The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle

THE STOOPID SHIRT

Tell you what. I already know who stuffed this T-shirt into my locker. Matt Drinker did that. He took a Sharpie to it first. Fat black letters. He wrote STOOPID on it. Same way I spelled my word in the spelling bee on Friday
morning.
A kid like me does not belong in the spelling bee. But it is for all of seventh grade. This is not how I would kick off the school year, but I’m not in charge. Elimination rounds start in the classrooms.
I’m eliminated.
I saw a movie about a spelling bee once. There was a girl, and she had a magic about her. She could hear her word-any word at all-and the letters wrote themselves in the air. It happened in swirls and sparkles with fuzzy bees and fairies making glitter trails. The letters opened like apple blossoms. They flowed like paint off a brush. Always the right letter.
People said that couldn’t really happen, seeing things that way. It was just a movie trick. But I believe what that girl saw. At least
some.
I see things too. But no fairy wings. No flowers blooming.
Here is what happened on Friday morning: I heard my word.
Stopped.
Had to be the easiest word ever in a seventh-grade spelling bee. Tell you what. I knew I was going to spell it right. Stopped has double letters. I like those. It is like getting a two for one. Well, too bad, because as soon as I thought of that, I thought of another word. Starts with the same sound and has double letters somewhere around the middle
part.
Stoop.
I have been with my brain for twelve long years. I know how it puts things wrong. So I closed my eyes. I thought, okay, Mason, don’t let that in your head. Don’t go spelling stoop. That’s not your word. Your word is stopped. Under my eyelids I started to see the letters. That’s why I say it is like the girl from the movie. I can see the letters. But for me they go ugly. They fade or swell up.They still.
slide away. If my eyes had pinchers on them, I’d grab at the letters and hold them
Tick. Tick. Tick.
You cannot take your time in a spelling bee.
Stopped.
S and T.
Those were correct. I knew they were. I said them. I got the safe feeling. The spelling timer ticked again.
I tried to see the letters. Clear. But they fuzzed. Then they blobbed. I have seen
it plenty of times.
I squeezed my eyes shut tighter. I thought, please let me get this. I saw fat letters. Blurry letters. Then came the other thing I see. Color. Happens sometimes. This time it was the dirty green. Floats in like smoke. Happens when I can’t get to the right answers. That green, it is the color of pressure. On me. A spelling bee is pressure.
I rolled my eyeballs behind my lids. Tried to erase all that mess. My brain got itself caught on that other word: stoop. Double letters.
Tick. Tick.
I saw two Os.
I said two Os.
Somebody snorted.
I knew I was wrong. Knew I had to finish. Get it over with. I wiped my sweaty hands on my pants. Stopped. I heard a P sound. I said it quick. Knew there was something more. T on the end? No! D! It would be D on the end. But not just D…
Tick. Tick. No time.
I said, “I and D.”
What I spelled was S-T-O-O-P-I-D.
What it sounded like was stupid.
The buzzer sounded. That whole classroom roared.
Matt Drinker loves when something like that happens. That’s why I’m guessing he put this STOOPID shirt inside my locker. He must have picked my lock to do it. Funny thing is I knew what the shirt said because of the two Os in the middle. I knew in two blinks.
Matt doesn’t know it but he did me a big favor. I always take two shirts to school. Unless I forget. I change just before lunch. This is because of how I sweat. It is a lot. Can’t stop it. Can’t hide it. I need to be dry at the lunch table. Otherwise I’m a total gross-out of a kid.
Well, today was a day that I forgot my extra shirt. So I’m wearing this one that says STOOPID on it. It’s big and it fits me. It’s clean and dry. I’m going to keep moving. Maybe nobody will see what it says.
And if they do, well, tell you what. Plenty worse has happened.