Melissa

by Alex Gino

Mom, what if I’m a girl?

somehow, George would have to tell Mom that she was a girl. But this was not that day.

“Sometimes transgender people don’t get rights.”

Reading the word transgender sent a shiver down George’s spine. She wondered where she could find a safe space like that, and if there would be other girls like her there.

“If you’re gonna be transgender and all, you’re going to have to be a lot more careful. You won’t be able to throw up on every bully you meet.”

Charlotte was dead, but George was alive in a way she had never imagined.

She looked in the mirror and gasped. Melissa gasped back at her. For a long time, she stood there, just blinking. George smiled, and Melissa smiled too.