"Yeah, yeah. You're the girl who fell into the crocodile pit after that kid. You're on the show today, huh?"

"That's not all she did," Cassie rushed to say. "She also had her house fall in on her."

I sent Cassie a "What are you doing?" look. Like having a house fall on me would make Jeremy Jason think better of me? Like that would impress him?

Cassie made a helpless, confused, giddy look and shrugged. She kept staring at Jeremy Jason

with this slightly weird grin. Of course, to be honest, I probably had the identical slightly weird grin.

Jeremy Jason flashed his smile. Then he said, "Look, Disaster Girl, or whatever you are, how about if you and your friend stumble on out of here? I need to get made up. And I don't need an audience."

That took care of the weird grins. Tai looked fiercely at me and jerked her head toward the door.

Outside in the hallway we found the llama. It was standing there, minding its own business.

"'Disaster Girl'?" I repeated. "Excuse me?"

"'Stumble on out of here'?" Cassie said.

We both looked at the llama.

"If you're waiting to get made up, you can forget it," I told the llama.

"You're not a big enough star."

"Maybe not, but I will be someday," the llama said.

"Yahah!" Cassie and I yelped. You'd think we, of all people, would be prepared for strange things like talking llamas. But it caught us totally by surprise.

"Marco?" I hissed.

"Who else would be this cute? Check out this fur. Check out this little llama smile on my little llama face."

"What are you doing?"

"Jake's somewhere around here in cockroach morph. Ax is here in fly morph. I came that way, too. But then I saw this llama wandering around loose. So I thought, hey, why be a bug?"

"Where's the real llama?" Cassie whispered.

"Don't worry. I put him in an empty dressing room. By the way, I saw the schedule. Bart Jacobs and various animals of his, including yours truly, go on first, then the Wussy Wonder, and finally you, Rachel."

Cassie cocked an eyebrow at me. I deliberately didn't look at her. I knew what she wanted me to do.

"Fine, /'//tell him," Cassie said. "Marco, Rachel may have slightly exaggerated when she said she was okay. You'd better warn Jake."

"She didn't burp the croc?"

"Nope."

"I'm fine as long as I don't get excited," I said defensively.

"You know, Rachel, I'm supposed to be the irresponsible one," Marco said.

Cassie was biting her lip thoughtfully. "It's too late for Rachel just to cancel. But we need a backup, just in case. No matter what happens, we can't have people seeing Rachel morph."

"What can you do? If she morphs suddenly -"

"Well," Cassie interrupted, "the important thing is that there always be a Rachel. See? I can't believe what I'm even thinking, and it totally gives me the willies, but Rachel? I think we need a copy of you."

"Morph Rachel?" Marco trilled. "I'll do it! I'll do it!"

"When pigs fly," I said.

Marco shot a llama look to his left. "Uh-oh. Looks like I'm busted." The two khaki-clad trainers appeared at the end of the hallway. They crept up slowly. Marco waited patiently till they caught him, slipped a rope around his neck, and led him away.

"See you guys later," Marco called back. "Break a leg. Not literally.

That's just what we show biz people say to mean "good luck." I'm going to be on tee-vee-ee. I'm going to be on tee-vee-ee."

Cassie laid her hand on my arm.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I'll never use your morph for anything bad," Cassie said solemnly. And then I started getting dreamy and drifty as she acquired my DNA.

"Don't do it unless you have to," I said. "It gives me the willies. I mean, jeez." I shuddered. And then, I felt my face beginning to bulge out.

"Rachel!"

"I'm cool. I'm cool," I said. I took a deep breath and let go of the grossed-out feeling I'd had about being morphed. The allergic morph stopped and my face returned to normal.

"Hey! You! The Falling Girl! Come on!"

The clipboard woman came rushing past and grabbed my arm, pulling me down the hall.

"Okay, listen up because we're desperately late. You go on in the last segment. I'll tell you when to go. You walk across the stage to Barry.

He'll shake your hand. Then Cindy Sue will shake your hand, unless she's in a snit. Then you sit. Don't worry about which camera to look at, just look at Barry and Cindy Sue. Barry and Cindy Sue will ask you about all this alligator stuff -"

"Crocodile," I corrected.

"You tell them your little story. If Barry does this with his hand, that means speed up. If he does this with his hand, it means wrap it up because we're done. Got it? Good. Nothing to worry about."

She stopped suddenly and stared at Cassie. "Who are you?"

"I'm Falling Girl's partner, Dropping Chick," Cassie said.

Clipboard woman stared at her.

"She's my friend," I said. "You know, for moral support."

"Yeah, whatever. Come on. Our greenroom

can't be used. We had some band on the show last week and they trashed the place." She was still yanking me along by my arm, which would have made me mad. Except that I couldn't get mad. Or sad. Or anything, without setting off an allergic reaction.

Clipboard woman planted Cassie and me on two tall stools. We were in a dark corner, up against a cinder block wall covered in wires and cables and switches.

Bart Jacobs, the animal guy, was sitting on an identical stool. He was smoking a cigarette and talking to one of his animal handlers.