The Spelling Bee

"Mom, Mom!" Daya Myers excitedly burst through the front door after school one day.  When she couldn't find her mother, she went bounding up the stairs looking for her.

"What's going on?" inquired her mother as she heard Daya's loud footsteps clattering up the stairs.

"I'm going to be in the school spelling bee!" announced Daya excitely.

"Oh, honey!, That's great!" enthused her mother throwing her arms around her daughter and hugging her.

"Wait, there's more!" declared Daya wrenching out of her mother's grasp. "Kinley is going to be in the spelling bee too." Kinley Ingram was Daya's best friend. She had been since they sat next to each other on the school bus on the first day of first grade.

"That's great." replied Mom.

"Yeah, the winner goes on to the state spelling bee and the winner of that goes on to the national spelling bee in Washington DC. Can you imagine me winning the National Spelling Bee?" said Daya dreamily closing her eyes.

"Whoa, slow down. Don't count your chickens and all that. Just take it one bee at a time."

"Oh  I can win it. I know I can." replied Daya confidentally. "Besides, they gave these pages of spelling words to study which should help us. If I master these I should have a good shot of winning."

Daya decided to do her homework and then relax a little. She would start studying the words after dinner. After dinner, she was tired though so she figured she would get a fresh start the next day after school.

The next day after school, Kinley came home with Daya. "Hello, Kinley." greeted Daya's mother. "Congratulations on making it into the Spelling Bee."

"Thanks, Mrs. Myers." replied Kinley.

The two girls had a snack then sat down at the kitchen table to do their homework.

"Did you start studying the spelling words yet?" Kinley asked.

Daya shook her head. "Nah. Not yet. " she admitted. "It shouldn't be too hard anyway. I'm pretty good at spelling."

"You're lucky." replied Kinley. "I have to work really hard at it. I still can't even believe I made into the Spelling Bee at all."

"Don't put yourself down. I'm sure your not that bad." Daya assured her friend.

After homework, Kinley had to leave. "Can't you stay for a little while even?" begged Daya.

"No, sorry. It'll be dinner time soon, and I want to have time to look over the Spelling Bee words."

Daya shrugged. She couldn't believe Kinley was being so obssessive about studying for the stupid Spelling Bee. It couldn't be that hard. She wasn't even planning to look over the words until after dinner.

After dinner, Daya got caught up in watching TV. Then, she took a shower. By the time she finished drying her long hair, she was too tired too look over the spelling words. "I'll do it tomorrow." she promised herself.

Tomorrow came and went and so did the next day and the next. Daya never managed to sit down and look over the spelling words. Suddenly, the day of the Spelling Bee which had seemed so far away was here.

Daya and Kinley and twenty of their classmates stood on the stage with their familes and other school mates sitting out in the audience watching them.

After the ground rules were explained, Kinley was the first speller.

"Favorite." intoned the moderator.

"Can you use it in a sentence?" asked Kinley nervously.

'Come on, Kinley.' Daya thought. 'That's any easy one.'

"Pink was her favorite color." stated the moderator in a monotone

"F *A*V*O*R*I*T*E." spelled Kinley slowly and carefully.

Daya silently cheered her.  Her turn was next.

"Surprise." intoned the moderator.

"S*U**P*R*I*S*E."

"No, I'm sorry that's incorrect." replied the moderator. "You may sit down."

Daya's mouth flew open and she fell into her seat in stunned silence. She couldn't believe she got knocked out in the first round when so many kids that she knew were not nearly as smart made it through to the next round including Kinley.

The rest of the match went by mostly in a blur. She just barely heard Kinley get knocked out in the final round on the word "spectator." That was an easy one. Everybody knew spectator is spelled with an o and not an e.

After the match, Daya was really upset but Kinley didn't seem bothered at all. "We gave it our best shot." Kinley assured her friend with a smile as they exited the stage and went to find their parents in the audience.

Daya wasn't assured at all. She was  really angry at herself, but she decided to take it out on her friend instead. "How could you miss 'spectator'"? she hissed at her Kinley. "Everybody knows 'spectator is spelled with an o and not an e."

"Well, at least I made it through more than the first round." Kinley hissed back. "Surprise?" she said, "You got out on surprise?  Everyone knows that there are two R's in surprise. Besides, it was on that sheet of words they gave us to look over when we made it into the spelling bee. Did you ever even look at that?"

Daya turned bright red and suddenly felt really ashamed. "You're right." she admitted. "I never even looke at that paper. I deserved too get knocked out in the first round,  and you should have won. I'm sorry you didn't. Can you ever forgive me for being so horrible?"

Kinley shrugged, smiled, and hugged her friend. "Don't worry about it." she said. "I was so nervous standing up their in front of just our school, I would never be able to handle being in the state spelling bee. Anyway, I think just being in the school spelling bee, should be good enough to get our parents to take us out for ice cream, don't you?"

Daya nodded. "Sure," she agreed putting her arm around her best friend's shoulder. "Let's go find them."