It would have been a great story, but it wasn’t to be—Lori Anne Madison, the six-year-old Virginian that became the youngest speller in the history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, didn’t make it past the bee’s preliminary rounds yesterday.

After nailing “dirigible,” Madison flubbed “ingluvies,” which is the “crop, or craw, of birds.” She was close to making it to today’s semifinal rounds, though—according to the AP, had she gotten one more word right on a 50-word computerized test given on Tuesday and spelled “ingluvies” right, she would have qualified.

Madison handled the loss with aplomb, though, speaking with reporters at a press conference this morning:

Admittedly overwhelmed by the media attention, the home-schooled prodigy held court with reporters for 25 minutes Thursday morning. Although she wasn’t always forthcoming with her answers, making clear she’d rather be outside playing with her friends. Her blue eyes lit up when talking about her experience at a barbecue on Monday.

“I blew some absolutely huge bubbles, like this big!” she said, holding her hands a foot apart and reminding everyone of her age.

Waiting for her turn to spell wasn’t so much fun. She hadn’t gotten enough sleep and came close to nodding off, and the hour-and-a-half wait “seemed like two millennia,” she said.

“I was just stressed. It was a really, really long wait,” Lori Anne said. “Overall, it was just boring. Really boring! Really boring!”

Sadly, D.C.’s Tuli Jahan Bennett-Bose also didn’t make the semifinal rounds, which only took 50 of the original 278 contestants. We do have some local representation, though—Jack Nolan from Elkridge, Maryland and Jae Canetti from Reston, Virginia.