Birthday Blues

by Karen English

  Nikki and Deja Birthday Blues

  Karen English

  * * *

  Illustrated by Laura Freeman

  Sandpiper

  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  Boston * New York

  * * *

  To all the Nikkis and Dejas everywhere

  —K.E.

  To my sister, Roberta

  —L.F.

  Text copyright © 2009 by Karen English

  Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Laura Freeman

  The illustrations were executed digitally.

  The text of this book is set in 14-point Warnock Pro Caption.

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Sandpiper,

  an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Clarion,

  an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009.

  SANDPIPER and the SANDPIPER logo are trademarks of

  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,

  write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,

  215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

  www.hmhbooks.com

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  English, Karen.

  Nikki and Deja : birthday blues / by Karen English ; illustrated by Laura Freeman.

  p. cm.

  Summary: As her eighth birthday approaches, Deja's biggest concern is whether

  her father will attend her party, until her aunt is called away on business and

  a classmate schedules a "just because party" on the same afternoon.

  ISBN: 978-0-618-97787-1

  ISBN: 978-0-547-24893-6 pb

  [1. Birthdays—Fiction. 2. Parties—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Best friends—

  Fiction. 5. Friendship—Fiction. 6. Aunts—Fiction.] I. Freeman-Hines, Laura, ill.

  II. Title.

  PZ7.E7232Nik 2009

  [Fic]—dc22 2007050189

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  TK 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  * * *

  Contents

  1. The Way to Clean a Bedroom 1

  2. Mapping the Neighborhood 11

  3. Presentations 19

  4. The Map of Many Clever Features 26

  5. Staying at Miss Ida's 33

  6. A Party, Just Because 44

  7. Nemesissis 51

  8. All This Party Talk 58

  9. Miss Ida Explains the World 66

  10. Life Back to Normal—Kind of 75

  11. A Turn of Events 84

  1. The Way to Clean a Bedroom

  "It's my birthday, it's my birthday, it's my birth-day..." Deja makes a chant out of "It's my birthday" and dances to the beat of it around Nikki's backyard. It is a bright and shining Saturday morning, the best day of the week.

  "It's not your birthday," Nikki reminds her.

  "But it will be in seven more days, and I'm going to be eight way before you." Deja stops her made-up dance so she can think about the next thing more clearly. She doesn't want to say it out loud, so she says it in her head. And this time my daddy might come for my birthday. She looks up at the sky in search of a sign, then recites a little prayer. She glances over at Nikki sitting on the back porch, wondering if she can read her thoughts.

  "I'm getting heelies, boots, and a bright pink T-shirt with my name in rhinestones. I already saw it at Twizzles' Fashions for Tweens." Deja stops again to imagine herself wearing it.

  "With 'Deja' on it?" Nikki asks.

  "I can get it put on," Deja says with confidence, even though she doesn't know where or how. Maybe her daddy will come, and maybe he'll give her a hundred dollars to buy whatever she wants. "Write this down, Nikki."

  Nikki takes out her pad, removes the kitty cap from her special pen, and waits.

  "We're having games first, then the playoffs with the winners. Auntie Dee's getting a huge stuffed panda bear as a prize. Then we'll have a dance contest—with me as the judge—then pizza and punch, and then ice cream and cake..." Deja takes a breath. "Then everyone will watch me open my presents. Then we'll watch Mouse Queen Takes Hollywood, which I know I'm getting for my birthday, too."

  "How do you know?" Nikki asks.

  "I kinda really think I am," Deja says, as if that is that.

  Deja looks down at the citrine ring that she got on her last birthday. Auntie Dee had promised she'd buy Deja a birthstone ring if she could keep from biting her nails for a month.

  Every morning at breakfast, Auntie Dee had said to Deja, "Show me whatcha got." Deja would hold out her hands, palms down, to prove she hadn't bitten her nails during the night. She'd really wanted that citrine ring with the fourteen-carat gold band. She'd especially liked the feel of the word coming out of her mouth: "citrine." Maybe when she grew up and had a husband and a little girl, she'd name her Citrine.

  Nikki had said it was stupid to name a baby after a ring.

  "What about Dyamond Taylor in Mr. Beaumont's room?" Deja had said. "She's named after a diamond, only it's spelled different."

  Deja thinks about Griselda Castilla, who sits in her row at school. She was the first to have a citrine ring. It glinted in the light every time Griselda moved her pencil across her paper. But Deja wasn't trying to copy Griselda. She can't help it if her birthstone is a citrine, too.

  "How do you know you're getting heelies?" Nikki says.

  "'Cause." Deja sits down next to Nikki and slips her thumb into her mouth. The citrine ring in its gold setting sparkles on her index finger.

  "Can I wear your ring?" Nikki asks.

  Deja pretends she doesn't hear her.

  "Come on, let me wear it for a day."

  Deja doesn't say anything on purpose. She thinks of her messy room. She could probably get Nikki to help her clean it. Auntie Dee told her that she needed to clean her room before going outside—yet she hasn't done it. She'd known she wasn't going to. When Auntie said it, Deja thought immediately of how she would put it off. She did that sometimes.

  Now Auntie Dee is across the street at her friend Phoebe's, sorting a bunch of stuff for a garage sale that's coming up. She'll be back soon, and then Deja will get in trouble. Probably get put on punishment. Maybe Auntie Dee will even cancel Deja's upcoming birthday party.

  "I'll let you wear it ... on one condition."

  Nikki looks at Deja suspiciously. "What?"

  "You have to help me clean my room."

  "That's not fair. Your room is too messy."

  "You want to wear my ring or not?" Deja holds up her hand in front of Nikki's face with her fingers spread, then wiggles them back and forth like a beauty queen.

  Nikki purses her lips. "Okay. Come on, let's get it over with."

  Deja looks away and smiles.

  "Where does this go?" Nikki holds up a pink pajama bottom. Deja stares at it for a moment, squinting.

  "Put it under the bed."

  "Under the bed?"

  "I have too many things on the hooks already."

  "It can go in the dirty clothes."

  "It's not dirty enough."

  "What about in your dresser drawer?"

  "Just put it under the bed. It's not clean enough for my drawer."

  Nikki shrugs and pushes the pajama bottom under the bed. Then she gets down on her hands and knees and looks. "There's a whole lot of stuff under here. And Bear! How come you don't play with Bear anymore?" Nikki pulls Bear out and leans him against Deja's nightstand.

  "I do play with Bear. I just forgot where he was," Deja says.

  Nikki pulls ou
t a blue sweater, a Monopoly set, a purple mitten, some crumpled scribbled-on notebook paper, broken crayons, an apple core. "Deja, look at all this stuff! I change my mind. Your room is yucky." She flops down on the bed and sticks out her lip.

  "Come on, you have to help me! Auntie Dee told me to clean my room, and she's gonna come back soon, and then I'm gonna get in trouble."

  "You shoulda done what she told you."

  "Plus, if I get in trouble, you'll have to go home, and then we won't get to work on our map."

  This seems to catch Nikki's attention. She looks up at the corner of the ceiling, thinking.

  Deja waits. They're studying maps in Social Studies, and Ms. Shelby has given the class an assignment to create a neighborhood map. She said that they could work with a partner.

  Deja got excited right away. She started making plans. She and Nikki would be partners, of course. They would start their map on Saturday, and they would include every house and also Global Tire and Brakes, the re-sell shop and Babe's Barbecue—everything. Their map was going to be the best one of all.

  "Okay, okay." Nikki gets up and looks around at the mess on the floor: socks, barrettes, pennies, wire coat hangers, playing cards. Slowly, she begins to pick up the cards. She plucks pennies and paper clips from the carpet and drops them into a paper cup that is on the floor as well. She sighs. "You have to clean under your bed. I'm not cleaning there."

  "Yeah, yeah..." Deja thinks of Nikki's room. In Nikki's room, everything has a place, and there is a place for everything. Nikki never has to search for her other mitten or her muffler or the mate to her flip-flop.

  Just then the front door slams. They both stop to listen. It's Auntie! She'll be coming upstairs any minute.

  "Auntie Dee's back!" Deja says, hurrying around the room, stuffing various articles into drawers and under the bed. She throws an old backpack covered with ink stains and dark smudges to Nikki to shove into the closet.

  Auntie Dee's footsteps sound on the stairs. Deja pulls up the sheet and blanket on her bed, then yanks the comforter into place. She grabs the pillows off the floor and props them against the headboard. When Auntie Dee walks into the room, Deja and Nikki are sitting on the bed side by side with their hands in their laps. Auntie Dee stops in the doorway. "What?"

  "Nothing," Deja says.

  "Then why are you sitting there like that?" Auntie Dee looks around the room and squints. "Mmm," she says. "Dare I check under the bed?"

  Deja keeps her mouth closed.

  Auntie Dee chuckles to herself. She moves out of the doorway and goes back down the hall.

  "Can we go to the store?" Deja calls out while scrambling off the bed. She picks up Bear and pulls Nikki after her. They hurry out of the room.

  "As a matter of fact, we do need milk," Auntie Dee answers. She digs around in her purse and pulls out her wallet. "Here's some money. Make sure you bring me back the right change."

  "Okay," Deja says. She grabs Nikki's hand and they start down the hall.

  Out on the porch, Deja sets Bear on the swing. Just before they skip down the front steps, Nikki stops and puts out her hand. "The ring," she says.

  "You didn't really help me that much," says Deja.

  "I did so. And you promised."

  Reluctantly, Deja twists at her ring. "I don't know if I can get it off."

  "You promised, Deja."

  Deja pulls and twists, but the ring stays on her finger.

  "Lick your finger."

  Deja sucks her teeth, then licks her finger. With a little more tugging, the ring slides off. She rolls her eyes as she hands it over. Nikki takes the ring out of Deja's hand with the hem of her T-shirt and proceeds to rub the leftover spit off it. She slips it on her ring finger, then holds up her hand.

  "You've got to give it back to me on Monday."

  Nikki doesn't seem to hear. She wiggles her fingers slowly to make the ring sparkle.

  "Monday, Nikki," Deja insists.

  "Okay. I already heard you."

  Nikki is looking at Deja's citrine ring as if it is now hers. Deja wants to snatch it back, but it is firmly on Nikki's finger.

  2. Mapping the Neighborhood

  Mr. Delvecchio is sitting on a stool behind the counter reading the newspaper. He says he reads the entire paper every day. He'll tell you that every time you go into his store. "Helps the day pass during the slow times," he says before he lowers it to peer at Deja and Nikki. Occasionally Mr. Delvecchio comes from the other side of the counter to straighten the canned goods on the shelf. Deja suspects he might be checking to make sure they don't take anything. That doesn't feel too good, but she likes Mr. D. anyway. Some kids do take things, so that makes him be on guard.

  "I think somebody's got a birthday comin' up soon," he says, surprising her. That's the funny thing about Mr. Delvecchio. One minute he's stern, and the next his eyes are crinkling with a smile and he's saying something nice.

  Deja remembers telling him about her birthday last week. She always starts trumpeting her birthday early, so everyone knows it's coming.

  "What are the big plans?" he asks with a twinkle in his eye.

  "I'm having a game party—where we're going to play all kinds of games."

  "Mmm. That's a first for me," he says before going back to his paper.

  Nikki moves away to check the candy display, and Deja goes to the back of the store to the refrigerated case for a half-gallon of milk.

  Out on the street, Deja walks backward. "Mr. Delvecchio remembered I have a birthday coming up."

  "Who doesn't?" Nikki says.

  "Maybe he's going to get me something. Maybe he's going to let me have free candy."

  Nikki rolls her eyes and holds out her bag of hot chips. Deja reaches in and plucks a few out. "Let's go the long way back," she says. That would be down Maynard to Ashby, the street past Fulton, a left turn down Ashby, another left on Marin, and back to Fulton. "Then we can remember what to put on our map."

  They pass Rick B's Junkyard, with its deadly looking fence topped with coiled razor wire. They always look straight ahead while tiptoeing by, hoping not to alert Prince, Rick B's ferocious and fearsome rottweiler. He is too horrible to even glance at, even though a chainlink fence separates them from him.

  "Where you think Prince is?" Deja says in a near whisper.

  "I don't care about Prince," Nikki says, but she looks over her shoulder and quickens her step. Once they are safely past the junkyard, she turns around and cups her mouth. "Hey, Prince! You ugly ol' dog," she calls out. "Who's afraid of you?"

  They wait to see him charge the fence, barking and snarling and racing back and forth. But this time Prince doesn't make an appearance. Must be sleeping, Deja thinks.

  They pass Perfect Beauty Hair Salon and Nail Emporium on Ashby. They peer in the window and see Mrs. Broadie, the cafeteria lady, getting her hair done. One side of her hair sticks out all over, and one side is slick to her head. They look at each other and burst into laughter. "She looks funny," Nikki says.

  "Don't let her see you," Deja says, pulling Nikki after her. Mrs. Broadie can be mean, especially if you take an extra pudding or miss picking up the small bowl of green beans. "Get those beans," she'll say.

  "Write this down, Nikki," Deja says.

  Nikki pulls out her notebook from the pouch she wears around her neck.

  "On our map we're also going to have Babe's Barbecue, Global Tire and Brakes, and Your History Bookstore."

  Nikki writes quickly, then looks up.

  "And Perfect Beauty Hair Salon and Nail Emporium..." Deja squints, thinking. "Oh, and Puerto Nuevo Restaurant."

  "Wait, hold on. I can't write that fast."

  When Nikki finally lifts her pen from her pad, Deja continues a little more slowly. "Rick B's Junkyard."

  "I don't want that on our map," Nikki says.

  "How come?"

  "'Cause he's got that ugly dog."

  "Prince can't hurt you just because we put the junkyard on our map."

&
nbsp; "I know that," Nikki says. Then, in a quieter voice, she adds, "I just don't want to be reminded of him."

  Deja knows that Nikki is afraid of dogs. If she sees one at the end of the block, she'll cross the street or go the other way. She doesn't even like to go to someone's house where there's a dog. She can walk by the junkyard only because Prince is always behind a fence. Deja doesn't say anything, but she plans to include the junkyard. It takes up half a block. It would be too hard to leave it out.

  They walk on at a slower pace. Deja shifts the half-gallon of milk in her arms. "Anyway, Auntie Dee says dogs are more afraid of us than we are of them."

  Nikki presses her lips together as if the notion makes her a little suspicious. "I don't believe it," she says.

  After a while Deja says, "Don't forget Simply Delicious Health Food Store." She points to the other side of the street. It is Auntie Dee's favorite neighborhood store. Deja suspects it is because of the owner. Auntie Dee always seems flustered and gushy whenever he is at the register, and Deja doesn't like that. She never says anything, but it annoys her to see Auntie Dee acting so silly. She can't put into words just what it is that bothers her, though.

  ***

  Back at home, Auntie Dee has bought them a bright yellow poster board for their map. They take all of their supplies out to Deja's front porch. Nikki carries the markers and rulers, and Deja brings the poster board and pencils. There they begin to work on different sections, in pencil first. Deja draws the lines for their street in the middle. Then they begin working on the streets around Fulton. At one point, Auntie Dee steps around them to go to her car in the driveway. "Good job," she says. Nikki is working on writing "Perfect Beauty Hair Salon and Nail Emporium" as neatly as possible, and Deja is coloring in trees and bushes.