CHAPTER 5
E-N-O-U-G-H
Over the next few days, Ellie helped Hannah study her spelling bee words.
On Wednesday, after the Rollerblade relay in gym class, she listened as Hannah spelled zany, zinnia, and zag. In between sporkfuls of extra-cheesy mac and cheese at lunch, she heard zig and zoom.
During language arts on Thursday, they wrote a noun story. Hannah spelled out her suggestions. “Let’s make our story about a Z-E-B-R-A,” she said, glancing at her word list.
Ellie jotted zebra on their brainstorm worksheet. “Okay.”
“Who goes to Planet Z-O-N-K,” Hannah continued.
“Uh-huh.”
“And meets a Z-O-M-B-I-E that eats brains. Oops! Not brains. I mean the zombie eats baked Z-I-T-I.”
Ellie sighed and put her pencil down. “Do you want to write the story?”
“Sure!” Hannah picked up Ellie’s pencil. On the worksheet, she scribbled the words zoo, zip, and zillion. Then she had Ellie check her spelling.
“Everything looks good,” Ellie said, barely scanning the page. She already had words coming out of her ears.
When it was time to share stories, Hannah’s hand shot up into the air.
“Go ahead, Hannah,” Miss Little said.
Hannah stood up and cleared her throat. “Zach the zebra lived at the zoo. One day, he was bored. He built a spaceship and flew to Planet Zonk. There Zach met a zombie, but the zombie didn’t eat Zach’s brains. The zombie’s favorite food was baked ziti! Zach loved croissants, so they went to a French restaurant called Zee Place for Croissants. They ordered one zillion — with chocolate milk. The end.”
The class clapped, and Hannah bowed. As Ellie crossed her arms, Dex leaned over and whispered, “Then Zach hiccupped all the way back to the Z-O-O. Hic-hic-hic . . .”
Ellie glared at him and put in her Ultra Sound Stoppers to tune him out. She could still hear everything else, including Hannah telling a new story about Zeke the zucchini. But at least Dex sounded a zillion miles away.
* * *
On Friday, Ellie listened to Hannah spell the last few words. Then the bell rang for recess.
“Ahhh, no more spelling words,” Ellie said with a relieved sigh. “Zip. Zero. ZILCH.” She went to her locker to grab her cape before heading outside.
A moment later, Hannah bounced up to Ellie’s locker. “Guess what! Mr. Cleveland is having a pizza party for spelling bee contestants. It’s in the principal’s office. How cool is that?”
Ellie’s forehead wrinkled. “A pizza party?”
“Yeah!” Hannah said. “I hear the office went bee-bonkers with decorations. It’s going to be so fun!”
Just then Payton rushed over. “Let’s go, Hannah! The party’s starting, and I don’t want to miss a thing!”
“See you after recess!” Hannah said to Ellie. She skipped off and disappeared with Payton.
Ellie stayed quiet. She could not say a single word. Not even a L-E-T-T-E-R. Unlucky Ellie was missing out on a super-cool pizza party with Mr. Cleveland. She let out a frustrated sigh and swatted at some bees flying past. How had those gotten into the school?
“My sweetumzzz!” a frightened voice buzzed. From around the corner, Ms. Bumble came skittering. She pointed an angry finger at Ellie. “Be nice!” she hissed, her eyes bulging like big black balloons.
Ellie stared at Ms. Bumble’s eyes, and a shiver went up her spine. Each one looked like a honeycomb that was made of hundreds of smaller eyes.
Super weird, Ellie thought. She blinked. Had her super sight gone haywire? She blinked once more, but when she opened her eyes again, Ms. Bumble was gone.
* * *
Ellie thought about Ms. Bumble all through recess. Even during silent reading time, she couldn’t seem to get the substitute’s strange eyes out of her mind.
She had seen the same kind of eyes in the library the previous week. Before the Buzz on Bees web quest, Miss Little had shown a drawing of a bee’s eye. It had looked like a mosaic, with lots of little hexagons that were interconnected. If Ms. Bumble’s eyes were the same as the drawing, it meant Ms. Bumble was a —
“Psssst! Ellie!” Hannah whispered and waved her arms from the next row, trying to get Ellie’s attention.
Ellie lowered her Maximum Mouse comic book, which was her silent-reading choice, and looked over at Hannah.
“I have to tell you about the spelling bee pizza party!” Hannah whispered loudly. She put down KitKat: The Prrrfect Role.
“Um, maybe you should wait,” Ellie said, sinking behind her comic book. After all, silent reading was supposed to be silent. And besides, who wanted to hear Hannah bee-brag about cheese and pepperoni?
Hannah leaned closer, ignoring Ellie’s suggestion. “First of all, the pizza was awesome. It was from I Heart Pizza. I ate almost three slices. Oh, and Mr. Cleveland served everybody. He was wearing a chef’s hat and apron!”
The principal? In a chef’s hat? Ellie had only seen Mr. Cleveland in a shirt and tie. “Wow,” she said, trying to sound interested.
“Of course there were lots of bee things,” Hannah continued. “Bee napkins; black-and-yellow cups; fuzzy pom-pom bees with googly eyes. And Layla in Mr. Washington’s class even told a spelling bee joke. What insect can be spelled with just one letter? A bee! Get it? B, not B-E-E!”
Ellie got it, all right. Hannah had tons of F-U-N. Wait a second — that reminded her of something. She knew where she and Hannah could have F-U-N. Together!
“Do you want to come to Comic Book Day tomorrow?” Ellie asked. “It’ll be a blast! You get bookmarks and posters, and there are games like Stick the Cape on the Superhero. It’s at Winkopolis Books & Toys.”
“Really? They have KitKat charm bracelets!” Hannah said. “The charms are adorable kitties doing leaps and spins. I’ve been begging my mom for one!” She suddenly paused and looked away. “But I can’t go.”
Ellie’s heart sank. She felt like a superhero who’d lost her sidekick. “Why not?”
“I have a ballet class on Saturday and a tap recital on Sunday, and I want to fit in some extra spelling practice,” Hannah said. “The bee’s almost here.”
Ellie could not believe her ears. She would miss out on more fun, this time with her friend. She had heard E-N-O-U-G-H about the spelling bee.
“Ever since you got into the spelling bee, it’s all you want to talk about!” Ellie snapped. “I’m tired of listening to you brag.”
“Brag? Am not!” Hannah’s cheeks turned pink. “I’m just excited. Since you’re my friend, I thought you’d be excited for me too. Aren’t you?”
Ellie knew the answer. But something deep down inside her heavy-as-a-robo-hippo heart was stopping her from saying it. Instead, she spelled it out: “N-O.”
Hannah’s mouth hung open, but nothing came out. She snapped up her book and stuck her face inside. On the cover, KitKat smiled cheerfully.
Ellie scowled and pushed away Maximum Mouse. How could she read one small-as-a-squeak word? She kept hearing her fight with Hannah over and over. The words buzzed angrily in her head. Why wouldn’t they buzz off?