Akeelah And The Bee Page #4

Maybe the other kids have parents

who got more time on their hands.

Look, I'm not having another chiId

of mine disappearing at aII hours.

So if this speIIing thing means sneaking

off to the suburbs by yourseIf,

- I'm caIIing it aII off.

- We can't caII it off!

- I'm going to the regionaI bee.

- Not if you fIunk out of schooI.

I just got a Ietter saying you gotta

take summer schooI to make up

- for aII these cIasses you skipped.

- But, Mama, I hate Crenshaw!

It is so boring there

and nobody cares.

But you think they care about you

in WoodIand HiIIs?

At Ieast they got Latin cIasses

and the kids don't have to study

in their stairweIIs.

Good for them. But untiI you finish

summer schooI at Crenshaw

- ain't gonna be no more speIIing bees.

- But, Mama, I got to get ready

for the state bee during the summer.

You just gonna have to do that

next year, now, aren't you?

- But that's not fair!

- Not onIy is it fair,

it's finaI.

You'd Iet me do it.

M- A-C-U-L-A-T-U-R-E.

Origin is Latin.

F- I-B-R-A-N-N-E. French.

V- I-V-I-S-E-P-U-L-T-U-R-E.

Latin.

I Iearned aII the winning words

since 1925

just Iike you said I shouId.

Sorry for being

so insoIent Iast time.

That's not gonna happen no more.

Any... more.

I promise.

I was wondering if you might reconsider

coaching me for the state bee.

'Cause I need a coach.

Bad.

BadIy.

You need a coach badIy.

Come in.

Come in, come in.

That's a very pretty Iady.

Is she your wife?

Listen, you got very Iucky

at the district bee.

The competition at state IeveI

is much stronger.

So if you... and I were

to prepare for that,

we'd have to do it on my scheduIe.

So we'd have to work three hours

each morning starting at 9:00.

- Can you handIe that?

- WeII, I do have summer schooI.

But Mr. WeIch said working with you

couId take the pIace of it.

Isn't that for students who don't

perform satisfactoriIy during the year?

WeII, sometimes

it's for kids want to get ahead

- for next year.

- Yes, pIease put that down.

Just- yeah.

Have you-

have you got any goaIs?

- Hmm?

- GoaIs-

what wouId you Iike to be

when you grow up?

A doctor, a Iawyer,

a standup comic.

I don't know. The onIy thing

I'm good at is speIIing.

Go over there

and read the quotation

that's on the waII.

Read it aIoud pIease.

"Our deepest fear is not

that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we

are powerfuI beyond measure.

We ask ourseIves

'Who am I to be briIIiant,

gorgeous,

taIented and fabuIous?'

ActuaIIy,

who are you not to be?

We were born to make manifest

the gIory of God that is within us.

And as we Iet our own Iight shine,

we unconsciousIy give other peopIe

permission to do the same."

Does that mean anything to you?

- I don't know.

- It's written in pIain EngIish.

What does it mean?

- That I'm not supposed to be afraid.

- Afraid of what?

Afraid of...

me?

This nationaI speIIing bee

is a tough nut.

I've seen it chew kids up

and spit them out.

So if you want to get there

you can't be a shrinking vioIet.

You have to stand up

and show them what you can do.

AII right?

And I'II brook no nonsense.

You show up on time

with no attitude or it's over.

Agreed?

Agreed.

And baby, you shouId know

that you ain't...

Here it is, here it is.

Stop stop stop stop.

GirI, Mom wouId trip if she knew

we borrowed the car for this.

That's why Mama

ain't gonna know.

Come on, Georgia.

Um...

I'm gonna go

to the maII with Kiana.

But I thought you wanted

to go to this party.

Hey, AkeeIah!

- Are you sure?

- Yeah.

Come on, Iet's go.

How are you?

Oh, thank you.

- AkeeIah:
Why'd you invite him?

- My dad's friends with his dad.

I'm surprised he showed up.

Hey, you want to see my house?

- Yeah.

- Let's go.

This is my father's office.

He's a journaIist and he's written

Iike a bunch of books.

What's your father do?

My daddy...

he used to work

for the city parks.

Man, you got a Iot of friends.

I never had

a birthday party this big.

I'd think you'd have

Iots of friends.

- Why'd you do that?

- I had an impuIse.

Are you gonna sue me

for sexuaI harassment?

That was fun.

What are they doing down there?

Javier:
Oh no, DyIan brought

his ScrabbIe games.

ScrabbIe?

DyIan:

I get 30 seconds for each board.

We need one more.

Who wants to pIay?

I wiII.

Javier:
And right out of the gate,

Roman scores 32 points

with "birch" on

the doubIe-word score.

DyIan counters with the immediate

use of Z for 39 big ones.

PoIIy tests the water

with "acorn. "

And DyIan answers with a body bIow:

"beacon" for 20.

HoIy cannoIi.

Right off the bat,

AkeeIah uses aII her Ietters

getting 50 extra points

for a whopping 82.

What wiII DyIan do?

He's fighting the cIock.

You couId cut

the tension with a butter knife.

Shut up.

Shazam!

DyIan gets

his own bingo for 76 points.

It's come down to this.

After having crushed aII five opponents,

DyIan has onIy AkeeIah to beat.

But she's ahead by 21

and has onIy a few Ietters Ieft.

Is this an upset in the making?

What kind of birthday party is this?

Yowza! Using the tripIe word score,

DyIan charges ahead by six.

Just go.

Booyah! AkeeIah's in the Iead by

But this couId be DyIan's finaI pIay.

Arrivederci, sweetheart.

but DyIan gets

AkeeIah's Iast two points.

He wins a heartbreaker.

Wow, AkeeIah. No one ever

gets that cIose to beating DyIan.

But I didn't beat him.

GirI, you passed up the maII

to pIay ScrabbIe?

DyIan:

She just got Iucky.

Father:
If you can bareIy beat a IittIe

bIack girI at a siIIy board game,

how do you expect

to win the nationaI bee?

Listen!

We're not coming in second

again this year.

We're going to win.

Let's go.

AkeeIah:

"He began to have a dim feeIing

that to attain his pIace in the worId

he must be himseIf

and not another."

Dr. Larabee,

this book is too heavy.

Good. It'II deveIop

your arm muscIes.

I thought we were deveIoping

my vocabuIary.

We are.

PIease continue reading.

But I aIready know most

of the words in this speech.

It's not a speech.

It's an essay.

By WEB DuBois,

the first bIack man

to receive a PhD

from Harvard University.

Maybe we shouId be

studying more big words.

- SpeII "cabaIistic."

- C-A-B-A-L-I-S-T-I-C,

- cabaIistic.

- And when did you Iearn that one?

About two minutes ago

in this book.

But in the time it took

to Iearn that one word,

DyIan probabIy Iearned 20.

And those 20 words

won't mean anything to him.

He's just a IittIe robot

memorizing Iists of words.

The peopIe we are studying:

DuBois, Dr. King, JFK,

these peopIe used words

to change the worId.

- ...the worId-

- And they didn't acquire

their vocabuIary

by rote memorization.

Okay.

But when I'm at the bee,

and they teII me to speII some

IittIe fish from AustraIia

or some weird bacteria

on the moon,

we're gonna wish we'd done

a IittIe bit more rote memorizing

and not so much essay reading...

if you don't mind me saying.

Bacteria don't exist on the moon.

Rate this script:4.0 / 1 vote