Chapter 1 A Family Tradition Malcolm’s eyes crossed as he looked down at the next word on the spelling list They all ran together like a big blurry sentence Terrific he said Terrific Dandy repeated scrunching his face to think T-e-r-r-i-f-i-c Terrific Terrific Malcolm repeated Dandy gave Malcolm a confused look I just spelled terrific I know Malcolm said And you did a terrific job
Dandy groaned Not funny Can we take a break now Malcolm asked as he turned on his specter detector so his ghost dog Spooky could come out to play Spooky instantly appeared and jumped at the word list in Malcolm’s hand Yip Yip Dandy sat back and draped his arm over his eyes We can’t take a break Not yet The spelling bee is tomorrow Malcolm sighed All right A few more He looked down at the next word on the page Unusual Unusual Dandy twitched his mouth He looked up at Malcolm May I have the definition please Malcolm ran his finger across the page as he read Strange odd or weird He smiled Like spending Friday night
studying for a spelling bee when we could be doing something fun Dandy frowned Never mind he said snatching the word list from Malcolm’s hand They’d been at this for so long Malcolm was starting to get a headache And not just any headache This was the same kind he got when he had to listen to his older sister Cocoa practice her choir solo She had the voice of a screeching violin But Dandy was his best friend and he couldn’t let him down No it’s okay he told Dandy I want to help But can we grab a snack or something I mean seriously it’s just a spelling bee Dandy gulped as his eyes bulged Just a spelling bee Malcolm this is more than just a spelling bee It’s a family tradition
He paused and mumbled Tradition T-r-a d-i-t-i-o-n Tradition I get it Malcolm said teasing Spooky with a plastic dog bone Your family is made up of good spellers Have you seen our trophy case Dandy asked When my dad was a kid he won the spelling bee three years straight His father won it four times And his father’s father was so good they had to invent new words just to keep the contest going There’s no way I’m going to let my family down Malcolm Malcolm doubted Dandy’s great grandfather caused the invention of new words But there was no point arguing with his best friend Okay I wouldn’t want to ruin your family’s t-r-a-d-i-t-i-o-n Dandy Malcolm
