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HENRY THE SECOND

Henry stood center stage under one single spotlight, dripping with sweat. He blinked a few times and tugged on the numbered card around his neck. It was Hillside Elementary Spelling Bee.

"Our third graders have been competing for two hours. It's finally down to our last two contestants; Laurie Lachinski and our Henry O' Malley," announced the principal.

Laurie just spelled "C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-C-E" correctly.

The prompter drew what could be the last word of the day. It's all up to Henry.

"EMBARRASSED," squealed from the speaker above Henry's head.

Henry took a deep breath and began to spell.

"Embarrassed E-M-B-A-R" Henry paused; "R-A-S-E-D, embarrassed!"

The audience exhaled as the speaker blared, "I'm sorry. That's incorrect!" Henry spelled embarrassed with only one "s." Henry's face turned red and his head hung.

Laurie won the spelling bee. Everyone stood and applauded.

Henry received a small trophy that simply read "Second Place 2007." "It's not fair. She got an easier word. I was too nervous! Why am I always second? Henry the second!" he declared and kicked the floor.

The next day at school wasn't any different. During recess, the tall skinny kid, Jimmy, started gathering all the other kids to play Dodgeball.

"Of course, Jimmy was the captain of the blue team. He's always the captain," grumbled Henry.

Then Jimmy picked his best friend Billy, a stocky red-haired kid, as the captain of the red team. Then they each started picking teams.

It all came down to the new kid, William, and Henry. William smiled at Henry, shrugged his shoulders.

"Looks like it's down to us," he said to Henry.

Henry couldn't believe he hadn't been picked yet. He could feel his face getting flushed. His heart raced with the thought of getting chosen second to last second to the new kid in class even second to the girls in class. Jimmy finally chose Henry.

Henry thought about his day all the way to Grandma's.

"Second, second, second!" he shouted at his reflection.

Grandma's voice floated upstairs to Henry. "Is everything okay?" beckoned Grandma.

Henry's after school time was usually spent at his grandmother's house. Henry was upstairs washing up and changing out of his latest series of grass stains and grape juice.

"Is everything okay?" he repeated to himself in the mirror.

"No!" he thought. "I don't want to be Henry the Second."

"Henry the second" played over and over in his head as he stomped downstairs.

Henry pulled a red, second place ribbon from his pocket and handed it to Grandma.

Grandma

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