As I stood up from my seat, I felt a strange dizziness in my head, as if all of the blood was rushing to it at once.

"Whoa," I said, steadying myself on the table.

"You good, man?" asked Kiki.

My brain stumbled to respond to her question as I regained my bearings. "Yeah," I replied. "It's just that…" I could feel my neurons connecting. "Jordan as you know him is gone. I am James!"

"Is this just another amnesia joke?" asked Kathleen skeptically.

"Word," smirked Kiki, giving me the 'sup nod before standing up herself. "Good luck, Jor-bah." She shuffled off. We all headed after her and gathered together on the rug with the rest of the class, minus Julia and now Randy.

"You ready for this, Jordan?" asked William from next to me.

"What? Oh, yeah," I replied.

"Remember, it's gonna be me versus you in the final round," he insisted.

"Boy Howdy, you buckadoodle smackaroos!" yeehawed Mr. Pony spontaneously, putting their hands on their stomach.

"Buckadoodle… smackaroos?" asked Jeremy, looking like he was judging Mr. Pony.

"Oh, come on, can't you have a little fun?" They turned to the side slightly irately and raised one of their arms to the class. "Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things. Especially the ones that go gow!" They returned to normal. "Anyways, it's time for the much-anticipated third practice spelling bee! A last-chance qualifier, if you will. And since so few people are participating this time, we'll only have four groups in the first round!"

"Only four groups?" asked Kristy, but it sounded more like 'Woo!' "I'm gonna win this in a flash!"

"Aw, come on," commented Owen, closing his eyes and cupping one of his hands around his mouth like a megaphone. "Do you really think someone who believes that ghosts are real could win the spelling bee?"

"Of course!" Kristy pointed a finger indignantly. "A lot of smart people believe in ghosts. Like, uh, Alfred Einstein!"

"It's Albert..." mused Rachel.

"Quiet!" inputted Randy, though it sounded more like 'h'ors d'eurves'. "Mr. Pony isn't done explaining the ru-ules."

"Ahem," agreed Mr. Pony. "Eli, Jenny, Owen, and Jordan, you four are safe until the second round. And as for our four first round groups, we have: Group 1: Kathleen and Rachel, Group 2: Kiki and Jeremy, Group 3: Jacques and William, and Group 4: Skylar and Kristy."

As the four people who had made it to the third round at least once continued waiting on the rug, the others sized up their competition. There were sure to be some interesting groups here.

"Let's get this you-know-what rolling!" exclaimed Mr. Pony. "Kathleen and Rachel, you two are up first."

"All right!" said Kathleen. "I've been waiting for this."

"You have?" asked Rachel.

"Are you both ready?" asked Mr. Pony, putting their hands over their mouth mischievously. "Then Kathleen, your first word is munch."

"M-u-n-c-h,"

"Correct. Rachel, your word is party."

"P-a-r-t-y."

"Correct." Oh? I thought. By this point, Rachel was known for losing on purpose at the first opportunity, which made sense since she seemed determined to not do anything at school. Was she finally going to try to win?

"Walker." Mr. Pony's voice relayed back to Kathleen.

"W-a-l-k-e-r."

"Correct. Demise."

"D-e-m-i-s-e."

"Correct. Sylvan."

"Hmm… What does that even mean?" asked Kathleen, crossing her arms and looking to the side thoughtfully.

Mr. Pony thought for a second. "Having to do with woods, or a forest," they said, in a strange, leathery voice. They then cleared their throat quickly. "Excuse me."

"That doesn't help at all..." said Kathleen, shrugging her shoulders and exhaling. "S-i-l-v-e-n?"

"Incorrect. Rachel, can you spell Sylvan?"

"S-i-l-v-e-n."

"Uh, incorrect. The correct spelling is S-y-l-v-a-n." Mr. Pony flipped around the card.

Everyone in the class seemed to be giving Rachel a peculiar stare. Did she just say the exact same thing as Kathleen?

"Rachel, your next word is liquid."

"L-i-q-u-i-d."

"Correct. Tennis."

"T-e-n-n-i-s."

"Correct. Capable."

"C-a-p-a-b-l-e."

"Correct. Recharge."

"R-e-c-h-a-r-g-e."

"Correct. Signal."

"S-i-g-n-a-l."

"Correct. Mosquito."

"M-u-s-k-e-t-o."

"Incorrect. Rachel, can you spell mosquito?"

"M-u-s-k-e-t-o."

"Incorrect." She did it again! What was Rachel up to? Why was she just repeating what Kathleen said?

This pattern continued four more times… Both would answer a few words right in a row, then Kathleen would miss one, and then Rachel would just copy her spelling. Minutes dragged on into hours as this group continued.

"Incorrect," sighed Mr. Pony. "The correct spelling is A-m-p-h-i-b-i-o-u-s. Rachel, your next word is -"

"Hold on, time out!" inputted Kathleen.

"Hm? What's up?" asked Mr. Pony.

Kathleen pointed at her gloved opponent. "Mr. Pony, can you make Rachel stop? She's doing it on purpose!"

"You just now noticed?" asked Owen, looking at his hand.

"Huh?" asked Kiki. What's going on?"

"She's only getting words wrong when I do, so neither of us get out!"

"They are difficult words," mused Rachel, crossing her gloved hands in front of her. "You cannot force me to spell a word I do not know how to spell. I cannot help what I do not know, and what you do not know cannot hurt you."

"What does that even mean?" asked Kathleen, starting to get heated. "Why do you always pick on me like this? How come you couldn't just lose on purpose like all the other times?"

"Because I have no intention to lose," replied Rachel factually.

"Then how come you don't just get me out then?"

I swayed back and forth, looking to the side and curling my finger to my chin thoughtfully. "Because..." I thought out loud, like Ed Sheeran, "She has no intention to win either." I heard a strange noise, like an alarm bell being briefly rang once before being deftly silenced. I wondered what it was, but couldn't let it distract me from the words I was trying to say. "Rachel just wants to keep this group from ending."

"And why ever would I want to do something so absurd?" quipped Rachel.

"Well..." I said, "I don't know, really."

Julia chuckled dryly from her seat. "Perhaps Rachel tries to sabotage the spelling bee."

"That could be it," agreed Jenny. "If this group takes too long, the school day would end before the spelling bee could."

"So… what happens then?" asked Kristy, offering up a palm like she didn't quite understand the situation.

"Well," answered Mr. Pony, "I've got to get my l-word of students submitted by the end of the day today, so if we weren't done by then I'd just have to do a random pick of everyone that wasn't eliminated."

"L-word?" asked Kristy.

"They're talking about a list," answered Jenny. "Some people just don't say that word to keep from offending people who get offended when it is spoken."

"What?" Kristy looked even more confused now. "Who gets offended by lists?"

"Stop saying the l-word!" inputted Owen. "It really hurts my feelings!"
"BAAAAH!" said Jacques.

"Anyways, now that I have your attention," continued Owen, "Do y'all really think that Rachel is trying to wait out the end of the day and force a random pick?"

"Yeah," agreed Skylar. "Maybe she was trying to lose on purpose, but, like, not make it obvious."

"Non," canceled Randy from his seat. "Rachel said she had no intention to lose, and she's had plenty of times to do so convincingly. She is trying to sabotage the spelling bee."

"Huh? But why?" asked Jeremy.

"Yeah, Randy-boy," argued Owen, "Why would she make it so obvious? I mean, using the exact same, wrong spellings six times in a row?"

"It doesn't matter why!" inputted Kathleen, taking back control of the conversation. "She doesn't need a reason. All that matters is that she's doing it."

Rachel tilted her head to the side slightly and smiled a grandmotherly smile. "Very well," she responded. "If you have such an issue with what I am doing, I will forfeit. However, keep this in mind:" She put her gloved hands in the pockets of her gray dress (that had pockets!) and steeled her gaze towards the entire class behind her thick, circular spectacles. "If you simply accept things for how they are, and do not question the reason as to 'why', you will not get very far in this life." And with that, Rachel snapped her mouth shut, made a face-heel turn, and aburptly walked back to her assigned seat at the fourth table.

"Uh, so, in that case, Kathleen is the winner," concluded Mr. Pony, adapting quickly to this new development.

"But -" began Kathleen.

"Group 2, Kiki and Jeremy, let's go." Mr. Pony snapped their fingers rhythmically to emphasize their point. "We need to breeze through these next few groups to make up for lost time."

"Yeah," agreed Kiki, "so Jeremy, if you want to lose on purpose, just let Mr. Pony know beforehand. It'll be quicker that way."

"What?" asked Jeremy irritatedly. "I'm not going to lose on purpose!"

"But you are gonna lose," retorted Kiki, making a little house with her hands. What had gotten into her?

"Hey! Are you two ready?" inputted Mr. Pony. "Kiki. Your first word is card."

"C-a-r-d."

"Correct. Jeremy, your word is, coil," said Mr. Pony, with a slight giggle to their voice.

"C-o-i-l."

"Correct. Bathe."

"B-a-t-h-e."

"Correct. Chaos."

"C-h-a-o-s."

"Correct." I was a bit surprised they had gotten those words wright… er, right. "Turtle."

"T-u-r-t-l-e."

"Correct. Powder."

"P-o-w-d-e-r."

"Correct. Uprising."

"U-p-r-i-s-i-n-g."

"Correct. Complex."

"C-o-m-p-l-e-x."

"Correct. Machine."

"M-a-s-h-i-n-e."

"Incorrect." Kiki's eyes widened in surprise. "Jeremy, can you spell machine?"

"M-a-c-h-i-n-e."

"That is correct! Jeremy is the winner."

"See?" boasted Jeremy. "I told you I wasn't going to lose on purpose."

"Well that's just cause… I lost on purpose," replied Kiki, looking down embarrassedly and sweating slightly. Was she out of shape just from spelling a few words? "I'mma go take a breather." she loped back to her seat.

"Group 3, Jacques and William," proceeded along Mr. Pony. The two biggest bois in the class barreled forward, eager to compete. Everyone seemed to be in the hustling spirit to make up for the delay Rachel had caused – in a way, it was the most united the class had ever been towards a common goal.

"Ready?" Although William's eyes were not quite as unblinking, they burned with an intensity almost as fierce as Jacques'. "William, your first word is chair."

"C-h-a-i-r."

"Correct. Jacques, your first word is honey."

"H-o-n-e-y."

"Correct. Divide."

"D-i-v-i-d-e."

"Correct. Library."

"L-i-b-r-a-r-y."

"Correct. Sandstorm."

"S-a-n-d-s-t-o-r-m."

"Correct. Pantry."

"P-a-n-t-r-y."

"Correct. Cucumber."

"C-u-c-u-m-b-e-r."

"Correct. Approach."

"A-p-p-r-o-a-c-h."

"Correct. Encrypt."

"E-n-c-r-i-p-p-e-d."

"Incorrect." William frowned. "Jacques, can you spell encrypt?"

"E-n-c-r-y-p-t."

"Correct. Jacques is the winner for this group." Jacques' unblinking eyes blazed with the satisfaction of triumphing over his opponent.

"Aw, man!" William pumped his fist across his body dejectedly. "Good job, Jacques." His shaggy bowlcut provided a dark overshadow to his eyes, as he looked down quickly to hide the tears suddenly dripping from his eyes.

"William." said Jacques. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I guess," mumbled William. "It's just that… I actually tried this time, you know? I went and studied, and everything. And I still only lost in the first round."

"I'm… sorry?" offered Jacques, unsure of how to console him.

"It's not your fault," sniffed William. "I just thought it'd be cool to be up at the main event, in front of the whole school, and they'd announce my name on the speakers, or something."

"Well, you'll always have another shot next year," said Mr. Pony.

"Huh? Next year?" asked William.

"Correct," inputted Randy from his seat, making a sound like he was about to cough as he pronounced the 'rr' in 'correct'. "Remember, the spelling bee has participants from all different classes, from us Kindergarteners to the fifth graders."

"Yeah, I know," responded William. "Everyone was gonna be there."

"No, you're missing the point," advanced Randy. "You'll have another chance to participate next year, as a first grader."

William blinked his tears away and put his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Yeah, I reckon that's right," he agreed. Clearly, the thought of being a first grader himself had never occurred to him. And why would it? We had'nt been anything but kindergarteners so far. "A year is a long way away, but if I'm losing in the first round, I've got a long ways to go before I can make it to the final stage. But that's okay, because I have a long time to get ready."

With his head held slightly less lowly, William headed back to his seat. "Hey Randy!" he called out on his way over. "Would you mind giving me some extra spelling help?"

"Aww, how touching," commented Owen, before pumping his fists in front of him with his eyes sparkling. "But we've gotta get a move on with the spelling bee, right Mr. Pony?"

"Yepperinos!" agreed Mr. Pony, putting their hands on their stomach. "Which means, Group 4, Skylar and Kristy, get ready to go."

The final two participants in the first round stepped up, with Kristy looking significantly more engaged than Skylar.

"Kristy, are you ready? Your first word is wise."

"W-i-s-e."

"Correct. Skylar, your word is keep."

"K-e-e-p."

"Correct, Steal."

Kristy opened her mouth, but caught herself at the last second. "What kind of steal?" She asked suspiciously. "Steel the type of metal, or steal like when you take something?"

Mr. Pony put their hands over their mouth mischievously. "The kind when you take something."

"S-t-e-a-l."

"Correct. Labor."

"L-a-b-o-r."

"Correct. Remote."

"R-e-m-o-t-e."

"Correct. Banshee."

"B-a-n-s-h-i." Skylar's face was like a porcelain mirror.

"Incorrect. Kristy, can you spell banshee?"

"You bet I can!" said Kristy enthusiastically, but to me it sounded more like "Woo!". "B-a-n-s-h-e-e."

"Correct! That makes Kristy the winner for this group. And with that, we're done with the first round!"

"Good job," congratulated Skylar, though with the intonation of her voice I had a hard time telling whether she was being sarcastic or not. "I actually didn't know that was a word."

"Yeah, I got lucky," said Kristy, putting her finger to her nose. "A banshee's a type of ghost, so I already knew how to spell it."

"Oh, word?" asked Skylar. "So like, all the ghostbusting knowledge did pay off, huh?"

"You betcha!" replied Kristy, laughing bromeantically. She then marched confidently to the group of remaining students as Skylar returned to her seat.

"All righty then," resumed Mr. Pony, turning back to myself, Jenny, Kathleen, Jacques, Owen, Kristy, Jeremy, and Eli. "You lot have all made it to the second round!"

Jenny scoped out the rest of the group. "There's eight of us, so that means four groups of two, right?"

"Right you are! So, uh," Mr. Pony took a few seconds to scritch on a piece of paper like a number 2 pencil. "Group 1: Jenny and Jacques, Group 2: Kathleen and Eli, Group 3: Owen and Kristy..." I zoned out of what Mr. Pony was saying and zoned in on some spot in the distance. "Woo wee," I murmured softly. The voices in the background began fading until they were replaced by a solid, E flat. Visions of the past began playing in my head.

"Just a second!" Kathleen's voice snapped me back to reality, like Eminem. What was going on?

"This is my part, nobody else speak!" Before Kathleen could even finish speaking, Owen cut in with an exclamation of his own.

"Oh deary me!" said Mr. Pony, who now seemed to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. "Such eager volunteers! Whichever will I choose?"

"Ooh, ooh! Pick me!" The pupils of my eyes followed Owen's small stature as he hopped up and down.

"No!" insisted Kathleen. "I said it first, so I should get to go first!"

Owen stopped. "You know what? You're right. Ladies first, after all."

"Hey!" insisted Kristy. "I'm a lady too, you know!"

"A-a-and I'm not!" added a shocked Eli, trembling beneath his helmet.

Something seemed off about that, but I didn't really care to think of what. Either way, it seemed like that conflict was resolved, so there'd be at least two groups that went before mine… I could go back to zoning out. And that, my friend, is exactly what I did, I'll tell you what.

Elevator music played in my head as I stood idly by, blissfully unaware of my surroundings. I was like a small fish in a great big pond. I could hear the voices of my teacher and my classmates, but couldn't make out what they were saying, as if they were muffled by a vast fog and obscured by the white noise of the solid E flat. My eyes wandered around the classroom with no real fashion or focus, until I came to a row of alphabet cards posted on the wall above the cubbies. Mmm. I loved me some alphabets. I decided to count all of them and see if I could pronounce the words they were making with their letters, as a way to pass the time.

Suddenly, I felt a tug at the sleeve of my black cardigan. "Hey Jordan. We're up next." I looked down at the hand grasping my article of clothing, to the face that was attached to that hand. It was Jeremy. I lurched to the side as I rotated my head, taking in a glimpse of my surroundings. It looked like the first two groups were done, since two people were missing from out of the standing people and were sitting back down. They were Kathleen and Owen, so that meant Eli and Kristy must have won? Yeah, they were still here.

"Jordan," repeated Jeremy. "Let's go."

"Huh?" I asked, stalling for time so I could process some more information. Jenny, Jeremy, and Jacques, also known as The Three J's, were also here. Including me, that would make four J's. If you added fifteen more of us, that would make nineteen J's. What did that mean?

"It's our group's turn." Why was he being so impatient?

"It's? Who's in my group?" I didn't remember what Mr. Pony had said as I was zoning out, so I could be in a group with any of the other J-names.

"Me!" So I was in a group with Jeremy?

"Ah, Okay," I returned. Time to spell. "Right. Let's go."

Jeremy gave me a quizzical side-eye. "You know, dude, I'm starting to see why people say you have amnesia."

That one stung a little, but I was already too numb to feel pain. I was a bit apprehensive about being thrown into a spelling bee against such a tough looking opponent with little to no warning, but with Randy's tutoring swirling in my brain, Kiki's lollipop flowing through my veins, and William's sandwich, made from ingredients gathered by everyone, digesting in my stomach, I had the power of my friends inside me, so that meant I couldn't fail, right? Either way, we approached Mr. Pony… together.