English Class

John Owens

SOLUTION:

Each definition matches a winning word in the National Spelling Bee.

The flavortext indicates the encoding used in the puzzle:
StudentOne: WONderful! Just what we needed! Another riot in New Ginza. Geez.
StudentTwo: Shock guards. Plasma fields. This is asiNINE. How's a person supposed to get to school?
StudentOne: It's SICK...Simply sick. The agitators never learn.
StudentTwo: IF I'VE got to hire a hovercab because of these idiots...ack! Blasted bolshevik bastards. Guess I'll just do a little studying while I'm waiting.

WON NINE SICKS FIVE = 1965.

Each of the definitions below has a number embedded in the definition:

Taking the nth letter of each definition spells "BEE THE BEST SPELLER". "Spelling bee" is also clued by the three B's in "Blasted bolshevik bastards".

The winning words defined are: Reading down the first letters of the defined words results in "Kerpan spelled this"; Michael Kerpan Jr. from Tulsa, Oklahoma won the Bee in 1965 with the word ECZEMA, the answer to the puzzle.

Answer: ECZEMA