“Black and white” my sister said.

Or at least, that’s what I _remember_ her saying the dress code to this thing would be. My sister, Ginger, sitting smugly to my right, also failed to mention that this dinner was a sort of tea party, and everyone else would be dressed to the nines. Meanwhile, I pleaded having to come in the first place so I’d be spared the embarrassment of neither having a black ...

Writhing between the sheets, muscles ache between each rib.

Twisting, again, in reverse, to each side, but the torment is relentless still.

Cramped fingers through my tousled hair, the pains no more, I start to fib.

Breathless, I begin to ache, and suddenly fall limp.

Backwards, finally, I slip again, into blissful pain free slumber, until the spasms render when...

“D-I-N-A-M-I-T-E,” I said, defeated. I knew my answer was incorrect the moment ‘I’ instead of ‘Y’ escaped my lips. I’d have to wait another entire year to demonstrate my spelling skills on a national stage. Heartbreaking as it was, I couldn’t let defeat incapacitate me. Not after my dad and I spent every night for the past eight months staying up late and reviewing the dictionary! No—next year I’l...