So Susan was amazed when Chris said, “Thanks, Scott, but there’s something else I’ve got to do right now.”
Scott just shrugged. “Okay, Charlie. Suit yourself. I’ll see you around!” And he was off.
Susan, however, was too curious to let Chris get away without giving her an explanation. “Am I missing something here? As I recall, just a few days ago my twin sister would have given her entire music collection just for the chance to sit next to the captain of Whittington High’s basketball team!”
“Let’s just say that the Marshmallow Masquerade gave me an inside look at Scott Stevens. That Charlie Pratt saw a side of him that Chris Pratt may well have never gotten to see. And to tell you the truth, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with what I saw.”
“So it turns out that Scott isn’t for you,” said Susan with a sigh. “That’s too bad. Especially since the Homecoming Dance is tomorrow night, and it’s always so nice to go to something like that with someone special.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Chris said with a twinkle in her eye. “If things turn out the way I’m hoping they will, I’ll be going to that dance with someone very special!”
Susan was puzzled. “I don’t understand. Has someone new stolen my twin sister’s heart without me knowing about it?”
“Sort of,” Chris laughed. “Yes, he’s stolen my heart. But he’s not someone new. And the real surprise is that he’s someone you’d probably never expect me to fall for, not in a million years.”
“Uh-oh,” Susan teased. “Sounds like the work of Charlie Pratt once again. Letting you see sides of the boys you’ve known for years ... I mean, the boys you thought you knew for years!”
“Something like that.”
“And has this mystery man asked you to dance?”
“No, not exactly.”
“Well, then, how exactly do you plan to arrange this little date of yours?”
Chris pretended to be astonished. “Why, Susan Pratt! You’re the one who gave me the idea in the first place! It was during one of your little speeches about the differences between boys and girls, as I recall ... that is, about the ridiculous differences, which aren’t really differences at all.”
Susan’s brown eyes narrowed. “Christine Pratt, what are you up to now?”
“Oh, nothing.” Chris took her sister’s arm and began leading her out of the schoolyard. “But we’d better get going. Christine Pratt has suddenly experienced a miracle cure. Her flu is gone; she’s feeling terrific. She can’t wait to go to the Homecoming Dance ... and she has to hurry up and make a very important phone call to a very important person.”
Chapter Thirteen
On Saturday night, the night of Whittington High’s Homecoming Dance, Chris was dressed and ready to go by seven o’clock. She was wearing her new pale blue dress, her short hair was freshly washed and brushed back in an attractive feathery style, and she had chosen just the right jewelry to set off her outfit: simple gold earrings and a gold heart locket. At that hour, however, her twin sister was nowhere to be found.
“Where on earth is Susan?” Chris wondered aloud as she opened up a big bag of potato chips and emptied it into a serving dish. She and her mother were in the kitchen, getting things ready for the little pre-dance get-together that the twins had, at the last minute, decided to throw. The plan was that four couples would meet at the Pratts’ house, have a snack, and then all set off for the Homecoming Dance together.
The first guests were expected at any minute ... yet Susan still hadn’t returned from the mysterious “errand” she’d set out on, immediately after dinner.
“I’m starting to get worried,” Chris went on. “Beth and Holly and the others should be here soon. Besides, Sooz still has to get dressed for the dance. It’s so late. Where do you suppose she went?”
“I don’t know, but it looks as if you’ll be finding out in about thirty seconds,” said Mrs. Pratt, peering out the kitchen window. “She just pulled up in the driveway.”
Sure enough, a short while later Susan came bustling into the kitchen. Even though she was bundled up in mittens, a wool scarf, and a knitted ski cap with a pompom pulled way down over her ears, her cheeks were flushed pink from the cold November evening.
“Susan Pratt, where were you?” Chris demanded, looking up from the bowl of onion dip she was mixing with a wooden spoon. “Everyone will be here any minute, and you still have to get dressed.”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Pratt. “Your sister here was getting quite concerned. She was afraid she might have to host this little party without you!”
“Sorry,” Susan said with a wide grin. “My ‘errand’ took a little bit longer than I expected.”
“I can’t imagine what was so important that it couldn’t wait. You’d better hurry.”
“Don’t worry, Chris. All I have to do is put on my dress and I’ll be all set.” She pulled off her mittens and stuck them in the pockets of her jacket.
Chris stopped what she was doing and faced her twin. She was still holding on to her wooden spoon. “What about your hair? Aren’t you going to wash it or at least do something special with it for the dance?”
“Funny you should mention that,” Susan said. There was a mischievous twinkle in her dark brown eyes. “As a matter of fact, I did do something special with my hair for the dance.”
With that, she pulled off her knitted cap—and revealed the same short haircut that her sister had gotten, exactly one week before, in honor of the Marshmallow Masquerade.
“Sooz!” Chris squealed, dropping her spoon onto the kitchen floor. “You’ve cut off all your hair!”
“Yes, I have,” Susan said matter-of-factly. “And now you and I are identical twins again!”
She reached up to touch the short haircut, as if she wasn’t yet used to it—the same way her sister had reacted when she first had hers cut. Unlike Chris’s, however, Susan’s was brushed back into an attractive style right from the start, “We can let it grow together. And in the meantime, we’ll be ready for any practical jokes that may come along that require two pranksters who happen to look exactly the same!”
“Oh, Sooz, that’s great!” Chris leaned over and gave her sister a big hug. “And you look terrific, if I do say so myself.”
“And here I was just getting used to being able to tell the two of you apart,” said Mrs. Pratt with a sigh. “Now I’ll have to go back to second-guessing you, trying to figure out which one of you is Chris and which one is Susan!”
“Sorry, Mom,” Susan laughed. “Now, if you two will excuse me, I’d better run upstairs and get dressed. I’ve got a dance to go to!”
As Susan was trotting upstairs to her bedroom, the doorbell rang.
“Oh, dear!” Chris wailed. “They’re here—already! And I’m not done yet.”
“That’s all right, Chris. I’ll take over,” Mrs. Pratt offered. “Why don’t you go greet your guests? I’ll finish up in here.”
“Yum—and I’ll help you,” Mr. Pratt boomed as he came into the kitchen. “I can see you’ve got a lot of food to get rid of, and making a dent in it is the least I can do. I’ll start off with these potato chips and this onion dip.”
“Oh, Daddy!” Chris laughed. “Just make sure you leave one or two potato chips for the rest of us! After all, we’ll all be needing our energy. We’ve got a long night of dancing ahead of us!” She dashed out of the kitchen, heading for the front door.
She was pleased to see that her date for the evening was the very first guest to arrive.
“Hello, Peter,” Chris said with a welcoming smile.
“Hi, Chris,” Peter said shyly. He was still astounded that the popular, outgoing Christine Pratt had called him up the day before and invited him to the Homecoming Dance. But even greater than his surprise was his extreme pleasure. “You certainly look nice this evening!”
“Thank you, Peter. You look nice, too!”
Peter looked a bit taken aback by her compliment. But Chris had surmised during Charlie Pra
tt’s visit that boys needed to be complimented on their appearance, just as girls did. After all, it seemed only fair.
“Well, come on into the dining room. I’d like you to meet my parents. And we’ve got some soda and some chips and other things to eat. Just help yourself!”
“Thanks.” Peter followed Chris into the dining room. “By the way, Chris, I, uh, just wanted to tell you how great I think it is that you called me and asked me out. I mean, that probably wasn’t a very easy thing for a girl to do.”
Chris shrugged. “Not any harder than it would be for a boy to do. Besides,” she added teasingly, “I had a pretty good idea that if I asked you to the dance, it was fairly certain that you’d say yes.”
“Oh, no! Don’t tell me Charlie told you something....”
“Charlie didn’t say a word to me before he left this morning, not about you or about anything else.”
Peter grinned. “Yeah, I had a feeling about Charlie all along. That he was trustworthy, I mean. He’s okay, that cousin of yours. As a matter of fact, I’m really going to miss him.”
“I know what you mean,” Chris agreed heartily. “Charlie’s visit is something that none of us will forget for a very long time!”
When the doorbell rang a second time, Susan came racing down the stairs, dressed up in a pretty yellow dress, yelling, “I’ll get it!”
Just as she’d hoped, it was her date for the evening.
“Hi, Mike,” she greeted the tall blond boy standing in the doorway.
“Hi, Susan! All ready to dance the night away?”
“I certainly am! That is, after I’ve finished stuffing myself full of potato chips.” Like Peter, Susan was still surprised by the dance invitation she’d gotten, only two days earlier. She couldn’t have been happier about it, of course. Even so, she couldn’t help wondering if her “cousin” Charlie had had anything to do with matching up her and Mike.
“Come on in, Mike, and have something to eat. My mother and Chris have been in the kitchen for over an hour, concocting all kinds of goodies.”
“Okay, thanks. Hey, by the way, your hair looks terrific! I like it short.”
“Oh, really? I’m so glad. I just had it cut today.” Susan smoothed out her new short style. “There’s something to be said for short hair. It’s so easy to take care of, for one thing.”
“I know,” Mike agreed with a chuckle. “That’s something we boys have known about for years!”
It wasn’t long before the other two couples arrived: Holly and Hank, looking quite comfortable with each other and happy over being reunited, and Beth and Dennis, two quiet people who were just getting to know each other—tout were obviously quite pleased to be having such an opportunity.
Finally, all eight of them were assembled in the dining room, joking and laughing and attacking the food with such enthusiasm that it was difficult to believe that only about an hour earlier each of them had been eating dinner.
“Well, I guess we have Chris and Mrs. Pratt to thank for this little get-together,” said Mike, dropping ice cubes into a glass full of root beer.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Chris said modestly. “If we have anyone to thank, I’d have to say it’s Charlie Pratt. You know, our cousin from Chicago.”
“Ah, yes,” Susan agreed with a knowing smile. “It’s true that he turned out to be quite a matchmaker, didn’t he?”
Shyly, Chris looked at Peter, Mike looked at Sooz, Hank looked at Holly, and Dennis looked at Beth—all of them assuming that they, and they alone, were the people to whom Susan was referring when she mentioned Charlie Pratt’s role as a matchmaker.
“It’s just too bad he couldn’t have stuck around a little longer,” Hank commented. “Maybe come to the dance tonight.”
“Yes, it is too bad,” Beth agreed. “I’m afraid I never even got a chance to meet him.”
“Well,” said Peter hopefully, “maybe he’ll come back to visit again sometime soon. What do you think, Chris?”
Chris and Susan looked at each other and grinned.
“Maybe he will, one of these days” was all that Chris said.
“Don’t forget,” Susan added, her eyes on her twin, “that Charlie contributed a lot more than improving everyone’s social life. Just having him around was a real education.”
“I’ll say,” Chris returned. “I suspect that after only a week with Charlie around, Susan and I will never look at things in quite the same way again!”
After almost all the food was gone and Mr. Pratt had dutifully snapped photographs of all of them, the four couples decided it was time to be on their way.
“After all,” said Mike, smiling warmly at Susan as he helped her with her coat, “we don’t want to miss any of the Homecoming Dance. This is a pretty special occasion!”
“It’s a very special occasion,” Susan agreed. “This is a special night for all of us, and I want to make sure I enjoy every single moment of it.” With that, she reached for Mike’s coat and started to help him put it on. “Here, let me help you with that,” she insisted.
Mike hesitated for a moment, surprised by her offer, But then he broke out into a huge grin. “Well, sure! Why not? I suppose I appreciate the little courtesies of life just as much as the female half of the population does!”
“I hope you feel that way, too,” Chris said, turning to Peter.
“Sure I do!” he said. “I’ve always believed that all people, both male and female, deserve the same courtesies. The way I look at it, we’re not that different, are we?”
It was all that Chris could do to keep from bursting out laughing. And as she looked over at her twin, she saw that Susan was having the same difficulty.
“No, Peter, I guess we’re not.”
Chris reached for his jacket and held it out, at arm’s length. “Here, let me help you put on your coat. After all,” she explained, exchanging a secret smile with her sister, “I have a feeling that Charlie Pratt would have wanted it this way!”
Copyright © 1987 by Cynthia Blair
Originally published by Fawcett Juniper (ISBN 978-0449702178
Electronically published in 2015 by Belgrave House
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No portion of this book may be reprinted in whole or in part, by printing, faxing, E-mail, copying electronically or by any other means without permission of the publisher. For more information, contact Belgrave House, 190 Belgrave Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94117-4228
http://www.BelgraveHouse.com
Electronic sales: [email protected]
This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.
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