Chapter 3: The Spelling Bee
September and October passed in a whirl of activity. The classroom reflected the changing months. Each day the girls would pick up pretty leaves or flowers that they found on the playground and give them to Miss Anderson. She would pin them to the bulletin board or hang them upside down to dry. Paper pumpkins were still tacked to the wall from Halloween and pictures of all of the kids in their costumes were hung up too. Inside the classroom all the kids scribbled busily in their workbooks trying to finish what they were doing before the bell rang. All, except Dudley and his friends that is, were working silently. Miss Anderson sat grading papers and glancing up at the clock occasionally. She looked up from the gold star she had just stuck to Seth's paper and said,
"Class I have an announcement to make. As you know we have a half day tomorrow so that I get to meet your parents during parent teacher conferences. I thought maybe that instead of doing our normal work because the day is so short we could have a spelling bee using all of the words we've learned so far this year. Does that sound good to everyone?" The class nodded enthusiastically. Anna raised her hand.
"Will there be a prize for the winner?" She wanted to know. Miss Anderson looked thoughtful.
"Isn't the feeling of a job well done prize enough?" She asked. The kids shook their heads and sighed. Teachers never understood that that was a terrible prize.
"Well how about candy for the winner and the runner up?" Miss Anderson asked with a smile. The word candy lit up the faces of her class.
"Yay candy!" They exclaimed. Miss Anderson laughed.
"Alright I'm glad you're excited. In that case your homework tonight is to look over all of your words in preparation for tomorrow and to look forward to having half a day off. I look forward to meeting all your parents and I'll see you all tomorrow." The bell rang. The students packed up their backpacks and grabbed their coats. There was a general buzz of excitement as all the kids looked forward to the early dismissal the next day. Elena went up to Harry.
"Hey." She said. He smiled.
"Hey."
"Are you excited for the spelling bee tomorrow?" She asked. He shrugged.
"I guess. I'm not a great speller or anything. I always second guess myself and get it wrong."
"I'm sorry," she said. He laughed.
"It's not your fault."
"I know. I'm still sorry," she said smiling. He smiled too and then changed the subject.
"I bet your parents are excited to meet Miss Anderson."This time she shrugged.
"I guess. My dad won't be there because he has to work and my step mom doesn't really want to come. So it will probably be a very short conference. I just hope Miss Anderson doesn't have anything bad to say about me."
"She won't," Harry assured her, "There's nothing bad to say." She smiled at him and his face blushed a little.
"She won't have anything bad to say about you either Harry." He shook his head sadly.
"I doubt that."
"Are you kidding me? You're like her favorite. She's always smiling at you and giving you stickers and stuff."
"She does that for everyone," he protested but they both knew Elena was right. The truth was the Miss Anderson felt bad for Harry. She had never really fit in when she was in school and she wanted him to know that she didn't think he was a failure.
Harry held the door open for Elena as they stepped outside. The leaves crunched under their feet as they walked towards the line of cars and buses waiting to take the students home. Harry felt awkward and wished he had something else to say to Elena but his mind was suddenly blank. He was useless when it came to talking to girls, especially nice ones that initiated conversations and gave compliments. Elena glanced at Harry for a moment and then said,
"Hey Harry?"
"Yeah?" He responded a little too quickly, glad she had thought of something else to talk about.
"Um, why do you tape your glasses like that?" She had always wondered this but it always seemed rude to ask. He seemed a little startled, as if he wasn't expecting her to say that.
"Oh," he said somewhat self consciously. "Well Dudley and his friends like to punch me in the nose and my aunt and uncle won't buy me a new pair. They seem to think it's a waste of money or something like that, because they say the tape works just fine. I don't think the tape works fine at all and I think it looks ridiculous but I guess there's no arguing with them." He sighed and looked embarrassed at having revealed so much information about his personal life.
"Well I think it's very innovative of you," Elena announced and then added as an afterthought, "I-N-N-O-V-A-T-I-V-E, innovative."Harry had to laugh.
"Hopefully I'll get that one tomorrow."
"No way," Elena mock protested. "It's totally my word." A car honked and Elena jumped.
"That's my ride," she stammered starting to jog towards the car. "See you tomorrow Harry!"
"See ya," he answered. Dudley sauntered up behind Harry and threw his backpack on top of him.
"Carry this," he commanded waddling up to their car. Harry, who was used to this, grunted slightly in an attempt to regain his composure and, when he had, made his way to the car too.
The next day the spelling bee was getting tense. It was down to the final three competitors: Elena, Harry, and Veronica. The words were coming fast and no one seemed to be getting any wrong.
"Veronica spell handkerchief."
"H-A-N-D-K-E-R-C-H-I-E-F, handkerchief."
"Correct. Elena spell piccolo."
"P-I-C-C-O-L-O, piccolo."
"Good. Harry spell fluorescent."
"F-L-O-U-R-E-S-C-E-N-T, fluorescent." Miss Anderson's bell dinged and Harry looked crestfallen as he realized his mistake. He had mixed up the o and the u.
"I'm sorry Harry, that's incorrect. The correct spelling is F-L-U-O-R-E-S-C-E-N-T." He nodded sadly and took his seat hoping now that Elena would beat Veronica and win. It was down to the two of them.
"The final two," said Miss Anderson excitedly. "Are you ready girls? The words are going to get harder." They nodded and Miss Anderson nodded back.
"Alright then. Veronica your word is plagiarism."
"P-L-A-G-I-A-R-I-S-M, plagiarism."
"Correct. Elena your word is turbulence."
"T-U-R-B-U-L-E-N-C-E, turbulence."
"Good. Veronica please spell inquisitive."
I-N-Q-U-I-S-I-T-I-V-E, inquisitive."
"Correct. Elena spell claustrophobic."
"C-L-A-U-S-T-R-A-P-H-O-B-I-C, claustrophobic." The bell dinged.
"I'm sorry Elena that's incorrect. That means that if Veronica can spell this word right, she wins." Elena looked sad and Veronica looked excited.
"C-L-A-U-S-T-R-O-P-H-O-B-I-C, claustrophobic."
"And we have a winner!" Miss Anderson exclaimed. "Congratulations Veronica, and you too Elena, for making it to the final round. As promised I have a candy prize for each of you. Excellent spelling everyone." Elena and Veronica got their candy from Miss Anderson and put it in their desks. Everyone filed out of the room for PE class because it wasn't time to go home yet.
"Good bee," Elena told Veronica. "I can't believe I mixed up the O with an A."
"I totally would have done the same thing if I hadn't heard you spell it that way," Veronica reassured her. "Besides you knew how many C's were in accumulate in the third round. I would have been out on that one for sure."
"I guess I'm just awesome," she joked.
With about ten minutes left before the day was over all of the kids got back to class and began packing up their backpacks. Veronica opened her desk and immediately noticed that something was wrong.
"Miss Anderson, my candy is gone!"
"What?" Asked Miss Anderson, startled.
"My candy, it's gone! I think someone stole it!" Miss Anderson tried to reassure her.
"Calm down Veronica I'm sure there's a very logical explanation for this." She said.
"Yeah," Dudley sniggered, "Like maybe you ate it."
"I didn't eat it!" Veronica protested. "I was going to save it and share it with my friends after school."
"Sure you were," Gordon taunted. "We know you weren't going to just save it and eat it all yourself or anything."
"Yeah and then ask Miss Anderson for more and claim it was stolen." Piers chimed in.
"Why would I do that?" Veronica said disgustedly. "That's something you would do. Come to think of it, you guys seemed to have that all thought out like you planned it or something." She raised her eyebrows at them in an attempt to look threatening. Miss Anderson stepped in.
"Alright everyone needs to calm down. Boys, stop accusing Veronica of making up the fact that someone stole your candy. Veronica, stop accusing the boys of stealing it."
"But Miss Anderson!"
"No buts." Miss Anderson sighed and addressed the class as a whole. "I really didn't want to have to say anything but apparently now I do. Stealing will not be tolerated in this classroom. Ever. Do I make myself clear?" The class nodded in understanding.
"Good. That being said, I will always give you a chance to come clean without punishment. If whoever stole Veronica's candy comes forward now and admits their crime, they won't be punished. But if they don't, and I find out who it was, the punishment will be very severe. Do you all understand that?" Again everyone nodded.
"Good. Now, does anyone want to admit that they stole Veronica's candy?" Unsurprisingly no one did. Miss Anderson sighed.
"Very well then. Just know that when I find out who it was he or she will be punished very severely." Veronica pouted off to the side.
"I still don't have my prize though." Elena walked over to her.
"Do you want to share my candy Veronica? You did win after all." Veronica shook her head.
"No, don't worry about it. It's really not a big deal. Thanks though." She smiled at her friend. Just then the bell signaling the end of school rang.
"Veronica," Miss Anderson stopped her as she went to walk out the door. "I'm sorry about what happened. I'll bring you some more candy tomorrow alright?"
"Oh, thanks Miss Anderson. Like I told Elena though, it's really not that big a deal."
"I know," Miss Anderson said. "But you're a good speller and you did a good job in the bee today and I want to reward that." Veronica smiled at her teacher.
"Thanks Miss Anderson. I'll see you tomorrow!" Miss Anderson waved goodbye as the rest of the students trickled out.
Harry meanwhile had been walking about two feet behind Dudley and his friends as they took Veronica's candy out of Malcolm's backpack shared it around the group.
"Great idea Dud," Gordon whispered.
"You sure you don't want to admit your crime?" Piers said sarcastically. They all laughed.
"Yeah right was I gonna come forward," said Dudley hitching up his jeans. "The look on Veronica's face was almost better than taking her precious candy. I really thought she was going to cry. That was priceless." They all laughed again and Harry looked down at the ground. He figured they had been the ones to take the candy, he just wished he wasn't right.