This Is How We Fly by Anna Meriano

Author:Anna Meriano [Meriano, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

• • •

I hate running. I hate running. I. Hate. Running.

It’s not the most motivational chant, but it’s the one I repeat as my feet scrape against the gravel of the bike path. I. Hate. This.

I keep going, though, a few steps behind Melissa, following the pace Karey sets. Sweat drips down my face and my legs drag, and why is this so much harder than running during a game?

The best time to run in Houston is well after dark, but at least at five the sun has taken its intensity down a notch and we can be outside without sunscreen. Following the gravel bike path through the shaded suburban forest is almost bearable, except for the running.

When we reach the tiny neighborhood park, we grab drinks from the dull silver fountain.

“You good?” Karey grins at me.

My mouth full of water I’m too breathless to swallow, I nod.

“You’ll be glad when we get to the tournament,” she promises. “Which reminds me”—she tugs the end of Melissa’s ponytail—“remind me to post the link for registration. I need full names, numbers, and genders to give the refs, and if I don’t get that link posted soon then everyone is going to forget to fill it out.”

“Well, you know most of the team, right?” I ask.

“Yeah, but people change.” Karey shrugs. “Erin wasn’t out as nonbinary until spring semester this year. I could make assumptions, but I’d rather not.”

“Oh really?” I ask too quickly, uncool in my eagerness to be cool about knowing people with nonbinary genders outside of the internet. “Have I been using the wrong pronouns?”

“Social media says she’s still using ‘she’ and ‘her.’” Karey says. “But like I said, things change.”

I nod too fast, wanting to ask more questions even though it’s probably not cool to grill someone about someone else’s gender.

“I keep seeing posts in S.P.I.F. about the quidditch gender rule,” Melissa says, “but I haven’t seen it in action at all yet. How do the refs manage?”

“With varying degrees of success.” Karey grimaces. “People don’t have time to memorize every roster, but they can double-check with the captains before the game starts so they don’t accidentally misgender people. I also know a lot of folks who just leave it up to the honesty policy. Teams are better at knowing when they have too many people of the same gender on the field. It gets tricky sometimes. I heard about a team in the UK that messed up by putting too many nonbinary players on the field at once, which is probably the only acceptable way to mess up the rule.”

I’m hit with one of those sudden waves of quidditch awe. I knew S.P.I.F. was inclusive, but I’ve never heard of any sport where the rulebook actively encourages—requires!—gender diversity. I spend a lot of time wondering about gender things, relating to Eevie’s posts on Tumblr, and generally going in circles about what I’m feeling, but I always catch myself worrying that if I didn’t know my identity

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