The December Contest

It was a cold December Saturday, it was snowing outside and everybody was getting ready for Christmas. Everyone that lived in Cocoa City was excited for tomorrow because it was 10 days before the year ended! Which in Cocoa City, meant that 10 of the 10,000 people living there would be picked for a competition. The competition was a race. Each person is given 10 clues to collect and these would be the hints on how to get the next clue. Throughout the 10 days, one person would be eliminated and the last person left would win the grand prize of $10,000!

It was finally Sunday, December 22nd, 2019. Everybody sat with their families and watched the news waiting and waiting for the announcement on who is going to be picked for the contest. Finally, at around 10 PM, it was announced that because not many people wanted to be picked, they only came up with 5 people. There would be 5 clues this time. The 5 people were Clarissa Joan, Florence Kate, Zoe Fleur, Victoria Ivy and Melanie Jessica. These 5 girls would be participating in the contest starting today.

The first clue was given to each of them, the clue said, "Where the Christmas Trees are sold" all of them had 2 entire days to find it, get it and bring it back. Now that we had 5 people, one person would be eliminated every other day. The first person who found it was Clarissa Joan meaning she was safe. Followed by her were Florence Kate, Victoria Ivy, Zoe Fleur and Melanie Jessica. Melanie was last since she found it on the second day and was eliminated.

The second clue was a bit harder and said, "Where the Winter Parties are held". Now, for this, you had to go up to the mountains because that's where most of the parties are held. Although one of the contestants, Victoria Ivy, went to the farm stables because apparently, that's where she had all her Winter parties. Florence found it first followed by Clarissa and Zoe. Victoria was eliminated because she went to the wrong place. Now we’re left with Clarissa, Zoe and Florence. Day 4 had just ended meaning there were 6 days left.

Day 5 was starting now and the clues were getting harder and harder. The clue for today and tomorrow was, “Where the milk is bought and the hot chocolate is made. This meant they had to go to the store and somebody from the store would lead each of them to the hot chocolate stan where they’d get a nice warm cup of hot chocolate and their next clue. Zoe found it first followed by Florence. By the second day of this clue which is Day 6 of the contest, Clarissa had dropped out and she said it was too hard.

Now it was between Florence and Zoe. The clue stated, “Where the clock strikes 12, and the wolves howl, the moon shines bright above this tower”. Zoe completely understood but Florence didn’t. Florence tried and tried to figure out what it meant. It meant that they had to go to the old clock tower and get the clue. Zoe went immediately and got the next clue! Zoe would win the 10,000 dollars if she got this clue right! Otherwise, she would get just $5,000! On the 8th day, Florence was eliminated. 

Zoe was given the final clue and this clue would lead her to her final grand prize, the ten thousand dollars! The clue was very confusing and Zoe didn’t quite understand it at first. The clue said, “Where all the clues have been”. She didn’t get it at all, she has 2 days to figure out what it meant. She sat down one day and thought, what could this mean… where all the clues have been… until she finally understood. It meant WHERE have the clues she’s been finding been? She had to go to the Christmas trees store and the salesperson helped her get to the mountains where she got the next clue from a lady at one of the Winter parties. Zoe ran to the store and got her hot chocolate. Apparently, the next clue was inside the cup of hot chocolate and they had to finish the entire thing first. 

Now Zoe only had five hours left to get this done. She finished her hot chocolate, called a taxi and got to the old clock tower where she went inside and got the last clue. She thought she’d won it, but she was wrong. This clue seemed to be harder than all of the rest… it didn’t make any sense at all. “Where the Christmas cheer is spread and everyone is cheerful”. This didn’t make any sense at all, Cocoa city itself spread all the Christmas cheer, how was she supposed to find just one place? She started panicking knowing that in two hours it would be 2020 and she would not be going home with the entire grand prize. She went back to= her house and talked to her friends about it. “It’s not a place everybody goes, it’s not somewhere people commonly go”, her friend Delilah said. “It’s home, home is where Christmas cheer is spread and home is where you are.” Zoe knew exactly what she needed to do now, she needed to go to her living room where the Christmas tree was put up. She saw the money there. It was a stack of cash that summed up to $10,000! She’d done it!!

Zoe thanked all her family and friends, she shared the 10 thousand dollars with them. She saved some money for herself and she donated all the remaining money to different charities. She couldn’t have asked for a better gift for Christmas! Using this money she could help the people in need and give a gift to herself and all of her friends and family! She was filled with joy and thanked everybody in Cocoa City.

Soon, the mayor of Cocoa City, Kathy Joanne asked Zoe to talk about how she felt and how she used the grand prize. “At first I was very excited, I felt self-confident, but, as the clues got harder I realized I might not be as good at this as I thought I was. I didn't think I would win. I self doubted myself and I was very upset because of that. A very good friend of mine helped me with the last clue. I used the money and donated some of it to different charities, but I also gave some to my friends and families. I was very happy to see their reactions when they got this gift. This Christmas I understood the joy of giving”, Zoe said. Everybody clapped as her speech was amazing. Zoe made a change in Cocoa City and her name was put in the book of people who helped make Cocoa City.