Bridgette Eichelberger, 12, and Kristen Savino, 13, know the nervous, slightly fluttery feeling of performing for a crowd.

In just a few weeks, the students at Desert Adventist Academy in Palm Desert will be putting their poise to the test. They'll be standing in front of a group of people to demonstrate their prowess for vocabulary words in a state contest.

Bridgette and Kristen are two of 100 California students who will compete in the state level contest of the Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge.

"I think I'd like to study some more," said Bridgette, a seventh-grader.

"Yeah, me, too," said eighth-grader Kristen, with a giggle.

Kristen's been poring over old vocabulary tests, covering up the words and reading the definitions, while Bridgette relies indirectly on modern technology. "Last year, we got a Reader’s Digest book on eBay,” she said. “That has some great words in it.”

Another machine comes in handy, too, in helping her prepare: the family car. Bridgette’s family likes to read out words from the book when they’re all riding together. “We all like to try to guess at the meanings of words we’ve never seen before,” Bridgette said.

It was thrilling for the school to learn that it would have two representatives this year, said Michelle Savino, the girls’ teacher. “It’s a very big accomplishment itself,” said Savino, who’s also Kristen’s mother.

The girls sweated through their classroom vocabulary tests, and sailed through the school-level tests. Now they have the chance to advance to the national competition in Orlando, Fla., and maybe win a college scholarship.

According to Michelle Savino, it’s not a coincidence that both girls are also avid readers. Kristen’s a fan of books by Melody Carlson, a Christian author who focuses on teen problems and crises in her novels. And Bridgette just sped through two novels by Christian adventure novelist Frank Peretti.

“Any book that is over 300 pages is fair game,” said Bridgette.

The girls say that they read mostly because they enjoy it, but they do admit that it’s probably helped them with their vocabulary.

Savino is convinced that their reading helped them improve their vocabulary. When Savino hands out the scores for her students’ weekly classroom vocabulary tests, both girls consistently receive high marks.

And they’re good at figuring out words that are unfamiliar to them by using context clues or looking at the roots, she said.

“They do have some pretty good deducing skills,” Savino said.

Nancy Eichelberger also believes that reading has contributed to her daughter’s success. “Bridgette’s always had a pretty big vocabulary,” she said. “At three years old, she wanted to have breakfast on the ‘veranda.’ That was out of a Nancy Drew book.

Bridgette does have an edge on many of her competitors: her twin brother, Max. Last year, Max made it all the way to the state competition. This year, however, Bridgette is the family champ. “I won, Max,” Bridgette said with a grin, a mischievous light in her eyes.

“We call it a healthy competition,” Savino joked.

“She got me on the classroom test,” Max said, shaking his head. “One question.”

But he said he’s proud of his sister—and excited, too. And he’s trying to help her prepare for the state contest, since he knows what it’s like from last year.

“I quiz her on the book we got, but not really any pointers,” Max said. “She doesn’t really need to work on anything.”