At Woodland Hills, Akeelah meets Dylan Chiu, a Chinese American boy who won second place at the past two national spelling bees. Contemptuous after Akeelah misspells a word, he tells her she needs a coach. After, Javier invites Akeelah to his birthday party, while Tanya is depressed over Terrence's bad behavior, Akeelah's grades and frequent truancy, and her husband's death (after a mugger shot him on his way home from work five years ago). As she finds out about Akeelah going alone to Woodland Hills, she forbids Akeelah from participating in the upcoming state bee and forces her to take summer school to make up for all the classes she skipped. To circumvent this prohibition, Akeelah forges her deceased father's signature on the consent form and secretly studies with Dr. Larabee. At the party, Akeelah nearly beats Dylan in "Scrabble". Afterwards, Akeelah overhears Dylan's overly competitive father insulting her and berating his son for nearly losing to "a little black girl". During the state bee, Tanya comes inside and interrupts her daughter before she can spell her word. Tanya chastises Akeelah for going to the bee without her permission but relents after a side discussion with Dr. Larabee and Mr. Welch. Javier protects Akeelah from disqualification by stalling until she can return. Dylan, Javier and Akeelah advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.