Every day after school, Robbie and Josh came over to my house to help me study. We worked really hard. One hundred words is a lot to learn!

“I can’t believe the Spelling Bee is tomorrow!” said Josh on Thursday afternoon.

“I think we’re ready,” said Robbie.

“I don’t think I’m going to do very well,” I mumbled.

“Why not?” said Josh.

“Because I still haven’t found my lucky shark’s tooth.”

“But you don’t need your lucky shark’s tooth for good luck,” said Robbie.

“Yes I do!” I said. “I’m going to fail without it!”

“No you won’t,” said Robbie. “You know how to spell the words because you studied really hard.”

“You don’t need that good-luck charm,” said Josh. “You just have to believe in yourself. You have to think, ‘I can do this!’”

I sighed and put my head in my hands. “I guess I don’t really have a choice.”

“And remember the little tricks I taught you,” said Robbie. “Like ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c.’”

“Like in the word ‘field’ the ‘i’ comes before the ‘e’ because there is no ‘c,’ said Josh. “But in the word ‘receive,’ the ‘e’ comes before the ‘i’ because there is a ‘c’ in front of it.”

“Or if a word ends in an ‘e,’ said Robbie, “you drop the ‘e’ before adding ‘ing.’ So how would you spell the word ‘coming’?”

I thought for a minute. “C-O-M-I-N-G.”

“Right!” said Robbie, patting me on the back.

“You spelled that perfectly,” said Josh, “and you didn’t need your lucky shark’s tooth.”

“There is another problem,” I said.

“What’s that?” asked Josh.

“My lucky shark’s tooth doesn’t just bring me luck. Rubbing it also helps me calm down, and I know I’m going to be really nervous up there on that stage.”

“Everybody is going to be nervous,” said Josh.

“But I get really nervous.” I said, wringing my hands. “Sometimes my stomach is flipping and flopping so much that I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“Then definitely don’t stand next to me!” Josh laughed.

“Or me!” said Robbie.

“Thanks a lot, guys,” I said.

“We’re just kidding,” they both said.

“You know there are lots of things you can do to try to calm yourself down,” said Robbie.

“Really? Like what?”

“If I get really nervous, I usually just breathe in and out very slowly. I take nice, deep breaths like this,” said Robbie, breathing in and out, in and out. “Try it.”

I took a couple of quick, short breaths.

“Not like that,” Robbie said, laughing. “That’s way too fast. You need to breathe much, much slower. You can even count in your head. Breathe in for three counts and out for three counts. Like this.” Robbie demonstrated. “Now it’s your turn.”

I tried again. This time I counted in my head like Robbie told me to.

“You got it! That was perfect!” said Robbie.

“Do you want to know what I do?” asked Josh.

“Sure!” I said.

“I think of a song I really like, and I hum it quietly to myself. Then I’m thinking about the song and not about being nervous.”

“That sounds like a good idea, too,” I said.

“Remember that funny song Miss Clark was teaching us the other day about the kid who was going to eat some worms?”

“Yeah! I loved that song!” I said.

“That would be a good one to hum,” said Josh. “It’s just so funny.”

I started humming it quietly to myself. Robbie and Josh joined in. Then we all burst out laughing hysterically.

“Thank, guys. You’re the best,” I said, giving Robbie and Josh each a high five.

“I’m tired of being inside,” Josh moaned.

“Me, too,” said Robbie.

“I have an idea,” said Josh. “Let’s go outside and throw the baseball around. We can practice spelling the words as we throw the ball back and forth to each other.”

“Great idea!” I said. “I’m sick of sitting in this room.”

We grabbed our baseball gloves and a ball and headed outside.

We stood in a triangle and threw the ball to each other as we spelled words out loud, one letter for each throw.

“B-E-C-A-U-S-E.”

“S-P-E-C-I-A-L.”

“H-A-V-I-N-G.”

All of a sudden, Mrs. Golden’s dog, Baxter, came bounding up and knocked me to the ground. The baseball rolled out of my glove. Baxter picked it up in his mouth and started running in circles with it.

I chased him around the yard shouting, “Come here, boy! Give that back!”

Robbie and Josh also joined the chase. “Here, boy! Here, boy!” they called, but Baxter didn’t stop running.

“He is fast!” Josh said, panting.

“How are we going to catch him?” said Robbie. “We need that ball back, but he doesn’t want to give it up.”

“I know what I’ll do,” I said. I took a flying leap, landed on Baxter’s back, and tackled him to the ground. “Gotcha!” I yelled.

Baxter dropped the ball and covered my face with wet, slobbery dog kisses. I laughed. “Thanks, boy. Thanks for the kisses.”

Josh ran to pick up the ball. “EEEWWW! This is disgusting!” he said, holding the ball carefully between two fingers. “It’s covered in slimy dog saliva.”

“Roll it around in the grass to wipe it off,” Robbie suggested.

I slowly stood up and wiped my face with my sleeve. “Where’s your mama, Baxter?” I said. “Where’s Mrs. Golden?”

“I’m right here! I’m right here!” Mrs. Golden called as she came jogging up the street. “I’m so sorry about that, boys,” she said. “He took off before I could get his leash on.”

“No problem,” I said. “I think Baxter wanted to play baseball.”

Mrs. Golden walked over to Baxter. “Come over here, you naughty boy. Let me get your leash on.” She hooked the leash onto his collar. “There. Now you can’t take off again without me.”

“Where are you off to?” I asked Mrs. Golden.

“I was actually coming over to see you, Freddy. I found something lying in the grass in my front yard the other day, and I was wondering if it belonged to you.”

“Oh really?”

Mrs. Golden reached into her pocket and pulled something out. She slowly opened up her hand to show me what it was. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Was it? Could it really be? My lucky shark’s tooth!