, his dark brown hair a mess on his head, and he was flipping through tv channels, looking for a movie to watch. We weren't exactly close and with the way my parents let him get away with anything, I often envied him.

"Sarah! Is that you?" my mom shouted.

"Yeah, it's me!" 

"Come here and help me cook!"

I suppressed a groan. Glancing at Aiden as I walked to the kitchen, I wondered why my mom never asked Aiden to help. Most of his university courses were online so he was always at home, yet my mom never bothered to ask him for help. I never understood why since Aiden was just as capable as me when it came to doing chores.

Biting my tongue, I repressed an argument with my mom. I used to always talk about how unfair her values were when I was a younger and that used to infuriate her. She didn't understand why I was making a big deal out of it, but it was because of how I was raised outside of my household. I grew up learning boys and girls were equals and when I saw any inequality, I couldn't help but hate it.

Entering the kitchen, I spotted my mom at the counter, cutting chicken. I went over to her side and waited for what she would ask me to do.

"Cut the onions," my mom said, nodding towards the cutting board next to her.

I nodded and quickly washed my hands. I then went to the cutting board and began to cut the onions using the knife that lay on the wooden cutting board. My mom and I worked in silence and my heart sunk and sunk with every minute that passed. Because deep down I was drained from school, but I didn't complain. I was a girl and in my mom's eyes, that meant I was the only one who should be cooking.

After a couple of minutes, Aiden came into the kitchen. His wavy, brown hair he got from my dad was a mess and his clothes were wrinkled. I could tell he'd been laying on the couch for hours and once again, jealousy rose in me. Because if I'd done that, my mom would've scolded me for being lazy. To her it was okay if a boy was lazy, but a girl couldn't be.

"Mom," Aiden said. "Can I go out with my friends?"

"Okay," my mom said, causing me to whip my head to stare at her. "Don't be out too late."

I couldn't believe it. My mom had agreed so easily when Aiden had left the house yesterday. If it had been me I would've gotten a no. Just because I was a girl, I had to stay home and do chores.

My dad entered the kitchen. He walked over to me, grinning, and patted my head gently. I smiled at him and calmed down immediately because my dad was my rock. He was always so chill and he didn't treat Aiden and I differently because we were equals in his eyes. And glancing at my mom, I wished she would treat Aiden and I the same. 

But sighing lightly, I knew I couldn't blame my mom. My mom on the other hand was raised to think differently than I did, so I really couldn't blame her for having different views than me. Although it was frustrating, I realized your upbringing influenced your way of thinking.

But then, I thought about the Gamers Club and grew annoyed. I thought by the twenty-first century sexism would be nonexistent, but the club members proved that theory wrong.

Biting my lip, I told myself I didn't need their dumb club. I didn't need to be around people like them. I wanted to be around open minded people who were accepting of everyone. Those were my kind of people.

That was when I got an idea. My eyes widened as I realized maybe I didn't need to join a club, maybe I could create my own club. A club where I would promote equality between the two genders and make sure everyone felt like they were accepted as they were. With a smile, I realized that would be perfect. That was what I would do to educate everyone into realizing girls could do anything boys could do.