The Pumpkin Principle

by Cynthia Blair

  “Yes?”

  “What if some people already have costume ideas in mind?”

  “Hmmm. That could be a problem.”

  But it was one that Susan solved as quickly as she had brought it up.

  “I know! Say I wanted to go as Scarlett O’Hara. Which I do, as a matter of fact. When I go to buy my ticket to the dance, I’ll tell the person in charge to make sure to assign someone the character of Rhett Butler. That way, I’m guaranteed a partner, but I’ll still have the fun of not knowing who he is until I get there!”

  “That’s the perfect solution. I’ll make sure to include it when I tell the Halloween Dance Committee all about my idea. Hmmm ... Maybe we should even schedule an emergency meeting.” Chris’s brain was already ticking away. “I usually see Betsy Carter between sixth and seventh periods....”

  “How about you, Chris? Are you going to plan a costume, or would rather be surprised?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I guess it would be sort of fun to be surprised ... although, come to think of it, there is one person it might be fun to dress up as. Someone it would be fun to be for an entire evening.”

  “Really? Who?”

  Chris’s answer was the last one that her twin would ever have expected.

  “Juliet.”

  “You mean, as in Romeo and Juliet?”

  “None other. What do you think?”

  Susan laughed. “I think that you and I have a lot of sewing to do over the next week or two!”

  The two girls launched into a happy discussion of Chris’s clever idea—and the costumes they planned to make. It was clear that they were both enthusiastic about the new twist the Halloween Dance would be taking, once the Halloween Dance Committee approved it.

  The one question that neither girl dared to ask, however, was one that was very much on both of their minds.

  What would happen if B.J. Wilkins somehow got assigned to be either of the girls’ other half?

  Finally, the two girls lapsed into silence for a few seconds. Susan started to take advantage of this break to resume eating her lunch. She reached for her peanut butter and jelly sandwich—and then stopped.

  “Chris, I just had a brainstorm of my own. You’re not the only one who’s on a roll today.”

  Chris glanced up from her cheeseburger. “Really? Something about the dance?”

  “No, this is about something entirely different. I just had an idea about how we can get ourselves into Mrs. Carpenter’s house. And, if we play our cards right, spend the whole night there.”

  Now, Chris’s lunch was also forgotten. Her brown eyes began to gleam—just as they always did whenever she was on the verge of embarking on some new adventure. “Fantastic! I knew you would! What’s your idea?”

  “Well, remember what it said in that yearbook you found in the basement of Petersons’ Bookstore? That Cecilia Peterson, as she was known then, was the president of that sorority?”

  “Right. I remember. It was called Sigma Delta Alpha.”

  “Well, that sorority is our ticket to Crabtree Hill!”

  Chris sighed impatiently. “Susan Pratt, what on earth are you talking about?”

  “Listen. You and I show up at Mrs. Carpenter’s door one night and tell her that we want to join Sigma Delta Alpha, and we’re going through the initiation.”

  “I get it! Hazing, right? But that sorority doesn’t exist anymore!”

  “For heaven’s sake, Chris, Mrs. Carpenter won’t know that! Anyway, since she was president when she was in high school, she should feel some sense of loyalty to good old Sigma Delta Alpha, right? And so she’ll be willing to help us.”

  “Go on.”

  Susan shrugged. “It’s simple. We’ll just tell her that as part of our hazing, we have to spend the night at her house, since it’s supposedly haunted.”

  Chris’s jaw dropped open. “Susan, that is a brainstorm! Oooh, if only she believes it!”

  “I think we can manage to be convincing. After all, we’ve always been pretty good at that sort of thing in the past. There’s only one problem.”

  “What’s that?” Chris was puzzled,

  Susan had suddenly become very serious. “Oh, nothing much. Just that you and I are about to spend an entire night, right before Halloween, sleeping in a haunted house!”

  Chapter Twelve

  At Chris’s suggestion, Betsy Carter scheduled a special meeting of the Halloween Dance Committee for the following afternoon.

  Chris had butterflies in her stomach as she walked into the biology lab, where, once again, the meeting was being held. She was more excited about her idea than ever, and in the day and a half that followed her original inspiration, which she had gotten during lunch with Susan, she had planned out every last detail in her own mind. She had even gone so far as to make a long list of every famous duo she could think of: historical couples, characters from books and plays, movie stars. She had even included peanut butter and jelly.

  What she was worried about was successfully describing her idea to the rest of the committee, in a way that would make them as enthusiastic about it as she was.

  So she was actually nervous as she took her seat. And noticing that B.J. Wilkins was sitting at the back of classroom again, grinning in her direction, didn’t help her butterflies.

  “Okay, let’s get right to the point,” Betsy Carter began, taking her place at the front of the room. “We called this special meeting because one of you came up with an idea for the Halloween Dance that’s entirely different from what we discussed at the meeting on Monday.

  “Personally, I think it’s spectacular. But the committee should vote on it before we decide to go ahead with it. And if we do, it’ll take a lot of planning. We’ll need these few extra days to put the whole thing in gear.”

  “Hey, I hope this ‘new idea’ doesn’t mean I won’t be able to go to the dance dressed as a man from Mars,” called out Don Ellis.

  “I thought that was how you were dressed today, Don,” Connie McCormick teased.

  Betsy laughed along with everyone else in the room, including Don.

  “Don’t worry, Don. If you feel that strongly about being a man from Mars, we guarantee that you’ll be able to. But why don’t I stop talking and let the originator of the plan describe the whole thing in detail? Chris, come on up to the front.”

  Once she was facing her audience, Chris forgot all about being nervous. She was too involved in what she was saying. As she launched into a description of her plan, all she cared about was making it sound as exciting as she was convinced it was.

  “Well, I’ve given this year’s Halloween. Dance a lot of thought,” she began. “Of course, I wanted to come up with an idea that was fresh and original—something along the lines of having a theme, the idea we came up with last time.

  “But I wanted the dance to be even more than that. I wanted to think of some kind of gimmick that would let all the students at Whittington High participate, whether they had dates or not.”

  She hesitated, taking a- moment to look each member of her small audience in the eye. “And I think I finally came up with something. I call it ‘Masquerade for Two.’ ”

  For the next ten minutes, Chris talked without stopping. She explained her plan, then went on to discuss every detail: the assignment of one-half of a famous duo at the time a ticket to the dance was purchased, a few days in advance of the dance itself; couples who wanted to come as a pair; people who wanted to wear a particular costume—as both she and her sister did.

  “For example, I want to go to the dance dressed as Juliet,” she told the other committee members. “And my twin sister, Susan, wants to be Scarlett O’Hara. So when we go to buy our tickets next week, we’ll tell the ticket seller to make sure that some boy gets assigned Romeo, and some other boy gets assigned Rhett Butler.”

  When she was certain she had covered everything, Chris finally paused. “So, there’s the plan for Masquerade for Two, in a nutshell. Now, are there any questions?�
�

  “Wow, that’s really something,” Don commented. “I’d say your idea is inspired.”

  “I’d say it’s ingenious!” cried Connie. “Chris, you’re a mastermind! I love the Masquerade for Two!”

  For the first time since she’d walked in the door, Chris relaxed.

  “I’m so glad you like it, Connie,” she began. “You, too, Don—”

  But Betsy interrupted her. “I have a feeling everyone likes it, Chris. Why don’t we take a vote?”

  Once again, she took her place at the front of the classroom. Chris, meanwhile, sat down.

  “All in favor of going with Chris’s idea of Masquerade for Two, raise your hands.”

  The vote was unanimous.

  “Then it’s settled.”

  As if it needed to be in writing in order to be official, Betsy scrawled “Masquerade for Two” across the blackboard.

  “Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty details. We’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us!”

  For almost an hour, the dance committee went over every single aspect of the dance—not only dealing with the matching of two halves, but also the refreshments, the music, and the decorations. By the time everyone on the committee had been assigned two or three tasks to complete before the next meeting, early the following week, Chris was satisfied that this Halloween Dance would, indeed, be the best one Whittington High had ever had.

  As the meeting was breaking up, Chris was lost in thought about one of the tasks she’d been assigned: expanding upon the list of famous duos that she’d already started.

  I’ll enlist Sooz’s help, she decided. And Dad’s and Mom’s as well. I bet they’ll have lots of good ideas. In fact, we can all try to think up famous duos as we’re carving our pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns this weekend.

  “Congratulations!” she suddenly heard a familiar voice say.

  Instantly, she was snapped out of her daydreaming. She turned and found herself face-to-face with B.J.

  “I really like your idea, Chris,” he said cheerfully. “It’s super! I’m glad the committee voted to go ahead with it.”

  “Gee, uh, thanks, B.J.”

  Since their conversation the day before—and its abrupt ending—she wasn’t quite sure how to act. In fact, she was a bit surprised to see that they were still on speaking terms!

  “I’m glad the committee liked it, too. I was so afraid they’d vote it down! I would have been terribly disappointed.”

  “You know, you’re really something, Christine Pratt.”

  By now, the biology lab was empty, and the two of them were alone together. Even though B.J. sounded amazingly matter-of-fact, Chris suddenly felt self-conscious. She looked at him, surprised.

  “Why, thanks, B.J. But I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Well, not only are you considerate enough to be concerned about making sure that everybody feels comfortable coming to the Halloween Dance, especially when no one else even gave it a thought. But you’re also clever enough to come up with a solution to the problem. I really admire that.”

  “Gosh ...” Chris was so flabbergasted by B.J.’s flattery that she didn’t know what to say. Or even how to react, for that matter.

  “Listen, I know that this week hasn’t exactly been the smoothest week in the world, as far as you and I are concerned.” B.J. grinned. “But I was wondering. How about if you and I let bygones be bygones and go to that Halloween Dance together? You can even choose the costumes we’ll wear. If you want to be Juliet, I’d be more than happy to be your Romeo.”

  “B.J.!” Chris shrieked. “Didn’t you hear a single word I said yesterday?”

  “Well, sure, but—”

  “I have absolutely no intention of going to the Halloween Dance, or anywhere else for that matter, with a—a two-timer!”

  She picked up her schoolbooks and flounced away, making a beeline for the door.

  “Hold on a second, Chris. You know, you’re not giving me a fair shake.”

  Chris stopped in her tracks and whirled around. Her mouth dropped open in amazement.

  “Oh, really? And can you give me one good reason why I should?”

  B.J. thought for a moment. “Believe me when I tell you that there is a reason, and a very good one, at that. I’m really not such a bad guy, you know. But you’ll find out what I’m talking about soon enough. On the night of the Halloween Dance, in fact.”

  “What are you talking about?” Chris demanded. She was losing her patience.

  “You’ll see. But, in the meantime, just do me one favor.”

  “What?” Chris asked warily.

  “Promise me that you’ll dance with me that night, okay?”

  “Well, I suppose I can manage that much.” Even though she agreed, she was still reluctant.

  “Terrific. For old times’ sake. See? I told you you were something else!”

  Chris just gave B.J. a strange look.

  She still wasn’t sure why she was agreeing to dance with him ... except that one dance certainly couldn’t hurt anything. And, besides, he was being so darn mysterious!

  “You know, I’m only saying yes because I still want an explanation from you, B.J.”

  “Oh, you’ll get one. The night of the dance. You’ve got my word on that.”

  There was a mischievous glint in B.J.’s blue eyes.

  As she strode out of the room, more uncertain than ever about what was going, on, he called after her.

  “Just wait, Chris. Halloween is always full of surprises. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that, this year, you’ll be getting more tricks and more treats than you’ve ever expected!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “The terrible two-timer strikes again!”

  As soon as Chris got home that afternoon, after the Halloween Dance Committee meeting had ended and she had had still one more bewildering conversation with B.J., she rushed upstairs, to her sister’s bedroom. Just as she expected, Susan was sitting at her desk, putting the final touches on a watercolor she’d been working on for several days. It was just one of the paintings she was getting ready for her portfolio of artwork that she planned to submit when she applied to art schools.

  But when she heard her twin behind her, Susan immediately placed her paintbrush in the glass of water that was on the desk, exactly for that purpose, and turned around in her chair.

  “Oh, no,” she groaned. “Now what? Although I’m almost afraid to ask!”

  Chris plopped down on the twin bed, kicked off her shoes, and pulled her feet up so that she could sit cross-legged.

  “We had another meeting of the Halloween Dance Committee after school today. You know, the special one that Betsy scheduled so that I could tell everyone about my idea. Did I tell you I’d named it Masquerade for Two?”

  “Yes, yes, I know all about that,” Susan interrupted impatiently. “And I want to hear all about the meeting. But first, tell me about B.J.!”

  “Okay. I’m getting to that. After the meeting, he came over to me to say how much he liked my idea and how glad he was that everyone voted for it. Oh, guess what, Sooz? The committee’s vote in favor of Masquerade for Two was unanimous! We’re definitely going ahead with it!”

  “That’s great, Chris. Go on.”

  “All right, all right. Anyway, after we talked about that for a few minutes-—and, frankly, I was kind of surprised to find that B.J. and I were even on speaking terms—”

  “Christine Pratt! If you don’t tell me what B.J. said within the next thirty seconds, I’m going to come over there and paint your face Cerulean Blue!” Susan retrieved her paintbrush from the glass of water and waved it about threateningly.

  “Sooz,” Chris said, leaning forward dramatically, “B.J. actually had the nerve to ask me to go to the Halloween Dance with him! As his date!”

  “No!” .

  “Yes!”

  “Are you sure you understood him correctly?”

  “Susan,” Chris said evenly, “B.J. sa
id he would be happy to be Romeo if I wanted to be Juliet. Could anything possibly be more clear than that?”

  “I’m—I’m speechless!” Susan breathed. She deposited her watercolor brush back into the water glass once again.

  “I can see that. But aren’t you going to ask me what I told him?”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “Well, no, of course. Although I did agree to dance with him.”

  “Chris!”

  Chris shrugged. “I figured one dance couldn’t hurt anything. Besides, you can dance with him, too.”

  “He hasn’t asked me to.”

  Chris gave her twin a peculiar look. “At this point, wouldn’t you be surprised if he didn’t?”

  “You’ve got a point there. I’m definitely beginning to see a trend in his behavior.” Susan sighed. “Did he say anything else?”

  “As a matter of fact, he did. Something rather mysterious, now that you mention it.”

  “What?” Susan’s brown eyes opened wide.

  “He said that there’s a perfectly good explanation for his behavior—or something along those lines.”

  “Oh, really?” Susan sounded skeptical. “And did he tell you what that explanation is?”

  Chris shook her head. “Nope. He said I’d find out the night of the Halloween Dance.”

  “Uh-oh. It sounds like B.J. is up to something.”

  “Now that you mention it, Sooz, he did say that I’d be getting more tricks and more treats than I’d ever expect.”

  The twins just looked at each other for a few seconds.

  And then, all of a sudden, the same mischievous glint came into both girls’ eyes.

  “Sooz, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Chris’s voice was almost a whisper.

  “I think that’s a definite possibility, Chris. That is, if you’re thinking that it might be time for the Pratt twins to pull a few tricks and treats of their own!”

  “That’s precisely what I was thinking. If B.J. has some kind of prank in mind for the night of the Halloween Dance, it’s only fitting, that we beat him to the punch!”

  “Especially since you and I have lots of experience in that area!”