J.D. and the Family Business Read online

  Kokila

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York

  First published in the United States of America by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2021

  Text copyright © 2021 by John Dillard

  Illustrations copyright © 2021 by Akeem S. Roberts

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Dillard, J., author. | Roberts, Akeem S., illustrator. | Dillard, J.

  J.D. and the great barber battle.

  Title: J.D. and the family business / written by J. Dillard ; illustrated by Akeem S. Roberts.

  Description: New York : Kokila, 2021. | Audience: Ages 6-8.

  Summary: “Eight-year-old kid barber J.D. joins forces with his sister, who has beauty shop dreams, to find stardom online”—Provided by publisher.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2021002358 (print) | LCCN 2021002359 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593111550 (v. 2 ; hardcover) | ISBN 9780593111574 (v. 2 ; paperback) | ISBN 9780593111567 (v. 2 ; ebook)

  Subjects: CYAC: Barbering—Fiction. | Haircutting—Fiction. | Video recordings—Production and direction—Fiction. YouTube (Electronic resource)—Fiction. | African Americans—Fiction. | Mississippi—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.D5593 Jaah 2021 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.D5593 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021002358

  LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021002359

  ISBN 9780593111574 (pbk)

  ISBN 9780593111550 (hc)

  Design by Jasmin Rubero, adpated for ebook by Michelle Quintero

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  pid_prh_5.7.1_c0_r0

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1: Mom’s New Hair

  Chapter 2: A Double Surprise

  Chapter 3: Poof

  Chapter 4: Kidz Cutz and Nailz

  Chapter 5: Vacation Bible School

  Chapter 6: The Cutting Room Floor

  Chapter 7: Lights, Camera, Action!

  Chapter 8: Legend Only in My Own Mind

  Chapter 9: Iron Man

  Chapter 10: The Debt

  Chapter 11: Back to Zero

  Chapter 12: The Lifeline

  Chapter 13: Parents Might Just Understand?

  Chapter 14: A Hope and a Prayer

  Chapter 15: Win, Lose, or Draw

  Chapter 16: Did We Win?

  Chapter 17: Big Time

  Chapter 18: The Road to Jackson

  Chapter 19: Showtime!

  Chapter 20: Post-fame Life

  CHAPTER 1

  Mom’s New Hair

  “J.D.!” I heard my mom yell out to me. “Come here really quick!”

  It was the night before her college graduation. Her second one, actually. The first one was when she studied to be a nurse, but she wanted to try something else. This time, she went back to get a business degree called an MBA. She’d be starting a new job at the mayor’s office.

  I had a newish job, too, and I was only eight years old! After I won the Great Barber Battle of Meridian, Mississippi, a few months ago, I started working for the one real barbershop in town, Hart and Son. With the money I made on Saturdays, I bought candy and comics.

  When I got to my mom, she was standing in front of the bathroom mirror. I could see she had thrown her entire box of hair supplies in the trash.

  “J.D., I want you to give me a haircut. I need a new look for my new job. And I want to look special for my graduation. I’m giving a speech.”

  Mom had been chosen to be something called a valedictorian. It sounded like a special award for being smart, which my mom was. We were excited for her to finish school. She said her new job would give her more time with her kids—me; my older sister, Vanessa; and my baby brother, Justin. We all lived together with my grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Slayton Evans, in a one-story house built in the 1930s. You’d think it’d be a circus, but it wasn’t. The grown-ups kept us organized.

  “How do you want to look, Mom?” I asked her.

  Mom sat down on the stool we kept in the bathroom and pulled out her phone. She showed me a picture on Instagram of the lady who played Nakia in Black Panther. She had a short haircut with a part cut into the side of her head.

  “I want that!” Mom said.

  “Wow, Mom, really?” I’d only ever seen my mom with short hair, like her pixie cut, but this was SHORT.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” she replied. “I figure it’s something a barber can do, and I have the best barber in the whole city living in my house,” she said proudly.

  I went back to my room to get my clippers.

  The buzzing sound they made when I turned them on always helped me focus and get into the zone.

  As my mom’s hair fell to the floor, I hoped I was doing a good job. I wanted her to feel special on her special day.

  When I finished, I passed Mom a hand mirror, and she took a look. She touched her head, and her eyes got wide. Then they started to get glossy. She was crying.

  Had I done a terrible job? Did she hate how she looked?

  I’d never done a lady’s hair before, and maybe I needed to practice before I tried cutting hers. I imagined Mom getting up onstage tomorrow and everyone pointing and staring. The last time I had a crooked fade, the kids at school made fun of me for weeks! What had I done?! Now Mom would need to keep her graduation cap on the whole time!

  Then her lips curled into a smile that changed her whole face.

  “I can’t believe how great I look,” she said.

  No one had ever cried in my barber chair before. Thankfully, these were tears of joy.

  “And my son James is the reason why I look great!” she added.

  I felt so good and warm inside. Now I was excited that my work would be on display in front of hundreds of people at the university auditorium tomorrow! Something like that hadn’t happened to me since the Great Barber Battle.

  After I won, people would fist bump me, let me cut in line, or give me free samples at the ice cream shop. There was even an article written about me in the Meridian Star newspaper. Granddad framed the article and hung it in the living room next to some artwork I drew. It was the best!

  I had been wondering if I was losing my touch. I’d had to pay for my own ice cream for weeks. Was I being forgotten?

  Mom gave me a tight hug and left the room beaming. At least she was still my biggest fan!

  * * *

  »»««

  Granddad dropped Mom off early for her graduation rehearsal in the
morning. That gave us enough time to prepare for Mom’s secret surprise party.

  “Okay, everybody, let’s spring into action,” Granddad told us when he got back to the house.

  We put out a banner that said “Happy Graduation” above the back porch and used aluminum foil to cover the chocolate cake, fried chicken, and potato salad Grandma had made. Everyone who was invited was asked to bring an extra dish, and I was looking forward to eating everything when we got back!

  At the ceremony, Mom looked so confident in front of the audience with her new haircut. Her earrings glistened as she talked. But it was hard to concentrate on what she was saying because I got so hot sitting there in my church clothes.

  The good thing was that not only was Mom out of school, so was I! Summer vacation was about to start. Well, Douglass Elementary School was about to finish up, but the Evans Summer School program would be in full effect.

  “Granddad, aren’t I going to learn this stuff next year?” I had asked him when he gave me a sheet of paper with every subject he, my grandmother, and Mom planned to go over with me and my sister this summer.

  “It’s better to be ahead than behind,” he had said.

  I guess he was right, but just once I’d like to be able to do nothing but swim, play video games, and eat ice cream until school starts!

  “And last, but not least, please clap for our final graduate, Mr. Harold Zeet!”

  I felt a tap on the back of my head as Mr. Zeet smiled and grabbed his diploma.

  It was Vanessa. She handed me a piece of paper. It read:

  I have an idea for how to have the best summer ever.

  Let’s talk at the party.

  This deal will expire, so don’t miss out!

  My sister had a huge grin on her face. She only smiles like that when she’s up to something. Like the time she got the idea to sneak out of church and go home to finish watching The Mandalorian after our friend Jessyka shared her Disney+ password with us. Vanessa timed it perfectly so we could get back before anyone knew we were gone.

  What did she have in mind this time, and how much trouble would we get in?

  CHAPTER 2

  A Double Surprise

  When the graduation ended, we told Mom we were going to the New Meridian Buffet, a restaurant that had become our favorite place to eat at when we took a day off from cooking.

  As we drove past our house, Grandma said, “I forgot my wallet, Slayton. Pull inside and I’ll come right back out.”

  But when we pulled into the driveway, everyone who had been hiding in the backyard jumped out and yelled, “Surprise!” My best friend, Jordan, and my other friends Xavier and Eddie were there. Vanessa had invited a bunch of friends, too, including Jessyka, who was friends with both of us. Jessyka was in my grade and on my peewee football team. She sometimes joined our lunch table when there was a new issue out of our favorite comic or when she wanted to show us a cool new YouTube video.

  Mom was definitely surprised. And speechless!

  We sat around and talked, ate, and danced to the playlist coming from Jordan’s Beats Pill.

  Vanessa walked over to me with Jessyka and asked, “Are you ready to hear my idea, J.D.?”

  “I guess,” I said. I wanted to hear the deal before it expired, like Vanessa’s note said it would!

  Jessyka smirked and pulled out her iPhone. She went to YouTube and typed in the words “child barber.”

  I leaned in, and we all watched as Jessyka scrolled through videos of kids with clippers in their hands, cutting grown people’s hair. Some of the barbers were girls, some were boys, some were in other countries, but they were all around my age. I had looked at barber videos before to try to learn new styles, but never ones done by other kids.

  “Hmm, all this kid is doing is a drop fade. I do those every week at Hart and Son, and I even do teardrop ones now,” I told her. “That’s not that special.”

  Jessyka continued to scroll.

  “Why are you showing me this?” I asked them.

  “This is what’s going to help us save our summer!” Vanessa said.

  I gave her a confused look. What did she mean?

  “J.D., you just can’t get it through your head!” Jessyka said with a laugh.

  “Let’s start a YouTube channel!” they exclaimed at the same time.

  Then Vanessa picked it up. “If we put a girls’ nail and hair salon together with boy haircuts, everyone will watch and we will get way more views than these other kids.”

  The confused look on my face didn’t change, so she continued.

  “We can become famous, and not just in Meridian!” she said. “This kid has over eight million views. There aren’t even three million people in the entire state of Mississippi!”

  We always had facts and figures about our state memorized, thanks to Evans Summer School.

  “C’mon, J.D.,” Vanessa said. “I can tell you’re bored with Hart and Son.”

  It never seemed like Vanessa paid attention to me or what was happening in my life, but maybe I was wrong.

  “Okay, Vanessa, but who is going to film us? We don’t know how to add music and edit videos like this,” I said. “We don’t even have our own phones because we’re not allowed!”

  Vanessa turned to Jessyka, who finally put her phone away.

  “I know how to do it,” Jessyka said. “I already started a channel for my track races.”

  Jessyka had shown me her channel before, and her videos did look like little movies. It was another thing she was good at. She would probably be president someday.

  “Working together could be fun!” I said. “What else are you doing this summer?”

  Last year, Jessyka came back to school having learned tae kwon do. She showed me a perfect roundhouse kick while I had on my football pads so it wouldn’t hurt, even though it still kinda did. It was amazing!

  “Wow, Jessyka, cool karate kick!” I had told her.

  “It’s tae kwon do,” she corrected me. “Karate is from Japan and is more about your hands. Tae kwon do is from Korea and focuses more on kicks.”

  “How did you know that?” I asked.

  “It’s called Google!” She laughed.

  Before Jessyka could tell us about her plans for summer this year, Grandma yelled out, “May I have everyone’s attention, please?”

  She was standing on the steps of the back porch, looking out at us.

  “Jordan, please turn down that music,” she said to my best friend.

  Jordan shut off the music completely, and that’s when I noticed how many people were in my backyard. There were folks from church, the rec center where my grandmother taught ceramics classes, Mom’s friends from school, and my friends’ parents.

  Grandma was always the life of the party, so it wasn’t a surprise to see her get up to say a few words.

  “Veronica, I am so proud of you! You went back to school and stuck with it! I love you, your daddy loves you, and we all love you! Slayton, do you have any words to add?”

  “No, honey, I think you summed it up,” he said as he put his arm around Grandma.

  There were claps and “Awwwwws” from the crowd.

  People must have thought that Grandma’s speech meant gift time, because a line formed by the back table, where boxes of different sizes piled up and an empty bowl filled up with envelopes. I wondered if Mom would let us open the boxes with her like we did on Christmas Day.

  Vanessa took Jessyka’s hand and started leading her to the food.

  “Think about it, J.D.” she said.

  I walked over to Xavier and Eddie, my friends from peewee football, who had been sitting with Jordan and talking about a video game called Minecraft the whole time. Jordan had just gotten into it.

  “Can I see your phone for a second, Jordan?” I asked.

  Jordan han
ded over his phone. I typed in the words “child barber” just like Jessyka had done a few minutes ago.

  “Look at these kids,” I said. “They’re famous for doing the same thing I do!”

  “You’re famous,” Xavier replied. “Everybody saw you beat Henry Jr. at the barber battle. And he’s a grown adult!”

  “Yeah,” Eddie said. “You’re the man here in Meridian.”

  I think Eddie meant that as a compliment, but it didn’t feel that way, and I wasn’t sure why.

  “I only had to beat one person in Meridian,” I reminded them, “and nobody outside of this city knows what I do.”

  If I told them about how the perks of the barber battle were fading away and how it felt like people were forgetting about me, would they understand? I wish we were at the barbershop. It felt easier to talk there. I decided I would tell my friends anyway.

  “Vanessa said if we made hair videos together more people could see the work we do.” I said it in one breath.

  Jordan looked at Xavier. Xavier looked at Eddie. Eddie looked back at Jordan. Were they ever going to say something?!

  “You want to be cooped up with your sister all summer doing hair?” Xavier asked. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I was glad someone had started talking.

  “Why not?” I replied. “Jessyka knows how to film videos.”

  Xavier groaned. During peewee football last season, he was a little jealous of the attention Jessyka got on the team because of how good she was. By the end of the season, though, it seemed like they had made up and even started practicing together.

  “There’s no kid in town working and making money like you, J.D.,” Jordan added.

  Jordan had a point. I could buy anything I wanted right now, like video games. I liked that. But something still wasn’t right. I didn’t feel like the best at anything anymore. Plus, Jordan didn’t know how boring it could be at Hart and Son on Saturdays and how tired I felt at the end of my shift. I had some money saved up, and it’s not like I hadn’t lived without money before. Maybe the summer was the right time to try something new and spend more time with my friends.