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Jourdan dragged her mother into the auditorium, and sprinted towards the stage to join
the second and third graders disappearing behind large, velvet curtains; her beaded ponytail
rattling as she moved. Backstage everyone was separated into two lines, one for boys, and one
for girls.
For those of you who competed last year in the spelling bee, you remember the rules,
right? Girl, boy, girl, boyhey! Principal Hawk looked over the edges of her glasses at twosecond graders fighting in the boys line.
The two boys stopped and Principal Hawk continued, For those of you who are here for
the first time, welcome. She adjusted her glasses and smiled as she stepped out onto the stage.
The beads in Jourdans ponytail rhythmically rattled, as the excitement bubbled out of her.
Im nervous, said Cece, Jourdans cubby buddy. The musical ponytail fell silent.
Dont be nervous, Cece you practiced, Jourdan said confidently trying to cheer up her
friend who did not make it past the first round last year.
Practice wont matter if you get stage fright, Hannah said. Ceces face dropped and
Jourdans face puffed up like an angry puffer-fish. What a pain. Jourdan thought, remembering
how she lost the spelling bee the previous year.
Jourdan and Hannah were the last two girl contestants, and as a rule, the school requires
two winners be selected from the annual spelling bee, a girl, and a boy. In the last round, Jourdan
missed a s in the word possession and Hannah received a gold medal by default.
Jourdans mother had explained by default meant that because she was unsuccessful at
spelling her word correctly, Hannah was automatically selected to be the winner. And ever since,
Hannah-miss-not-really-knows-it-all did her best to remind Jourdan, and everyone else that she