The day after Lulu’s dance I sat on the top of the monkey bars with Sarah during morning recess. I told her all of Lulu’s dance stories. Sarah played with a yellow cottonwood leaf while I talked. I was just getting ready to tell her about Fletcher burping in Lulu’s ear when a kickball hit me in the side of the head.
“Sorry” said Craig, but I don’t think it was an accident.
He ran underneath the monkey bars, and just then Sarah’s shoe flew off and hit him in the head.
“Sorry” said Sarah, but I don’t think that was an accident either.
Craig rubbed his head and started to say something, when Mrs. House blew her whistle, which was our signal to line up to go inside. We hopped down, and Sarah put her shoe back on and winked at me.
When we got inside, Mrs. House reminded us that it was time for the spell-off to see who would represent our classroom in the all-school spelling bee. Lulu was in the spelling bee every year that she was in the elementary school, but she always got out in the first round. She always got words like nauseous and discharge. She couldn’t spell them because she was gagging.
We all stood up at our desks, and Mrs. House went around the room giving us words to spell. If we misspelled them, we were out and we had to sit down. Craig was the first one out. He misspelled manners. He spelled it with one n. I bet he could have spelled correctional facility right.
We went around the room six times. My classmates were slowly eliminated and sat down at their desks. Sarah misspelled psychedelic. Elizabeth misspelled precious. Scotty misspelled coupon.
After seven rounds it was down to Sarah’s friend Sage and me.
Mrs. House said, “Sage, your word is dignity.”
Sage started to spell. “D-i-g-n-i-d-y. Dignity.”
“Nope. I’m sorry, Sage. Keats, your word is dignity.”
I spelled, “D-i-g-n-i-t-y. Dignity.”
“That’s correct, Keats. If you spell this next word correctly, you will represent our classroom at the all-school spelling bee on Friday. The word is fantastic.”
I spelled it without even thinking. “F-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c. Fantastic.”
“Correct!” exclaimed Mrs. House.
The class cheered, except for Craig. He frowned at me.
September 20
I think if I do well in the all-school spelling bee, Mrs. House will finally stop introducing me to the other teachers as Lulu’s little brother. Maybe she’ll even put my picture up on her bulletin board or tell her class next year all about me. Maybe she’ll have Belly in her class someday and she’ll call her Keats’s little sister.
The manny picked me up from school today. While I was waiting for him, Craig was throwing gravel from the playground up in the air. He pretended that it was an accident whenever the gravel landed on me like rain. It hurt, but I didn’t cry. I think the manny saw us, because when I got into the car, he asked if everything was okay. I told him that Craig and I were just playing. I don’t want the manny to think I get picked on. I want him to think that I’m cool.
Born on this day: Sister Kenny, Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton, Dr. Joyce Brothers