Nikki Maxwell

Nicole Jullianne Maxwell is the main protagonist and narrator of all the Dork Diaries books, and was briefly mentioned in The Misadventures of Max Crumbly as "Brandon's friend."
Nikki is a self-proclaimed dork and goes to Westchester Country Day Middle on a scholarship, because her father is the school's exterminator. One of her biggest fears is that someone will find out that she attends Westchester Country Day Middle on her dad's bug extermination scholarship. She lives in Westchester, New York.
Nikki becomes very close friends with Chloe Garcia and Zoey Franklin, and develops a crush on Brandon Roberts. Her enemies are MacKenzie Hollister and Jessica Hunter. In book twelve of Dork Diaries, it is revealed that Nikki's full name is Nicole but she prefers being called by her nickname Nikki. 
==Description==
Nikki is portrayed as an unpopular girl towards the CCP (cute, cool, popular) clique who, in the first installment, is new to Westchester Country Day Middle School.
She is the 9th most unpopular person at WCD, according to her self-written list. She writes in her diary almost every day about the events in her life, hence the name of her series - Dork Diaries. She despises her locker neighbor (and enemy), MacKenzie Hollister, for being mean and quote "a shark in lip gloss."
She also dislikes MacKenzie's best friend, Jessica Hunter, who is as nasty to Nikki as MacKenzie is. Nikki and Mackenzie both have a crush on Brandon Roberts and compete for him, and it is shown that Brandon returns Nikki's feelings.
Nikki is told to the best artist in Westchester Country Day saying she wants to be a professional illustrator or an art teacher when she grows up. Although her success in the music industry and having her own TV series in the seventh book may deter that.
She is described as an amazing singer, dancer and artist. Throughout the books, Nikki seems to grow more confident in herself and does refer to herself as a dork, not only in her diary but also in public.
==Personality==
Nikki is a thoughtful and kind girl who is sometimes a bit over-dramatic and she truly describes herself as a dork.
Nikki loves her family and friends, but can be harsh towards her younger sister and describes her as "a category five hurricane in pigtails."
Nikki also thinks that her parents can be "brain dead" sometimes and don't seem to understand her.
When Nikki gets excited or elated, she shouts, "SQUEEEEE!" like a little mouse and dances a victory dance copied from a cartoon. She despises MacKenzie Hollister for always trying to make her life miserable. But nevertheless, Nikki is a caring and outgoing person and is said to have a wacky sense of humor, she does however say things before thinking it through.
When Nikki is angry or just annoyed she remarks nasty replies in her mind to the person she despises, but is too kind to say it out loud so she either ignore them or says something else that isn't as ignorant or mean.
==Appearance==
===Physical Traits===
Nikki has shoulder-length hair that is usually put in pigtails and wavy bangs parted to the sides. She also wears her hair down, in braids, pigtails or up into a ponytail. In some foreign editions, she is shown to have brown hair and green eyes on the cover. However, in the English version, this is not shown, as none of the drawings have color. However, on the website, it is revealed that she has darker hair than Brianna's, and brown eyes.
Furthermore, Nikki's hair and eye color have never actually been mentioned in any of the books. Although, the fandom thinks she's a brunette. She reveals that she wears lip gloss and light makeup (mascara and lip-gloss). Nikki has a slim figure and weighs 105 pounds (approx. 48 kilograms).
===Style===
Her outfits change throughout the books. According to her, she shops at discount department stores such as Target and Macy's, meaning her clothes aren't as stylish as she would like them to be.
She occasionally wears plain make-up and doesn't wear full on make-up like MacKenzie. Throughout the books, it is shown that Nikki is embracing her dorky side and wears pigtails more often than before. However, her style with clothes improves.
==Family==
*Nikki's family includes her Dad and Mom, her little sister Brianna, Grandma Maxwell, her great-grandmother Gertrude, her Aunt Mabel, her Uncle Augustus, and her third cousin Billy Bob.
*In a blog post, it is revealed that she has an Aunt named Janet, possibly the wife of Nikki's paternal uncle, and five misbehaving cousins.
*She loves her parents despite her belief that they are brain-dead. Nikki and Brianna get into fights sometimes (as siblings typically do), but Nikki is shown to have a genuine love for her sister.
===Pets===
In book 10, she took care of 8 dogs, Holly, and her puppies, for a day. At the end of the book, they kept the smallest one and named her Daisy.
==Friends==
Nikki's friends include Chloe Garcia, Zoey Franklin, Brandon Roberts, Max Crumbly, Marcy Simms, Theodore L. Swagmire III, Violet Baker, Marcus, Jenny Chen, and Jordyn. She might also be friends with MacKenzie Hollister in book 11.
==Love Life==
===Brandon Roberts===
Nikki and MacKenzie Hollister both have a crush on Brandon Roberts, but Brandon is not impressed by MacKenzie as everyone else. He has strong romantic feelings towards Nikki. In the debut of the book series, Brandon makes his first interaction with Nikki when Jessica Hunter trips Nikki in the lunch room and he helps her up.
In Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl, Brandon and Nikki go to the Halloween dance together. This is the first school dance that they attend together.
In the third book, Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star, Brandon joins Nikki's band for the talent show. At the end of the third book, Brandon and Nikki almost kiss, but Brianna interrupts them before any further action was taken.
In Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess, Nikki finds out Brandon works at an animal shelter (Fuzzy Friends.) Nikki also discovers that Brandon lost his parents several years ago and is in his grandparents custody.
It is insinuated that Brandon's grandparents are not related to him by blood, rather good friends of his parents when they were alive (this fact was confirmed in a personal interview with Rachel Renee Russell). She enters an ice-skating competition with Chloe and Zoey to help Brandon raise money for the shelter.
He hugs her when she wins, hinting that his grandparents own the shelter and without her help, he would've moved to Florida, never seeing Nikki again. Nikki questions in her diary if it's a "friend hug", a "really good friend hug", a "more than a friend hug", or "you're my girlfriend hug".
In Tales from a Not-So-Happy Heartbreaker, Nikki asks Brandon to the Sweetheart dance in which he immediately agrees hinting that he does like her more than just a friend. They did not kiss at the dance because of MacKenzie's interruption.
But at the charity kissing booth in Tales From A Not-So-Glam TV Star, Brandon gives Nikki $5.00 dollars and kisses her on the lips.
Afterwards, in later books, blatant attempts at love are made between Nikki and Brandon but many situations created by MacKenzie force them to have an on-again, off-again friendship. This halts the romance from advancing to a boyfriend-girlfriend status.
However, in Tales from a Not-So-Secret Crush Catastrophe , Nikki starts to develop feelings for exchange students, André. She says that she feels super nervous around him and finds him very cute and charming. She starts to have a hard time focusing on her relationship with Brandon and spends more time with André which makes Brandon jealous.
Brandon and Nikki's relationship starts to crumble when photos of her and André circulate online, stating that the two are a cute couple. Brandon starts to get depressed and starts falling behind in school and other work. Nikki notices that she was being selfish and arranges to meet him at Queasy Cheesy to talk via letter, but MacKenzie messes with her letters which makes Brandon think that Nikki wants to be just friends, upsetting him more.
Towards the end of the book, it's discovered that MacKenzie was behind it all and Brandon apologizes to Nikki for acting distant and non compliant with her. Still, in the book, he does not confess any feelings other than saying "I really like you a lot, Nikki".
===André===
André is Nikki's second love interest. In the first parts of the book, Nikki considers him a charming person and hangs out a lot with him while showing interest and feelings for him. However in book 13, Nikki states that he's "just-a-friend" and he understood that at the end.
==Trivia==
*The name Nikki means "victory of the people" in Greek.
**Nikki is a diminutive form of Nicole.
*** It can also literally mean "Diary" in Japanese, which is ironic because Nikki is a Dork Diaries character and she also has a diary.
*Nikki's surname Maxwell means "Mack's stream" in Scottish.
*In Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Happy Birthday, Nikki's zodiac sign is Cancer since her birthday is in June 28.
*Nikki's favorite color is periwinkle (because it's a fun thing to say).
*In OMG! All About Me Diary!, Nikki hates cleaning her room.
*Nikki describes SpongeBob SquarePants as fun, friendly and dorky.
*Nikki hates the song from the Princess Sugar Plum commercial, but sings it in the shower because it's catchy.
*Nikki talks in her sleep.
*If Nikki could make a holiday, it would be National Dork Day.
* Nikki thinks that her diary is like a BFF to her.
*Nikki has a "wacky" sense of humor.
*Nikki's favorite ice cream flavor is birthday cake.
*Nikki loves the smell of cookies baking in the oven because it means she gets to eat them.
*Nikki's always a nervous wreck whenever she has to take a geometry test.
*Nikki is left handed confirmed by Rachel Renee Russell in the book, Dork Diaries: Top 50 Countdown. Despite this, she is still shown doing some certain things with her right hand also.
*Dork Diaries 3 is the only book so far to feature Nikki wearing her hair in upward pigtails like her sister.
* Nikki is a big fan of Selena Gomez.
*Nikki collects McDonald's Happy Meal toys.
*In Dork Diaries: Tales From A Not-So-Happy Heartbreaker, it is revealed that Nikki can't swim.
*Nikki favorite movie of 2013 is Teen Beach Movie.
* Nikki's favorite movie as of 2014 is Frozen.
*Nikki always laughs at Brandon's jokes, which according to himself are 'lame jokes'.
* Nikki's favorite Disney movie before "Frozen" came out is "Lady and the Tramp" because of the romantic spaghetti dinner. She wanted to have a spaghetti dinner with Brandon, but they had gourmet burgers instead at Crazy Burger.
*Nikki suspects Brandon for liking her, but tells herself that Brandon likes MacKenzie.
*Nikki loves Mexican food.
*Nikki's favorite song is "Baby Baby".
*Nikki makes mean pancakes.
*Nikki is afraid of snakes.
*It had always been indirectly said that Nikki's city of Westchester resides in New York. In a recent blog post, Nikki's cousins always take a road trip from Florida to New York where they stop by to meet up with her family.
*Nikki's cousins live in Florida.
*Nikki is also a fan of Tyra Banks and copies her style of words in front of the mirror.
*She once ate a cupcake that was in the garbage can.
*She fell asleep in Church once.
*She has a deep hatred of MacKenzie, from saying that she is the ferocious beast, to saying she is Satan's kid sister.
Category:Female
Category:Book Heroes
Category:In Love
Category:Narrators
Category:Tragic
Category:Teenagers
Category:Victims
Category:Scapegoat
Category:Siblings
Category:Dreaded
Category:Selfless
Category:Sophisticated
Category:Deal Makers
Category:Jerks
Category:Arrogant
Category:Big Good
Category:Obsessed