Bee Battle: Spelling, Spiders and the Secrets of Like Chapter One

Chapter 1 

Josh

Bristles

 

Josh caught the woolly worm as it crawled up the playground fence. He wasn't a big-time bug fan. But this prickly creature looked useful, he thought, heading toward a group of girls by the slide.

On his way to wreak havoc, Josh almost stumbled over the new girl, Emily Ash. She was sitting on the grass, studying her spelling bee word list. He watched her mouth move as she chewed spelling words with pure enjoyment as if they were bubblegum.

Emily was in the other fifth grade, across the hall from Josh's room. She had transferred to Hartfield Elementary School in October from a school in the nearby town of Atkinsville.

Josh knew Emily had made it all the way to fourth place in last year's national bee competition. He'd heard about the Spelling Bee Queen. She was known for winning bees and for her calm way of spelling words.

Josh glanced at the woolly worm, then back at the girl.

So what. Mom had taught him how to spell the longest word in the dictionary when he was six: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis. 

And last year, he'd accidentially won his class bee when Valentina Garcia spelled rhinoceros with a "y" instead of an "i." That little error had sent Josh to the school bee, where he'd somehow come in second.

Still, Josh didn't think of himself as a speller. He was an athlete. He'd rather kick game-winning goals in the Hartfield Hornets' all-star soccer matches than spell in a bee.

Could Emily do that?

Anyway, if she was such a super speller, why was she studying during recess? Maybe she needed a little inspiration, a reason to get her face away from that word list.

"Hey, Spelling Bee Queen!" Josh shouted.

Emily ignored him. She stared harder at the page of words.

Josh leaned closer and yelled in Emily's face. "Spell this!"

Emily looked up just as Josh flipped the worm onto her shoulder.

Josh waited for her reaction. Nothing. Emily's green eyes didn't blink. She didn't change her expression or make a sound. Instead, she put down her word list, peeled the caterpillar off her shoulder, and peered at the worm's underside.

"A woolly bear," Emily said in a calm voice.

Josh laughed. "A woolly bear? Looks like a woolly worm to me."

"Of course it's a worm. But some people call it a woolly bear." Emily squinted at the creature through the smudged lenses of. her pink-framed glasses. "It's the larval form of the Isabella Tiger Moth."

"I knew that," Josh said.

"Look at its thirteen distinct segments of black and reddish-brown." Emily dangled the woolly in front of Josh's eyes.

Josh started at the worm. It did have a lot of segments. But who was counting?

"Usually, a woolly bear curls into a ball and plays dead whenever a human touches it. But this one is too upset to do that," Emily said, looking at Josh then back at the worm.

"Mr. Woolly Worm has had a hard day," Josh said. "He was about to fall off the playground fence when I rescued him."

"You mean when you captured him," Emily said.

"Right. That's what I meant." Josh was thinking about grabbing the woolly worm and returning it to the fence. Throwing a worm on a girl he didn't even know had been a dumb idea. He would never have done that if he hadn't been sidelined from the recess touch football game by a soccer injury.

"They say woolly bears can forecast the coming of winter. But that's just folklore hogwash. They can sting if you rub their bristles the wrong way." Emily placed the woolly worm on her turquoise sleeve and stroked the caterpillar's back.

Josh waited for the worm to sting her finger. It didn't.

"Thanks for the woolly," Emily said. "It'll make a great pet. My dog Spelletti will love Bristles."

"Bristles? Like a toothbrush?" Josh wondered if Spelletti would love the new pet enough to gulp it down for dinner.

"Nope. Like a woolly bear," Emily said, glancing at the cast on Josh's left hand. "You're the boy in the other fifth grade who got hurt at soccer practice yesterday."

"How'd you know about that?" Josh felt his skin itch underneath the cast.

"All the soccer players in my class were talking about the accident this morning. They said you were the goalie, and Kyle Eades ran over your hand," Emily said.

"Yeah," Josh said, remembering the dizzy feeling as he lost his balance and crashed to the ground. And the pain when Kyle, who was massive, kept running, crushing Josh's wrist and fingers with his cleats.

"It wasn't that bad. Really," Josh said. "Goalie's not even my regular position. I'm so good I usually roam all over the field, playing wherever I can do the most damage. They call me Wild Josh 'cause I'm so dangerous."

The woolly worm raised its front portion in the air as if to say, "Well woo-wee, Wild Josh." Then it dropped onto Emily's lap.

"You don't look dangerous," Emily said. "My uncle used to play football at the University of Georgia. He got hurt a lot. That was dangerous. I'm staying with Uncle Max while my parents and little brother are in Egypt on a year-long dig."

"What are they digging?" Josh asked.

"Artifacts. Mom and Dad are archaeologists."

"You didn't go with them?"

"Nope." Emily nudged the worm back onto her sleeve and watched it crawl. "I could have gone to Egypt, But I decided to stay here and win the national spelling bee."

"Don't they have spelling bees in Egypt?" Josh said.

"Yep. But spelling bee words in Egypt are in Arabic," Emily said. "I'm a great speller, but I can't spell in that language. Not yet."

"I'd rather dig up mummies than spell in a bee. You should have gone to Egypt with your family," Josh said.

Emily stroked the woolly worm's bristles, making the tiny creature's body ripple. "I'd rather stay in Georgia and win spelling bees. How did you know I wanted a woolly bear pet?"

Josh was about to answer that he didn't know when something crashed into his back.

"Hey, Josh. Can you toss the ball back over here with. your good hand?" Darius Henderson yelled across the playground.

Josh scooped the miniature football from the grass by Emily's pink flip-flops and lobbed a high, spiraling pass at Darius.

"Great throw," Emily said. She stuffed the word list into her pocket and got up, being careful not to jostle her new pet.

"Thanks," Josh said. Most of the fifth-grade girls were as tall as the boys or taller. But not Emily. She was short. Josh sniffed. Her sandy blonde hair smelled minty, like the shampoo Mom used.

Wait a minute. Why am I smelling a girl's hair and talking to her? Broken bones or not, I should be out there playing football, Josh thought, rubbing h is nose with his good hand.

"This woolly has such an intelligent expression," Emily said, shoving the worm into Josh's face again.

"Yeah, it reminds me of my teacher around the eyes. All twelve of them," Josh said.

Emily grinned. "You have a weird sense of humor. I like that. I like the woolly, too. Can't wait to show it to everyone in my class. I'll be sure to give you full credit for the gift."

"You don't have to do that," Josh said, feeling his face blush as he watched Emily stroll toward the school building, wearing the woolly worm on her head like a tiny fuzzy cap.

"No problem," Emily called over her shoulder.

"You were supposed to be scared by the woolly--not make it a pet," Josh shouted. He wasn't sure, but Josh thought he heard Emily giggle as she pulled open the heavy glass door and disappeared inside the school building.

To read more about Josh and Emily, buy Bee Battle: Spelling, Spiders and the Secrets of Like in the paperback edition or ebook edition.