Nikki and Deja Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 Where Is Ms. Shelby-Ortiz?

  2 Poor Mr. Willow

  3 Dear Mr. Willow

  4 Kick Me!

  5 A Change Is Coming

  6 Meet Mr. Blaggart

  7 Blaggart Days

  8 Benched

  9 Come Back, Ms. Shelby-Ortiz

  10 Dear Ms. Shelby-Ortiz

  Read More from the Nikki & Deja Series

  Sneak Peek of DOG DAYS

  Buy the Book

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  Clarion Books

  215 Park Avenue South

  New York, New York 10003

  Text copyright © 2013 by Karen English

  Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Laura Freeman

  All rights reserved.

  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.

  Clarion Books is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  www.hmhbooks.com

  The illustrations were executed digitally.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  English, Karen.

  Nikki and Deja : substitute trouble / by Karen English ; illustrated by Laura Freeman.

  p. cm.

  Summary: While Ms. Shelby-Ortiz is recovering from an injury, substitute Mr. Willow takes over Nikki and Deja’s third-grade class with disastrous results.

  ISBN 978-0-547-61565-3 (hardcover)

  [1. Substitute teachers—Fiction. 2. Teachers—Fiction. 3. Behavior—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction. 5. Best friends—Fiction. 6. Friendship—Fiction. 7. African Americans—Fiction.] I. Freeman-Hines, Laura, ill. II. Title. III. Title: Substitute teacher.

  PZ7.E7232Nj 2013

  [Fic]—dc23

  2012021009

  eISBN 978-0-544-03556-0

  v1.0713

  To all the Nikkis and Dejas everywhere

  —K.E.

  To my Mom, Trudy

  —L.F.

  1

  Where Is Ms. Shelby-Ortiz?

  Something not-so-good happens the first Monday after Deja gets her puppy, Ms. Precious Penelope. She wants so much to write about her new pet in her morning journal and then read it to the class when Ms. Shelby-Ortiz asks if there is anyone who would like to share. She pictures herself being one of the only kids to throw a hand up and wave it in the air. Deja imagines reading her entry and Ms. Shelby-Ortiz smiling with approval and surprise that Deja is using so many supporting details and descriptive adjectives. But something not-so-good happens to that picture in her head. Ms. Shelby-Ortiz is not there!

  When the whole class is lined up nicely and quietly, waiting to be led into the school, Deja sees an unfamiliar person heading their way across the yard. It’s a man! A substitute teacher! Where is Ms. Shelby-Ortiz? Where is their beautiful teacher, who just got married a few months ago and has done that fancy thing with her name (which Deja is going to do with her name too, when she finally grows up and marries)?

  The substitute walks right up to the line and stands there in front of the class without saying anything. Nikki, Deja’s best friend, looks back at her and frowns. Good. Nikki feels just the same as Deja. That is the good thing about best friends. Most of the time, they feel just like you do.

  He holds his hands in front of him and looks up and down the line, as if he’s trying to decide who the bad kids are. His eyes stop at Deja for a moment and he seems to look at her more closely, squinting. A few kids behind her begin to whisper to each other. He puts his forefinger over his mouth to quiet them, but real timid-like.

  Deja already knows two things. She isn’t going to like this sub, and her best friend, Nikki, isn’t going to like him either.

  As soon as the students enter the classroom and do their morning things—hanging up their coats, putting away their lunches, taking their homework out of their backpacks and putting it in the homework tray on Ms. Shelby-Ortiz’s desk—the new teacher writes his name on the whiteboard in cursive handwriting: Mr. Willow.

  Too little, Deja thinks. Mr. Willow . . . What kind of name is that, anyway? That’s the name of a tree, not a person. He turns around and puts his hands in his pockets.

  “My name is Mr. Willow, and I’m going to be your substitute teacher during Ms. Shelby-Ortiz’s absence.” He says this in a quiet voice without much confidence. Maybe he’s new to teaching. He does look pretty young.

  Deja doesn’t like hearing the word “absence,” and she doesn’t know why. “Teacher” and “absence” just shouldn’t go together. Mr. Willow continues with a little smile on his face like he’s secretly happy that Ms. Shelby-Ortiz is absent.

  “Your teacher had an accident and—”

  There’s a big, collective gasp. Nikki looks over at Deja. Deja feels her eyes widen. For the past two weeks, Ms. Shelby-Ortiz has been experimenting with letting the kids who usually pay attention sit where they choose. Her only requirement is that they listen when she’s talking and that they stay on task when they’re working. Nikki and Deja have proven that they can do both, so they get to sit at the same table across from each other. Of course.

  Mr. Willow holds up his palm. “Hold on, hold on. . . . Your teacher is fine. It’s just a broken ankle. She’s only going to be out two or three weeks.”

  Two or three weeks! Deja thinks. Impossible!

  “A broken ankle!” Carlos calls out, and it sounds like a protest. He often forgets to raise his hand and wait to be recognized before he speaks.

  Mr. Willow looks over at him. “It seems she was out walking around her neighborhood— for exercise—and stepped on one of those acorn-type things that fall from trees.” Everyone is listening with their full attention. Probably imagining their teacher out walking around for exercise, Deja guesses. And then actually falling and hurting herself.

  Nikki raises her hand nicely, and Mr. Willow points at her as if he’s a cop directing traffic.

  “How did Ms. Shelby-Ortiz get home?” she asks quietly, and Deja wonders if she’s going to cry.

  “I’m not sure,” Mr. Willow says. “But she managed to get to the hospital and have her ankle x-rayed, and it was broken, unfortunately. So she has to spend the next few weeks off her feet. That’s why I’m here.”

  There is a long moment of silence. Deja looks around. It seems as if everyone is busy taking this in. Some are probably imagining Ms. Shelby- Ortiz sitting on her sofa, her foot up on her coffee table with a big cast on it.

  “Now, your teacher’s husband brought in her lesson-plan book. . . .”

  A few kids giggle at the mention of Ms. Shelby-Ortiz’s husband. The fact that she now has a husband is still so strange, even for Deja, who was at her wedding.

  Mr. Willow goes on. “And a list of the most helpful students.”

  Deja holds her breath. Has Ms. Shelby-Ortiz noticed how helpful she’s been? Especially as lunch monitor and office monitor? Has she noticed how good Deja is at folding her hands and listening with both ears when Ms. Shelby-Ortiz is explaining something or giving directions?

  Deja glances over at Nikki. She can tell Nikki is waiting too. Mr. Willow is examining a paper in his hand. It must have the names of all the helpful kids on it. Deja thinks her name should be at the top of the list.

  “Who’s Antonia?” Mr. Willow asks, looking around.

  Antonia raises her hand straight up. Like a person reaching for the sky, Deja thinks.

  Antonia smiles to herself and looks over at her best friend, Casey.

  This is
what Deja can’t understand. Why would Antonia be on the list when Deja has had way more jobs? She’s sharpened pencils for the teacher, cleaned the whiteboard, and taken the recycling bin out to the big recycle receptacle or whatever it’s called. She has, without being asked, arranged the books in the class library. Why, she could go on and on—in her head, of course. And really, what has Antonia done?

  “Antonia, it seems you’re paper monitor this week.”

  Antonia frowns at this. She clearly had expected more.

  “Carlos? Where’s Carlos?”

  Carlos shoots his hand up. Deja is surprised. Carlos can’t be on the helpful kids list!

  “You’re in charge of keeping the class pencils nice and sharp.”

  Carlos grins as if he’s been given some great job, like office monitor or lunch monitor. Deja shakes her head.

  “Who’s Deja?” Mr. Willow asks.

  Deja shoots her hand up.

  “You’re book monitor this week.” Mr. Willow doesn’t even look at her while he says this. He just looks at the paper on the clipboard he has in his hand and calmly checks off something with his pencil. He continues this way until the monitors for the week have been announced. But Deja still can’t tell who the helpful kids are. Who did Ms. Shelby-Ortiz put on her “helpful” list?

  2

  Poor Mr. Willow

  “I don’t like him,” Deja tells Nikki at recess. They are sitting on the bench next to the homework table. Since it’s Monday, there’s no one sitting at the homework table (which is really just a lunch table). The homework table is for the benched kids who didn’t do their homework. There’s no homework on Fridays, so there are no benched kids on Mondays.

  “Why?” Nikki asks.

  “Because he doesn’t even seem like a real teacher.”

  “He seems like a real teacher to me.”

  “Not to me.”

  “Well,” says Nikki, “he just got here. So I don’t think you even know what he’s like.”

  “But when we first got into Ms. Shelby’s class—”

  “Shelby-Ortiz,” Nikki corrects.

  “Right,” Deja says, now a little annoyed about having to say that mouthful every time she wants to talk about Ms. Shelby-Ortiz. “She learned all of our names the first day. But that Mr. Willow . . . he hasn’t even bothered to learn our names. He says stuff like, ‘You in the blue sweater’ or ‘You with the glasses.’ I think that’s rude.”

  Nikki is quiet. Deja wishes she would say something to show that she agrees with her, but she doesn’t.

  And another thing, Deja concludes after the class has come in from recess and she’s able to sit down and really observe Mr. Willow, Ms. Shelby-Ortiz does not sip coffee from one of those thermal things after recess is over. Deja bets there’s some kind of teacher rule against that. But there he sits on the edge of Ms. Shelby-Ortiz’s desk, watching the students take their seats while he sips from his stupid thermos.

  “Now,” says Mr. Willow, “I’m looking at your teacher’s lesson plan and . . .” Then he stops, flustered. “I . . . uh . . .”

  Some of the students look at each other and smile, and Deja picks up an “uh-oh” vibe. She doesn’t like the feeling she’s getting.

  “So, it looks like you’re starting a new selection in your reading anthology. ‘Three Frogs.’”

  Carlos’s hand goes up. “We read that last week,” he says.

  Deja’s mouth drops open. Nikki’s does as well. Deja looks behind her. Some of the kids have secretive smirks on their faces. Some look concerned.

  “Oh,” Mr. Willow says. “I thought . . .” His voice drifts off.

  “We’re on ‘Smoke Signals,’” Richard calls out without raising his hand. Deja doesn’t like what’s going on. It’s the way some kids act when there’s a substitute. They do things they would never do with their regular teacher.

  Mr. Willow looks through his big teacher’s edition. “Okay, everyone . . . Turn to page fifty-seven. We’ll be reading ‘Smoke Signals’ instead.” He looks up from the book and squints. He glances around. Then something dawns on Deja. Mr. Willow wears glasses. It’s probably time for a new pair. “You, in the green sweater. You can go first.”

  Luckily, it’s Beverly. She’s never a problem. She always does exactly as she’s told. Even though she knows the class is on “Three Frogs,” Mr. Willow said to read “Smoke Signals,” so “Smoke Signals” it will be.

  She begins in a halting voice because she’s not a very good reader. Mr. Willow has to tell her some of the easiest words, like Native and American. For Deja, this is the hardest part about reading round-robin style. When someone isn’t a very good reader, he or she takes forever to get through just one paragraph, and Deja almost feels as if she’s going to fall asleep. But Beverly does reach the end, and Deja shoots her hand up so that she can be the next reader. She’s dying to show Mr. Willow what a good reader sounds like. But he’s got some notion in his head that the next reader should be a boy.

  Too bad he calls on Carlos. Carlos is ready. Deja doesn’t know what he’s going to pull, but she knows it’s going to be something. He begins to read in a nice, clear voice, not having any problems with the so-called big words. But when she looks down in her book to follow along, she finds he’s skipped two paragraphs and is reading the paragraph near the bottom of the page.

  Mr. Willow realizes this at the same time and attempts to stop Carlos. “Wait, wait. . . . I think you’re on the wrong paragraph.”

  Mistake Number One. Actually, it’s Mistake Number Ten, Deja thinks. Mr. Willow should have said very clearly, “You’re on the wrong paragraph. Go up to paragraph two.” And then he should have looked at Carlos very sternly. But instead he starts off with, “I think . . .” Deja shakes her head slowly.

  Carlos looks up innocently. He even raises both eyebrows and widens his eyes. And some of the boys in the class clearly think the fact that he’s gotten away with this so easily is the greatest fun in the world.

  Luckily, Mr. Willow calls on the new boy, Gavin, next. He’s one of the good kids and he’s really smart, too. He begins to read the paragraph that follows the one Mr. Willow had directed Carlos to read. He reads smoothly and calmly. Some from the Knucklehead Club—as Nikki and Deja call the kids who can never stay on task and do what they’re supposed to do—look at him with scowls on their faces, annoyed that the new boy isn’t going along with the fun.

  Ayanna makes up for it. When Mr. Willow calls on her, she reads in a voice so soft, she can hardly be heard.

  “Can you speak up a little bit?” Mr. Willow asks.

  Mistake Number Zillion, Deja thinks. He should have said, “Speak up, or I’ll have to call on someone else.” Then if she continues in that baby voice, he should look around and ask, “Who in this class has a nice loud voice?” Even the boys’ hands would have shot up. They would have wanted to outdo everyone else. They would have forgotten all about their silly game.

  For a sentence or so, Ayanna does read in a regular voice, but then little by little her voice returns to a near whisper until Carlos raises his hand while calling out at the same time, “I can’t hear her! I don’t know where we are!”

  Mr. Willow is noticeably flustered. “Why don’t we just do silent reading and then answer the questions at the end of the selection?”

  Mistake Number Zillion and Three, according to Deja: Don’t ask. Tell.

  Students begin to take out their workbooks. A couple of kids get out of their seats—without permission—to sharpen their pencils. They would never do that if Ms. Shelby-Ortiz was there. That makes Deja angry the most. Some kids hold their pencils in the sharpener too long, and they know good and well Ms. Shelby-Ortiz has cautioned them against doing that. “You can burn out the motor like that,” she has told them. Some sharpen, look at their point, sharpen, look at their point again . . . just wasting time. Mr. Willow looks over at the line at the pencil sharpener, and Deja can tell it makes him feel uneasy. She can also tell he doesn’t know what
to do about it.

  She just has to come to his rescue. She raises her hand and waves it around a bit to get his attention. He looks over at her. “Yes, uh . . .”

  “I’m Deja,” she says. “Mr. Willow, Ms. Shelby-Ortiz doesn’t let a whole bunch of kids get up at the same time to sharpen their pencils.”

  “She doesn’t?”

  “No, what she does is ask people to raise their hands if they need to sharpen their pencils. Then she gives the kids who have raised their hands a number like one, two, three . . . like that. And then they have to go in that order, but they can’t go until it’s their number.”

  Mr. Willow looks as if he’s really trying hard to follow what Deja’s saying. She goes on.

  “And when there’s a kid who keeps breaking their pencil lead because they just want to get up and not do their work, then she gives them one of those big fat kindergarten pencils. Because nobody can break that lead. They’re in her top drawer,” Deja says finally. She notes Carlos has turned around to give her a dirty look, but she doesn’t care.

  Mr. Willow opens Ms. Shelby-Ortiz’s desk drawer. He takes out three kindergarten pencils. Deja just knows that there were some kids who’d planned to pull that broken-pencil routine. She smiles to herself. But then she notices that Carlos is sitting next to his good friend Ralph in Ayanna’s seat. She’s tempted to tell that, too, but she doesn’t want to seem like a real tattletale, so she says nothing.

  She says nothing even when Keisha and Ayanna ask to go to the restroom. They know Ms. Shelby-Ortiz never lets friends go to the rest-room together. They just want to get out to play. And if it’s close to the time to line up for lunch, Ms. Shelby-Ortiz makes a person wait. Unless it’s an emergency. Last month Beverly didn’t tell Ms. Shelby-Ortiz that it was an emergency. She just raised her hand calmly and then, upon getting permission, left the classroom for the restroom. When she didn’t come back, Ms. Shelby-Ortiz sent Deja to go and find out what happened.