the boy/girl test

One fifth grade morning, I walked into Ms. Nolan’s class and was greeted by the murmuring of classmates over a new game. My curiosity peaked, Emily Bristal sat me down to administer a ten question quiz. ‘White or black?’ she asked, ‘white’ I replied. ‘Circle or square?’ she asked, ‘circle’, I replied. ‘Look at your fingernails’, I looked at my fingernails. ‘Look up’, I looked up. The questions continued and I remained unaware of what the test was designed to prove. Emily tallied the results and performed a calculation. ‘You are 90% girl.’ I was devastated. I squandered to justify the results to my friends, ‘if I had known what it was testing I would’ve scored better’, but that was the point, I wasn’t supposed to know. ‘It’s stupid’, ‘It’s not real’ my friends consoled me. But 90% was too large for my mind to get around; it meant I only answered one question as a male. In my embarrassment, I made Emily test me again, after I knew the proper masculine responses to the questions.