Birthday Blues

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

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

"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 out 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.