Free Wedding Drama by Karen English Page A

Deja to two seats in the middle row, halfway up the aisle. Deja doesn’t know where Nikki and her mom will be sitting. She doesn’t dare look back.
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    The usher escorts Nikki and her mom to two seats five rows behind Deja and her aunt. When they sit, Nikki can no longer see Deja.
    The music starts up, and everyone turns to see the groom and the groomsmen walk down the aisle. After they take their places on one side of the altar, Ms. Shelby’s bridesmaids glide up the aisle and take their places on the other side of the altar.
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    Deja’s mouth drops open. She wishes she could look back to see if she can find Nikki. She wonders what Nikki must think. Deja knows that she’s probably never seen anything so beautiful.
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    Then the music changes to “Here Comes the Bride.” Everyone stands and turns toward the entrance of the Crystal Room. Deja’s heart begins to beat faster. Behind her, Nikki’s heart begins to beat faster. Nikki’s mom and Auntie Dee take out tissues from their purses. Slowly, Ms. Shelby, in the most beautiful white wedding dress Nikki and Deja have ever seen, begins her walk down the aisle on the arm of her father. Nikki and Deja both can’t believe it.
Their teacher is getting married!
    The most exciting part happens after all the long, long stuff the man at the front says about marriage and vows and a bunch of other big words that Nikki and Deja don’t even understand. It happens when that man gives the groom permission to kiss the bride.
    Nikki holds her breath. Deja holds her breath. Their teacher’s new husband leans over and kisses her ... right on the cheek. Both girls clap their hands over their mouths to keep from bursting into laughter. Now Deja
really
wishes she could see Nikki’s reaction. And Nikki wishes she could see Deja’s face, too.
    â€œHe must be very shy,” Nikki hears her mother say.
    Nikki knew it! She could tell when she saw Ms. Shelby’s fiancé in the office that time. She could tell he was the quiet, shy type.
    Nikki and Deja watch their teacher go back down the aisle on the arm of her new husband, followed by the bridesmaids and groomsmen. After a bit, everyone else gets to go down the aisle too, and out the double doors to the reception room next door.
    There are so many people that the girls don’t see each other. The room is filled with round tables with white tablecloths and silver place settings. Each table has a flower arrangement of white orchids and a card with a number on it at its center.
    â€œTable twelve,” Auntie says, looking around. “Help me look, Deja.”
    Deja looks around, but not for table twelve. She’s trying to see where Nikki is.
    At the same time, Nikki is searching the room for Deja.
    â€œThere it is,” Nikki hears her mother say.
    Auntie Dee finds their table just then as well.
    Deja and Auntie Dee and Nikki and her mom arrive at table twelve at exactly the same time. There are four empty places, all together. When Auntie Dee and Deja’s mom sit down, they leave the two seats between them empty. “Sit down,” Auntie Dee says, before introducing herself and Deja to the other people at the table.
    Nikki’s mom tells her to be seated too, and then turns away to introduce herself to the elderly woman seated on the other side of her.
    â€œIsn’t this nice?” Auntie Dee says.
    â€œIt’s absolutely lovely,” Nikki’s mom says.
    Nikki and Deja don’t say anything. A waiter comes by and places salad in front of them. Deja looks down at hers, then at all the silverware at her place setting. Nikki stares at her place setting as well.
    â€œI’ve got too many forks,” Deja says to herself.
    â€œMe, too,” Nikki mumbles. Her mother is busy talking to the elderly gentleman sitting two seats away. Nikki holds up the smallest one and studies it.
    â€œI thought you were going to wear lavender,” Deja