Second Place

Eleven-year-old Maya Chen has won every spelling bee, math competition, and science fair since second grade. When she comes in second at the Regional Academic Challenge, her whole identity cracks. She must learn that her worth isn't tied to being first — and discover what she actually loves doing...

Maya Chen sat at the kitchen table on a Sunday morning, eating cereal and watching the sunlight move across the row of trophies on the shelf above the TV. There were fourteen of them — gold and silver and shiny blue — each one from a different competition she had won since second grade. Spelling bees, math olympiads, science fairs, geography bowls. Her mom called that shelf 'Maya's Wall of Fame.'

Maya liked looking at them. They made her feel solid, like she knew exactly who she was. She was Maya Chen, the girl who wins things.