Description

Nicki Fleming is the fifth Girl of the Year. She was released in 2007. ## Personality Chapter One: One Little Word Nicki is asked by her mother to train the service dog she can't. Chapter Two: Moguls Nicki and Adam board the bus, which was waiting for them. At the next stop, Nicki's best friend Becca boards and sits next to her; she lives on a Chicken Farm, instead of a Pig Farm, like Nicki. Becca asks if they can go skiing over the weekend before all the snow melts; Nicki wants very much to go, but instead, she informs Becca about the twins, and how she'll have to help out even more around the farm. Becca insists that Nicki should at least ask, as now they can get cheap lift tickets due to her own Mom being on ski patrol. As they arrive at school, the bus parks up behind nice cars and SUVs; rich parents start moving to the country to escape city life and live in nice, big houses without farms; their kids have their own phones and wear different shoes every day. After class, Nicki's favorite teacher Mrs. Baxter pulls her aside and asks her to help plan the Gala Decorations, which will involve choosing a theme and planning the decorations. Though Nicki is swamped with other commitments, she is once again unable to say "No." Nicki agrees to stay after school to plan and take the late bus home. Nicki tells Becca about the gala planning group, and Becca is upset that she will have even less time for skiing. Nicki tries to make Becca feel more included by saying she wishes she was on the committee, but Becca says she has too much work, and Nicki does, too. Nicki remembers that she hasn't told Becca about the service dog yet. Adam goes home on the normal bus to tell their parents that Nicki will be late, and Nicki goes back to her classroom. She sees that the other two kids on the Council are Heather and Kris, two of the new, rich girls. She is immediately intimidated, as Heather and Kris became instantly popular once they started school, though Nicki isn't sure why everyone wants to be like them. Mrs. Baxter leaves them to start planning, and Heather and Kris start talking about wanting a Carnival Theme, including dressing the students as clowns and getting carnival games. Nicki informs them that a carnival had been done a year or two before. Heather starts to tap her pencil on the edge of the table as she thinks, making a rat-a-tat-tat pattern. It was a habit she'd been asked to break but made no attempt to. She then says that if they did a carnival theme, it would be different, and refuses Nicki's idea to reuse materials. She also suggests getting a snake charmer. Nicki wonders where they would get the money for that but just says that the school might not allow it due to students being scared of snakes. Heather refuses to listen to her and asks what she has against the idea. Kris joins her, and Nicki finally succumbs to the pressure and doesn't say more. Heather and Kris bring up other ideas, but nothing unusual or different. They eventually give up, having accomplished nothing. Upon arriving home, Nicki informs her Mom about the disastrous meeting, and Mom says that Heather and Kris might turn out to be really nice, but in any case, Nicki made a commitment, though she is disappointed Nicki didn't think of the service dog first. On Saturday, Nicki helps her Dad with the work around the pigs, as it is almost piglet season, which they breed and sell every spring and fall. All the piglets- which Nicki calls shoats- will need vaccinations and health certificates, making raising them time-consuming. But after Nicki finishes work, she gets to go skiing with Becca, happy that she got her own skis for her tenth birthday and didn't have to rent any. The best friends go down the Mogul for the first time, and both enjoy it immensely. Skiing helps Nicki forget about her problems momentarily.