Good Sport Gwen

Stung by the Spelling Bee

The words continue. Nathan spells can for the red team. But then it’s Delaney’s turn to spell sit, but she accidentally spells it as C-I-T. And then, Skylar on the red team manages to spell the word correctly. Now, the blue team, Gwen’s team, is behind. Connor is given the word pen for the blue team. Gwen can see him thinking. “Come on, Connor. That’s easy!” Gwen urges. Connor’s face turns red as he says “P-I-N.” Miss Sparks shakes her head. Gwen glares at Connor. Spencer correctly spells it as P-E-N. Now the blue team is even further behind the red team!

The spelling bee continues on and on. Avery spells hat, but Hallie misspells cot. And then Gwen spells H-E-T for hit. She smacks her forehead. Logan gets hit right. And with that, the red team wins the spelling bee. Everybody cheers for the red team, except Gwen, who frowns.

Gwen exclaims they were terrible! Delaney shrugs, after all, it’s not a big deal. Gwen feels very much that it is a big deal. She stomps her foot and bursts out that the blue team stinks! Everybody turns to look at Gwen, surprised by her outburst. Spencer leans over to Lindy and whispers “Gwen is really mad. She must have been stung by the spelling bee.” Lindy responds that nobody will want to be on Gwen’s team again.

Gwen feels bad that she was such a bad sport. She’s sure her teammates are unhappy with her. The next Monday, Miss Sparks adds more words to the board, and announces they’ll have another spelling bee on Friday. Gwen blushes. She’s sure everyone remembers how she was such a bad sport.

At recess, Gwen stays in her seat. When Miss Sparks asks her what’s wrong, Gwen explains that she thinks nobody will want to be on her team for soccer. Miss Sparks prompts that Gwen helped Delaney at soccer, which is exactly what good sports do. Maybe Gwen can help her team at spelling, too.

Gwen responds that she practices soccer a lot with her team. Maybe they can practice spelling, too. And, Gwen will practice being a good sport, too. That way, she won’t be stung by the spelling bee again.