Akeelah and the Bee - James W. Ellison [24]
Akeelah looked at him with interest. “I really like Scrabble,” she said.
They went into the backyard, where Dylan had poured out tiles next to each of the six rotating game boards on two picnic tables. He paced between the tables, his dark eyes serious beyond his years.
“I get thirty seconds for each board,” he said. “That means each of you gets up to three minutes per turn.”
His opponents were seated at five of the six boards. Dylan looked around. “We need one more. Who else wants to play?”
Akeelah stepped forward. “I will.”
Dylan swung around to see Akeelah standing next to Javier. He forced a laugh. “Promise not to cry when I beat you?”
“I promise,” she said, “if you promise.”
Dylan abruptly stopped laughing and looked daggers at some of those who had found her comment funny. He gestured to the remaining game board and did a mock bow in Akeelah’s direction. She nodded and sat down at her board.
“I’ll keep score,” Javier said. “We want to make sure this game’s on the up-and-up.”
He grabbed a pad of paper and a pen. Dylan’s six opponents each pulled seven letters from their respective batches of tiles. Akeelah lined her letters up on her rack and studied them. She sensed Dylan’s eyes boring into her, but did not look up.
In a sportscaster’s voice, Javier said, “Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the birthday party Scrabble extravaganza. I’m your host, Javier ‘the Dude’ Mendez, a k a the birthday boy. So let us now proceed….”
Dylan’s first opponent, Roman, spelled out “birch.”
“And right out of the gate, Roman scores thirty-two points with ‘birch’ on the double-word score. Way to go, Roman!”
Javier scribbled down the score, while Dylan quickly built off Roman’s “c” and spelled “crazy.”
“But not to be outdone,” Javier continued, “Dylan counters with an immediate use of the ‘z’ for thirty-eight big ones! The master is doing his usual magic.” He flashed a look at Akeelah, wrinkling his nose.
She nodded and shuffled her letters around on her rack, while Dylan went up against Polly, who was seated next to her.
“Polly tests the water with ‘acorn.’ And the wily Dylan answers with a body blow—‘beacon’ for twenty! And now…a first-time player in our group—Akeelah Anderson.” Everyone’s eyes moved to Akeelah’s board and watched as she quickly assembled “placebo,” using all her letters. They all seemed stunned.
“Holy cannoli!” Javier yelled out. “A bingo right off the bat! Akeelah uses all her letters, getting fifty extra points, for a whopping…eighty-two big ones.”
The partygoers murmured their approval. Dylan was not well liked and he had lorded it over the others for too long. They were eager to see someone bring him down to earth.
Dylan shook off his surprise at Akeelah’s fast start and concentrated on his letters.
“What will Dylan do?” Javier said. “He’s fighting the clock. You can cut the tension with a butter knife, folks.”
Dylan looked up, his eyes bright with fury. “Shut up, Mendez. How can anybody think with you babbling away?”
Javier made a face when Dylan turned back to the board. There was a tense moment as the clock ran down to the last seconds, and then Dylan smiled as he slowly spelled out the word “sharpens.”
“Shazam!” Javier shouted. “Dylan gets his own bingo for seventy-six points. The old master coming up with new surprises.”
Dylan stared at Akeelah with a smirk and she let out a long breath as she squinted at the board with fierce concentration. She couldn’t believe he had countered her brilliant opening move so effectively, wiping out most of her advantage. She wasn’t aware that Kiana and Georgia had come around the corner of the house and joined the other kids clustered around the picnic tables watching the games.
Dylan moved from board to board, making his moves quickly, almost disdainfully. One by one he eliminated the other players, building lopsided scores at each table. Polly, who was way behind, made a sudden comeback, enough to draw a frown from Dylan. But she, too, fell short.
Dylan now sat across from Akeelah (no longer standing, as he had at