Honors and hardship

After 10 rounds of grueling competition, the 39 students vying for the title of best speller in Charleston County had been reduced to two sisters - Kalyn, 14, and Amy, 12.

Back and forth, like Venus and Serena Williams trading points, the Lewis sisters took turns spelling words correctly in front of a packed crowd: "Admiral." "Crescent." "Bungalow."

They both misspelled "fathom," and their exchange continued. Amy faltered next, stumbling on "hibachi." Kalyn corrected her sister's mistake and sped through "canine" to claim the crown.

She barely cracked a smile while the crowd roared in recognition, but Amy beamed and engulfed her sister in a hug. The pair humbly accepted their trophies and posed for pictures.

Less than two hours later, the Lewis sisters returned home: a low-budget motel room in Mount Pleasant where they and three other family members slept together in a king-size bed.

Two days before the district-wide bee, the girls' family was evicted from its public housing apartment.

Most of Charleston County's spelling bee participants studied hard and wanted to win, and most probably have a story about the challenges they overcame to reach that level of competition.

But no one needed good news as much as the Lewis sisters.

Becoming homeless

Until the eviction, eighth-grader Kalyn and sixth-grader Amy called a downtown apartment off Morrison Drive home. They lived there with their 15-year-old brother, identical twin 6-year-old sisters and mother, Anikia.

Anikia, a sturdy woman with long, straight hair, moved her family into public housing about five years ago. She found jobs cleaning houses and operating a cash register, but she's been unemployed for about the last year and a half.

She'd been late on paying her housing authority fees 10 out of the last 12 months, and January was no different. But this time, the housing authority didn't let the late payment slide because she'd broken another rule by allowing a relative, an accused drug dealer, to visit the property, the head of the housing authority said. Anikia insisted that wasn't the case, but her plea made no difference.

Housing officials said her family would have to leave its apartment by Jan. 20. Anikia didn't pack or try to find another place to go because she didn't believe they'd actually throw her out.

Kalyn and Amy were in class at Sanders-Clyde Elementary School the morning of their family's eviction. Police and five movers showed up to their home and asked their mother to step outside. Anikia grabbed what she could -- two baby pictures of her twin daughters, clothes and her Bible.

"It just happened so fast," she said.

She stood there, numb, watching as they removed everything -- from the kitchen table to her daughters' asthma machine -- from her apartment and placed it on the curb. Neighbors immediately began picking through her belongings.

A friend picked up Kalyn, Amy and their sisters from school and dropped them off at a motel across the Cooper River. Anikia could afford only two nights. One of the Lewis' teachers paid for a few nights, and so did a friend. She doesn't know where her family will live after next week.

"I don't know what to do," she said. "All I can do is pray."

Hours before the bee

Despite the uncertainty and turmoil in the Lewis' lives, Kalyn and Amy were sure about one thing: It wouldn't stop their education.

Sanders-Clyde Elementary is a high-poverty, inner-city school that once was high-achieving but was investigated and exonerated last year for suspicious test-score gains. Despite all of that, the Lewis girls love their school and they thrive in the classroom. Amy is on the principal's list and Kalyn has made honor roll. When Anikia warned them that they might be evicted, the first thing they wanted to pack was their books.

Amy wants to be a doctor. Kalyn wants to be a writer, fashion designer, talk show host, actress and singer.

One of their teachers picks them up from the motel each morning and brings them back each afternoon. The day of the district-wide spelling bee, the sisters went to school, came home and immediately began quizzing each other on spelling words.

Anikia felt depressed. She thought she might be a bad luck charm for her daughters and didn't want to distract them at the bee. She decided not to go.

"I hope you understand what I'm going through," she told her daughters as they walked out the door that night.

"I sure don't, mom," Amy said in reply.

The words hurt Anikia. She tried to find a ride to the downtown competition but couldn't.

The competition

Just a few miles away across the river, the sisters arrived at the bee nervous but focused. The top spellers in the county slowly filtered into the room, and the standing-room-only crowd quieted as the first student approached the microphone.

Some of the fifth- through eighth-grade participants easily handled words such as "article" and "accurate," but more of them tripped up on words such as "aggrandizement" and "conundrum." Kalyn and Amy were flawless, confidently spelling each word.

It took just four rounds to narrow the field to four spellers, and only a couple more until it was three.

The trio breezed through words such as "primal" and "cosmetic," but "dungaree" stumped the third-place finisher and knocked her out of the competition.

The only two spellers remaining were Kalyn and Amy. Kalyn needed less than a dozen words to defeat her sister.

Back at the motel, Anikia's phone rang. She let it go to voicemail.

"Your girls won first and second place," the message said.

It was exactly what Anikia needed to hear. She went to the store and spent the $6 she had on two "I love you" balloons and some candy. She couldn't wait to see her daughters.

Trying to survive

Almost every night since the eviction, the girls in the family have slept in the same bed -- four side by side and one across the end.

Kalyn and Amy are strong, seemingly unaffected by the ambiguity of their immediate futures. They're quick to smile and giggle, and they don't complain about their situation.

Everything they own surrounds them -- trashbags full of clothes, a small stereo, and the girls' trophies from the spelling bee. A window helps brighten the worn, blue carpet, and it smells like lemon air freshener.

Kalyn prays a lot, telling her mother, "God is going to get us through this." For her, winning the spelling bee gave her the confidence to know she can accomplish whatever she wants if she puts her mind to it.

Regardless of what it ends up meaning to her later in life, it's clear she, and her sister, are in a class by themselves. Kalyn gives her money away to charity coin boxes in fast-food restaurants.

And on Thursday, her favorite moment of the day was when her teacher gave her class a writing prompt: If you found $100 on the ground, what would you do?

Kalyn wrote that she would give it to the people in Haiti.

Reach Diette Courrégé at dcourrege@postandcourier.com or 937-5546.