I was definitely the most talented artist here. Looking at the other paintings, they didn’t stand a change. Some children had drawn flowers, some pieces of candy. Pathetic.

Here comes the judges. It seemed they were playing soft this year, judging these kids with high scores. But no matter how high they scored them, I would do better.

“Laura Clark?” One of the judges, the red head, said.

“Yes?” I looked hopefully at them.

“Step aside.” The red head snapped.

I flinched, but obeyed. I could feel my cheeks growing hot with embarrassment as the judges looked over my piece.

It was a painting of a girl. She had delicate, pale skin, deep brown eyes, her hair was painted into perfect strands of golden curls.

“It is beautiful.” A judge murmured, a different one, brown hair, I noticed he had olive skin, maybe a mix of brown.

I shuffled my feet nervously, they murmured inaudible things and wrote them down on their large, rectangular clipboards.

•••••••••••••

I sat with the other children, all awaiting the results. They looked nervous, many of them had stopped to look at my painting. That felt nice, I was going to win for sure.

“Okay the results are in.” The red head judge spoke, “Third place, Jenny Sanderson!”

Jenny, a little girl in a bright green dress walked up, receiving her medal.

“Second place, Olivia Shay!”

Olivia did the same as Jenny, her blonde hair curled.

“And first place goes to…..