The heat from the bright summer sun was beating down on my back as I walked into the high school doors for the last day of classes before summer break. I wore grey capris pants and a black sweater with a tank top underneath it, along with my black Birkenstock shoes. I arrive quite early and I do not see very many students walking around, so I slowly walk over to my small locker down the hallway. I set my big, black bag on the floor and open up the zipper to take out my light blue pencil case and my homework folder to prepare for class. I set my things on the floor and stuff my bag into my locker and shut the door. I pick up my things and walk slowly down the hall over to the student lounge to wait for the bell to ring in a couple of minutes.

I walk in and sit down on the couch at the back wall and see students quickly begin to fill the lounge. The room feels hot and soon I can feel the sweat begin to form on my back. I look around and realize many students are wearing shorts and tank tops. A majority of the boys are wearing baggy shorts and muscle shirts, but only a few girls are wearing shorts and barely any are wearing tank tops. The bell rings and as I stand up, my hands feel clammy as they grip my pencil case and folder. I walk back down the hallway over to my locker where I decide to take off my sweater and hang it up nicely on the hook. I grab my big purple binder then gently shut my locker door and cross the hallway into the classroom. I walk over to a desk in the back of the room and set down all of my things to get ready for class. I sit down and as I begin to open my binder, my friend Sharlize sits down beside me. I immediately notice that she is also wearing a tank top and soon we begin talking to each other about how hot it is outside. The desks begin to fill up as all of my classmates make their way into the room and as we wait for our teacher, Mrs. Yanko, we continue to chat.

The room falls silent when Mrs. Yanko walks in and shuts the big blue door behind her. The only sound comes from students taking paper out of their binders, getting ready to begin taking notes. I grab my mechanical pencil out of my pencil case and open up my notebook to a fresh new page. As I begin to write the date on the top right corner, I hear Mrs. Yanko’s heels begin walking to the front of the classroom, but then the noise suddenly stops beside our row of desks. I look over to her and realize that she is looking directly at Sharlize and I. I can see on her face that she is upset and my heart begins to race. She points at us and says “could I please talk to you two in the hallway.” Sharlize and I rise up from our seats and slowly walk over to the door to exit into the hallway. 

As we stand in the hallway, I start to wonder what we did or why she needs to talk to us specifically. The three of us gather around the corner in the hallway and Mrs. Yanko begins to explain to us that we cannot wear the shirts that we are wearing in school. She then asks us if we have something to put on over top of our tank tops. I quickly respond by saying yes and I rush over to my locker where I begin putting my sweater back on. As I shut my locker and begin walking back over to them, I hear Sharlize begin to speak. She explains to Mrs. Yanko that some of the boys in the class were wearing shirts with skinnier straps than ours, but yet us two girls were the only ones being asked to change. I realized that Sharlize was right and that the dress code in the school always seemed to pertain to the girls only. This was a moment where I felt like we were not being treated fairly and I truly realized that we were being gendered.