Read Online Wedding Drama by Karen English - Free Book Online Page A

even
remember
it. Hah, hah, and
hah,
that she got a two on her little cakes. Deja smiles, thinking back on it. She almost laughs.
    At lunch recess, for the second day in a row, Nikki runs out ahead with Keisha and ChiChi to the jump rope area. Deja decides she’ll jump rope, too. Why not? They don’t own the jump rope area. Besides, she’s good at jumping rope. She plans to jump and jump until the freeze bell rings. When Deja reaches them, they’re already jumping double dutch: Nikki and Keisha are turning the ropes and ChiChi is jumping. Deja can’t believe her eyes. Nikki, who has no rhythm, is turning the ropes—in rhythm! Who taught her that?
    As if reading Deja’s mind, Nikki says, “I can turn now. ChiChi showed me how.”
    â€œWell, la-di-da,” Deja says, crossing her arms.
    All three girls look over at Deja. Then Keisha and ChiChi look at Nikki, as if waiting to see how she’s going to react to this.
    Nikki, with ropes in hand, can only manage to roll her eyes.
    Deja gets in the jump rope line. She’ll show them.
    â€œRegular,” Deja says when it’s her turn to jump.
    Keisha and Nikki begin to turn with one rope. Deja steps back a few feet, then follows the rhythm of the rope with the palms of her hands until just the right moment. She jumps in and begins to chant: “
All last night and the night before, twenty-four robbers came knocking at the door. I got up to let them in, and this is what they said ... One, two, three...
”
    Deja is jumping with ease. She could do this all morning. When she gets to fifty-four, she feels the rope jerk beneath her foot, causing her to stumble.
    â€œOut!” Nikki says. “Your turn, Ayanna!” Ayanna is next in line.
    â€œI’m not out! You pulled the rope!”
    â€œI did not!”
    â€œYou did, too!” Deja insists.
    â€œKeisha, did I pull the rope?”
    Keisha shrugs, as if she doesn’t want to get in the middle of it.
    â€œOut, Deja!” a girl from Mr. Miller’s class yells. Then everyone in line begins to chant:

    â€œ
You’re out, Deja! You’re out, Deja! You’re out, Deja!
”
    Deja would like to punch that girl. She is not even in her room area. Room Sixteen has tetherball this week. She should tell Mrs. Butler on her. She should try to get that girl benched. Instead, Deja stomps off to Room Ten’s lineup spot. She’s tired of jumping, anyway.
    Â 
    The rest of the day pretty much follows the same pattern. Now Nikki is oh-so-tight with ChiChi and Keisha. Deja spies them passing notes to one another. At the end of the day, they use their free ten minutes to work on the class jigsaw puzzle together. It has five hundred pieces.
    But Deja has an idea to get even. She’ll invite Ayanna over to play Ping-Pong after school. Now that Auntie is home all the time, Deja can have company. With this in mind, she doesn’t care a bit about the laughter coming from the puzzle table. She doesn’t even care that Ms. Shelby has to tell them over and over to use their inside voices.
    As soon as Ms. Shelby tells Deja’s row to line up by the door to go home and is busy deciding which row is next, Deja turns to Ayanna behind her. “Can you come over? To play Ping-Pong?”
    â€œI’ll ask my mom,” Ayanna says, looking a little surprised. “Can Rosario come?”
    â€œI guess so,” Deja says.
    â€œAnd Suzanne from Mr. Beaumont’s class? She lives on my block, and my mother gives her a ride.”
    â€œOkay,” Deja says, a little unsure. Suddenly, she’s not feeling so confident, but she can’t back out now.
    As she walks to Auntie’s car, she thinks about how she’ll go about getting permission to have company. She thinks about how Nikki will feel now that Deja has new and better friends.
    â€œWhere’s Nikki?” Auntie Dee asks as Deja is fastening her seat belt.
    â€œShe’s coming,