Sample text for Nikki and Deja / by Karen English ; illustrated by Laura Freeman.
Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog
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Chapter 2
New Neighbors
They settle on Nikki's front porch to watch the
happenings on their street. Bear sits on the steps
between them. Watching their neighbors on Fulton
Street is one of their favorite things to do on
Saturday mornings. Mr. Robinson, next door,
putters in his yard. Bobby, across the street,
washes his car. Vianda, next door to Bobby,
practices drill steps with her high school friends.
Nikki and Deja even like to watch the mailman
make his way up and down their block.
"I bet we could do that," Deja says, pointing
to Vianda. "It's kind of like cheerleading--without
the jumping up and down. It looks easy."
Nikki watches for a while. It doesn't look
easy to her.
Nikki's mother opens the screen door and
sticks her head out. "Nikki, you need to come in
and clean your room."
"Can I stay out for fifteen more minutes?"
"Fifteen minutes," she says. "No more."
Nikki watches Deja as she tries to imitate
Vianda and her friends. She does a little shuffle
and slide. Then she looks at Nikki, seemingly
very proud of herself.
But Nikki isn't paying attention. A big green
moving van is rumbling down Fulton Street. It
pulls up to the empty house three doors down
with a loud screech. Deja watches, too. "New
neighbors," they say at the same time and slap
palms.
The van's back doors swing open, a ramp
clangs to the curb, and one of the moving men
rolls down a big blue bureau. Nikki and Deja
watch as chairs and tables and sofas and boxes
and . . . a dollhouse! . . . are carried into the
house.
"Kids," they say together and slap palms
again.
Nikki reaches for the special pouch she
wears around her neck. She takes out the pad
and pencil she keeps inside it and starts to write
down what she sees.
Deja glances over at her. Nikki likes making
lists.
They watch the movers unload more boxes
and a smart pink bedroom set with a canopy bed.
Then the movers unload a trampoline!
Nikki and Deja stare. They look at each other,
speechless. No one they know has a trampoline.
"How do you spell trampoline?" Nikki asks,
tapping her notepad with her pencil.
"You're the spelling bee champ," Deja says.
At that point, a big black car pulls up behind
the moving van. A man, a lady, and a little girl
who looks the same age as Nikki and Deja climb
out. Nikki and Deja stare hard at the girl, willing
her to look their way. She doesn't. She just
fiddles with the tip of her very long braid and
stops to peer down into one of the boxes.
"Her hair is long," Deja says.
Nikki leans her head back to make her own
two braids look longer. "Deja, whose hair is
longer? Mine or hers?"
Deja doesn't even have to look at Nikki. "Her
hair is way longer."
Just then, the new girl straightens and
glances over at them. Ever so slightly, she rolls
her eyes and walks into the house. The door
closes behind her.
"Did you see that?" Deja says. "She rolled
her eyes at us!"
"Yeah!" Nikki says. She can't believe that
new girl rolled her eyes at them.
"Who cares about her old ugly canopy bed?"
Nikki wasn't thinking about the bed. But now
that Deja brings it up, she realizes she did want to
see it close up. "Yeah," she says weakly.
"Let's have a club and make sure that girl is
not in it," Deja says. "Let's make her sorry she
rolled her eyes at us!"
Library of Congress subject headings for this publication:
Best friends -- Fiction.
Friendship -- Fiction.
Schools -- Fiction.
Clubs -- Fiction.