Today was the first round of the spelling bee! Aria was ready to crush her classmates with her fantastic spelling skills. 

“Who signed up for the spelling bee?” asked Mrs. Addison, Aria’s 5th grade teacher. 

Arden, Esther, Elodie, and Aria instantaneously raised their hands, eager to spell. A few others raised their hands, but the expression on their faces was filled with gloom. 

“Okay then, we’ll begin.” Mrs. Addison exclaimed. She seemed to be more excited about the spelling bee than the children! 

They sat in numbered chairs, from one to fifteen. Aria had to sit in the last seat, while Arden, Esther, and Elodie occupied the first three seats. 

“Arden, you’ll start it, okay?” Mrs. Addison said. Arden nodded and went to the middle of the room, and waited for the word. “Your word is incandescent.” Mrs Addison said, saying the word slowly.

 “I-n-c-a-n-d-e-s-c-e-n-t! Incandescent!” spelled Arden. 

“I believe it is correct.” Mrs. Addison formally replied. 

Arden’s shoulders loosened as he returned to his seat. Esther went, and returned to her seat. Same thing happened to Elodie. But right after Elodie, many failed to spell the words correctly. After what seemed like ages, it was Aria’s time to spell. 

“Your word, Aria, is retinitis pigmentosa!” Mrs. Addison exclaimed. 

A few students muttered.

Aria, ignoring the conversations, boldly spelled, “R-E-T-I-N-I-T-I-S P-I-G-M-E-N-T-O-S-A! RETINITIS PIGMENTOSA!” 

Mrs. Addison, with a broad smile on her face, answered that Aria spelled it correctly!

On and on the spelling bee went. Slowly, but surely, the spellers would misspell or quit. Soon enough, the only spellers left were Arden, Esther, Elodie, and Aria. 

“Wait! NOOO!” Arden screamed. 

He had misspelled “bigotry", an easy word! Esther laughed and teased Arden. Aria knew that everyone envied her, or just thought she was weird, or even both! 

“Now,” Aria thought, “Arden’s the targeted weirdo! He’ll be scarred for a lifetime!” 

Not a long time later, it was Esther’s turn to spell … Oops! She spelled “Nostradamus” into “Notradamis”! As soon as she said the words, her face turned bright red, and looked like she was about to explode. Elodie, a nice girl with a broad smile and laughing eyes, while Aria, who was always gloomy, were the only ones left. 

“Me versus Elodie. Who’s smarter?” Aria thought. 

Aria’s daydream popped as soon as Mrs. Addison called her Aria for the tenth time. “Aria, hon, are you with us?” Mrs. Addison asked. “Oh! You are! Will you spell chlorofluorocarbon for us? Chlorofluorocarbon.” 

Aria thought for a few seconds, opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated. One wrong move and she’d be done for! Reluctantly, she spelled, “Chlorofluorocarbon, ummm…, c-h-l-o-r-o-f-l-u-o-r-o-c-a-r-b-o-n, chlorofluorocarbon!” 

As soon as she’d finished spelling, Aria swore she would work a thousand times harder, if she really wanted to win the bee. On and on, the two girls spelled challenging words, until Elodie spelled her last word, “Chernobyl”, incorrectly. The usually gloomy Aria had a hint of a smile on her face as she watched Elodie, also known as Ms. Cheerful, trying to hide her tears.

“Congrats! You won the first round of the spelling bee, Aria!” Mrs. Addison excitedly exclaimed. 

“Thanks, Mrs. Addison.” Aria whispered, “You are the best teacher in the world.” 

Mrs. Addison thanked Aria, and gave her a shiny bee hair clip prize. The bell rang. While everyone got on buses or their parent’s cars, Aria walked home. 

When Aria came home, the first thing she did was practice for the Spelling Bee. Hours passed by. 

“Oh! It’s time to make dinner!” Aria said to herself. She began to make white rice, beef stew, and a bowl of boiled vegetables. 

“Ding-dong!” the doorbell rang. “Mom! You’re back!” Aria exclaimed as she opened the door. Then they had dinner.

After dinner, Aria played and read books. At last, it was bedtime. Time to have peace and think freely. Time to rest and relax. This is the best. As she sank into her bed, she wondered about the bee. Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a countless number of bees. Coming to her aid, they formed a mattress and sang, and Aria realized, was all of the spelling bee words.

“Wait! Spelling bee words?” Aria foolishly blurted out loud. 

The bees, hearing that, dropped her from the sky! Down, down, down she fell. Down into a passage.  

“Wha-!” Aria exclaimed, as she woke from her dream. 

The next few days began as quickly as they ended, and Aria worked day and night for the next round of the spelling bee. Many students glared and stared at Aria.

“They must be jealous of me. But I won’t let that stop me. Because they envy me, I’ll work harder!” Aria thought. 

Aria worked harder to win, and not only memorized school bee words, but also the “Words of the Champions”. Finally, the school’s bee had come.

“Blah…blah…blah,” the principal said things that Aria didn’t pay attention to. 

“Now, we will begin.” The vice principal’s voice boomed.

First up was Zev. He spelled a word correctly. Next was Durin. After that was Blythe. They all spelled correctly. Round after round, word after word, Aria, Durin, Blythe, Zev, and a nice girl called Autumn, spelled what seemed like all of the words correctly. Suddenly, Blythe spelled “objet d’art” incorrectly. Zev spelled “louis d’or” into “louis d’ori”, which was incorrect. Durin, Autumn, and Aria fought with the bee words. 

“NOOOO! I'll take it back! Please! I’m a good student, right? Mrs. V! GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE!” Durin hollered at the vice.

He had fallen off a cloud of words. Autumn and Aria were the only ones left, flying higher after each word.