Winner Takes All by Jenny Santana

talking to your mom outside.”
    Celia didn’t really want to know the answer to her next question, but she had to ask: “Why is your mom waiting for you? Doesn’t she know we’re gonna be a while?”
    Finally, Mari stepped into the room. She walked all the way in and sat down on the round purple rug, right in front of Celia. Celia thought back to the day she’d sat there herself and asked Mari to agree to this whole scheme. They were so close to winning, so close to being done. In the silence of that second, she heard Mari’s mom’scar engine running in the driveway, and Celia suddenly felt the week come to a screeching halt.
    “Remember how you promised yesterday that you wouldn’t let me lose my part in the play?”
    Celia felt a little better; if this was about the play, then everything was okay. It was the debate she was worried about.
    “Of course I remember,” Celia answered. “Not that I had any idea how I was gonna do that, but I did promise.”
    “And you meant it?” Mari said. Her face looked strained. She looked too hurt to be acting—Celia knew this was real.
    “Of course,” she said. “I know that the play is as important to you as being representative is to me.” Celia’s voice cracked as she said “me”—she wasn’t so sure anymore that if Mari won, she could handle everyone giving Mari credit for her work. She wouldn’t really be a representative, not in the way she wanted to be. But it was too late to do anything about that. “Mari, just tell me what’s going on. If you figured out a plan to keep your part, I want to hear it.”
    Mari took a deep breath and sat up on her knees. She tucked her hair behind her ears. She closed her eyes and silently nodded to herselfafter a second. When she opened her eyes again, they were wet with tears.
    “I can’t go through with the debate tomorrow. I have to spend the rest of this afternoon drilling my lines for the play’s run-through. My mom’s gonna help me get them down.”
    Celia tried to sound calm, but she couldn’t control the panic rising in her voice. “But you have to do the debate! It’s not optional for a candidate! If you don’t participate, you’re—”
    “I’m dropping out of the race. It’s the only way Mrs. Wanza’s gonna let me keep the lead and not let Sami start in my place tomorrow at rehearsal.”
    Mari closed her eyes again and added, “My mom already called the school and left a message for Mrs. Wanza with my decision.”
    Celia realized she’d been holding her breath. She tried to breathe but the air wouldn’t come. She tried to think calming thoughts, but all she could do was sit like a statue at her desk.
    “This was a really hard choice for me,” Mari went on. “I know how much being rep means to you—I only said yes to this whole thing for you. But my mom said that if we’re really friends, we’d help each other do the right things. And besides, being part of drama is just too important to me.”
    Every thought and feeling imaginable raced through Celia’s head. She was so lost in her own whirlwind that she could barely register what Mari was saying now. Her thoughts poured out of her in a panicked rant, “But we’re so close to winning! We’ve done all this work! We can’t just let Laz win. Why didn’t you talk to me about this? What am I gonna do? You just admitted how much this means to me—Mari, I need you to do this!”
    Mari pulled her hair over her shoulder and started tugging at it. She was clearly trying to stay calm in the hopes that it would keep Celia from freaking out more than she already was. “I know you’re probably gonna be mad at me for a while,” Mari said. “But I have to take that risk and just trust that you’ll eventually understand. At least, that’s what my mom says.”
    Mari’s mom—who was talking to her own mom outside right now. Celia snapped out of her shocked trance and said the first words that finally found their way out of her mouth. “So then