The Pumpkin Principle

by Cynthia Blair

  B.J. grinned mischievously. “I’m a mind reader, remember?”

  When she didn’t laugh, however, when she just stood there, staring at him in an odd manner, he immediately became more serious.

  “Actually, it was just a lucky coincidence. I was walking by just now, since my gym class let out a little early, and I happened to glance into this classroom and saw you sitting there, right in front.”

  “We seem destined to keep running into each other by accident.”

  “It must be fate,” he said, smiling again. He looked as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “Well, I just wanted to tell you that I checked with my parents, and it’s okay if I borrow the car this weekend. So we’re definitely on for Saturday night.”

  “Wait a minute. Not so fast.”

  B.J. finally noticed that something was wrong. At least as far as Susan was concerned.

  “Uh-oh. What’s up? Is there something else you have to do instead on Saturday night? If you can’t make it, we can always try again next weekend.”

  “Next weekend! B.J., you are the lowest, most ruthless, most—most—”

  “Susan! What’s the matter?” The expression on B.J.’s face was one of genuine astonishment.

  Susan’s eyes narrowed angrily.

  “Let me tell you something, Mr. B.J. Wilkins! If you think you can pull the wool over the eyes of the Pratt twins, then think again! Chris and I both know exactly what you’re up to!”

  “And what is it that I’m up to?”

  “Imagine, asking us both out. And for the same weekend, no less! Chris on Friday night, me on Saturday night ... Why, I’ve never heard of anything like it before, not in my entire life!”

  “Oh” was all that B.J. said.

  “‘Oh’? ‘Oh’! Is that all you have to say?” Susan demanded.

  “Well, no. I’d also like to say that I think I’m beginning to understand the problem here.”

  “It’s not that difficult to understand. You’re nothing but a—a two-timer, and you’ve been caught!”

  When B.J. started to laugh, Susan could hardly believe what she was seeing.

  “I don’t think it’s funny!”

  “I do. In fact, I think it’s very funny!”

  “Oh, really? Then does that mean you’re ready to explain what it is you think you’re doing?”

  B.J. thought for a moment. Then, calmly, he said, “No, I don’t think I’m ready to explain anything right now.”

  “Probably because there is no explanation. You’re just—you’re just ...”

  “Low, and ruthless, and—wait, I’ve forgotten what else it was you called me.”

  Instead of looking as if he was sorry, or even embarrassed by having been caught at his little game, B.J. simply looked amused. He was still smiling, in fact. And that only made Susan even more angry—and even more frustrated.

  “You really don’t care at all, do you? Tell me, did you react the same way this morning when Chris confronted you, when she let you know we were on to you? Did you just stand there, laughing like what she was telling you was the funniest thing you’d ever heard in your life?”

  “Uh, well, to tell you the truth—”

  “And did you notice that she and I are dressed the same today?”

  “Actually, I didn’t.”

  “We were making a statement. We wanted to impress upon you the fact that we’re sisters. Twin sisters. We tell each other everything. And we have no intention of letting some—-some boy come between us!”

  So what if B.J. didn’t notice that Chris and I were dressed the same, thought Susan, trying not to be too disappointed that their little ploy, designed to have an extra bit of impact, had failed. Telling him about it was almost as good.

  Not that it really mattered. Not anymore. As of this moment, she was officially washing her hands of one B.J. Wilkins.

  As if to symbolize the importance of the moment, the bell suddenly rang.

  “Oh, dear,” Susan moaned, “now I’m going to be late for my next class!”

  But all B.J. said was, “So I guess that all this means we won’t be going out Saturday night, after all.”

  Susan just gasped.

  “B.J. Wilkins!” she cried. “You ... are ... incorrigible!”

  With that, she turned on her heel and flounced away.

  What a strange, horrible boy, Susan thought as she raced down the hall. She broke into a run, partly because she wanted to get to her third-period class, partly because she wanted to get away from B.J. I can hardly wait to compare notes with Chris. I wonder if her confrontation with him went any better than mine did?

  Fortunately, Susan and Chris were getting together for lunch that day. And lunch period was now only an hour or so away. Susan knew she would find out soon enough.

  And she couldn’t wait to hear every single detail.

  Chapter Eleven

  “And then he said, ‘Gee, Chris, does this mean our date for Friday night is off, then?’ ”

  “You’re kidding! That’s exactly what he said to me! He said, ‘So I guess that all this means we won’t be going out Saturday night, after all.’“

  Chris and Susan were sitting together in the Whittington High School cafeteria, filling each other in on the details of each of their separate confrontations with B.J. Wilkins. They had made a point of choosing a table in the back corner of the huge room, which was filled with students who chattered away, happily and loudly, as they ate their lunches. Usually, both Chris and Susan used the lunch period as a chance to do exactly the same thing. But today they wanted to discuss the boy who had been monopolizing both girls’ thoughts for almost all of the past forty-eight hours. And they wanted plenty of privacy in which to do it.

  “Isn’t he amazing!” Susan exclaimed, once each twin had told the other every word of the short conversation she’d had with B.J. “He didn’t even care that he’d been caught red-handed!”

  “It’s worse than that,” said Chris, “He actually laughed when I told him. He laughed! As if the whole episode were the funniest thing in the whole world!”

  “And he didn’t even try to offer any explanation.”

  “How could he? There is no explanation!”

  “Except, of course, that he’s someone who simply doesn’t believe in playing fair.” Susan put her chin in her hands and leaned her elbows on the table.

  “To think that we both liked him so much! We both thought he was so nice!”

  “Well, he managed to fool us both, that’s all. He’s what’s known as a ‘smooth operator.’ ”

  “Well,” said Chris, “at this point, I have only one thing to say to Mr. B.J. Wilkins.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Good riddance!”

  With that, she picked up her cheeseburger, part of the school lunch she had just bought, and bit into it. Susan, who had brought her lunch from home, reached into her brown paper bag and pulled out a sandwich.

  “Oooh, he makes me so mad,” Chris muttered as she chewed.

  “I thought we weren’t going to talk about B.J. anymore,” Susan reminded her. “Listen, let’s just have a nice, quiet lunch, okay? You eat your cheeseburger, and I’ll eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Hey, look, there’s Katy Johnson! Why, I haven’t talked to her ... well, at least since the beginning of school this year.”

  Susan waved to Katy, then gestured toward the empty chair next to her once she’d caught her eye. With a nod, the redheaded girl headed toward their table, lunch tray in hand.

  “Hi, Katy! Why don’t you join us for lunch?”

  “Thanks, Susan. The only thing is, I can only stay for a few minutes.” She smiled at the twins apologetically. “I promised Ms. Barlow I’d spend the second half of my lunch period talking about some new ideas she has for a routine I’m trying to put together before our next meet. But if you don’t mind if I eat and run, I’d love to.”

  “We understand completely. Here, pull up a chair.”

  Katy set her tra
y on the table and sat down next to Susan.

  “This is, a real coincidence, you know,” said Susan. “I was just telling Chris that I haven’t seen you since the beginning of the school year.”

  “Funny, I was talking to Chris about the same thing just a couple of days ago.”

  “Of course,” Susan went on, “that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading about you in the school paper. In the Whittington Herald, too, I might add. You’re really getting quite a reputation as aa athlete!”

  “Maybe the Olympics are in Katy Johnson’s future!” Chris was only half-teasing.

  “Oh, come on, you guys.” Predictably, the modest gymnast was blushing, reluctant to be in the spotlight once again. “Listen, why don’t you come to our next meet? I could use a little moral support while I’m trying out my new routine. A couple of friends in the audience, cheering me on, wouldn’t hurt!”

  “You’re on!” cried Chris. “That is, if we can manage to get through the crowds of your adoring fans.”

  One of whom just happens to be Wayne Lowell, thought Chris. But she decided not to say anything about Wayne. At least not yet.

  After she had rearranged the food on her lunch tray, Katy suddenly looked at Susan more carefully. She looked over at Chris, and then back at Susan again.

  “What’s going on with you two?” she asked, blinking hard as she looked at them both one more time. “Or am I seeing double?”

  “What do you mean?” Chris asked, surprised. But then she remembered that she and her twin were dressed the same way today—something that even Katy, who rarely saw them anymore, recognized as unusual.

  “Oh, you mean the mirror-image bit.” Chris sighed. “It’s a long story. Let me just sum it all up by saying that Sooz and I were trying to teach a particular boy we both know a lesson.”

  “I see. And did it work?”

  Susan and Chris exchange woeful glances.

  “I’m afraid not,” said Susan. “But I guess you can’t win ‘em all.”

  Chris decided it was time to pounce.

  “Speaking of boys,” she said, suddenly displaying more enthusiasm than she had since she sat down to eat, “I was talking to Wayne Lowell the other day.”

  “Oh, really?”

  Katy sounded so casual that it would have been obvious to anyone that something was up. Not wanting to embarrass her, Susan pretended she was so busy trying to get the clear plastic wrap off her peanut butter and jelly sandwich that she didn’t have time to listen to what the other two were talking about.

  “What’s new with Wayne?” Katy asked in that same tone of voice.

  “Nothing much. We were just talking about how romantic the play Romeo and Juliet is. We’re reading it in Mr. Adams’s English class.”

  “Oh, yes. It is romantic. Such a beautiful, sad story.”

  A dreamy look came into Katy’s eyes. Susan recognized it as the same one that came into her eyes every time she thought about Gone with the Wind. Thinking of that reminded her that she hadn’t yet gotten around to asking her mother to help her make a Civil War-style ball gown for the Halloween Dance. She’d simply been too busy shopping for pumpkins, helping her father clean the garage, and daydreaming about B.J.

  “Well, we did talk about other things,” Chris went on.

  “Oh, really? Like what?”

  Now Katy was pretending to be busy putting ketchup on her cheeseburger. Chris and Susan exchanged amused glances.

  “Oh, like the Halloween Dance.”

  “That’s nice. Is he planning to go?”

  “Not unless he’s got a date.” Chris hesitated, wondering if she should tell Katy everything that Wayne had said. But she decided against it. After all, he had told her about his crush on Katy in confidence. She couldn’t betray his secret—even though she wanted to match them up together so badly that she felt as if she were about to burst.

  Before she could drop a few hints, however, Katy innocently asked Susan how her drawing and painting were going, and the other Pratt girl launched into a detailed monologue on the two art classes she was taking that semester. The moment had passed, and Chris had no choice but to drop the subject.

  But that doesn’t mean I’m going to forget it, Chris thought, gobbling down three french fries at once.

  After a few more minutes of conversation, during which Susan, Chris, and Katy filled each other in on what they’d each been doing lately, Katy suddenly stood up.

  “Well, this has been a lot of fun. I’m glad we had a chance to talk, but I really do have to run.”

  “I know. It’s hard work being a celebrity,” Chris teased.

  “Maybe we should get Katy’s autograph now, Chris,” Susan added, “while we still have a chance.”

  “You two!” Katy laughed. “As if having one of you around weren’t enough ... Anyway, let’s get together again soon, okay? Hopefully, for a longer visit!”

  “Definitely. And let us know whenever you feel like going for that bike ride we talked about!” Chris called after her.

  After Katy had left, Chris turned to Susan and sighed.

  “Katy’s such a nice girl,” she said sadly. “If only 1 could match her up with Wayne Lowell ... And if only I could use the Halloween Dance to do it. I mean, it’s so close! It’s a little more than’ two weeks away! It would be the perfect time to get them together.”

  “Poor Chris!” Susan shook her head sympathetically. “You’ve been trying so hard to come up with an original idea for this dance. It really is too bad it’s such a difficult thing to do. But I guess that sometimes it’s just not possible to get involved in other people’s lives. You know what I mean, Chris?”

  But it was obvious to Susan that her twin wasn’t listening to a word she was saying.

  Instead, she was staring at Susan’s lunch. And there was a very peculiar look on her face.

  “Sooz,” she suddenly asked, sounding very serious, “what kind of sandwich is that?”

  “It’s peanut butter and jelly, on white bread. Why?”

  “Peanut butter and jelly,” Chris repeated. From the expression on her face, it looked as if she had just found, in that phrase, all the secrets of the universe.

  “Peanut butter and jelly!” she cried once again. “Don’t you understand, Sooz?”

  “Gee, no. I’m afraid not. But you’re certainly welcome to half my sandwich, if you want it.”

  “Peanut butter and jelly.” Chris said it one more time. Her brown eyes were glowing in a way that her twin had never seen before.

  “Here, take it, Chris. Take the whole thing. Really, I’m not that hungry, and—”

  “Romeo and Juliet,” said Chris. She looked as if she were a million miles away. “Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Prince Charles and Princess Di. Napoleon and Josephine. Now do you get it?”

  Susan was trying hard not to lose patience with her sister. “Christine Pratt, you are making absolutely no sense at all! Will you please calm down and tell me what on earth you’re talking about? Romeo and Juliet, peanut butter and jelly ...”

  “Don’t you see? It’s our gimmick for the Halloween Dance! Our way of getting everybody to participate, whether they have a date or not!”

  By this point, Susan had given up entirely on any hopes she had ever had of finishing her lunch. Her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the one that had started it all, was pushed away and quickly forgotten.

  “I’m all ears,” she said with a !oud sigh. “Please explain, O Strange One.”

  “Oooh, this is the brainstorm of the century!” Chris was so excited that she was actually jumping up and down in her seat. “You see, everybody at Whittington High will be given a slip of paper with the name of one half of a famous duo written on it when they buy a ticket for the dance.

  “Take Romeo and Juliet, for example. Whoever gets assigned Juliet has to dress up like that and go to the dance. Then, when she gets there, she looks for Romeo. And she automatically has him as her date for the evening!

  “Don’t
you see? No matter how shy somebody is, there’ll still be someone there to dance with! This plan guarantees a date for everyone!”

  Susan thought about Chris’s idea for a few seconds. She had to admit that it wasn’t bad.

  “But what if someone already has a date?” she asked. “If a boy and a girl were looking forward to going to the dance together, they’d be pretty disappointed if each of them got assigned to somebody else.”

  “That’s easy. If two people are already paired off, they’ll automatically get matching halves.”

  “I see,” Susan said. “You mean when people go to buy tickets, they just say whether they want to be matched up with someone or go as a ready-made pair.”

  “Exactly! It’s like a blind date, kind of, but much more fun!”

  “Wait. There’s something else I’m not clear on.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Well, it’s true that your original idea was to come up with something that would encourage everybody to go to the dance, either with or without a date, but what about Katy and Wayne? I mean, I don’t see how this idea would manage to get them together. If they decide to participate, the odds that the two of them will get both halves of a matching pair are slim.”

  “Ah,” said Chris, her eyes twinkling devilishly, “that’s where my being on the dance committee comes in.”

  “You mean you would pull strings in order to make sure the two of them were paired off?”

  Chris just smiled.

  “But that’s not exactly playing by the rules .... is it?”

  “Where matchmaking is concerned,” Chris said firmly, “there are no rules. Haven’t you ever heard that expression, ‘All’s fair in love and war’?”

  “That’s a pretty convincing argument.” Susan laughed.

  “So, Sooz, do you think I’ve got something here?”

  “Oh, definitely! I think your idea is utterly fantastic!”

  “Me, too! I mean, at the risk of sounding as if I’m bragging ... Gee, I can’t wait to tell the rest of the dance committee about it! Oh, I hope they all like it!”

  “I’m sure they will.”

  Susan hesitated for a moment, then said, “Hey, Chris?”