The Newsy News Newsletter Read online

  Nikki & Deja the Newsy News Newsletter

  Karen English

  * * *

  Illustrated by Laura Freeman

  * * *

  Clarion Books

  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  Boston • New York 2010

  * * *

  To all the Nikkis and Dejas everywhere

  —K.E.

  To my wonderful family

  —L.F.

  * * *

  Clarion Books

  215 Park Avenue South

  New York, New York 10003

  Text copyright © 2010 by Karen English

  Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Laura Freeman

  The illustrations were executed digitally.

  The text was set in 14-point Warnock Pro Caption.

  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

  Printed in the United States of America

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  English, Karen.

  Nikki and Deja : the newsy news newsletter / by Karen English ; illustrated by Laura Freeman.

  p. cm.

  Summary: When Nikki and her best friend, Deja, start a newsletter about what is

  happening on their street and in their school, they focus more on writing exciting stories

  than on finding the truth.

  ISBN 978-0-547-22247-9

  [1. Newspaper publishing—Fiction. 2. Neighborhood—Fiction. 3. Best friends—Fiction.

  4. Friendship—Fiction. 5. Schools—Fiction.] I. Freeman-Hines, Laura, ill. II. Title.

  III. Title: Newsy news newsletter.

  PZ7.E7232Niq 2009

  [Fic]—dc22 2009015845

  WOZ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  * * *

  Contents

  1. Grab Bag 1

  2. Flat-Ground Ollie 8

  3. The Fulton Street Newsy News Newsletter Is Born (Officially) 20

  4. Editorial Decisions 32

  5. Selling Newsy News 44

  6. Trampolines and Tetherballs Built into the Ground 53

  7. Slow News—No News 62

  8. Antonia Mystery "Solved" 69

  9. Big Problems at the Fulton Street Newsy News Newsletter 75

  10. Retractions 84

  1. Grab Bag

  Nikki walks backwards, tilting her head way up to look directly at the sky. "Don't let me bump into anything," she says. She puts out her arms for balance. She does this kind of daredevil walk when she is feeling especially happy, especially satisfied. Deja walks alongside, watching her.

  Nikki is in high spirits. She got the I Spy key chain out of Ms. Shelby's grab bag. Everyone wanted it last time, and no one picked it. Once a month, those who have stickers straight across Ms. Shelby's behavior chart get to reach into her grab bag, without looking, and pick out a prize. They have only ten seconds to take something out, during which time they have to furiously feel around for the prize they have their "eye" on, so to speak. The day before grab bag day, Ms. Shelby always lines up the prizes on her desk for a full minute so her students can memorize their shapes and sizes. Then she drops them back into the bag with a sly smile and a little chuckle.

  Almost everyone—the good kids at least—had their eye on that I Spy key chain with the miniature I Spy board encased in a tiny plastic globe. Part of the globe even twists to magnify certain sections. The items to find are listed in tiny print along the bottom of the picture. You have to slide the magnifying circle over the teeny words to see what you have to "spy." It is the neatest little gadget, Nikki thinks. Everyone thought so. Everyone reached into that canvas bag with thoughts of the I Spy key chain.

  Deja hadn't gotten it. She'd gotten the hole puncher in the shape of a mouse. She admitted to Nikki that she'd searched and searched for the key chain, but then the ten seconds ran out and she grabbed what was nearest her hand. What was she going to do with a stupid hole puncher? she'd asked.

  Nikki spins around like a whirlybird and then stops abruptly. She's spotted Mrs. Markham. "Hi, Mrs. Markham," she says to their corner neighbor, who's all decked out in a sun hat and gardening apron. Mrs. Markham is examining the undersides of the leaves on her rosebush. Since Nikki stops, Deja has to stop, too.

  "Hi, girls," Mrs. Markham says, straightening up. "Do you know that this Bermuda Mystery Rose is featured in the Blue Island Rose Society Newsletter?" She smiles down at them.

  Nikki and Deja look at each other. They have no idea what Mrs. Markham is talking about.

  "I'm pretty proud of it." She gazes at her flowers, beaming.

  Nikki and Deja look at the rosebush, then back at Mrs. Markham.

  "Congratulations," Nikki says finally.

  "Congratulations," Deja says, following suit.

  "Guess what, Mrs. Markham?" Nikki says.

  "Oh, no," Deja says under her breath.

  Nikki catches that, but ignores her. "I got the prize everyone wanted out of the grab bag today!"

  "Say what?" Mrs. Markham asks, her eyes still on her roses.

  "Ms. Shelby, our teacher ... She has this grab bag at the end of every month—just for the good kids. You have to put your hand in without looking, and you only have ten seconds to choose something, and I got the prize everybody wanted!"

  Mrs. Markam frowns at a leaf. "How'd you do that?"

  Deja sighs heavily. Nikki has already explained her success to Ms. Shelby, and then to the custodian, and then to one of the kids in Mr. Beaumont's class who was going by to get to the school bus. She has told her story to anyone who'd listen.

  "See, I knew I was only going to have ten seconds, so I thought to myself, Just feel for the chain. Just feel for the chain. And that's what I did. I just concentrated on feeling for the chain. I swirled my fingers all around the bottom of the bag, 'cause I had a feeling it was on the bottom. And it was! I grabbed it before Ms. Shelby said, 'Time's up!'" Nikki has worked herself up into a bundle of excitement and is now grinning broadly.

  "My, my..." Mrs. Markham says. "Well, good for you."

  Deja nudges Nikki. "Come on. I gotta get home."

  They say goodbye to Mrs. Markam and continue down Fulton Street.

  Nikki is quiet for a while, reliving her triumph. In a quiet voice with a secretive hush, she begins, "See I knew that the key chain—"

  "You already told me," Deja says quickly.

  "So? I was just saying..."

  "But I already know how you picked it, because you've already said it a zillion times."

  "Not a zillion times."

  "Well, it seems like it."

  "I think you're jealous because I got the I Spy key chain."

  "I'm not jealous at all."

  Nikki is silent. She knows she can go on—because she is right—but she chooses not to.

  "You want to come in?" Nikki asks when they reach their two houses.

  "Guess so." Deja follows Nikki up the front porch steps. They stop to peek into the kitchen.

  Nikki's mom is peeling a potato over the sink. "Hi, girls. Nikki, you've got laundry to take up, and don't forget the towels."

  "Okay, but Mom, guess what? Guess what I got!"

  Deja rolls her eyes.

  Nikki holds the key chain up and spins it around her finger. "This is a grab bag prize. Everybody who got to get a grab bag prize—the good kids—wanted to get this prize. But only I knew how to get it. I was the one who knew to f
eel around the bottom of the bag and only feel for the chain part..."

  As she describes her success, Nikki catches Deja biting on her thumbnail, then looking down at her shoes. She hears Deja take a deep, slow breath and sees her press her lips together before letting it out loudly.

  "Good for you," Nikki's mom says, dropping the peeled potato into a pot.

  Deja follows Nikki to her room upstairs. Nikki places the key chain on her bookshelf, then starts to put away her folded laundry. She puts things away just so: socks in the sock drawer, pajamas in the pajama drawer, play clothes in the play clothes drawer. Nikki is super neat. Her closet is color-coded. Her books are alphabetized by title on her bookshelf. Nikki notices Deja looking at the bookshelf, eyeing the I Spy key chain in the center of the top shelf. She watches Deja look out the window and then back at the key chain again. Deja has a funny expression on her face. She looks as if she'd like to throw Nikki's I Spy key chain out the window.

  Nikki grabs the stack of towels and heads for the linen closet in the hall. She feels Deja watching her. When Nikki comes back, she looks at her bookshelf—and her I Spy key chain. She glances at Deja. "You wanna play mancala?"

  Deja shrugs. She gets up off the bed and follows Nikki downstairs and out to the porch. Nikki suspects that Deja is happy to get away from the I Spy key chain with its tiny picture of various objects and special magnifying dome.

  2. Flat-Ground Ollie

  The good thing about going out to the front porch is that they can just sit and watch their neighborhood. There is always something to see on Fulton Street. Now there is something interesting going on in front of Darnell Woolsy's house. Nikki and Deja sit down on the steps and open the wooden mancala board, then pause to see what is happening.

  Darnell is one of the bigger boys, in the fifth grade at Carver Elementary. He and Evan Richardson, who lives around the corner, are carrying plastic crates from Darnell's garage to the walkway in front of his house. They set them down and begin to arrange them, one in front of the other—close together, but with spaces in between.

  "What are they up to?" Deja asks.

  Nikki squints her eyes. "I don't know."

  "Looks like they're making some kind of train."

  "No. They're too old to be making a pretend train."

  "Then what are they doing?" Deja asks again.

  Just then, Robert Turner glides up the street on his skateboard. He stops suddenly and stomps his board straight up. He watches the progress with the crates.

  Nikki and Deja hear him say, "Whatcha doin'?"

  "I'm gonna show Evan how to do a flat-ground Ollie," Darnell tells him.

  That catches Nikki's and Deja's attention even more. What on earth is a flat-ground Ollie? They look at each other. Nikki reaches for her pad. Since she wants to be a news reporter when she grows up, she always keeps a pad of paper and a pen in a little pouch she wears around her neck. Deja watches her write:

  Darnell is going to show Evan

  now to do a Flat Ground Ollie.

  Evan looks scared.

  What's a Flat Ground Ollie?

  Then they both turn their attention back across the street.

  "Watch me," they hear Darnell say. He places one foot on his board, gives a shove with his other foot, then jumps on. When he is halfway down the block, he stops and does that tricky little kick that brings the board straight up, as if it is saluting him. "Now watch," he says again. "And get out of my way."

  "He's bossy," Nikki whispers to Deja, though she knows the boys can't hear her. Deja doesn't say anything. She is busy waiting for the flat-ground Ollie.

  Darnell starts slowly, then begins to build up speed, his sneakered foot moving in an easy rhythm. Just before he gets to the crates he's set up, he does something with his back foot that makes the skateboard tilt up in the front. Then it lifts up off the ground. He bends his knees and keeps his feet on the board. It sails over the boxes, with Darnell staying on easily, coming down with a loud thump on the other side. He rides it out, then stops abruptly, doing that little kick thing he seems to like so much.

  "You try it!" Darnell calls out to Evan.

  "I don't think Evan is going to be able to do that," Deja says to Nikki.

  "I don't think so, either," Nikki agrees. She has a bad feeling.

  Slowly, Evan rides his skateboard halfway down the block.

  "He looks scared," Deja says.

  Evan stops and turns around. He seems to be looking at the crates and measuring them in his mind.

  "Come on!" Robert calls out. "What's takin' you so long?"

  "This is not good," Deja says.

  Then Evan starts up, gaining speed as he pumps away.

  "Push on the back foot and bend your knees just before you get to the crates!" yells Darnell.

  But instead of pushing on the back end of the board, instead of bending his knees and riding the board as it sails over the crates, Evan crashes into them, and his body crumples over.

  Nikki holds her breath, her eyes as big as saucers. Deja holds her breath, too. Finally Deja says, "Oh, no..." Nikki is speechless. There is a long moment of stunned silence on both sides of the street.

  Then Evan lets out a long wail. It starts low and begins to build, like a siren.

  Darnell's front door flies open, and out stomps his mother in hair curlers. "What on earth! What on earth are you boys up to?" She rushes to Evan's side, looks down, then gently helps him up.

  "Ow, ow, ow, ow," Evan wails. He is holding his arm funny and walking almost bent in half. "Ow, ow, ow!"

  "Get in the house, Darnell!" his mother yells.

  Suddenly, Darnell doesn't seem so big and bad. He looks scared, like he is going to get it. He meekly follows his mother and Evan into his house.

  Nikki looks over at Deja and sees that her lips are drawn in, as if she is trying to keep from laughing.

  "Are you going to laugh?" Nikki asks, shocked.

  "Not at Evan—at Darnell." They watch Robert step on his skateboard and glide away. "Darnell looked so scared," Deja says. "And his mother looked so funny in those curlers."

  Moments later, Darnell's mom, without the curlers, and Evan, with a tear-stained face, come out of the house. They get into her car. Nikki and Deja watch them slowly pull out of the driveway.

  "Wonder where they're going?" Nikki says, more to herself than to Deja.

  "To the hospital, what do you think?"

  "Something's always happening on Fulton Street," Nikki says.

  "Remember when Vianda's cat, Bianca, came back?" Deja asks.

  "Oh, yeah." Nikki stops to remember the details. "She just came walking up the street after she'd been gone a real long time. And she had a split ear."

  "And it's still split."

  "And then, remember on Sunday, Mr. Robinson locked himself out of his house in his robe when he went to get the paper, and his wife was sound asleep and she wouldn't wake up and let him in?"

  "That was so funny. He was pounding on the front door so loud, I woke up." Nikki and Deja laugh, remembering. Suddenly Nikki stops, and her eyes get big again. "We need a newspaper! A Fulton Street newspaper that tells all the stuff that happens on our street!"

  Deja frowns. "We can't have a newspaper for just one street."

  "Then we can have a newsletter. It can come out once a month. We can call it the Fulton Street Newsy News Newsletter."

  Deja looks off toward Mrs. Markham's rosebushes. "What's newsy news?"

  Nikki is ready with an answer. "News that's interesting. Not just saying someone planted a new rosebush. But like if their rosebush won a prize!" Nikki begins to feel excitement in her stomach. She can be the reporter. Deja can be the editor—whatever they do. This would help give her experience for when she grows up and becomes a real reporter. Nikki looks up the street. Then she looks down the street. It is quiet and still, but she bets there are stories everywhere! Then she thinks of something—a little glitch. "Who's going to read our newsletter?"

  "We'll
get subscriptions," Deja says with confidence.

  "How are we going to do that?"

  "We'll type up a form on my auntie's computer, then we'll make copies, then we'll go door-to-door. And it's okay, because we know everybody on this street."

  Nikki hesitates before asking the next question. "Should we charge money?"

  "Of course," Deja says quickly.

  "How much do you think, Deja?"

  "A quarter," Deja says. "People don't think a quarter's all that much. They'll pay a quarter like that!" She snaps her fingers to emphasize her point.

  Nikki considers this. The idea grows more and more appealing. How many houses are on Fulton Street? Just the part between Marin and Maynard? Maybe ten on each side. "Let's count the houses on both sides between Marin and Maynard Boulevard."

  She jumps up and runs to the curb. She looks both ways and then runs across the street to the other side. "I'll count the houses on your side and you count the houses on mine," she calls to Deja.

  They meet back on Nikki's porch. There are exactly nine houses on each side of Fulton Street between Marin and Maynard Boulevard. They can't quite figure out how much money eighteen quarters are, so Nikki pulls out her notepad and kitty pen and begins to work out the problem. "We have to multiply," she says.

  "I know that already," Deja says. She stares at the problem. "Ms. Shelby hasn't taught us how to do that kind of multiplication yet, though."

  Ms. Shelby hasn't taught two-place multipliers yet, but Nikki's daddy had tried to explain it once. Nikki tries to solve the problem, but she can't remember how to do the steps. She decides it would be better to just go get a calculator. "I'm going to go get a calculator. I'll be back." She disappears into the house and soon returns with her mom's calculator in her hand.