"Maggie, you're so evil!" Jackie Mullen said, laughing.

My mouth dropped open. "Huh? Me? Evil?"

Jackie pointed across the table to the cupcakes on my plate. "You took three cupcakes and only ate the icing."

Her sister Judy frowned at me. "What's wrong with them? I baked them myself--for your birthday."

I licked chocolate icing off my fingers. "There's nothing wrong with them," I told her. "They're wicked cool cupcakes. I just like icing."

Jackie laughed again. "Are you getting weird? You never say wicked cool."

I sneered at her. "I'm thirteen now. I can say whatever I want. Besides, I need a new image."

"Like a makeover," Judy said.

"Like a personality makeover," Jilly, the third sister said. "Maggie wants to be sophisticated now."

Jilly was right about that. I've always been the youngest in my class because I skipped second grade. But now I was turning thirteen. Now I was old enough to transform myself into a mature, confident person. And no one would treat me like "the baby" anymore.

"I am sophisticated," I said. "I'm thirteen now, and there's no turning back!"

"Well, you're off to a bad start," Jackie said. She pointed. "You have icing in your hair."

I groaned and reached up and felt sticky stuff up there. For some reason, the three sisters all thought it was a riot. Jilly laughed so hard, she choked on her cupcake.

Jackie, Judy, and Jilly Mullen are triplets, which means that I have three best friends. Everyone at our school--Cedar Bay Middle School--calls them the Three J's. And they're very close, although they try really hard to be different from each other.

Jackie and Judy look alike. They both have straight black hair and big, round brown eyes. They both always look as if they're suntanned.

But they're so eager for people to tell them apart, they have totally different styles. Jackie's hair is long, halfway down her back. She wears funky, old clothes, baggy jeans, old bell-bottoms from the seventies, oversized, bright-colored tops she finds at garage sales. She loves clanky jewelry, heavy beads, and dangling, plastic earrings.

Judy is much more preppy. She has her hair cut very short. She wears short skirts over black tights and neat little vests. Judy always looks as if she just washed her face.

Jilly was born last, and she doesn't look as if she belongs in the same family. She has long, golden blond hair, creamy, pale skin, and big green eyes. She looks very angelic, and she talks in a soft, whispery voice.

Jackie is funny, and kind of loud, and a real joker. She doesn't take things too seriously. I really want to be like that.

I have coppery hair and a slender, serious face. I've been quiet and pretty shy and serious my whole life. And I keep thinking if I hang out with Jackie a lot, maybe I'll be more like her.

Judy is the brain in the group. She is the perfect student. It's all I can do just to keep up in school. But Judy Is always busy writing essays and doing projects for extra credit.

Judy likes to organize things. She's always joining clubs and committees at school. These days, she is organizing a huge Pet Fair to raise money for animal rights.

And Jilly? Well . . . as my mother would say, Jilly is in her own world. In other words, she's kind of a flake. She's really into boys, and music, and I-don't-know-what-else. She's kind of a dreamy person. You know. Like she's floating a few feet off the ground.

The only thing I've ever seen Jilly be serious about is her dancing. She takes ballet lessons five times a week after school, and she's really talented.