S-P-E-L-L Results

Well, for the most part, the regional went well. There were 56 kids from 4 counties, and it was actually easier than I thought. Sadly, we had to face the audience, which made it worse, but oh, well. I got to the place early, so we had to wait for a while for the sign-in place to set up. Well, I got number 34, which was interesting. Then I walked into the room after a short break. It didn't look too fun, with the cold metal chairs and the cracked paint, but I walked in anyway. It was 8:00, and the bee started at 9:00, so I had an hour of time to fill, so I played Scrabble on my dad's phone. At 8:45 I began wishing I hadn't had oatmeal for breakfast. 15 minutes later I was glad it was time to go onstage, because I had the worst letters ever. But once I got onstage I thought otherwise. I sat down and then there was a brief review of the rules, and then we had to get used to the microphone, so we went up and said our names and our schools. Then..... the first round began. It started out easy enough, with interrupt, which the boy actually missed. It went on until it was my turn. I got up, walked to the podium like a normal person, and then the lady spoke. "Croquette," was the first thing out of her mouth. I asked for the definition, just to make sure, and then I spelled. "Correct," she said. I heard someone in the audience whistle. I had just gotten started. The round progressed, with people getting out left and right, and then it was the second round. Well, there were some instances with unspecified homonyms, and they had to listen to the tape once, but it went smoothly. I spelled aristocracy correctly, no biggie, and then it was time for the third round. Hedonism was the word thrown at me, which I spelled, and then in the fourth round there was a big fuss over how a girl spelled allegory. There were several arguments about whether she spelled it with a u or an e or an i because she spoke so fast you could hardly tell, and the judges conferred with the tape a lot, but she was allowed to stay in, but really she spelled it with a u, or at least that's what I heard. The other rounds progressed with me in them, but when we got to round eight, the lady had me spell obelisk. I, thinking it had a French origin, spelled it 'obilisque'. It was incorrect. But, however, I did get into the top fourteen. It just so happened that the one word I didn't know how to spell that had been assigned that day was given to me. I'll never forget it again in my life! Good thing I have another chance next year.