"Spell the word…'capybara'," said Vice Principal Panch, looking disinterested.

Leaf giggled. "Is that a word?"

"Yes."

"What's it mean?"

"Uhh…" Vice Principal Panch adjusted his note cards, and frowned. "A large semiaquatic rodent of tropical South America, having short limbs and a vestigial tail and often attaining lengths of more than 4 feet."

Leaf laughed again. That was so weird! "Can you use it in a sentence?" he asked, still sputtering. This was all so…how did he get into this? He adjusted his zip-up and listened as carefully as he could.

"Mary, I think that large semiaquatic rodent of tropical South America, having short limbs and a vestigial tail and often attaining lengths of more than 4 feet that's swimming next to our boat might be a capybara."

Leaf grinned, if possible, even more widely. Easy. It was easy. He pulled at the lock of red hair sticking out from under his helmet.

"C!"

Leaf's eyes got wider with the effort of spelling the word. He had to get this right. He had a lot to prove to his sisters and brothers and mom and dad, and…well, everybody.

"A!"

Wait. What was a capybara, again?

"P!"

It didn't really sound like a real word to him.

"E!"

Wait….that spelled 'cape'. He'd have to stick an extra 'e' in there, to be safe.

"E!"

Wait…no…that was wrong! He was sure it was wrong, and now he was stuck with those double 'e's. Oh, no, no, no… One hand gripped the bottom corner of his cape and the other found its way into his pocket, groping around for his little monster puppet.

"B!"

He looked down at his striped sock. He loved that sock.

"A!"

He twisted around to look for Chip Tolentino, one of the only other kids who had been nice to him, even if he had asked a lot of questions about his sister, Marigold. But Chip had gotten his word wrong. He was gone.

"R!"

He looked at his family, who were no help, either. His siblings looked bored, his mother looked fretful, and his father was staring at Leaf's helmet, again. His father and Leaf had a lot of disagreements about that helmet.

"A!"

Vice Principal Panch looked chagrined, and the bell made its customary 'ding' sound. Not an inviting sound, but…a final sound.

He collected his apple juice, and went to his mother, who stood and gave him a hug.

He knew, though, that she had expected him to lose. He didn't belong here. He hadn't won his school's spelling bee. He'd thought that stupid Bat Mitzvah had been sent from heaven...but it had just proved to everybody again that he wasn't that smart.

He burst into tears.