When I was in sixth grade, we had a coed lunchtime basketball tournament for teams formed by the kids in the grade. One of the rules was that each team must always have at least one girl playing.

My friends and I formed a team. At one point, we had six players going out to play at once. I said I would be the one to sit out. I insisted.

I was the only girl on the team.

The teacher refereeing, and apparently everybody on the other team and spectating, didn't notice. And I didn't realize I had broken the rules until later the ref mentioned something about how I had made the team legal because of my girlhood.

I hadn't been thinking of us as boys and girls. I had been thinking of friends and teammates.