The New Girl by Meg Cabot Read Free Book Online Page B

anticipation of the spelling bee, which caused everyone to keep glancing at the clock. It was going to be held down in the gym because that was the only room big enough for both fourth-grade classes. Everyone was waiting for Mrs. Hunter to say, “Okay, class. It’s time to line up.” Some people in the class—like Rosemary, who actually liked competition(unlike me. It’s never fun when somebody loses and ends up crying …that’s a rule)—couldn’t wait, they were so excited. They kept whispering things like, “We’re going to smear Danielson’s class” and “Caroline’s going to win. Wait and see,” because Caroline had won the third-grade spelling bee last year.
    Which was good. I was glad I was friends with the girl who was going to win. And it took some of the pressure off me. Even though I don’t like competition, I sure didn’t want to be in the losing class. Or be the person who caused our class to lose.
    And then before I knew it Mrs. Hunter was saying, “All right, class. It’s time. I hope you’re ready,” which I most definitely was not (if Mom and Dad would just let me have a cell phone, I could have called them to see if they’d heard anything about Lady Serena Archibald, and then I’d have known how she was doing and I wouldn’t have been so nervous. Why won’t they let me get a cell phone? It’s so unfair).
    We all got into our lines and Mrs. Hunter started leading us down the stairs to the gym. On the way, we ran intoMrs. Danielsons class, who were also going down to the gym. Even though we aren’t supposed to talk when we’re in our lines, I heard Rosemary go “We’re going to kill you” to Mrs. Danielson’s class. “See this girl?” Rosemary pointed to Caroline. “She’s going to knock you down and wipe you up like a mop. ”
    I wondered if Mrs. Danielson’s class was as scared as I’d been when Rosemary had told me she was going to beat me up. She hadn’t mentioned this to me in a while, but I knew this was only because she’d temporarily forgotten about me. Pretty soon I’d probably do something to remind Rosemary that she wanted to knock me down and wipe me up like a mop. It was really only a matter of time.
    Still, Mrs. Danielson’s class didn’t look that scared. They trooped over to the chairs that Mr. Elkhart, the custodial arts manager, had set up for us to sit in, on their side of the gym, while we sat in the ones he’d set up for our class. Everyone was nervously talking and giggling, especially when we saw the neat row of ten chairs lined up beneath the basketball net in front of the stage and near the entranceto the gym. I asked Erica what those chairs were for, and she said, “They’re for the ten finalists.”
    I said, “Oh.” I really hoped I wouldn’t mess up if I got to be one of the ten finalists and I was standing in front of everyone. Especially if I was standing in front of Rosemary.
    It was only then that Caroline whispered to me, “Allie, I don’t know if I can win this time. I’m really not feeling well.”
    I whispered back, “Is it the cookies?”
    Caroline, looking miserable, nodded. I swallowed hard. I couldn’t believe it. If Caroline didn’t win the spelling bee for our class, someone was going to get knocked down and wiped up like a mop.
    And I had a feeling that someone wasn’t going to be in Mrs. Danielson’s class. It was going to be the kid from our class who missed the last word.
    I for sure didn’t want that kid to be me.
    That’s when the spelling bee started. Mrs. Hunter and Mrs. Danielson took turns going down the rowsasking kids to spell different words. To be fair, Mrs. Danielson took the kids from Mrs. Hunter’s class, and Mrs. Hunter took the kids from Mrs. Danielson’s class, so no kid had an unfair advantage of being asked words the teacher knew that he or she would get right. If a kid got a word right, then he or she stood up. If he or she got the word wrong, then he or she sat down and was out of the