CHAPTER 2
Royally Unfair
Ellie had a super weekend. It was really super, in fact. On Saturday, she rescued the neighbor’s dog. It was howling for help after getting stuck in the other neighbor’s cat door, so Ellie freed the dog with a mighty push. The neighbor baked cookies as a thank you, but Ellie had to save them until after dinner. Even superheroes didn’t get to eat dessert first.
On Sunday, Ellie rode a comet around the galaxy. The ride got a little too bumpy, especially when a meteor shower struck near Mars. So she flew back down to Earth and headed to the new park near her house.
“Wheeee!” Ellie squealed, her cape sailing above the swing set. This was way better than practicing spelling. Hannah didn’t know what she was missing!
* * *
On Monday morning, Ellie breezed into Room #128. The whole class was buzzing with excitement. Ellie hopped quietly into her seat. It was the day of spelling bee tryouts, and Queen Ellie, her royal word-ness, was ready.
“Listen up, spellers!” Miss Little said after morning announcements. “It’s time for tryouts. Please put away your word list and line up along the whiteboard.”
Lists disappeared, and kids scrambled into place. Ellie glided behind everybody else and stepped up to the end of the line.
Toward the front of the line, Hannah waved. “Good luck, Ellie!” she called, nervously braiding her hair.
“Thanks,” Ellie replied. It was just like Hannah to wish her luck. But who needed luck when you had talent?
Tryouts got into full swing. Joshua spelled his first word — baseball — and hit a home run. Next, Dex spelled clock in no time. Amanda, Payton, and Owen went one after the other and — A-B-C, X-Y-Z — all got their words correct.
As Amanda high-fived Payton, Ellie scrunched her eyebrows. Everybody seemed to be a super speller. She began to worry, and then . . .
HIC! Ellie hiccupped.
The whole line of spellers turned and stared at her. Ellie tried to stay calm, but she couldn’t stop hic-hic-hiccupping. Her hiccups packed a punch, but she knew how to thwart them.
Ellie raised her hand. “Miss Little, may I get a drink of water?”
Miss Little looked up from her word list and nodded.
Ellie zoomed out of the room, hiccupping all the way. Hic-hic-hic! At the drinking fountain, she took a long drink of water.
Take that, horrible hic-hic-hiccups! she thought. She waited to see if her plan worked.
Hic! Foiled! Ellie held her breath and took a bigger sip.
Hic! Double foiled!
Ellie’s stomach flip-flopped. Any second now, it would be her turn to spell a word. But how could she spell anything with her hiccups getting in the way? She had to try something foolproof.
Ellie held her breath, pinched her nose, crossed her fingers, and stuck her mouth under the faucet. One supersized gulp later, she exhaled and wiped the drips away with her sleeve. Then she waited.
Hic!
Noooo! Ellie thought. This couldn’t be happening!
Just then, Miss Little popped her head into the hallway. “Come back inside, Ellie. You’re next.”
It was no use. The hiccups weren’t going anywhere — except back to the spelling bee tryouts with Ellie.
Ellie dragged her feet into the classroom, and Hannah came bouncing over. “I got my first word right!” she exclaimed. “It was climb. C-L-I-M-B!”
How could Hannah be happy? The horrible hic-hic-hiccups were on the attack, and Ellie was no match for them! She trudged to the front of the line, with guess-what tagging along — hic-hic-hic!
Miss Little glanced down at the word list and then up at Ellie. “Ellie, please spell friend.”
Friend! Ellie knew that word, didn’t she? She couldn’t remember. If only she had studied! She gave it her best try. “Friend — hic — F-I-E-N-D. Friend — hic!”
“I’m sorry, that was incorrect,” Miss Little said. “However, you did a very nice job of spelling fiend. Please sit down.”
Ellie couldn’t believe it. She was out with a capital O-U-T. And on her very first word, no less! Not only that, she had spelled fiend, which meant the opposite of friend! Ellie hung her head and slunk to her seat.
Eventually, more kids spelled words incorrectly and had to sit down. Owen spelled Tuesday but forgot the e. Amanda spelled diner instead of dinner.
It made no difference to Ellie. All she could think about was not being in the spelling bee. The trophy — her trophy — would go to somebody else. That somebody would sit on her throne and wear her crown and rule her school. It was royally unfair!
“Great job, everyone!” Miss Little announced at the end of tryouts. “And, congratulations to our top three spellers. Next week, they will compete in the school spelling bee. Let’s give a hand to Payton, Hannah, and . . . Dex!”
Dex? Ellie’s eyes bugged out as the rest of the class clapped. For the first time in her superhero life, a villain had beaten her. Ellie’s face puckered like a rotten pineapple.
Dex, meanwhile, smiled in all his evil mastermind glory. He paraded down the row of desks, back to his seat. “Hic-hic-hic . . . ,” he teased, strutting proudly past Ellie.
Ellie tried to ignore him, but her super hearing picked up every H-I-C. It was so loud she didn’t hear her hiccups go away.
Hannah plopped down in her desk next to Ellie’s. “I can’t believe I’m in the spelling bee!” she said excitedly. “I actually have a chance to win the trophy. That would be awesome, don’t you think?”
“Sure,” Ellie replied quietly. She wanted to sound as happy as Hannah, but losing had put her in a heated huff. And, as if losing wasn’t bad enough, Dex’s teasing had made her feel extra hot.
For the rest of the day, Hannah was abuzz. She talked and talked and talked about the spelling bee. Dex, on the other hand, kept hiccupping on purpose. “Hic-hic-hic . . . ,” he taunted Ellie.
Ellie wished her ears had an off switch. All this spelling bee talk really stung!