Macaroni and Bananas

Chapter Uno (1)

In sixth grade I competed in a school-wide spelling bee. Hardcore I know. There was this two page sign up sheet and by the end it was completely filled up, bringing the total to a whopping twenty five competitors.

The next day we were all called up to the front office to receive a lovely twenty page study guide for words we may be asked.

"I am so excited to share this marvelous experience with you all and to witness such avid spellers in the youngest generation." Gesturing to the 18 sixth graders huddled in the corner save a few brave souls acquainted with the upper class mates.

Being met by nothing but a few crickets seemed to dampen her mood, but not her enthusiasm.

Between the fake smile plastered to her face and her rigid stance, she was obviously doing this for one reason and one reason only.

The cameras.

For some wild, unknown reason she had it in her head that one of us was going to be the prodigy spelling whiz of her dreams and conquer the world with our spelling powers, prowling over all competition thanks to her firm guidance; or something like that.

Slightly ironic seeing as the only reason three quarters of the people were here was for the extra credit offered to their English grade.

I was the strange child who replaced her fairytale books and picture coloring for buying and carrying around a portable dictionary to read, reading all the classic stories like Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, Huckleberry Fin, Oliver Twist,etc., and filling up hundreds of notebooks with 'stories' illegible to the human eye today. All of this occurring at the 5-7 year old age gap. Now don't get me wrong, I still partook in the fairy princess room, the kind of pink explosion that made your head hurt due to the exposure of so much of it situated in one space, and colored out of the lines to my heart's content in all my Disney coloring books, all coinciding with my abnormalities.

This in consideration, I didn't need motivation to enter the Spelling Bee.

Of course this isn't a mind blowing rise to victory story, nor did I completely bomb it. After procrastinating for three months and deciding to have my dad quiz me on the words two days before the 'Spectacular Spelling Bee', I sat through three hours of mouth breathers, unable to even spell their names, stare blankly at the yawning judges, having them repeat the word three times before they even attempted a response.

The first round knocked out a good chunk of the competition, leaving Ayla and I among those who actually weren't here just to miss class. My class did a good job of proving the stereotype of sixth grader butt kissers as we were represented by ten of the twelve remaining students.

Ayla glanced over, two people before her turn, retelling a corny joke making me laugh, arising a scowl from a proctor standing at the side door of the tiny library.

I still couldn't believe she had gotten her hair cut so short. A saddened sigh escaped my lips as I took in how much my best friend was really changing. In only a week, she had relived her sleep walking adventure from the prior weekend more times than I could count, where she threw any article of clothing containing even a hint of pink out of the window. Skipping a grade had its benefits, but the age gap was made obvious as I hid my Barbie's from my friends who couldn't stop talking about boys and makeup.

Ayla froze on her next word and mixed up the vowels, sending her back to her tedious English classroom for professor ridicule. I advanced till the end, gaining the not so prestigious title of second place, advancing on to the District level spelling bee.

Only second and third place ended up attending as first place conveniently caught the flu two days before. I say conveniently because she had spent the whole day afterwards complaining about how she didn't want to go in the first place, but her parents insisted her college resume needed polishing with minute details available such as these that she would regret if turned down.

Third place, a nerdy boy with thick rimmed glasses and a baby face, though he did have nice dark brown eyes, got out the first round. At one point in Elementary school, I had maintained a three year long crush on him. *Insert shudder here*

While I'm not some stuck up snob who uses nerds to do their homework and nothing else, heck I was the nerd without friends, he pushed my limits. He was a cocky smart-donkey (sorry, but I don't curse) who had the peculiar notion in his head everyone worshiped the ground he walked on. The memories pertaining to his constant ridicule of everything I do compared to the God-sent gift of perfection his was, despite our grade differences, and the fact he beat me up in third grade because he made it into the 'Gifted Program' and I didn't stained my judgement upon him. Can you blame me?

I'm not a competitive person, ok that's a lie. However, I'm not one to over brag, but I couldn't hide my smug grin of victory from the second I beat him at the school and the deja vu moment when I did it again at District level.

I made it two more rounds in the slightly more eager competition before a word I neither remember nor can I presently spell tripped me up. All I can remember is it had an 's' in it because I thought of spiders when I heard it.

The competition was actually pretty stiff between the last two competitors, and one word broke the tie that had been held for a good six rounds now. What was that word you may ask?

Macaroni.

Yes, I had been sitting here for two hours watching people die off slowly one by one to decide the ultimate victor on the word; macaroni.

It amazes me how life works with such simple framework to make such a masterpiece. While for me the competition was nothing but a 'lets see what I can do' event, some of those faces broke at their elimination.

For those who cared, that victory opened up a door for something they did to mean something. Even the mouth breathers may be able to admit that winning anything at National level against the whole country is 'pretty cool' even for a second.

Life runs on simple. It takes someone else to make the ordinary extraordinary.

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A/N -This chapter may have seemed a bit dull, but I kinda suck at intros XD-

The story will pick up. I just have no idea of the definite direction of it, so comments on wants and needs of the readers pertaining to my story plot once it gets running will affect it.

Read! Comment! Message! Follow! Do not try eating macaroni and bananas together! (It is actually quite horrendous)

Love you all! (If there's anyone there)

Copyright: I wrote this!