The girl I never chose to be

Angel was the only son of Joy and Hanna, both teachers at St. Mary’s Girls’ School. His father was also the principal, making their family well-respected in the school and the community. Although St. Mary’s was a girls’ school, boys were allowed to study there only up to the 7th standard. After that, they had to transfer elsewhere.

But a crisis had arisen.

A government inspection was coming up, and the 8th standard needed at least ten students to pass. There were only nine girls in the class. The school couldn’t enroll any more students in time, and taking a student from the 9th or 10th standard was impossible because the lists had already been submitted.

The afternoon sun streamed through the classroom windows, casting long shadows on the desks. Joy and Hanna sat stiffly in the teacher's lounge, the air thick with tension.
"We have no choice," Mr. Thompson, Angel's class teacher, said, his voice barely above a whisper. "We can present Angel as a girl."
The words hung in the air like a storm cloud. Joy shook her head, disbelief etched on her face. "What? No! That’s absurd."
Hanna's brow furrowed. "You can’t be serious. He’s our son. This... this is wrong."
"But what if the school fails the inspection?" Mr. Thompson pressed, desperation creeping into his tone. "We’d lose everything. The funding, the reputation—"
"Angel can’t just pretend to be someone he’s not!" Joy exclaimed, her voice rising.
Hanna looked down, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her blouse. “What if it works? Just until the inspection is over?”
Joy’s shoulders slumped as the weight of the situation settled in. “It’s only for a little while,” she murmured. “Once it’s over, we’ll send him to a boys’ school.”
Silence fell, the urgency of their decision pressing down like a heavy fog. “I don’t want to be a girl,” Angel’s voice piped up from the doorway, wide-eyed and confused.
His parents exchanged glances, the gravity of their choice settling deeper.