Wedding Drama (2 page)

Then a miracle happens—something so startling, she can't believe she heard Ms. Shelby correctly. Did she say
Nikki?
Did she really say Nikki's name? She must have, because immediately a chorus of moans and groans and “That's not
fair!
” starts up, until Ms. Shelby has to raise her hand and put the forefinger of the other hand over her lips. She has to look around in that fashion until everyone has settled down.

When the class is finally quiet, several girls—especially Keisha and ChiChi—show their displeasure with furrowed brows, poked-out lips, and sucking of the teeth as loudly as they can muster. Antonia has the ability to raise one eyebrow, and she does this now and holds it while moving her pursed lips to one side. Though she is looking down, anyone can tell that she heartily disapproves. Then she turns and whispers something to her best friend, Casey, who sits behind her.

All of this just encourages Ms. Shelby to deliver—in not too many words, thankfully—one of her standard speeches about fairness and accepting results, even if you don't like them, when things are
fair and square,
and a bunch of other stuff. Deja doesn't really pay attention because she's just fine with the results. In fact, she's so fine she's afraid to look over at Nikki. They both might just break out into huge smiles.

***

“We're going to Ms. Shelby's wedding,” Deja says as they walk slowly toward the handball court. “We're going to Ms. Shelby's wedding!”

“I can't believe it,” Nikki adds. She takes out one of the invitations Ms. Shelby gave her and Deja after she dismissed the class for morning recess. Ms. Shelby had held them back until all the other kids had gone.

“I didn't want to give you these in front of your classmates,” she'd said. “That would have made them feel worse.”

The invitations are beautiful. Deja takes hers out as well, and stares at it. “It was fair and square,” she repeats after a minute or so, as if she has to convince herself.

“Yeah, it was fair and square.”

 

That's not exactly how Keisha sees it from her place in line behind Deja when recess is over. “I don't think people who are best friends should get to go,” she says in a whisper at Deja's neck.

“Ms. Shelby says it was fair and square, and I go by what Ms. Shelby says,” Deja replies over her shoulder.

Keisha ignores this. Obviously, she has a solution. “One of you should let someone else go in your place.”

“No,” Deja says immediately. “One of us is not going to do that. We're both going.”

“Not fair,” Keisha says under her breath in a hissing sound.

Deja shrugs, but she feels a little funny.

Happily, as the day goes on, acceptance that it will be Nikki and Deja going to the wedding seems to grow, and attention shifts to Ms. Shelby's wedding dress. It's Rosario's idea to imagine what the dress will look like. And the idea seems to take hold. During the rest of the morning, at every possible opportunity, the girls work on drawings of Ms. Shelby's wedding dress—what they would like to see their teacher wear, if they had their way.

All day they pull out the drawings to touch them up: after spelling activities, after math workshop, during free time. Finally, at lunch recess, all the girls bring their artwork to Room Ten's outside table to scrutinize one another's creations.

Nikki unfolds hers carefully and holds it down. A circle of heads gather over it. There's silence for a moment, and then Ayanna says thoughtfully, “I like the colors. Kind of.” Nikki has drawn Ms. Shelby in a long yellow and blue gown that's clingy on top but then billows out in a big fluffy circle.

“But it's not white,” ChiChi says. “Wedding dresses have to be white.”

“They don't have to be,” Nikki says quickly. “You can have any color you want.”

Next, Deja puts hers down for all to see. She has drawn Ms. Shelby's dress in lavender and made a train for the dress that swirls down and around and all over the paper. It's quite different, and several girls
ooh
and
ahh
as if they wish they had thought to make a wedding dress train that swirled all over the paper.

Keisha has the best drawing. She has pictured Ms. Shelby in a long white dress with a fluffy white shawl. Plus, she's drawn a tiara, making their teacher look just like a princess. Keisha is the best artist in the class.

When everyone looks up, Yolanda says, “I wonder what everybody's going to eat at Ms. Shelby's wedding.” Deja can tell that Yolanda's mouth is watering at the thought of it. “I wonder what kind of wedding cake she's going to have,” Yolanda continues. Her eyes drift up to the sky as she's imagining it. “Let's draw wedding cakes!” she says suddenly.

They all sit back down at the outdoor table, turn their papers over to the clean side, and begin to create elaborate wedding cakes. Ayanna makes hers fifteen-tiered, with alternating pink and blue icing.

“That looks more like a baby shower cake,” Keisha says, eyeing Ayanna's drawing. ChiChi's eyes get big, then everyone bursts into giggles.

“It does not!” Ayanna protests. “Baby shower cakes don't come in tiers!”

“What are tiers?” Yolanda asks.

“These things,” Ayanna says, pointing to the layers on her drawing.

The freeze bell rings then, and everyone sits perfectly still until the second bell signals that it's time to line up. Each girl carries her drawing carefully to her place in Room Ten's lineup spot.

 

A funny thing happens later that day. It happens when Nikki goes to the office to deliver the book fair money. It's her turn to be office monitor, which is really the best thing to be. There's always something that has to go to the office—or something that has to be retrieved from the office. It's the most wonderful thing to hear Ms. Shelby say, “I need the office monitor to take_to the office.” Excitement flutters in Nikki's stomach as she rises from her seat—to the envy of the rest of the class—and walks in a very officious way to Ms. Shelby's desk. She has a grand sense of importance as she walks down the hall and feels the eyes of some of the other kids on her when she passes their open classroom doors. It's hard to keep from smiling. She has this special permission that they don't have. She loves hearing Mrs. Marker, the office lady, say, “Thank you, Nikki,” as she solemnly hands over the important folder. It's reassuring that someone in the office knows her name. She's the
office monitor.
There are only a few other kids at Carver Elementary who can make that claim.

This afternoon when Nikki opens the door to the office she sees a big bouquet of roses sitting on the counter, the one where all the important handouts for parents are stacked. The one with the pencil on a string and the list of volunteer hours where parents put check marks; the one with a small bell that visitors can ring when everyone behind the counter is too busy to notice that they are standing there waiting. Today, standing beside the big vase of roses, a man is waiting patiently. He is not very tall and he's wearing glasses. He looks like a man who might have been super smart when he was a little boy. He waits, and Nikki waits. No one is on the other side of the counter. She wishes he would just ring the bell, and she wonders why he doesn't. She can't ring the bell because she is just a kid. So she has to wait.

After a minute that feels like an hour, Mrs. Marker returns to the counter. She doesn't see Nikki standing there with the folder. She just sees the man with the flowers. She gives him a big smile.

“I bet I know who those are for,” she says.

“I bet you do, too,” the man says in a quiet voice.

Nikki's ears perk up.

“Well, you know she's in class now, but I can make sure she gets them at afternoon recess.”

“That'll be great,” the man says. He has a really shy smile, Nikki sees. And his voice is so quiet. She wonders who those roses could be for. They're probably for a teacher, because it's not graduation day, when parents bring bunches of balloons and flowers for their graduates. But they could be for someone's birthday. A girl ... The man must be somebody's daddy. Boy, is she ever lucky.

“Nikki, are you deaf?”

Mrs. Marker is reaching her hand out for the folder.

“Oh!” Nikki says, startled.

The man smiles down at her then, and Nikki feels even more startled, and a little bit embarrassed. She hands over the folder and turns toward the door.

“Wait a sec, Nikki,” Mrs. Marker says. “Could you tell your teacher that there's something really special in the office for her?” Mrs. Marker winks at the man. He smiles shyly again.

“Don't forget. Tell her it's something from someone she knows.”

The man smiles at Nikki now. She can feel that smile as she goes out the door and all the way down the hall. She knows who he is. She is sure. That man is Ms. Shelby's fiancé. That short, soft-spoken man is Ms. Shelby's
fiancé!
Wait until she tells Deja! Wait until she tells all the other girls! She, Nikki, alone, has seen with her own two eyes
Ms. Shelby's fiancé.

As soon as she enters Room Ten, she delivers the message as promised, then watches Ms. Shelby's face closely. “Thank you, Nikki,” is all she says. The class is quiet with a workbook assignment, and Ms. Shelby is busy with her grade book. Nikki looks at the stack of spelling tests on Ms. Shelby's desk and glances quickly at the test she'd been correcting. Nikki almost laughs when she sees all the red marks on Ralph's paper. He never bothers to study, even though Ms. Shelby gives them a pretest the day before the real test. And on the day of the real test, Ms. Shelby tells the class she's rooting for them. Nikki thinks that when your teacher is rooting for you, you should at least try.

As she heads for her desk, she looks over at Deja and makes her eyes real big. Deja looks puzzled. It is their signal that one of them knows something really important that the other one doesn't know.

“What?” Deja mouths.

In answer, Nikki purses her lips as if she's whistling and looks up at the ceiling.

Deja frowns. She doesn't like to be in the dark.

As soon as Ms. Shelby lets them out for afternoon recess, Deja grabs Nikki's arm and says, “What's going on?”

“I saw Ms. Shelby's fiancé.”

Rosario, walking practically on Nikki's heels, exclaims, “Ms. Shelby's fiancé?”

Nikki whips around. “Yes. I saw him
with my own two eyes.
” She feels a little bit powerful stating this.

“What's he look like?” Deja asks.

Antonia gets wind of this and sidles over. She doesn't say anything. She just stands there as a small crowd gathers around Nikki and Deja and Rosario. They're all waiting to hear what their teacher's fiancé looks like.

“My auntie has a fiancé,” Yolanda states proudly. “She has a ring and everything.” She only gets a moment of attention from the group of girls. They have more important things to find out, it seems.

“Tell us everything,” Ayanna says.

“Well, he's kinda short.”

Rosario's shoulders sink with disappointment.

“And he wears glasses.”

“Glasses,” Yolanda says in a low voice, as if the thought of Ms. Shelby's fiancé wearing glasses is too strange to comprehend.

“And I think he speaks another language along with American.”

“Another language,” Deja says. “Like what?”

“I think Spanish.”

“My mom and dad speak Spanish,” Rosario says. “And my grandparents and my two aunts and all of my uncles, and I can, too, if I want to.”

“I never heard you speak Spanish,” Ayanna says. “Say something in Spanish.”

“
Buenos dias”,
Rosario says.

“Anybody can say
buenos dias,
” Antonia—who almost never says anything because she mainly likes to listen—declares.