Luckily for her, they had. For some reason - nobody knew why - the triplets had suddenly given up their claim to Frodo. They'd said that Nicky could enter him in the show, and Nicky had generously agreed to share him with Vanessa, Claire, and Margo.

    Mallory was too grateful for the peaceful atmosphere at home - and too tired - to wonder about the triplets' motives for very long. She knew they must be up to something. But she'd wait for the pet show to find out what they had up their sleeves.

    Chapter 10.

    "Claudia, do you mind?" "What, Stacey?" "Your elbow. It's in my ear!" "I can't help it, Stace! There's nowhere else to put it." "Can't you move over a little?" "Not with Mallory in my lap, I can't. Anyway, I don't think I'll ever be able to move my legs again - there's no feeling left in them." Mallory squealed. "Stop it, Claudia! I'm not really that heavy, am I?" she asked, trying to shift her weight.

    Six. of us were packed into Charlie's car, the Junk Bucket (Mary Anne couldn't come; she had a sitting job), and believe me, it was a tight squeeze. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon. We were on our way to Stamford. I had a rehearsal, and everybody else was coming to watch it.

    Kristy and I were in the front seat with Charlie; I got to ride up front so that I could give him directions to the civic center. Dawn, Stacey, Claudia, and Mallory were all jammed into the backseat, and they'd been complaining about how squished they were ever since we'd pulled out of Claudia's driveway. (We'd all met there to wait for Charlie and Kristy.) "Hey, who pinched me?" asked Dawn. Then there was a whole lot of squealing and giggling from the backseat, while everybody pinched everybody else.

    "Hey, chill out back there," said Charlie, looking in the rearview mirror.