Sunshine. by: thejennamonster

Flashback B: A bushel and peck and it beats me all to heck.

It was the showdown of the century. The stakes were high—an entire bag of cherry flavored Twizzlers, and this third grade classroom wasn’t big enough for the both of them.

Palms sweaty, they stood side by side at the front of the class, brains tired, lips dry, hearts pounding. An entire bag of Twizzlers all for the winner. Each artificially flavored rope could be traded in for even the rarest of packed lunch dessert delicacies. Each vowed to die before the other would get it. Death would be better than losing. Prize aside, the humiliation of being beaten by a member of the opposite sex was more than either child could handle.

“Erin,” the teacher began, “your word is geography.”

Erin took a deep breath, trying to picture the word in her head. She mentally sounded it out. She tried to imagine what it would taste like, smell like, fell like, any sense that she could use that would help her spell this word and beat that stupid boy.

“Geography,” Another deep breath, “G-E-O-G-R-A…” Oh, no, not now, not now, she was so close! What came after A? Sound it out: gee-og-ra-fee. “Uh….F…Y? Geography?”

The teacher shook her head, frowning, “No, I’m sorry, Erin, that’s incorrect.”

Erin closed her eyes tightly, fighting back angry tears. Stupid boy! She could lose to anyone else in the class, but not this stupid boy. The one who liked to follow her around and tease her and make her cry. Why couldn’t it be any kid in the class? Why this stupid boy?

“John,” the teacher continued. John looked up from the ground where he had been staring, lost in his own thoughts. The teacher was calling on him. That meant that Erin didn’t spell the word right. That meant it was up to him. That meant he should have been paying attention so he didn’t make the same mistake she did. Stupid girl. Why did she always make him lose track of what was going on around him? Not like she was even worth anything—all she did was cry all the time.

The teacher was still talking. He should have been paying attention.

“—got the word wrong, so you have a chance to spell it. If you get it right, you’re the winner of the spelling bee. If you get it wrong, then we move onto the next word. Do you understand?”

He nodded, absently rubbing his palms on his jeans.

“Alright. The word is geography.”

"Uh….geography. Right. Umm….G-E-O…G-R-A…” He was stuck. Stupid phonetics! Stupid letters sounding like other letters! Stupid girl distracting him with her stupid girlness! He trailed off, deliberately slurring the last few letters. Maybe the teacher wouldn’t notice. “F-Y.”

He glanced over at his opponent. She was grinning. That couldn’t be good.

She couldn’t help but grin. He spelled it wrong! And not only that, he spelled it the same way she had!. The stupid boy hadn’t even been paying attention!

“I’m sorry, John, could you repeat that? I didn’t understand you.” the teacher stated.

Both children looked at her, shocked. He got another chance?

Erin’s grin became a glare. He could feel her shooting laser beams into his skull, magnified by the thick lenses of her glasses. He swallowed. Think, think, what other letter makes the ffff sound, if it’s not an F?

“I said…umm…G-E-O-G-R-A….” And explosion went off in his brain. He figured it out! “P-H-Y. Geography.”

Silence fell over the classroom. Somewhere in the room a cricket chirped. The weird kid in the back of the class picked it up and stuck it in his mouth. The girl next to him gagged.

The teacher smiled, “That’s right. I do declare you, John, the winner of the class spelling bee.” The class cheered. She handed him his bag of candy. For some reason he had a hard time smiling over the lump in his throat.

He watched Erin trudge back to her seat, flop down, and rest her chin on the palms of her hands. Hands were patting him on the back. His buddies were all laying claim on pieces of his wonderful prize, suggesting to him the treats they had hidden in their lunchboxes, but it was all a blur to him. He didn’t deserve to win—he had cheated and now he made her cry. He didn’t even Mean to do it this time.

The lunch bell rang; kids started filing out of the class. He lagged behind, pretending to be tying his shoe until she was almost past him.

“Hey…Erin?” he asked, his heart racing in his chest. He clutched the candy in one sweaty fist. Stupid girl.

She turned around to face him, trying to keep her expression neutral, so he wouldn’t see that she was going to cry. Stupid boy.

He sighed and opened the package of candy. Reaching into the cellophane, he estimated a handful of about half of the whips and held them out to her. A peace offering. An apology.

She stared at his outstretched hand and then up at his face. He wouldn’t meet her eyes. He was embarrassed. He knew that he had only won because he cheated and now he felt bad and wanted to share the prize. She grinned and took the candy from his hand.

And then, as the ultimate form of revenge, kissed his cheek.

Prize in hand, she ran down the hall towards the lunch room, laughing to herself. Stupid boy.

He stared after her, wiping her kiss from his cheek with the venomous drama that only an eight year old boy could pull off. What a dirty trick. That’s what he got for being nice.

Stupid girl.