Third Prize

Cleo didn't want to sing. Finn put her name on the list anyway.

The lunchtime pop contest at Ridgeway Middle School was in the hall, between the lunch tables and the old piano. Six kids sang loud songs badly. Then Cleo stood at the microphone and sang so quietly that the whole hall went quiet to hear her.

She won. First prize was a chocolate bar.

“You're a star,” Finn said in the hallway after.

“It's a chocolate bar.”

“It's a star's chocolate bar.”

All that year she practiced. She sang in her room, at the bus stop, in the shower until her brother banged on the door. The next March she walked up to the microphone, sang loud, hit every note, and came third.

Finn found her outside afterwards with the prize in her hand.

“Third,” she said.

“You were better this time.”

“I know.”

Then Cleo turned the prize over and looked at it properly. “Finn. Look.”

Same chocolate bar. Same orange paper, same size, same very sweet smell as last year's first prize.

“So you basically won again,” Finn said.

“I basically won again,” Cleo said, and ate it.