The Winner

Written for:
https://fivedotoh.com/2024/07/16/fowc-with-fandango-withdraw/
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2024/07/16/rdp-tuesday-science-fiction/
https://thedailyspur.wordpress.com/2024/07/16/convince-2/
https://millionth534.blogspot.com/2024/07/todays-prompt-new.html
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2024/07/16/library/

Work Text:

Andrew finally managed to convince his friend David to enter the Rose Valley Public Library's Short Science Fiction Contest
for middle school students.

"I'll enter on one condition," David said, "and that's if you'll enter too. Don't forget, you always get an A in Composition."

"So do you, and Mrs. Warner chooses yours to read to the class as often as she does mine," Andrew pointed out.

"Well, one of us is pretty sure to win," David said. "The only serious competition we'll have is from Raphael."

The two boys set to work on their stories. They agreed not to show them to each other until after the contest. One of the rules, as usual in such competitions, was that the young authors must write their stories without any help from other people.

Three weeks later, David and Andrew waited confidently, smugly, and perhaps a bit arrogantly, for the winners to be announced. Raphael, realizing that his talents were not in the field of science fiction, had decided to withdraw from the contest.

But neither David nor Andrew won.

To everyone's surprise, and to David and Andrew's utter chagrin, the winner was Wanda Joan Tompkins, a new girl in town.
~*~*~*