The red-letter day is finally here!!

I'm super hyped, butterflies in my stomach and all.

After getting my clipboard, Vicky and I meet up and head to the Academy.

Although wearing the school uniform isn't required, Vicky wears it anyway: a white shirt with a red collar, red and black checkered jeans, flat, glossy brown shoes, and a navy blue blazer.

As for me, I wear the most professional outfit I could put together: a black and white striped half-sleeve top, a black pencil skirt, and silver sandal heels encrusted with stones.

We get there in no time, and find out that the Spelling Bee takes place in the auditorium.

I've been in there once, and I was totally impressed.

It is vast and spacious, with over five hundred velvet seats lined up in arching rows. The stage at the front of the room stretches from one end of the gigantic room to the other, seemingly never-ending. Small chandeliers hang from the ceiling at regular intervals, emitting golden, radiant light.

All in all, the auditorium is one of a typical posh school.

Lavish!

Outside the auditorium, there is another colossal hall, where all the teams from the different schools from all around Abu Dhabi wait.

We get into the registration line, which moves at a snail's pace.

I look around the room at all the teenagers milling around us.

Over the roar of people bustling about, I see Vicky's mouth move.

"What?" I yell.

Smiling, he moves closer to me, but I still can't hear him.

"Can't hear you!" I grin.

He moves even closer, and now we are so close that I can actually smell him.

He smells refreshing, of soap and leather, probably from the thick leather bands he wears around his wrist.

One important thing I look for in a guy is the way he smells.

And right now, the smells coming from Vicky are...

Uneasily, I take a small involuntary step back.

Rhea, focus!

Breaking eye-contact, Vicky gazes around the hall, "All these people over here... they make up six hundred teams from ten different schools. That means twelve hundred students."

"Wow!!"

I break out into a cold sweat just thinking about all the teams competing with us, and start bobbing up and down in place.

Vicky touches my shoulder lightly to steady me, but I shiver at his touch.

Pulling his hand back, he says surprisedly, "Gosh Rhea, you really are a bundle of nerves!"

I flash him a small smile, still bobbing up and down on the balls of my feet.

Finally, after what seems like a decade, we reach the head of the registration line.

Three people sit behind the counter, two of them busy.

We walk over to the free spot, which is occupied by an Indian man sitting behind the counter. He asks us for our names, grade, and the school we are representing.

He speaks in a strong but clear Indian accent.

He asks which one of us will recite the spellings during the oral rounds, and as we provide answers for his questions, he types them into his computer.

After finishing with all of those questions, he turns the keyboard towards us and asks us to type in our team name.

Oh shit!! We completely forgot about a team name.

Vicky looks at me for help, flustered, and like the panicky idiot I am, I start babbling random things to try and form a good team name.

"Rhea Vicky?" I mutter unhelpfully. "Vicky Rhea? Victor Rhea?"

"That's it!" Vicky exclaims out of the blues.

"What?" I say, confused.

Vicky turns to the keyboard and types in Victorya.

What is that supposed to mean?

'Oh hello, our team name is Victorya. As in, we're from the Victorian Era.'

I roll my eyes mentally. I'm sure Vicky has a much better explanation.

"Thank you sir, ma'am," the man's voice breaks me out of my reverie.

He hands each of us a yellow ID card attached to a white lanyard neck strip to hang around our necks, which states our names, grade, school, team number (369) and seat number.

"You may proceed into the auditorium. The seat numbers on your ID cards correspond to the seats in the auditorium. Please take your seats. The Bee will begin in half an hour."

Thanking the man, we walk off into the auditorium, and proceed to find our seats.

I notice that all the seats have a small black folding table attached to them.

'Impressive arrangement, Maple Marshrup Academy,' I mutter proudly.

Vicky chuckles under his breath.

Remembering the team name, I ask him, "What is Team Victorya supposed to mean?"

He grins at the way I pronounce it.

"It's pronounced Victor-Rhea. As in, Victor," he points to himself, "Rhea," he points at me. "And it has the word victory in it, so we're a shoo-in for the award," he shrugs casually.

I raise one eyebrow and say, "That's actually pretty cool. Victorya." I sound the word out, correctly this time, and decide I like the feel of it.

We find our seats and get settled in, and in no time at all, all the contestants are seated and the room goes silent as a young woman standing on the stage begins to speak.

Her voice rings out loud and clear through the microphone, a British accent quite evident.

"Good morning everyone. I hope you are all ready for the Spelling Bee."

A cheer rings out from our end of the auditorium, coming from the people behind us.

I grin at the excitement, butterflies flying rapidly in all directions in my stomach.

"Wonderful," the woman smiles. "We will have two parts of this Bee, dictation and oral. I shall now announce the rules for the dictation round, which will commence in ten minutes."

As she speaks, a couple of staff members holding a stack of papers each walk through the rows of seats, handing one out to each student.

Not to each team.

To each student.

When I get mine, I see that it has twenty-five blank numbered boxes to write the spellings in.

I fill in my information on the top of the paper, name, grade, team number and whatnot, while the woman keeps talking.

"In this round, twenty-five words will be dictated twice along with their definitions and usage in a sentence.

For this part of the Bee, you will not work in teams. You will work individually, and anyone caught helping someone else will be disqualified immediately.

Only the teams in which both members get all twenty-five words correct will move on to the next part.

The dictation round will commence in a minute.

I wish you all the best of luck. Remember, you are all winners."

She walks off the stage, and although I realize I have to complete this round all on my own, I am actually not that worried.

Nervous, definitely.

But not worried. I trust all the preparation I've gone through for this Bee, and deep down, I know that I can do this.

I still look like I'm on the edge of my seat though, and Vicky clasps my hand to calm me down.

In a low tone, he murmurs, "You've got this. I know that you can do it. We can do it."

I nod my head and take a deep breath, smiling a small smile.

Another woman walks onto the stage, older this time, her hair tinged with grey.

The dictation round commences.

"Bacillus," she starts off with. "Definition: a rod-shaped disease-causing bacterium. In a sentence: Mr Howard said last night he had been told the substance contained bacteria belonging to the bacillus group. Bacillus."

The round goes on, with some of the words being pretty easy to spell, but most of them are... *shudder*.

Once the dictation round is over, I look back over my answers and am pretty sure I got them right, but I do have some doubts.

As staff members walk across the rows, gathering the papers, my foot jiggles up and down nervously.

Vicky places a hand on my leg to steady it and blinks at me reassuringly.

Once all the papers are taken away, the young woman announces that the oral round will commence in an hour and a half.

How in the world are they going to correct twelve hundred papers in ninety minutes?? They must have a team of superheroes or something.

As we are dismissed, the auditorium erupts in noise as contestants confirm the answers with each other.

Vicky, though, look surprisingly calm. Scratch that. Of course, he looks calm. He's done this sort of thing a hundred times.

We head out of the auditorium, with me chattering at breakneck speed.

"How do we spell egregious? What about ichthyology?" I blabber on, not letting Vicky respond.

I really hope we get to go on to the next round.

We hang out for an hour, chatting and eating and basically just chilling in the school's cafeteria.

We make friends with the team from the International School of Choueifat, a high-quality education school just a couple of blocks away from Maple Marshrup Academy.

The team is composed of a girl and a guy, like our team. The girl's name is Felicity Winters and the guy is Josh Ravenbottom.

They're team 232, and their team name is The Choueifat Rockstars.

They're pretty nice and sophisticated, and the hour flies by.

Before we know it, everyone is trooping back to the auditorium, dreading the results.

After a while, when everyone is settled, the young woman gets back on stage.

"I am sorry to say that only one hundred teams qualified for the oral rounds. However, before I announce them, I'd like you all to applaud yourself for trying your best."

Applause rings out over the room, and after a moment, it goes silent again.

"Please stand up when I call your team number. Team 54." Two girls looking extremely pleased with themselves stand up proudly. "Team 71."

I wait with bated breath, and Vicky and I cheer loudly when team 232 is called upon. Team Choueifat Rockstars.

I clench my teeth and cross everything I can cross, my fingers, arms, legs, toes... as we're down to the last ten teams.

Let's hope for the best.

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D-day is finally here! What did you guys think of the Spelling Bee? Think they'll get to go on to the oral rounds?

There you go... an update right on time! Two updates in a week... that makes up for me updating late right? ;)

The next update will probably be next Tuesday-Thursday, the 1st-3rd of December.

For the early update, let's stick with 8 votes and 10 comments.

This chapter is dedicated to @Naythan283 for being an ardent supporter. Thank you!!

Remember, all you have to do to get a dedication is follow me and vote or comment on nearly all of my chapters.

Picture up on top is of Rhea's Bee outfit. What do you think?

VOTE! COMMENT! STAY TUNED!

~Ananya