Birthday Blues by Karen English Read Free Book Online Page B

never ever gets to have—except on her birthday. On Auntie Dee's best china plate is a single cinnamon bun, like the kind they sell at the mall. Gooey and dripping with icing. Deja can never eat a whole one, but she always thinks she can when she starts. She peels off a piece and licks the icing. She licks all the icing clinging to her fingers. She feels a little better.
    "Now, Deja, I made some calls last night and some this morning. It seems most of the girls in your class are going to Antonia's party, but a few are now undecided. There's nothing we can do about it, so let's think of something fun you, me, Nikki, and your little friend Sheila can do."
    Deja sits up straight at the mention of Sheila Sharpe.
She's not my friend!
she wants to say. But she doesn't. She realizes fully what a dud her party is going to be and slumps her shoulders. She looks out the kitchen window at a cloud-covered morning. The wind rattles the leaves on Auntie Dee's maple trees. Even the day is disappointing. Where is the sun?

11. A Turn of Events

    The party will start at two—with hardly any guests, unless some of the "undecideds" decide to come.
    Nikki pops over with lavender and pink streamers. "Look, Deja. I've got your favorite colors."
    "Great."
    "Come on, Deja. Some girls might come. Don't you want the living room to look pretty? I brought lavender and pink balloons, too."
    Deja shrugs. "I guess." She holds out her hand, and Nikki gives her a package of lavender streamers.
    Working alongside Auntie Dee, they hang paper streamers in the living room. Then they set up the card tables with the board games and bring out the big stuffed panda bear that will be first prize. On each table, they place bowls of popcorn and peanuts. Deja had already made sure nobody had any peanut allergies back when she thought the entire classroom of girls was coming. Then they start blowing up the balloons. Auntie Dee has even set up an empty card table in the corner for birthday presents. Deja looks over at the nearly empty table. So far there's only Nikki's present. She supposes that soon there will be at least one more ... from
Sheila Sharpe.

    In the refrigerator sits Deja's lavender birthday cake with the pink flowers. In the freezer is Deja's strawberry ice cream, because pink and lavender make such a happy combination, and Deja, with her decorator's eye, knows this.
    Just then, Deja, Nikki, and Auntie Dee hear a loud cracking sound. They stop as if the freeze bell has rung in the living room. Deja waits to see what will follow. Silence. And then another louder cracking sound. Deja and Nikki rush to the living room window just as a steady downpour begins.
    "It's raining," they say in hushed tones. They slap palms, but in a way that shows they barely believe it. It's
raining.
Great big drops pelt the sidewalk, Auntie Dee's tiny white compact car in the driveway, Mr. Bohanna's lilac bushes. It's
raining.
On Deja's birthday.

    But that means it's also raining on Antonia's backyard. It's raining on her trampoline, on her roller rink, and on her tetherball (built into the ground). On her party that's supposed to take place—now! Nikki and Deja look at each other as a slow smile grows on each of their faces. Nikki starts the song first. Soon Deja joins her, until they are skipping around the living room hand in hand:
It's raining, it's pouring,

The old man is snoring.

He bumped his head and went to bed

And couldn't get up in the morning.
    "Again!" Deja demands, so they sing it again.
It's raining, it's pouring,

The old man is snoring.

He bumped his head and went to bed

And couldn't get up in the morning.

    "Again!" Deja says louder. And they sing it again. And again, and again, until Auntie Dee says, "Okay, enough." Then they just skip around the room humming.

    Sheila Sharpe soon arrives. Deja opens the door just as Sheila's pushing her glasses up on her nose with her index finger. The first thing she says as she hands Deja a big box wrapped in