She’s just come across a beautiful picture of little cakes the size of ring boxes—called petit fours—when Deja knocks on the door. Nikki quickly puts a folded napkin on the page before she closes the book. Then she opens the door. Deja is standing there with her backpack. “Wanna do homework together?” she asks. “I guess,” Nikki says, even though she’s not very happy about the interruption. She’d really like to get back to looking at the petit fours recipe. Petit fours are going to be her secret weapon, but she has only a little bit of time to work on it. Nikki’s plan is to present a tasty sample of the dessert she’s going to include on her menu to each of the girls who’ll be judging the wedding planners teams. She can’t let Deja know about this plan because Deja would just copy it. Deja seats herself at the table. She glances at the cookbook. But then she seems to turn her attention to emptying stuff from her book bag. She takes out her spelling folder and her pencil and her pencil sharpener.
