Free Wedding Drama by Karen English

her hairdo wouldn’t get messed up.

    She looks at her new white patent leather shoes on the floor under her new dress. She has white tights to go with them, which are almost like stockings. She’s going to look like a princess. She smiles thinking about this. Then she has vision of Deja in her homemade dress and laughs out loud.
Too bad I didn’t get my dress in lavender,
Nikki thinks.
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    Deja had been so excited she could hardly fall asleep the night before. After they’d dropped Nikki off, she and Auntie Dee had gone directly to Miss Ida’s and picked up Deja’s dress for the wedding. Miss Ida brought it out in a plastic bag, just like the stuff you get at the cleaners. Deja had tried it on and then stood in front of Miss Ida’s standing mirror in her bedroom. It was beautiful! Not homemade-looking or sloppy at all. She looked just like a princess. She loved her new dress, even if it was in peach instead of lavender. It went perfectly with her black patent leather shoes, which still fit. After that, they headed directly over to Auntie’s friend Phoebe’s so Deja could get her hair done.
    Sitting in her bed now with sponge rollers in her hair, gazing at her beautiful peach princess dress hanging from the top of the closet door, Deja just knows she’s going to look way better than Nikki. Hah, hah, and
hah!
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    Nikki has no appetite. She’s too excited. Her mother places a bowl of oatmeal in front of her, but she can eat only a few bites. She kind of wonders what Deja is doing right then.
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    It’s all Deja can do to get down her cold cereal. It has those awful little flax seeds in it that she finds hard to eat. They keep getting stuck in her teeth. She wonders, just a little bit, what Nikki is doing right then. And she wonders what time Nikki and her mom are leaving for the wedding, which is at noon at a fancy hotel, followed by a fancy reception with lunch and cake. Deja is really only interested in the wedding cake. Oh, and she wishes she could see Ms. Shelby open all her presents. She looks over at the wrapped present she’ll be bringing, sitting on the kitchen counter.
    She thinks about the kente cloth table runner from Ghana. Will Ms. Shelby like it? One thing’s for sure. She won’t be getting another one like it. It came all the way from Africa.
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    The hotel has an atrium with tall palms that reach all the way to the ceiling. Deja looks up at the skylight and sees the clear blue sky. It is a perfect day for Ms. Shelby’s wedding. Deja decides right then that she is going to have her wedding at the very same hotel.
    Auntie checks the announcement board that tells where all the events are. “Crystal Room,” Auntie says, taking her hand and leading the way. Deja follows, feeling a surge of excitement for two reasons. She’s going to see her teacher get married, and she just might run into her
best-friend-no-more,
Nikki.
    A man in a uniform stands at the Crystal Room entrance. “Guest of the bride or groom?” he asks.
    â€œBride,” Deja says happily. She loves saying the word, because
bride
means her beloved teacher, Ms. Shelby.
    The uniformed man poses the same question to the people behind her.
    â€œBride,” says a small voice that Deja recognizes. She turns around. It’s Nikki. In a peach chiffon dress with a wide moss-green sash! Deja is stunned, but she hopes she’s hiding it well.
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    Nikki is surprised as well. She knew she would see Deja eventually, but she didn’t think it would be so soon, and not right in front of her. And she didn’t think she’d see Deja in a peach-colored dress that looks almost like her own. Deja looks her up and down. “Hi,” she says quietly.
    â€œHello,” Nikki says, then looks away.
    ***
    Auntie and Nikki’s mom say hello and stand there scanning the seating. There aren’t any rows with four seats together. An usher leads Auntie and