Sweet spell of success
Clovis Christian Elementary and Junior High Principal Linda D'Amour can't say enough about Kokoricha, who has never finished lower than fourth in her five New Mexico bee appearances.
[...] 13, Kokoricha aims to reach at least the semifinal round on her final opportunity in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which runs May 22-27 in Washington, D.C., and will air on ESPN beginning May 25.
Kochoricha then spends each day getting up around 5:30 a.m., give or take an hour based on how much sleep she got the previous night, and studies myriad (bee word, meaning very great number) words before making breakfast for her two sisters.
While she was interviewed at CCS, she said the biggest misconception was that she spent every waking hour studying words.
A brief afternoon shadowing Kokoricha shows her as quite malleable (bee word, capable of being shaped), whether she's talking with classmates or adult figures.
Before the group asks the teacher if they can start Chapter 3 — a clear ruse to skip the homework questions at the end of Chapter 2 — Kokoricha identifies situational and dramatic irony to her teacher.
Later, she pours herself a cup of colored candies, but eats them one color at a time and figures out the percentage of each remaining color.
When Kokoricha last appeared in the national bee, she was knocked out in the written test portion — "They give you a multiple choice, so you have to know what the word is supposed to do," she said.