GOLD MEDAL
It was only my second speech and debate tournament in high school, and I was coming home with a gold medal in Dramatic Interpretation and a silver in Extemp. Finally, the frizzy-haired nerd who never got asked to dance was a star. My older sister, Barbara, about to graduate from college, had never won any gold medals. My teammates in the car–someone’s dad was driving us back from the tournament site in downtown L.A., to the Valley–were excited for me, for their own awards, for our school.
My father yanked open the front door even before I finished turning my key, his face glowing.
The smile fled as soon as he saw me. “Hurry up inside,” he ordered. “You have to hide before Mom and Barbara get home.”
Oh, right. The surprise twentieth-anniversary party he was making for Mom. Barbara was the crucial decoy who kept her out of the house all afternoon.
I don’t remember where I hid or if I stayed at the party much beyond the shrieks of “Surprise!” when Mom and Barbara arrived. I just know that it was such a wasted opportunity. What wouldn’t I give today, to be invisible at a party?
Fran Hawthorne started writing novels when she was four years old. Her eight nonfiction books and first two novels have won multiple awards, and her third novel, Her Daughter, will be published by Black Rose Writing in January 2026.