Jessi and Rosie made the sandwiches quickly and wolfed them down. Then they ran into the den. Jessi settled on the couch as Rosie put a videotape in the VCR.

"The first one is the best," she said, standing by the TV.

It was the carpet cleaner commercial. "I've seen this!" Jessi said. "That was you?"

"Ssshl" said Rosie. On the screen, the carpet gremlins were racing across the carpet, eating cartoon dirt with their cartoon teeth. "This was the hardest part. I was only pretending to see the creatures. They're animated, and they were added later. That expression on my face was just acting. Watch ..."

Rosie rewound it and played it again — in slow motion! She made sure to tell Jessi every last detail of her acting "technique."

Jessi nodded politely and kept nodding through the rest of the commercials. When the tape was over, she said, "You were great!"

"Thanks," Rosie said. "I took a kids' com-

mercial class in New York City. It gave me great practice and exposure."

"Uh-huh." Jessi wanted to talk about dancing. So she said, "Did you study ballet in New York, too?"

"A little bit, with a guy who used to dance with American Ballet Theater."

Jessi was impressed. "Wow! Who — "

"What grade are you in?" Rosie interrupted.

"Sixth," Jessi answered.

"Are you good at vocabulary?"

"Uh, well . . ." Vocabulary? What did that have to do with ballet class? Jessi was wondering. "Pretty good, I guess. Why?"

"I have to do some practice puzzles for the Crossword Competition," Rosie said, picking up her backpack. "Come help me."

Jessi followed Rosie upstairs. She was frustrated that the conversation about dance had stopped. If Rosie liked dance so much, why didn't she want to talk about it? Was she afraid Jessi might try to show her up?