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little out of it.”
    â€œI’m just thinking,” Kylie said, sighing.
    â€œThinking about what?” Lexi questioned. “How we’re going to make all those pageant cupcakes and a giant tower? Don’t worry. It’s under control.”
    â€œMy dad said he’d help us build the display,” Sadie said.
    â€œNo, it’s not that,” Kylie said.
    â€œThen what?” Jenna pushed. “We’re your friends. You can tell us.”
    Kylie took a deep breath. “When I went back to the pageant office, it wasn’t to get my phone. I saw something.”
    â€œWhat do you mean you saw something?” Sadie said. “Something cool?”
    â€œNo,” Kylie said. “Something that tied my stomach all up in knots.”
    â€œA monster?” Delaney giggled. “Vampire or zombie?”
    â€œWorse,” Kylie answered. “The meanest monster you could ever encounter.”
    Lexi felt a chill go down her spine. “Meredith.”
    Kylie nodded. “I saw her pull up to the pageant office and I kinda eavesdropped.”
    â€œAnd?” Lexi asked, shaking Kylie by the shoulders. “What did you find out? Was she trying to sabotage our business?”
    â€œNot exactly. She had no idea we were there.”
    â€œThen why was Meredith at Miss New England Shooting Starz?” Delaney asked.
    â€œTo enter,” Kylie replied. “She’s one of the pageant contestants.”
    Lexi gulped. “Oh, I feel queasy.”
    â€œMaybe it’s not so bad.” Sadie tried to be optimistic. “I mean, so what if Meredith is in the pageant? We just drop off our cupcake delivery and go.”
    â€œOr we don’t,” Jenna said, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe we teach that big-mouthed bully a lesson she’ll never forget. Maybe we put her in her place once and for all.”
    Lexi suddenly perked up. “How?”
    â€œWell, Meredith obviously thinks she’s going to win Miss New England Shooting Starz,” Jenna began.
    â€œObviously,” Kylie replied. “She and her pageant coach were so full of themselves.”
    â€œSo we beat her! How mad and embarrassed would Meredith be if someone else won the crown?”
    â€œAnd how do we do that?” Lexi asked. “Meredith has a coach and everything.”
    â€œWe enter someone who’s better than her,” Jenna insisted. “I’ve seen her dance. It shouldn’t be too hard to find someone with more talent.”
    â€œI sing and dance,” Delaney volunteered. “Do you people recall I was on the West End stage in Pygmalion just a few short months ago?”
    â€œOnly because you snuck on.” Sadie chuckled. “I don’t think that counts, Laney.”
    â€œWhatever! I’m still our best chance, right?”
    Kylie put an arm around her friend. “You definitely are. I trip over my own two feet, and none of us can carry a tune.”
    â€œHey! I’ll have you know I sing every morning in my shower!” Jenna protested. She began to belt out the words to a Spanish pop song: “ Hoy quiero bailar solo contigo ! ”
    Delaney covered her ears. “Ouch! We said we wanted to beat Meredith—not deafen the audience!”
    Mrs. Noonan poked her head out from the kitchen. “Girls, please keep it down! I just put Delaney’s baby sister and brother down for a nap.”
    But it was too late. Tristan and Charlotte were already wailing.
    â€œI got it, Mom,” Delaney said, dragging Lexi with her. “We’ll get them back to sleep.”
    She led Lexi upstairs to the nursery. “If you just sing them a lullaby, they settle down,” Delaney explained. She began to softly croon Katy Perry’s “Roar.”
    â€œThat’s a lullaby?” Lexi asked. “Whatever happened to ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ or ‘Rock-a-bye Baby’?”
    Delaney picked up Tristan in her