DOUBLE DATE
by Rosamond du Jardin
  Tobey Heydon Booksationon-Series
Titles
Practically SeventeenSomeone to Count on Class
RingYoung and Fair
Boy TroubleJunior Year Abroad The Real
Thing Wedding in the Family
One of the Crowd. , . ,
T
,
  Adult Novels
All is Not Gold
Marcy Rhodes Bookscconly Love Lasts
Wait for MarcyHonorable Estate
Marcy Catches UpBrief Glory
A Man for MarcyTomorrow Will Be Fair Senior
Prom
  Pam and Penny Howard Books:
Double Date
Double Feature
Showboat Summer
Double Wedding
By Rosamond du Jardin
www.imageCascade.com
ORIGINAL COPYRIGHT [*copygg'1951
BY ROSAMOND DU JARDIN
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form, except by a reviewer,
without the permission of the publisher.
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA
A hardcover edition of this book was originally
published by J. B. Lippincott Company. It
is here reprinted by arrangement with HarperCollins
Publishers.
First
Image Cascade Publishing
edition published 2002.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication
Data Du Jardin, Rosamond
1902-1963. Double date.
(juvenile Girls)
Reprint. Originally published: New York and
Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott Company, 1951.
ISBN 1-930009-49-6 (pbk.)
To my daughter Judy, who named this book
Contents
CHAPTER
  1 New School
PAGE

  2 Carbon Copy

  3 Pam's Technique 28
  4 Escape to the Library 37
  5 A Talk With Mother 46
  6 The Club Meeting

  7 The Deception 64
  8 A Sort of Friendship 74
  9 Almost a Date 84
  10 Mother Gets a Break 94
  11 The Sleigh Ride 103
  12 Penny Plans a Party 112
  13 A Word of Advice 122
  14 Penny Learns the Hard Way 132
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
  15 An Apology 141
  16 Disappointment 150
  17 Penny Has an Idea 158
  18 Pam Has a Problem 165
  19 Everything Happens at Once 172
DOUBLE DATE
The
NEW SCHOOL
  Penny Howard loitered selfconsciously
outside the west entrance of Glen Township High,
waiting for her twin sister Pam. Under her arm were
several school books and her red corduroy
jacket, which had felt so good in the coolness of the
September morning seven hours ago. Now the sun
slanting across her shoulders was far too warm to permit
even the thought of wearing a coat. So Penny clutched
it along with her books and tried not to feel awkward
and burdened.
  Other students streamed past her, girls and boys
in laughing, talking, arguing twos and threes
and half dozens, none of them paying the slightest
attention to Penny. And why should they, she reasoned with
herself? None of them knew her, none had laid eyes
on her before today. For not only was this the opening day of
school for Pam and Penny, it was the first day they had
spent at Glen High in their lives. And to start
senior year at a new school in a new town where
every person and every place seemed strange to you-well,
that wasn't a thing to shrug off lightly.
  So Penny waited there, wishing Pam would hurry,
but knowing darned well she wouldn't, since Pam
wasn't the hurrying kind. The soft fall wind
swooped at Penny's plaid skirt and she
smoothed it down against her knees with

DOUBLE DATE
her free hand. Then her dark hair was blown forward
across her eyes and she had to push it back. A little
frown wrinkled its way between her gray eyes. Could
she have missed Pam? But that didn't seem
possible. They had agreed to meet here after school,
surely Pam would have waited.
Penny shifted her books and jacket from one arm to the
other. A rather tall girl, with a pixyish face, a
dash of freckles, a wide mouth, she
might have been attractive laughing and without the
anxious frown. But there seemed to be a sort of
tenseness, a turned-in-upon-herself air about her that
wasn't at all inviting. So the casual glances that
touched her flitted by without lingering. And no one
spoke.
I might be a statue, Penny thought desolately.
I might be something that just grew here, like the ivy
climbing up the wall behind me. Come on, Pam.
Come on!
Not until Penny had struggled with the wind and her
skirt again and shifted her books back and forth a
couple more times did Pam finally appear. The heavy
door swung out and a masculine hand held it
firmly while Pam came through. Penny was so
relieved to see her twin, she didn't notice at
first that Pam wasn't alone.
"I thought you'd never get here!" she exclaimed.
"Am I awfully late?" Pam asked
apologetically. "I'm sorry-but I actually
got lost. It's a big school."
Looking into Pam's face was like holding a mirror
up to Penny's. They were so much alike. Except that
Pam's wide mouth was curved in an enchanting
smile and there was no frown between her gray
eyes. The wind wouldn't dare whip Pam's plaid
skirt awkwardly above her knees. It simply
molded it against her in a very flattering way.

And Pam's arms were free and unburdened. She
wore her red jacket slung jauntily over her
shoulders and in one hand she carried a single text
book. Belatedly Penny realized that the
dark-haired boy who had held the door open and the
tall practically white-haired boy who had
emerged right behind Pam were not casual passers-by, but
were with her sister.
"If you hadn't sighted a couple of familiar
faces from math class, you might have wandered around
school all night." The dark-haired boy's eyes
narrowed a little in laughter behind his shell-rimmed
glasses.
"That's right," Pam laughed back at him in her
most beguiling way. "Thanks for rescuing me, you
two."
"Any time," the platinum-blond boy chuckled.
"We're in training to replace those St. Bernards
they send around the Alps with brandy kegs hung on
"em."
Penny laughed at that, too. And the sound of
her laughter seemed to remind Pam once more of her
presence. "Penny," she said, indicating the blond
boy with just a touch of light fingers on his forearm, "this
is Mike Bradley. And this is
Randy-Patterson, is it?" She glanced at the
dark-haired boy questioningly.
"You're close," he assured her. "It's
Kirkpatrick."
"Sorry," Pam said in her easy, casual way
that Penny would have given almost anything to be able
to duplicate. "This is my sister, Penny."
"Hi, Penny," Mike grinned at her.
"How do you do," Randy Kirkpatrick's
acknowledgment of the introduction was a shade more formal,
but his smile was as warm.
"How do you do," Penny murmured. And immediately she
wished she'd said, "Hi." Still, if she had said
"Hi,"

DOUBLE DATE
  that wouldn't have seemed quite right to her, either. She felt
herself caught up in a familiar and hated
embarrassment and hoped she wasn't coloring. If
only she had half Pam's poise and
self-assurance!
  "Never would have suspected you two were related,"
Mike said, straight-faced.
  Randy Kirkpatrick looked from Pam to Penny
and back again a couple of times. "It's just like seeing
double."
  "Now where have we heard that before?" Pam asked
Penny. But she didn't wait for an answer.
Instead she tucked her hand through her sister's arm and
smiled impartially from one boy to the other. "We have
to be getting home now."
  "Which way do you go?" Mike Bradley asked.
  And Randy said, "My heap's parked around back.
Glad to give you girls a lift."
  "It's not far-was Penny began.
  But the slight pressure of Pam's hand on her
arm stopped her. And Pam's voice poured over
hers, smooth as cream, saying, "It's just down on
Main Street, but if you don't mind short
trips, we'd love a lift, wouldn't we,
Penny?"
  "Why-yes," Penny murmured.
  The four of them descended the long flight of stone
steps. Glen High perched on a hilltop, its
steep front campus sloping down to the street.
Behind the school and on a lower level were the
athletic field, with seats in tiers at either end,
and a parking space for student and faculty cars. Beyond
the parking space and athletic field a small
lake glimmered blue in the bright fall sunshine,
with the well-tended lawns and shrubbery and tall old
trees of the town park surrounding it.
  "I love the lake," Pam said with her usual
bubbling

  enthusiasm. "Imagine a school with a lake right
behind it! Why, the school we went to in Chicago had
no campus at all. You came down the steps and
there you were right on a busy city street, with buses
zooming past and a traffic cop at the corner."
  At least, Penny thought, feeling a touch of
nostalgia for their old school, it was all
perfectly familiar. There she had known where she was
going, where everything was. She had had friends. But
she'd get acquainted here eventually, she reminded
herself. It wouldn't always seem so strange.
  "No foolin"?" Mike Bradley said. "I
don't think I'd like that. I'm strictly a
small-town guy myself."
  He looked, Penny reflected, like a Viking,
with his fair hair, his blue eyes, his
broad-shouldered rangy height. Her heart quickened
as he caught her eyes on his face and grinned at
her.
  Then his attention shifted back to Pam, who was
chattering on easily. "It's so wonderful out here in
Glenhurst. I just love the suburbs. And we'll
like it even better when we've had time to really make
friends. Everyone seems so nice and easy to
get
acquainted with, I know it won't take long."
  "It's a pretty friendly town," Randy
Kirkpatrick agreed, smiling at Pam,
obviously charmed by the warmth of her personality.
He asked then, "How long have you lived out here?"
  "Oh, just a teensy while," Pam said, her
gray eyes wide on his. "Only a few
weeks. And you know how it is when you move. We've
been so terribly rushed and busy trying to get
settled and all-well, we just haven't had a chance
to meet anyone, really. Now that school's started
it'll be different, though."

DOUBLE DATE
It would be different for Pam at any rate, Penny
thought a trifle ruefully. How could twin
sisters, who looked so much alike that most people couldn't
tell them apart, be so unlike inside? She had
pondered the question many times before and found no answer.
How could Pam chatter on so animatedly, so
effortlessly, keeping these boys she scarcely knew
interested and amused, instilling in them a desire
to get better acquainted? Penny could think of nothing
at all to add to Pam's running comments. Beside her
sister she felt leaden and dull and miserably aware
of the poor impression she was making. Trudging along
with the others, Penny spoke only when spoken
to directly. Casual, friendly talk eddied about her
like a warm current, while she contributed little more
than monosyllables. Not that the others seemed
to notice. Pam's voice filled any void that
might otherwise have been left by Penny's silence.
When Randy stopped beside a light green convertible in the
graveled parking space, Pam's eyes widened in
appreciation. "This is yours?" she asked. "This is
the heap you mentioned?"
"Only its outside looks good," Randy grinned
modestly.
"Don't let him kid you," Mike drawled.
"He's filthy rich and this is just one of the little baubles
his doting family lavishes on him. Now
me, I'm the poor-but-honest type. Any car I
get I got to pay for. So, I walk, only when
I get offered a ride."
"If you don't shut your big mouth in a hurry,"
Randy said good-humoredly, "you'll walk right now."
"Sorry," Mike said. "I take every word of it
back. Actually, girls, he only rides
to school because the Kirkpatrick hovel is a
couple of miles away. And he only takes

  me home because I happen to live on his usual
route. And he only takes you home-was he broke
off to regard Randy quizzically. "Just why is it
you're taking these two gorgeous tomatoes home,
chum?"
  Randy laid his hand lightly on Pam's shoulder,
a teasing gleam in his dark glance. "I'm afraid
she'll get lost again."
  "I suppose I'll never live that down,"
Pam laughed. "It's those three floors at the
back of the school and only two in front that confused
me."
  "We know," Mike soothed. "They should supply
guides for new students. Suggest it at the next
Council meeting, Randy."
  "Will do," Randy said.
  They all clambered into the green car then, Penny
and Mike in the small back seat that obviously
cramped Mike's long legs, Pam and Randy in
front.
  "Where to on Main Street?" Randy asked,
angling the car adeptly out of the parking space.
  "Just across from the post office," Pam said.
"Second house from the corner."
  "Say," Mike exclaimed, "that's the old
Crandall place! Do you live there?"
  Pam nodded, smiling at him across her shoulder.
  "But isn't it fixed over into some kind of a shop?"
  "The downstairs is," Pam informed him. We
live up. And it isn't
some
kind of a shop, I'll have you know," she added with mock
indignation. "It's "Howard House-Interior
Decoration." We just haven't got our sign out in
front yet."
  "You mean your father's an interior decorator?"
Randy asked interestedly.
  Penny's throat felt a little chokey, as it always
seemed
18
DOUBLE DATE
  to when anyone spoke of her father. And Pam's
face was momentarily grave, saying, "Not our
father-he's dead. Mother's the interior decorator.
She worked in a big Chicago shop for years. But just
this summer she happened
to
stumble on the Crandall place and saw right away
what a wonderful set-up it would be for a shop of her
own. So, she bought it and we've all been working like
crazy to fix it up."
  "You've certainly done wonders with the outside,"
Mike said. "The place was a wreck. And being so
close to the business district, no one would buy it
to live in."
  Pam nodded, smiling again. "That's how we could
afford it," she confided. "And if you think the
outside's improved, you should see the inside.
Mother's so clever, she has such terrific ideas. Like
that picture window facing the street-it's
practically a show window and yet it doesn't
spoil the looks of the house."
  "Yeah," Mike said, "I've noticed that."
  And Randy added, "A shop like that should do a good
business in Glenhurst. There's nothing at
all like it around."
  "I know," Pam nodded. "Mother investigated that
angle first of all. She figured, with a really good
shop right here in the community, there'd be no point in people
having to go all the way in
to
the city for furnishings and ideas. It's the ideas that
are most important-and Mother has such wonderful
ones. . . ."
  The way Pam made Howard House sound all
established and successful, instead of shaky and barely
started and operating on a shoestring, aroused Penny's
profound admiration. Pam was so wonderfully
assured about everything, never bumbling around at a
loss for words, always able to make anything sound like a
gay adventure. And

it wasn't that she boasted or exaggerated, either. She
was simply able to put the best face possible on
things, to stress the good aspects and tone down the bad
ones.
Penny sighed, a very small sigh that none of the others
noticed. It wasn't that she envied her sister-not
really. She only wished she could be like her in other
ways than their surface physical
resemblance. Listening to Pam run on, so
effortlessly, so interestingly, Penny thought it was no
wonder everyone liked her, liked to be with her. Nor
was it any wonder that Penny's own uncertainties and
inadequacies showed up so glaringly by comparison.
CARBON COPY
  When Richard Howard was
  killed in his skidding car on an icy stretch of
road, his wife, Celia, had to pick up the
broken pieces of her life and weld them together as
best she could. She loved Rick deeply, but she was
a valiant, forward-looking person. And there were her
ten-year-old daughters to consider and all the
responsibilities attendant
on
their upbringing.
  It had been necessary for Celia to
get
a job, so that Rick's modest insurance might be
kept as a backlog of security. So Celia's
widowed mother, whom the twins called Gran, came
up from a small Indiana town to live with them in their
Chicago apartment and take care of Pam and Penny.
Gran didn't like the city too well, but she made
the best of it. She was a brisk, energetic
woman, with a sense of humor that was dry and
unfailing. Gran's hair was white and her figure
comfortably cushioned, but not fat. Her bright blue
eyes didn't miss much that was going on. She was
aware that times had changed since she was a girl, but,
unlike many grandmothers, she felt that some of the changes
might possibly be for the better. She and the twins were
fond of each other, they got along fine. And even
when Penny and Pam reached their teens, they found
Gran understanding and not too hopelessly old-
fashioned. It would have been wonderful if Mother could

stay at home all the time. But, since she couldn't,
Gran made a pretty good substitute.
Celia herself regretted that her job left her so
little time to spend with the girls. This was especially true
as they grew up and Gran confessed privately that
she felt her age was against her in coping with a couple
of modern teenagers.
"It wasn't too much for me," Gran admitted
to Celia, "when their problems were mainly skinned
knees and school grades and checking up on whether
they'd washed behind their ears. But now that boys and
lipstick and how late to stay out on dates are the
vital issues-well, I don't know,
Cele, whether I'm up to handling them or not." She
sighed, adding, "And this business lately of Pam being
more popular than Penny-that's just a little ticklish."
"I know," Celia said, laying an affectionate hand
on her mother's shoulder, "but it would be ticklish for
anyone. Twins are a problem sometimes. And raising
them in a city apartment isn't the best set-up, either.
But you handle things as well as anyone could. I only
wish I could be around more to help you. . . ."
Celia had a dream, shared only with the twins and
Gran, of opening an interior decorating shop of
her own, somewhere in the suburbs, perhaps, where they could
live close by and she could arrange her working hours
according to a more elastic schedule. But the idea remained
nothing more than a wistful daydream for quite a long time.
Then one early spring night Celia came home from
work practically popping with excitement. She was a
slim, pretty woman whose light brown hair showed
only a touch of gray and whose blue eyes were bright and
direct like Gran's. They were even brighter than
usual now. And

DOUBLE DATE
scarcely did Celia have her hat and coat off
than she was demanding, "What are we having for
dinner? Can it possibly wait? Because we've just
got to have a family conference!"
"Casserole," Gran said. "I'll turn off the
oven right away and it'll be all right anytime."
Penny had been intent on her homework, curled up
on the couch, surrounded by books. Pam had been
lying in front of the record-player, dreamily
listening to Perry Como. Now she switched him off in
mid-song and both she and Penny regarded their mother
expectantly. Family conferences weren't usually
called so decisively unless some vital matter was
at stake.
As soon as Gran had bustled back from the kitchen,
Celia began to speak. She didn't sit down,
although her feet were usually pretty tired by evening, and
she clasped her hands together in an entreating sort of
way. She said solemnly, "Now we must consider this
question rationally. It's not a thing to decide without thought.
I want us all to be happy over whatever decision
we come
to
and convinced absolutely that it's the right thing to do."
All of them stared at her, surprised at her
unusual seriousness. Then Penny's eyes slipped
away to meet Pam's and an unspoken question
flashed between them. Could Mother want to remarry? It was
not too remote a possibility. There was Harry
Morton at the store where she worked. He had taken
Mother out quite a bit and sent her roses on her
birthday. Neither of the twins thought much of Harry
Morton, with his thin hair and thick waistline.
Surely Mother wouldn't
get
this excited over a proposal from him!
Penny felt her breath puff out in a little sigh of
relief

as Mother continued, "I was "way out in the suburbs
today in a town called Glenhurst. It was the final
check-up on that Currier job we've been so
busy with at the store. And as I walked back to the
train, I just happened to see this house . . ."
As Mother's voice went on, warmly intent and
enthusiastic, Penny seemed to see it, too.
Drab and gray with the ravages of time, a square
old house of two stories, set rather close to the
street. And yet, according to Mother, run-down and
neglected and practically overgrown with rank
shrubbery though it was, there was still a square solidity
about it that indicated strong foundations and fine
workmanship.
"A FOR SALE sign was half-hidden in the
weeds," Mother explained, "all weathered, as though it
had been there a long time. At first I couldn't understand
why no one had seen the house's wonderful
possibilities for remodeling. And then it struck
me-the trouble was the location. It's right in the business
section, really. There's a post office and stores in
the same block. That would be a big disadvantage
if a person were merely looking for a place
to live-but-well," Mother chuckled suddenly in an
enchanting way she had, like a child who has been caught
in mischief, "I had half an hour to kill till
train time, so I couldn't resist stopping at the real
estate office to ask a few questions. That," she informed
them, "was when I met Mr. Hancock, Mr.
Lucius Hancock, quite the most terrific
salesman I ever encountered in my life!"
"High-pressure?" Gran asked.
"Low-pressure," Mother corrected. "No one
ever
undersold
anything so completely. First of all, I asked the
price and it was quite reasonable. But as soon as I
24
DOUBLE DATE
mentioned the fact that I thought it would make a good
location for an interior decorating business, he
drew his beetling brows together and began pointing out
drawbacks to me so fast it made my head spin."
"He doesn't sound much like a real estate man,"
Pam said.
"Darlings," Mother told them all, "he doesn't
look like one, either. He's quite old and he has
beautiful thick snow- white hair and these rather
overwhelming eyebrows-was she broke off, obviously
struck by a sudden thought. "He looks like Santa
Claus, only without the whiskers, and if you can
imagine Santa in slacks and a jacket and quite a
dazzling sport shirt."
Pam and Penny giggled at the picture thus
summoned up. But Mother informed them, "He's rather a
dear when you get used
to
him. Anyway," she went on, "we argued for a
while and then I realized that he thought I meant the
house should be torn down and a business building
erected to be used for a decorating shop. When I
finally made it clear to him that what I was talking about
was a shop on the first floor of the old house
and living quarters above-well, he turned very
co-operative. He'd been against the idea at first
because he couldn't bear the thought of the house being
demolished. He says the place is a sort of
landmark in the town and there are all too few of them
left. Of course, I didn't commit myself-I
wouldn't without discussing the idea with all of you and having
you see the place and give your opinions."
Celia's shining eyes swept from Gran to Pam
to Penny and she said, "I think you'll all love the
town. And the house could be fixed up without a lot of
money. Mr. Hancock and I looked it over very
carefully-I was an hour late

getting back to the store. But if we could work it out and
swing the mortgage and repairs without using all
Rick's insurance-well, it's exactly the sort
of set-up I've dreamed of. I'd be right there in the
house with you from morning till night, except when I
was out on jobs. I could see so much more of you and be of
more help. . . ."
The idea appealed to the twins as much as it did
to Gran, all of them caught fire from Celia's
enthusiasm. They went out to Glenhurst the following
Sunday, saw the house and fell in love with
it, met Mr. Hancock and were charmed with his
friendliness, his desire to help. Not that they rushed
ahead blindly. Celia talked over her plans with
friends in the same business, checked with wholesale
furniture dealers, all sorts of sources of
supply. Finally there seemed no further reason for
delay, so the house was bought, Celia gave up her
job and the four of them moved to Glenhurst.
The house had been painted and its crumbling
fieldstone chimney repaired before they moved into it.
But much work remained to be done on the interior.
Celia had a man highly recommended by Lucius
Hancock do the papering and painting. But she and the
twins and even Gran were endlessly busy, polishing and
cleaning and furbishing, making the upper rooms bloom
into liveability, the lower ones take on the
aspects of a smart decorator's shop. Celia
was so clever, so original. She had such a way of
combining furniture and fabrics effectively. People
began coming to Howard House long before the family was
truly settled, or the shop finally arranged.
"I think it's going to work out," Celia told
Gran. "It'll take time, of course, to get
firmly established. I don't mean
it'll be easy. But I have a hunch we
didn't make any mistake when we came
to Glenhurst."
Celia often had hunches and sometimes they worked out.
The twins and Gran hoped this was one of her more
successful ones. Because all of them liked Glenhurst
and wanted to stay there forever.
One day in their bedroom Pam told Penny, "I
can't wait till school starts, can you? I can't
wait till we have a whole new crowd of friends and
all sorts of different places to go and things to do.
I can't wait!"
Penny felt a surge of the same impatience that was
nipping at Pam. But aloud she said calmly, "I
can wait."
Pam jumped up and swung around the room in a slow
dreamy waltz, her eyes closed, her face
lifted to an imaginary partner. "We don't even
know what the names of their dances at Glen High will
be, or who'll take us-or anything!"
Penny said, "So long as somebody takes us." She
said it in a joking sort of way, but there was a grain
of seriousness underneath, sharp and troubling as a cinder in
your eye. Penny was never quite sure of being asked
to dances, unless Pam fixed it up for her, unless
Pam said airily to her date, "Bring
along someone nice for Penny, will you? It'll be more
fun double-dating." Pam was very generous about that sort
of thing, still Penny would have liked it better for some boy
to ask her for a date, totally irrespective of her
sister.
But Pam said confidently, "We'll get asked,
never fear."
Pam had every reason for confidence. Penny thought, a
feeling of hope lifting her spirits, maybe it'll be
different out here in Glenhurst. Maybe someone will
pay some attention to me as an individual, not just
put up with me

because I'm Pam's sister. Maybe there'll be a
boy who'll like me, personally . . .
She hadn't gone so far as to imagine just how he'd
look. If she had, Penny thought, riding home from
school in the back seat of Randy Kirkpatrick's
green convertible, he might well have been a
reasonable facsimile of Mike Bradley. But was
Mike paying any attention to her? Was she dazzling
him with her charms? Would he by any stretch of the
imagination ask her for a date, rather than Pam? The
answer to all these questions, Penny knew, was a flat
"no." For Mike Bradley was leaning
forward to listen to Pam; he was giving her the greater
share of his attention, just as Randy Kirkpatrick in
the front seat was.
It was always like this, Penny thought desolately. It
always would be. She stopped trying to think of something
to say, something witty and arresting that would catch
Mike's wandering attention. She wrapped herself in her
familiar shell of not caring, or, at least, of
pretending not to care. Sometimes she pretended so well
she had herself fooled. But not today. Not quite.
Penny's throat ached with the knowledge that things weren't going
to be different for her at Glen High after all. It
was going to be the same old routine of following after
Pam, of trying to keep up with her and imitate her
winning ways.
"Just call me Carbon Copy," Penny thought, her
lips twisting a little in a wry smile. But no one
was looking at her, so no one noticed.
PAM'S TECHNIQUE
  When Penny came into the wide, gray-carpeted
entrance hall, she saw that Mother was busy with two
well-dressed feminine customers. They were standing in
what had once been a living room, but was now the
main salesroom of Howard House. Mother's gray
suit with the little lime scarf at the throat
went beautifully with the greens and grays and bright
tangerine tones of the salesroom. Mother always
dressed to match her surroundings, she was so clever about
details like that.
  She smiled at Penny and said, "Hello,
dear," then went on with a spirited discussion of the
comparative merits of several bolts of drapery
material which the two customers seemed to be
considering.
  Penny turned back for one quick look through the
glass of the door to see whether Pam was coming. But
Pam was leaning her elbows on the door of the
convertible, laughing gayly with Mike and Randy, both
of whom now occupied the front seat. Penny could have
lingered, too, if she had liked, but there had seemed
no point in it. None of the others had been paying
any attention to her.
  She made her way slowly up the stairs. Here
in the small apartment where the twins and their mother and
grandmother lived, the furnishings were tasteful, but far from
new. The colors in the chintz drapes were

muted, the rugs showed signs of wear, everything had a
comfortable lived-in look. Personally Penny liked
the easy informality of these rooms much better
than the smart perfection of the lower floor, which all the
customers exclaimed over. But, of course, none
of the customers saw the upper rooms.
Gran was sitting in the cheerful living room, the
irregular shape of which was due to the fact that a
partition had been removed and two former bedrooms
thrown together. Gran was knitting, which she almost always
did whenever she sat down. She found knitting a form
of relaxation, since she had done so much of it she
didn't have to look at what she was doing. She could
knit and talk, or listen to the radio, or even
read. It was wonderful for Pam and Penny, who never
ran out of hand-knit sweaters.
Now a shaft of sunlight gleamed on Gran's
crisply curly white hair. When she noticed
Penny, she smiled and said, "Well, hello. I
didn't hear you come upstairs. How did it go?"
Penny knew Gran meant the first day of school, not
the encounter with two very attractive new boys.
Gran wouldn't know anything about that, unless she'd been
looking out the window.
"Okay," Penny said. "Sort of strange, of
course."
"That won't last long," Gran said confidently.
Penny put her books and jacket down on
the arm of the couch. No sound disturbed the stillness but the
brisk click of Gran's flying needles, the
faint murmur of Mother's and the customers' voices from
downstairs.
"Homework already?" Gran frowned at the stack of
books. "Aren't they loading it on a bit early?
First day of school!"

DOUBLE DATE
"There's not too much of it," Penny said.
"I'll bet Pam didn't bring any home,"
Gran chuckled.
"Just one book," Penny admitted with a smile.
"She figures she'll use yours if she needs
"em," Gran said. "It'd be a good joke on her
if you didn't bring a book home some night."
"I don't mind," Penny said. As always, she found
herself impelled to defend Pam. "It wouldn't make
much sense for both of us to drag the same books
home."
Gran smiled at Penny, her blue eyes
crinkling at the corners, seeming to see deep down
inside her. But Penny didn't mind that, either. She
and Gran understood each other pretty well.
"Tell me how things went," Gran said.
"How was the new school and all?"
Penny began dutifully, "It's quite a big
school, even bigger than it seems from the outside.
There are two floors in front and three in the
back, because of its being on a hill. The teachers
seem okay-of course, I don't know them all
yet, but the ones I've met are nice."
She knew that Pam could describe it all much more
interestingly. Pam's words would come so fast they would
trip over each other, telling about the school, the
teachers, adding funny little anecdotes. Pam could
make such a wonderful story out of practically
anything, while even unusual things that happened
to Penny seemed to come out quite dull and ordinary in the
telling.
Gran asked, "Where is Pam? Didn't she come
home with you?"
Penny nodded. "A couple of very smooth fellows
brought us home. Pam's still out in front talking
to them.

  One has a convertible. His name's
Kirkpatrick. The other one's Mike
Bradley."
  Penny liked the shape of his name on her
lips. She thought of his rangy height and his eyes that
were so blue and so disconcertingly direct. She
remembered the engaging way he grinned and that
astonishingly blond hair of his. She hoped hard
that Pam would like Randy Kirkpatrick best, but she
was afraid to count on it, even though Randy was very
nice-looking, too, besides owning the convertible.
  Anyway, Penny reflected with a little sigh, it
probably wouldn't make any difference which one Pam
preferred. Even if it were Randy, Mike wasn't
likely to waste much time on Pam's quiet sister.
He had hardly spoken to her all the way home.
Both boys had had eyes only for Pam. Penny
should be used to that by this time.
  Gran said, "Well, for pity's sake, why
didn't you say so sooner?" She got up with
alacrity and went over to the window to look out
unobtrusively. Penny couldn't resist the
temptation to follow and peek over Gran's plump
shoulder. "They're just going," Gran said. "That's quite
a car for a high-school boy to have."
  Penny turned away from the window quickly as she
heard the front door open. By the time Pam reached
the living room, Penny was hanging up her jacket
in the bedroom closet.
  "Hi, sweetie-pie," Pam addressed
Gran. "Did you see those two perfectly
swoony new males? They're in my math
class-lucky me! The dark one's Randy and the
blond one's Mike. Randy's sort of quiet, but
cute, and the car is his very own. His parents gave it
to him over a year ago on his sixteenth birthday.
Mike's got a

DOUBLE DATE
  perfectly terrific personality. And that hair!
Do you know what he does to it?" Pam asked,
laughing, then rushed on, not waiting for an answer,
"He uses peroxide and ammonia on it every now and
then, just for kicks. He's so crazy!"
  "He must be," Gran said. "I never heard of
such nonsense!"
  "Oh, he's blond, anyway," Pam said.
"But not quite that blond. He says white hair is so
distinguished, the teachers have to treat him with respect.
He's really awfully cute. But so is Randy-was
she broke off to ask, "Where's Penny? Didn't
she come up yet?"
  "She went thataway," Gran said, in the best
tradition of Western movies.
  "Penny?" Pam called, coming into the bedroom, where
her twin was brushing her hair at the plaid-gingham-
skirted dressing table. "Oh, there you are! Why
did you fade away like that? Didn't you like Mike and
Randy?"
  Penny's eyes met her sister's in the mirror.
Didn't Pam really know why she had left?
Couldn't she sense how it felt to be in a gay,
laughing group and yet not really a part of it? Aloud
she said merely, "I told you I was going in, but
nobody seemed to hear me."
  Pam asked again, "But didn't you like them,
Penny?"
  "Of course," Penny admitted. "They both
seem awfully nice and lots of fun-especially
Mike. But-well, it's pretty clear who they're
interested in."
  Pam chuckled, a low, throaty sound that was
singularly pleasing. "Oh, I don't know," she
said. "Neither of them paid much attention to me this morning
in Math. It wasn't until I saw them in the
corridor after school and had the brilliant idea
of pretending to be lost-was

Penny stared at her in surprise. "You
mean you weren't?"
"Of course not," Pam said smugly. "It was just a
way of impressing myself on their consciousness. Showing
me the way to the entrance made them feel big and
male and helpful-and all the rest followed as a
matter of course."
Penny shook her head wonderingly. "How do you know
things like that? They never even occur to me."
"Oh," Pam said airily, "it's just a little something
I picked up around the time I was in seventh grade,
I think."
"I didn't pick it up," Penny said. Her
glance at Pam was filled with admiration. "Why, if
I tried to pretend I was lost when I really
wasn't-it would show! I mean, I'd blush or do
something to give it away. I'd never get away with
it."
Pam patted her shoulder affectionately. "You're
too honest," she said. "Honesty is all right in its
place, but in dealing with boys you have to be a little
flexible. Now look at today, for instance. Just
by pretending to be dumb and helpless, I got us a
ride home from school in the swoony convertible. And
we got acquainted with two of the cutest boys
I've seen around. You have to take
advantage of opportunities like that."
Penny said slowly, "Yes, I guess so."
But she knew she couldn't ever do it. Not with the finesse
Pam used so effortlessly.
Pam fluffed her dark hair out around her head with the
brush, then gave it a little shake, like a wet cocker
spaniel. Each curl and wave assumed its
proper place with wonderful precision. "You know
what?" Pam said. "I think we ought to make a
point of dressing just alike, at least for the next
few weeks. That way, we'll make more of a splash

DOUBLE DATE
at school. After all, being twins gives us a
certain distinction and we might as well make the most
of it."
There Pam went, Penny thought, managing their everyday
life like some sort of showman, shrewdly playing up
their assets and toning down their liabilities.
"Right at first," Pam said, "I think we ought
to build ourselves up in every way we can, so people will
notice us and realize we're around. Okay with you?"
"I suppose so," Penny agreed. As always, she
found it hard to stand out against any of Pam's ideas.
They always sounded so plausible and Pam, she
knew, was capable of carrying them out with all the
canny, strategical shrewdness of a general
planning a big battle. If only she, Penny,
had a little more flair for such things. At any rate,
she could try.
Pam climbed out of her plaid skirt and sweater and
into an old white shirt and blue jeans. Penny
put on her old clothes, too. After a long
silence, Pam said dreamily, "I wonder which one will
call up first?"
"Randy or Mike, you mean?" There was a trace of
wistful envy in Penny's voice for Pam's
self-confidence.
"Natch," Pam said. "I'll bet it'll be
Randy."
Penny's heart beat just a little faster. Did that mean
Pam hoped it would be Randy? "Why?" she asked
aloud.
"Oh, he's more impressionable, I imagine,"
Pam said. "Mike seems like the rugged
type-holds out just to prove to himself he can hold out.
But that kind melts fast once they start." She
chuckled. There was a gleam Penny didn't like too
well in her eye and a little confident smile played
about her mouth. "You want
to
make a small bet?"
"What kind of a bet?" Penny asked
suspiciously.
"I'll bet you," Pam elaborated, "a pair of
very
sheer

Nylons that one of those boys calls up or comes
over within the next hour."
Penny's eyes widened just a little. This was
super-confidence, even for Pam. Still she shook her
head decisively. "I won't bet. My
budget's already limping."
"You're smart," Pam said. "It was worth a try
anyhow. I could use some new stockings."
"How can you be so sure?" Penny asked wonderingly.
"Why, for all we know, both Randy and Mike may
have steady girls."
"Maybe yes," Pam said airily, "maybe
no."
"Did-anything they said point one way or the other?"
Penny's tone was a shade more anxious than she
realized.
Pam smiled at her. "Why, baby, I
believe you
are
interested. Which one?"
"I told you," Penny said, coloring just a little and
hating it, "I thought they were both awfully nice."
Pam nodded judiciously. "That's right, don't go
making up your mind in too big a hurry." She
went on then to answer Penny's question. "No, neither of
them said anything about having a regular girl or not
having one. There's just a kind of gleam in their eyes
that usually indicates a free man."
Penny hoped she was right, especially about Mike.
"But just because they are free-
if
they are," she said slowly, "I still don't see how
you can be so positive one of them will call up tonight."
Pam laughed then, her warm contagious laugh that you
couldn't hold out against, that made you join in even if
you were pretty sure she was laughing at you. "Baby,
you're so dense sometimes," she said, giving Penny an
affectionate little hug. "It's really elemental. I
left my math book in the car."
"Pam!" Penny exclaimed. "You didn't!"
"Um-hum," Pam admitted blandly. "So
naturally one or the other of them will discover it
and not want me to be worried-was
The sound of the phone ringing cut her off. Penny only
kept her ear cocked long enough to learn that it was Randy
Kirkpatrick calling. With a little inner glow of
relief, she started in on her homework. A few
minutes later, after telling Gran all about it,
Pam came beamingly back to the bedroom. "Randy's
going to bring my book back tonight," she said. "I
told him I wouldn't need it till after dinner."
"I don't suppose you told him you could use mine
and get along without yours entirely?" Penny asked
drily.
"Naturally not!" Pam chuckled.
"Honestly, Pam," Penny shook her head, "I
don't see how you can pull a trick like that! Aren't
you afraid he'll suspect you did it on
purpose?"
Pam shrugged and went over to study her reflection
appraisingly in the mirror. "I don't care if
he does suspect. Even so, it only indicates
I'm interested in him enough to want him to come over. Of
course, it might have been a teensy bit nicer if
Mike had found my book-he's such fun. But
Randy's cute, too."
Penny stared at Pam's back for a long
minute before bringing her attention back to her English
assignment. She could never learn to be like her sister,
not really, not if she lived a thousand years.
ESCAPE TO THE LIBRARY
  Gran had dinner almost ready and Pam, whose turn
it happened to be, had set the table in the little dining
alcove, when Mother came upstairs. Mother kicked
off
her shoes, as was her habit, and dropped down
wearily on the couch beside Penny.
  "I'm tired," she admitted, running her fingers
back through her short gray-blond hair. "This has
been quite a day! I wish every one was this good."
  "Lots of business?" Penny asked.
  Mother nodded. "Oh, some of the sales were small, but
people kept coming in all day. Those two women who were here
when you got home bought some very expensive drapery
material to be made up. And this morning I sold
a pair of loveseats. I do hope Mr.
Hancock can get me that old station wagon he said
he had a line on. It would be wonderful for
deliveries and carting stuff around."
  Pam came bursting in from the kitchen then to give
Mother a big hug and announce that dinner was ready.
Without stopping for breath, she was off on a
marathon description of the new school, the teachers,
the events of the day. As Penny had been sure she
would, Pam climaxed her recital with her meeting with
Mike and Randy and the lift home she and Penny had
been given. By the

DOUBLE DATE
time Pam had reached the point of having left her
Math book in the car, they were halfway through
Gran's excellent dinner.
"So Randy's bringing it back," Pam smiled
knowingly at Mother, "tonight."
Mother smiled, too. "I'm glad I'll get a
chance to meet him."
Gran said drily, "In my day we left a
glove or a handkerchief where it would do the most good.
Now it's a book."
"I'll bet you left a lot of them, too," Pam
teased. "You're still a flirt."
"Don't be silly." Obviously, though, Gran
wasn't displeased. There was an amused sparkle in
her blue eyes.
"That's all right," Pam insisted with mock
disapproval. "Look at the way Mr.
Hancock's always dropping by to see if there
isn't anything he can do for us."
"Lucius Hancock's a real estate agent,"
Gran said. "It's his business to be nice to people who
buy houses from him. Don't go implying you inherit
your flibbertigibbet ways from me, young lady."
"It must be Mother, then," Pam said.
Penny felt her mother's amused, questioning glance stray
from Pam to her. "Did you think these boys were nice,
too, Penny? Or is Pam getting carried away
in her usual exuberant manner?"
"Oh, they are nice," Penny admitted.
"Randy's sort of quiet, but not dull or anything.
And Mike's lots of fun."
"I think he's the hard-to-get type," Pam
elaborated. "You know, the sort of personality that
resists letting a woman wrap him around her little
finger?"

"You mean you may have to work a bit harder on him?"
Gran chuckled.
"You see?" Pam appealed to Mother. "I told you
she was a flirt. She knows all the angles!"
Dinner was gay and leavened with laughter. It was
Penny's turn to do the dishes, so she wouldn't let
them linger too long at the table. Penny always
wanted to get unpleasant duties out of the way as
quickly as possible. Pam's technique was just the
opposite. "Never do today what you can put off till
tomorrow," was her motto. But Penny preferred
to following the saying in its true form.
This evening she had a special reason for wanting
to get through with her work quickly. She planned to be out
of the house before Randy Kirkpatrick arrived. It
wasn't that she didn't like him. It was simply that
she felt such a fifth wheel to be hanging around when
a boy came to see Pam. Randy would be put in the
unhappy position of having to spread his attentions
between the two of them. If he wanted to ask Pam to go
for a ride, or out for a bite to eat, as he very well
might, there was Penny squarely in the way. Either she
must be left rudely at home, or asked, not too
willingly, to accompany them. Penny had been put
on that uncomfortable spot before. She had made up
her mind just how to escape it this time.
So hardly was the last dish dried and put away,
than Penny was gathering up her jacket and
loose-leaf notebook and announcing, "I've got
to go over to the library for a while. We're studying
Elizabethan drama in English and it'll take
some research."
The public library was only a short distance
away, no problem at all to get to. And
Penny's need to do some research on Elizabethan
drama was valid enough-it was

DOUBLE DATE
just that there wasn't nearly as big a rush about it as
her manner implied. But neither Gran nor Mother
knew that. And Pam was in the bedroom changing her
clothes again, so she wasn't even aware that Penny was
leaving. Not, Penny thought, that Pam necessarily
would have tried to stop her. Pam was a realist. She,
too, knew that their being twins sometimes posed a
problem for the boys.
Penny ran lightly down the stairs and let herself out
into the crisply cool darkness of early evening. The
breeze smelled good, moist and clean and with just a
faint edge of wood smoke, as if someone near by had
been burning brush. Down the hill, the main
business section of Glenhurst lay spread out,
multicolored lights twinkling from the stores"
signs and windows, giving it a bustling festive
air. Penny loved this view of the village and she
walked slowly along toward the library, giving herself
an extra minute or two to enjoy it.
Climbing the broad stone steps of the compact red
brick building, Penny permitted herself an
extravagantly improbable daydream. Wouldn't it
be wonderful if she would open the heavy door, get
the book she needed and carry it over to the table in the
corner, only to discover that Mike Bradley was
already sitting there? Penny could just see him, his blond
hair gleaming under the light, looking up and
recognizing her with his quick easy smile.
She could just hear him saying, "Well, what do you
know? If it isn't Penny Howard. Don't tell
me you're checking up on Elizabethan drama,
too."
And she would say, smiling, too, not feeling a bit
ill at ease or self-conscious, "I certainly
am. You didn't think you had a monopoly on it,
did you?"
And Mike would answer, indicating the chair beside him,

  maybe even going so far as to get up and pull it
out for her, "Well, sit right down and we'll work on
this together. Shall we start with Hamlet?"
  "Oh, yes," Penny would answer, sitting down
and looking up at Mike gravely. "Hamlet's
one of my very favorites!"
  And by the strangest coincidence, Hamlet would be
one of Mike Bradley's favorites, too. And
they would read part of it together, their heads very close
over the open book, their shoulders touching. Maybe,
if the library was practically deserted, as it
sometimes was, Mike would read the soliloquy
aloud. His voice would be low, but rich and deep with
meaning, the way Laurence Olivier's voice had
sounded in the movie version, which Penny had enjoyed so
much she saw it three times. Especially that part that
went: "To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance
to dream!" She could just hear Mike saying that. And they
would proceed to have a wonderful long talk, not only
about Hamlet and Shakespeare, but about any number
of other mutually interesting subjects. And she
wouldn't hesitate and grope for words at all. She
would talk freely and easily, like Pam, only
maybe a little more seriously. And Alike would say
at last, "Penny, when we met this afternoon, I had
no idea we'd be so congenial. I'm glad we had
this chance to get really acquainted. We must see a
lot of each other from now on."
  Penny sighed a deep, ecstatic sigh and pushed
open the library door. Mrs. Kenyon, the older
of the two librarians, was at the desk. She
gave Penny an impersonal smile, her eyes a
little tired behind rimless spectacles. Penny smiled
back at her, purposely keeping her glance from
straying to the big table in the corner, where she had
dreamed Mike

DOUBLE DATE
might be. She didn't look toward it all the time
she was locating a volume of Shakespeare on the
shelves, one with a good, informative foreword about the
author. With the book under her arm, Penny turned at
last toward the reading corner. Mike wasn't there.
She had known he wouldn't be and yet there was a small
absurd ache of disappointment within her just the same.
"It serves you right," she told herself severely,
"dreaming up fantastic things like that, stuff there
isn't the remotest chance may happen."
She took her book over to the reading corner and sat
down. No one else was at the table except a rather
plump blond girl in a gabardine jacket. She
looked sort of familiar, but Penny couldn't think
where she had seen her. Then she noticed a volume
of Shakespeare in front of the girl and realized it
might have been in English class.
The girl's look half-recognized
Penny, too. Finally she said, "Aren't you in
Jensen's third period English?"
Penny nodded. "I thought I'd seen you before. I'm
Penny Howard."
"New this year, aren't you?" the plump girl asked.
She had a friendly smile. "I'm Jean Dickey.
Can you imagine Jensen giving us such a stinking
assignment the very first day of school?"
"Well-it doesn't have to be in till next
week," Penny reminded her.
"I know," Jean said, "but Shakespeare-golly
Moses! I mean, he's been dead so long and
all."
Penny said, "That's one trouble with all the
Elizabethan dramatists, I'm afraid."
Both girls laughed then, quite subdued laughter which
didn't even reach Mrs. Kenyon's ears.

  "Tell me," Jean Dickey said, leaning
confidentially nearer, so that her shoulder brushed
Penny's, "haven't you got a sister who looks just
like you?"
  Penny nodded. "We're twins. Her name's
Pamela- Pam for short."
  "Gee," the other girl said, "I should
think that would be fun, having a twin."
  "It is," Penny admitted. Inaudibly she
added, "Usually." But tonight wasn't one of the times.
  "Didn't I see you riding in Randy
Kirkpatrick's car this afternoon?" Jean pressed, like
a busy little vacuum cleaner picking up every bit of
information she could. "Both of you? With him and Mike
Bradley?"
  "Yes," Penny said, "they gave us a lift
home."
  There was no mistaking the envious admiration in
Jean's glance. "Lucky!" she said. "I wish those
big wheels even knew I was alive. How'd you
get acquainted with them so fast?"
  "They're in my sister's math class," Penny
explained.
  Jean shook her head ruefully. "Randy's in my
science lab period, but that doesn't mean he pays
any attention to me. The Kirkpatricks are one
of the richest families in town. They live in that
great big English style house on Park Lane.
You know the one? And Randy's an only child. He
gets just about everything he wants."
  "I suspected that," Penny admitted, "from the
convertible. It's lush."
  Jean sighed. "I've never been in it." She
added then, informatively, "Laurie
McGregor's got him pretty well sewed
up-or anyway, she did last year."
  Penny wondered who Laurie McGregor
was. Or where she was, or had been that afternoon, at
any rate. But she

DOUBLE DATE
didn't have to ask. Jean went on to enlighten her.
"Laurie's not back to school yet. She goes
to Canada late every summer on account of her hay
fever and she won't be home till the end of this
week."
This would be news for Pam. Personally Penny
didn't care too much one way or the other. It was
Mike Bradley she was mainly interested in. But
she couldn't bring herself to ask Jean whether Mike,
too, had a regular girl. She tried to find comfort
in the memory of Pam saying, "There's a kind of
gleam in their eyes that usually indicates a free
man." But if Pam were wrong about Randy, she could be
wrong about Mike, too.
Penny asked herself coldly, "What possible
difference does it make? Obviously
Mike isn't interested in me, whether he's got
another girl or not."
She gave Jean a little smile and patted the
volume of Shakespeare on the table before her.
"Don't you suppose we'd better get down
to business, if we want to
get
that English assignment off our minds?"
"Yeah," Jean nodded glumly, "I guess so. .
. ."
When Penny got home, Gran had gone to bed, but
Mother was lying on the couch, glancing through a new
magazine. There was no sign of Pam, nor of
Randy.
"They went for a little ride," Mother answered Penny's
inquiring look. "Just out to get a hamburger."
"Oh," Penny said. She asked then, "Didn't you
like him?"
Mother nodded, her blue eyes thoughtful on Penny's
face. "He seemed very nice."
As Penny turned toward her bedroom, Mother asked,
"Penny, will you tell me something? Did you make a

  point of going to the library tonight because Randy
Kirkpatrick was coming over?"
  "Why-well, yes," Penny had to admit it.
  Mother said, still questioningly, "But I don't see just
why, dear. It wasn't as if Pam had a date with
him, or anything of that sort. He was simply bringing
her book back."
  Penny nodded. "But-with me gone it developed
into a coma sort of date anyway. He took her out
for a hamburger and a ride and all."
  "And if you'd stayed home?" Mother pressed.
  "It would have been-awkward," Penny said. "There
I'd be, sticking up like a sore thumb. He'd have
had to ask us both, or neither one of us. And there was no
point in my messing things up for Pam, just by being here,
when I had this English assignment to do anyway. It
wasn't," she added definitely, "as if I
wanted to stick along with them, as if it made the
slightest bit of difference to me one way or the
other." She smiled at Mother then and blew her a little
kiss from the tips of her fingers. ""Night, now."
  "Good night, dear," Mother said. But her tone still
sounded a little doubtful.
A TALK WITH MOTHER
  In only a short while Penny had learned her
way around Glen High quite thoroughly. No longer
did her surroundings seem strange. She
learned which teacher went with which subject. Now, less
than two weeks since the first day of school, as she
waited for Pam outside the entrance, she saw many
familiar faces from one class or another. She
smiled and spoke and was spoken to. That absurd
sense of being invisible didn't trouble her at all.
  Already both Pam and Penny were fairly well
known among their classmates. Just as Pam had
predicted, the very fact of their being twins gave them
a certain distinction. Heads frequently turned as
they passed along the halls together and speculative
glances seemed to wonder which was which. Pam didn't
mind this at all, but Penny felt a little
embarrassed. Sometimes she thought it wasn't quite fair
to deliberately confuse people by dressing just alike,
by parting their dark hair on the same side and brushing
it back from their faces in an identical manner.
  But when she said as much, Pam demanded, "Why in the
world not? I get a bang out of confusing people-it's half
the fun of being twins." She chuckled then. "Mike
says I'm an exhibitionist, but you don't see
him holding it against me."

Penny had to admit that this was true. Still she argued,
"But they know us apart right away when we start
talking."
Pam nodded thoughtfully. "They wouldn't have to,
though," she pointed out, "if you'd just pay a little
attention to what I tell you. The thing is, Penny,
you take things too seriously. Conversation doesn't
have to make much sense. You just say anything that comes
into your mind, without thinking too much about it. You see
what I mean?"
Penny shook her head regretfully. "Nothing comes
into my mind-nothing worth saying out loud, that is."
"But that's just the point," Pam assured her. "It
doesn't have to be worth saying.
Prittle-prattle, that's what I give 'em.
And they love it!"
"I can't do it, though," Penny argued. "Honestly,
I can't, Pam. I try-but I get all
stuttery."
Pam patted her shoulder affectionately. "You have
to relax," she told Penny, "not make such a big
thing of it. If you could just get over being
self-conscious. . . ."
That was the trouble, Penny knew. But how did one go
about getting over it? Pam didn't have any very
constructive ideas about that, Pam, who had never had
an uncertain self-conscious moment in her
life, who had enough poise and assurance for both of
them, if it could only have been divided equally.
Standing in the crisp fall sunshine, waiting for her
sister, Penny reflected that life would have been much
more agreeable if Pam's self-confidence had been
divided between the two of them. More agreeable for her,
at any rate, Penny thought with a little smile. Of
course, Pam wouldn't have liked it so well.

DOUBLE DATE
"Hi, Penny." Jean Dickey's friendly voice
broke into her abstraction. "Come on and I'll
walk to your corner with you."
Penny said, "I'm sorry, but I'm waiting for
Pam. She ought to be along any minute. Won't
you wait, too?"
Jean shook her blond head. "I don't think
I'd better. I'm in kind of a rush. I see
Maggie up ahead, I'll just catch up with her.
See you." She was off down the steps in a fast
lope.
Penny stared after her, saw her catch Maggie Wright
just beyond the foot of the broad stone steps. The two
girls strolled off together. Penny felt an
absurd small thrust of disappointment,
watching them go. If only Pam weren't always so
pokey about getting to their appointed meeting place!
It wasn't, Penny assured herself, that she wouldn't
rather walk home with Pam than with Jean and Maggie.
Pam was always fun to be with, aside from the fact of
their being sisters. Penny had enjoyed being with Pam,
ever since she could remember. "Two's company,"
Mother used to say about them with a little fond laugh when they
were scarcely more than babies. "You two certainly
bear out the truth of that old saying. Why, I think you
could be perfectly happy and contented even if you never
saw any one else."
It had always been that way. Penny supposed it always
would be. Not that she didn't like to have girl friends. But
there was a closeness, an understanding, between her and Pam that
no other relationship could duplicate. Now if she
and Pam and Jean and Maggie could all have walked
home together, chattering and laughing and sharing secrets
comt would have been lots of fun, Penny thought. But

  Pam had confided to her privately that she
didn't care too much for Jean and Maggie.
  "There are other girls at school who are so much
smoother," Pam had pointed out.
  And Penny couldn't argue the point, she
knew it was true. Still she felt easier with Jean and
Maggie than she did with some of the girls Pam
preferred. Susan Farnsworth and Gail Moore
and Laurie McGregor. Now that was a queer thing,
Penny reflected, shifting her books from one arm
to the other. Pam's liking Laurie McGregor
wasn't so strange, but Laurie McGregor's
liking Pam-well, Penny considered that a little
surprising. Of course, as Pam had pointed out
to
her, it wasn't as if Laurie and Randy had still
been going steady when she, Pam, came into the
picture.
  "All that was over 'way back last June,"
Pam had informed Penny airily. "Randy told me
so himself. So why should Laurie have a grudge against
me just because Randy likes me a little?"
  Pam made it all sound so logical.
  "I guess I just don't have the proper
perspective on these matters," Penny thought,
casting a hopeful glance toward the opening door once
again.
  This time it was Pam, full of charming apologies
for being late, apologies that started spilling over
before Pam was scarcely through the opening. It was
then Penny noticed the masculine hand on the door.
Mike Bradley's big hand.
  "Hi, Penny," Mike greeted her with his nice
smile.
  "Oh-hi," Penny said.
  "Let's all go watch football practice for
half an hour," Pam said, tucking her hand under
Penny's elbow.
  But Penny said stubbornly, "I don't want
to watch

DOUBLE DATE
football practice. You said you were going right home
tonight, that you had a million things to do." She didn't
mean to sound grumpy about it, but she had a lot of
things to do herself. And Pam had said definitely-
"Oh, come on," Pam coaxed. "Mike twisted
my arm, that's the only reason."
"I twisted
your
arm," Mike said with quite a different inflection.
"All you want to watch for is so you can feast your
eyes on that gorgeous hunk of man, Spark
Mathews."
"Oh, Mike-you silly!" Pam said,
laughing up at Mike across her shoulder. "You know
Spark doesn't even know I'm alive."
"You know he is," Mike said. "That's what bothers
me. Besides, Pamela, my pet, any guy with two
eyes knows you're alive-and you don't see Spark
wearing glasses. What," Mike demanded in mock
despair, "has he got that I haven't besides
muscles?"
"There now," Pam soothed, patting his hand. "I
couldn't like you better if you were captain of the team.
It's your intellect that wows me. Come on,
Penny," she coaxed again. "Just half an hour."
But Penny shook her head. "Really, Pam," she
insisted, "I've got to
go.
You do as you please."
She went down the long flight of stairs quickly,
paying no attention to Pam's voice calling her
name.
Hurrying down the street toward home, she thought,
"I might as well have gone with Maggie and Jean."
But even walking home alone was better than spending
half an hour watching Pam work on Mike
Bradley. Of course, it wasn't only Mike
Pam worked on. Randy Kirkpatrick,
any number of other boys, knew equally well the
heady spell of Pam's allurement. Pam could no
more help

bewitching whatever male she happened to be with than she
could stop breathing. Delivery boys, store clerks,
theater ushers, even male teachers, thawed visibly
when Pam smiled at them. She could
get
away with murder, Penny knew, even where a lot
of the female sex was concerned. "Certainly I can't
hold out against her," Penny thought wryly. "And she
has lots of girl friends."
Penny sighed a small sigh as she walked along,
scuffling her feet through the dry leaves. It wasn't
that she envied Pam her popularity. If only she
could follow in her footsteps sufficiently
to achieve a little of it for herself. . . .
When Penny let herself into the hallway at home,
she listened for a minute to hear whether Mother was busy.
Sometimes there would be so many customers in the shop
Gran would be helping and the girls would pitch in and do
whatever they could after school. But Mother was alone at the
moment, riffling through a big book of wallpaper
samples, a swatch of drapery material
in one hand.
"Hi, honey," Mother hailed her, waving the swatch.
"Never saw such a tough color to co-ordinate and
Mrs. Bayliss has her heart set on it."
Penny went into the tastefully appointed salesroom
and stood beside Mother, looking down at the big book.
"Can't you persuade her to choose something more
adaptable?"
Mother shook her head, laughing a little. "She feels
this color expresses her personality or something.
So, naturally, I have to go along with the idea."
Mother always made her problems sound like some sort of
lark. But Penny knew there were a lot of headaches
and plain hard work connected with the interior decorating

DOUBLE DATE
business. She asked now, her tone sympathetic,
"Is it a big job?"
"She's just doing over one room," Mother said. "But you
can't slight the little jobs, Penny. They often pave
the way for big ones."
Penny nodded. "I suppose so," she said. Then,
"Pam stayed to watch football practice."
"Oh?" Mother's voice went up inquiringly.
"Didn't you want to watch, too?"
"Not 'specially," Penny said. "She was with Mike.
I'd have felt as if I were-sort of sticking
along."
"Oh," Mother said, smoothing the soft nap of the
drapery material through her fingers.
"Besides," Penny went on quickly, "we've got a
Trigonometry test to cram for tomorrow. And I'd like
to get that out of the way fairly early, so we can go to a
club meeting tonight at school. If," she added,
"I can get Pam to go to the club meeting."
"What sort of club?" Mother asked, her gaze
thoughtful.
Penny explained, "There were notices on the
bulletin board about a lot of club meetings. You
see, they're all getting their memberships set for
this year. The one tonight is called the Headlines
Club. It's for people who are interested in working on the
school paper."
"And you'd like that?" Mother asked.
Penny nodded, her eyes brightening. "I don't know
how good I'd be, but it sounds like fun. I'm
getting a big bang out of my journalism
class."
"But you think Pam may not be interested?" Mother's
tone was serious.
"Well-I don't know," Penny admitted
ruefully. "She

  doesn't like to read nearly as much as I do. And
themes are hard for her, but I really like doing them.
Pam thought it would be fun if we joined the Pep
Club-that's the bunch they choose the cheer leaders from.
But we were cheer leaders last year at our old
school and I didn't care much for it. So I thought
maybe I could persuade Pam to try the Headlines
Club anyway and see how she liked it."
  Mother continued to regard Penny thoughtfully. After
awhile she asked, "Penny, tell me, are you and
Pam happy out here in Glenhurst?"
  "Oh, yes," Penny said, surprised that Mother
should even think of asking such a question. "It's so much
nicer, living the way we do now, with you home most
of the
  time.
  Mother reached out to give her hand a little affectionate
squeeze. "I'm glad, dear. Certainly I'm
a lot happier. But I was afraid you and Pam
might feel I'd uprooted you from your old school,
from all your friends."
  Penny assured her, "Both of us like
Glen High. And we're making new friends. Of
course, we always have each other to fall back on.
That's one of the nice things about being a twin. You're
never all alone."
  "No," Mother agreed, "you're not. But, Penny-was
she was frowning a little, "you shouldn't depend too much
on Pam. I don't think that would be a good thing for
either of you."
  "I don't," Penny said. "That is-I try not
to."
  Mother said gently, "I can see it isn't always
easy for you. Pam is so-so-was she groped for the right
word.
  "So much more popular," Penny supplied, her
voice low.
  Mother's blue eyes widened. "That wasn't what
I meant at all," she said firmly. "Forceful was
the word I had in

DOUBLE DATE
  mind. Pam is forceful, but you mustn't let her
influence you too strongly. You don't want
to simply copy Pam, just because you happen to look
alike."
  "I wish I could be like her, inside as
well as out," Penny admitted. She found herself
going on, pouring out to Mother things she'd never had a
chance to discuss with her before, or at least not since the
need for discussion had arisen. In the city, when Mother
had been away at her job all day, Penny had
hated to bother her with problems at night when she was
tired. Nor were they the sort of problems she'd cared
to inflict on Gran, who had enough on her hands just
taking care of the family's physical needs. Now
Penny told Mother wistfully, "I think it would be the
most wonderful thing in the world to be gay and vivacious
like Pam, to be able to talk with boys without wondering
what to say next, never bumbling around and getting
all stiff and self-conscious. You know how she is,
so easy and assured. And you've seen how everyone
likes her, how the boys gather around-was
  "Penny, wait-was Mother's voice was troubled,
breaking in. "I can't deny Pam's popular. But
that's because she's herself, a definite personality. You
shouldn't try to copy her. You must be yourself, establish
your own identity, not just go trailing along in Pam's
wake."
  Penny stood there, staring at Mother blankly. Not
copy Pam, not try in every way she could to be like her?
Such a thought had never occurred to Penny before.
  Mother was going on, still in that troubled, but firm,
tone. "You're you, Penny. If you're more quiet
than Pam, that's nothing to fret over. Maybe
you're quiet sometimes because you aren't vitally interested
in the things Pam talks about. Maybe if the
subject under discussion were
important to you, it would be quite different. You must
give yourself a chance to find your own interests, not just
follow after Pam because you happen to be sisters.
Take this club meeting tonight-ask Pam to go with you, but
if she's not interested, go yourself. You're a person,
too, darling. Never forget that."
Just then the outer door opened and Penny turned to see
a middle-aged couple come in. Customers
obviously. Mother gave her arm a little, reassuring
pat as she moved away to wait on them. And
Penny, a queer, tight feeling of breathlessness in
her, left the salesroom to make her way quickly
upstairs.
  It was almost dinner time when Pam got home.
Gran was in the kitchen. She had the little radio on
and was singing a
lively
duet with Bing Crosby, so that the air was filled with
music as well as delicious odors of
cookery. Mother hadn't come upstairs
yet.
Although Howard House closed officially at five,
there was often book work, or some other detail that
kept Celia busy until much later.
  Penny was setting the table in the dining alcove,
arranging silverwear and bright-flowered china neatly on
the yellow linen cloth. Pam came up behind her and
asked winningly, "Mad at me?"
  Penny shook her head. "Why should I be?"
  "Oh," Pam said, "you went off in such a huff
when I decided to watch football practice, I
thought you might be."
  "That was on account of the trig test tomorrow," Penny
explained. "I had to study for it. You didn't
forget all about it, did you?"
  Pam's gray eyes widened in horror.
"Golly Moses, I did! And I told Spark
Mathews he could stop by later. A bunch of us
walked home together after practice and Spark was quite
friendly. We're going over to the Teen

  Hang-out for a while-only, of course, Spark
can't stay out very late, on account of being in training."
  "Neither can you," Penny reminded drily.
Only recently Mother had been driven to issue an
ultimatum setting ten o'clock as the absolute
limit on school nights.
  "I know," Pam agreed. Suddenly her tone
grew coaxing. "You can sort of brief me on the
trig, can't you? So long as you've studied it? Just enough
so I can get by."
  "Well, I'll try," Penny said. "But we
won't have too much time after dinner. I'm going to the
Headlines Club at seven-thirty." She
hurried on then at Pam's look of surprise,
"I was going to ask you to go, too, but if you've already
made a date with Spark Mathews-was
  "But, Penny," Pam said in her most beguiling
manner, "you don't want to waste time with that
newspaper crowd. They're sort of droopy. The
Pep Club will be a lot more fun. Laurie and
Susan say they have perfectly hilarious times at
their meetings."
  Penny shook her head stubbornly. "I don't
like cheer leading. You know I told you that last year,
Pam."
  "You don't have to be a cheer leader," Pam
smiled at her. "It's just that the crowd's more fun."
  "Maybe for you," Penny argued, "but
I'd get more of a bang out of working on the paper."
  Pam's eyes narrowed just a little. "Is it because
Mike's editor?"
  Penny stared at her blankly. "I didn't know
he was."
  "Well, he is," Pam informed her. "He
wanted me to go to Headlines tonight, but I couldn't see
it. I mean, there's no point in pretending to be
interested in things you don't give a darn about, just because
some boy-was
  "I'm not doing that!" Penny denied hotly. "I
didn't even know Mike had anything to do with it."
  "Oh, I didn't mean you," Pam assured
her. "I was just talking. You go right ahead to your club
meeting-I imagine one's all it'll take
to prove how boring it is." She strolled off toward
their bedroom.
  Penny called after her, "Why don't you study
some now? It'll probably be half an hour before
we eat."
  "Oh, I can't now," Pam called back. "I
have to do my nails. They're a mess. Penny," she
inquired then, "did you know Spark's six feet
three tall? And such shoulders-I wouldn't believe
them if I hadn't seen them close-up."
  Mike was six feet tall, Penny thought
dreamily. And he had very nice shoulders, too. A
little thrill of anticipation stirred in her at the thought
of seeing him at Headlines. She was glad now that
she had decided to take Mother's advice and go. It
hadn't been an easy decision for Penny to reach.
She had sat on her bed, her school books
spread out around her, for quite a long while before she
actually began to study trigonometry. The habit
of following after Pam, of doing the things Pam was
interested in, was too strong to be easily broken.
But tonight, Penny had made up her mind, would be a
starting point at least. She was going to hold out against
Pam's coaxing, her winning charm. She'd
probably backslide pretty often, but at least
she was going to make an effort to establish herself as a
person in her own right, with interests and activities
apart from Pam. Being a carbon copy hadn't worked out
so well. Maybe Mother's solution of the problem would
prove more effective. The only way to find out was
to give it a try.
  "Penny," Pam's wheedling voice broke into her
reflections, "come help me with trig while I do
my nails. And
I'll try to get home in time to do some more
studying later."
"Well-okay," Penny agreed. Having taken a
firm stand about the club meeting, she guessed she could
afford to be magnanimous about unimportant
details. ...
Just as Penny walked into the Journalism Room,
where the Headlines meeting was to be held, she felt
a big hand grab her arm and heard Mike
Bradley's agreeably surprised voice,
saying, "Pam, you did decide to come after all!"
Penny shook her head, looking up at him, an
uncertain smile on her lips. "Sorry,
Mike. I'm Penny."
"Oh," Mike's disappointment was obvious and
unflattering. His grip on her arm relaxed, as he
added ruefully, "I thought it was funny she passed
up Muscle-man Mathews. But for a minute there you
had me fooled." He wagged his head toward a
couple of empty seats. "Might as well sit
down. The meeting's due to get under way."
There were many familiar faces in the big,
talk-filled room. Penny saw most of the people from her
journalism class. Mrs. Gebhard, the
journalism teacher, who was also the club's faculty
advisor, was there, too.
Sitting in the chair next to Mike's even if he
wasn't paying much attention to her, Penny was glad
she had come.
Mike leaned his elbows on his knees and stared
glumly straight ahead of him. Penny surmised
he was brooding over Pam's date with Spark
Mathews. She wished she could think of something interesting
to say, something that would make him notice her. But before
she was able to, Mrs. Gebhard stood up and
called the meeting to order.
Immediately Penny found her attention absorbed. This
wasn't dull and boring at all, as Pam had so
confidently

DOUBLE DATE
  predicted. There was quite a bit of discussion of the
inner workings of the school weekly, which was called the
Glen Crier.
The circulation manager announced an impending
drive for subscriptions. Mike Bradley, as
editor, announced the need for a few more reporters,
besides those chosen the previous spring. He suggested that
anyone willing to do some leg work, running down news
items around the school, sign his or her name on a
list that had been provided for the purpose.
  "I could do that," Penny thought. "It would be fun."
  So afterward, while Mike was absorbed in conversation
with a couple of other boys, Penny went over to sign
her name on the list on Mrs. Gebhard's desk.
  The journalism teacher smiled at her. "You should
make a good reporter, Penny," Mrs. Gebhard
remarked. "You have quite a nice flair for writing."
  "Why-why, thank you," Penny stammered, a warm
glow enveloping her at the unexpected compliment.
  Maggie Wright came up behind her then. Maggie was
a small dark-haired girl, with straight bangs
and a forthright manner.
  She said, "Hi, Penny. Glad you're signing
up."
  "I may be pretty much of a dub," Penny said.
"I've never done any reporting before."
  "I'm an old hand," Maggie chuckled.
"There's nothing to it. Most people are anxious to tell you
All if there's a chance they'll get to see their names
in print. And, of course, there are always club
meetings and junk like that to fill in with."
  "Yes, I suppose so," Penny agreed. "It
doesn't sound too complicated."
  "You shoving off now?" Maggie asked. Then, at
  Penny's nod, "We can walk together,
maybe stop at the Hangout for a Coke."
  Penny hesitated only a second before saying,
"Sure, that would be fine." In that intervening instant
her glance had slipped unobtrusively to Mike
Bradley, who was surrounded now by a group of half
a dozen talking, laughing girls and boys. Penny
jibed at herself as she linked arms with Maggie,
"Did you imagine he'd be watching for a chance to walk
home with you? How silly can you get, for creep's
sake?" Aloud she said to Maggie, no trace of
her disappointment sounding in her voice, "A Coke
would hit the spot."
  The Hangout was crowded till its very walls
seemed threatened, and noisy as usual. Juke box
music and conversation and shouts of laughter were all
stirred up together into a deafening brew. The booths
around the sides were filled to over-flowing, so Penny and
Maggie stood with their drinks in the genial press of
people around the soda fountain. It was nearing closing time,
ten o'clock on week nights, and the effervescent
gayety seemed to be rising in a sort of
crescendo. There was even a not unpleasant rhythm
about it, Penny thought, listening and smiling a little, as
she sipped her drink.
  "Hi, Penny!" She heard Pam's
voice from halfway down the room and waved back
at her. Pam was in one of the most crowded booths,
Spark Mathews" massive shoulders almost shutting
her off from Penny's view.
  "You want to go back there?" Maggie asked, her
dark eyes level.
  But Penny shook her head. "She's with Spark
and a bunch of other couples. I'd rather go on home
when we finish our drinks."
  So that was what they did, strolling along the well-
lighted street together to within half a block of
Penny's house, where Maggie had to turn off. They
stood there under a street light, talking for a few
minutes more about the club meeting, then said good night
and went their respective ways.
  When Penny let herself into the house, she heard
voices from upstairs. In the living room Gran and
Lucius Hancock were playing cribbage. There was
nothing at all unusual about this. Mr. Hancock
dropped in often to see the Howards and, whatever his
reason for coming, he and Gran usually got out the
cards and the little pegged wooden board before the evening was
over.
  "Hello, dear." Gran gave Penny a rather
preoccupied smile.
  "Hello, Pam, or Penny, as the case may
be." This was Mr. Hancock's customary greeting
to either of the twins.
  Answering, Penny was struck anew by the contrast
between Mr. Hancock's venerable white head and the
youthfully dazzling sport shirts he affected.
Almost before the words were out of her mouth, Gran and Mr.
Hancock were concentrating once more on their game.
  "That's a very cut-throat competition," Mother
chuckled. She was curled up on the couch, listening
to the tail-end of a news broadcast. She reached out
one hand to switch it off, then indicated the big bowl
of popcorn on the coffee table. "Have some, honey?"
  Penny helped herself, then perched on the arm of the
couch beside Mother. "The club meeting was lots of
fun," she said. And proceeded to tell Mother all about
it with contagious enthusiasm.
  "Well, fine," Mother smiled when she finished.
"I'm

  glad you're going to be a reporter, so long as you
like writing."
  "I don't know how much actual writing I'll
get to do," Penny admitted. "Maybe it'll be just
gathering news items. But anyway, I
think I'll enjoy it."
  They talked for a little while longer, then Penny said
good night and wandered off to her bedroom. She didn't
turn on the light just at first, but stood for a dreaming
moment at the window, looking out into the night. It
seemed, she thought, almost like Fate that she and Mike
Bradley should both be interested in writing. Because,
naturally, Mike couldn't have been made editor of the
Crier,
if he hadn't done a good deal of earlier work along
that line. Editor was a big job, an important
one. Penny felt a little absurd glow of pride
to think of Mike's having been chosen to fill the
post. Maybe, working on the paper even in a small
capacity, she'd be able to learn from Mike. At
least, they should be thrown together to some extent. Take
tonight, for instance. Just because she'd gone to Headlines,
she'd got to sit next to him, to talk with him
casually. She tried to push out of her mind the
memory of the way his face had fallen at the
realization that she wasn't Pam.
  "I won't think about that!" Her lips formed the
words fiercely, but silently.
  She pulled the draw-drapes at the window then and
turned away from it. Lighting the dresser
lamps in their stiff plaid gingham shades, she
proceeded to get ready for bed. There didn't seem
to be much point in turning off the lights. Pam should
be home any minute. It was after ten now.
  But long after Penny had got into bed and fallen
asleep, Pam still hadn't come.
THE DECEPTION
  The alarm clock shrilled
  and Penny reached a languid hand to silence it, then
snuggled back under the covers for that delicious last
five minutes. Finally she leaned across and shook the
bump that was Pam's shoulder in the bed beside hers.
"Hey, wake up!"
  Muffled grunts indicated that the mere idea of
awaking filled Pam with profound distaste. But she
emerged from her cocoon sufficiently to regard
Penny with one eye. That was at least a step in the right
direction. Pam was never an easy riser.
  Penny swung her feet over the side of her bed
and found her beat-up lamb's-wool slippers.
Stretching and yawning, she went to the windows and pulled
back the drapes. Sunlight brightened the charming
room, with its maple furniture and perky gingham
accents.
  Grinning, Penny asked, "How late were
you last night?"
  "Don't ask!" Pam emerged a bit farther from
the covers to moan. "It was awful! After I saw you
at the Hangout, we all decided to go for a little
ride. And when we were "way out in the country,
Spark's jaloppy had a flat. And he doesn't
even own a spare!"
  "How did you get home?" Penny asked,
appalled.
  "Walked miles to a filling station," Pam told
her. "My
  feet still ache. One of the boys called his father and
he drove out and picked us up. It was after one when
I got home and Mother was simply fit to be tied."
  "What a shame," Penny said.
  Her eye lit on the clock then and she headed for the
bathroom. They had a standing agreement that whoever was
up first in the morning had inalienable rights to the first
shower. This morning, Penny had a hunch, Pam
wouldn't even mind.
  When Penny came out of the bathroom, Pam
lifted herself on one elbow to stare owlishly from beneath her
tumbled hair. "What we wearing today?" she asked.
"It's your turn to choose."
  "Let's be different for a change,"
Penny suggested.
  But Pam groaned, "Don't you start giving me
trouble. I've already got the screaming meemies
thinking of that trig test!"
  "That's right!" Penny exclaimed in belated
realization. "You were going to study when you got home
last night."
  "Exactly." Pam struggled out of bed and stood
up, stretching. "I was going to get in early and cram
for it."
  Penny didn't remind her that she could have declined
to go for the ride. There seemed no point in that now. And
circumstances certainly had conspired to give Pam
trouble. Penny felt genuinely sorry for her.
  Suddenly a speculative gleam flared in
Pam's eye. She smiled warmly at Penny and
her tone took on a beguiling note. "Darling,
I've got the most perfectly terrific idea."
  "What about?" Penny asked distrustfully. She'd
been charmed by Pam too often not to recognize the
initial stages of one of her big operations.
  "The trig test," Pam said slowly. "Wouldn't
it be silly
  to Jet me flunk it when you're well enough prepared
for us both?"
  Penny frowned. "What are you getting at?"
  "It would be so simple," Pam said winningly, "for
you just to take the test twice."
  "Oh, no!" Penny exclaimed positively.
  "But why not, Pen? You have trig second period
and I don't have it till fifth. We could get
away with it perfectly well. You have study hall
fifth period, don't you?"
  "Yes, but-was
  "Well, then, you see?" Pam spread her hands
expansively. "You needn't even risk my
letting you down in one of your own subjects. I can
easily fill in for you in study hall without anyone
catching on."
  "But it wouldn't be honest," Penny objected.
  "Why is it so different," Pam coaxed, "if you
help me study for tests, as you always do, or whether
you be a perfect angel and take just this one for me?"
  "There's a lot of difference," Penny said
firmly. "This would be cheating, pure and simple."
  "Ah, Pen. I've done lots of favors for
you."
  Penny could feel her determination not to weaken
faltering a little under the impact of Pam's pleading.
When Pam really went to work on you resistance
wasn't easy.
  "I'll be in a jam if I flunk the test,"
Pam went on sorrowfully. "You know how shakey
I am in math. I might not get a passing grade
for the whole semester. And it's not as if last night were
my fault. I really meant to get home early and
study."
  "I can't do it, Pam," Penny insisted. "I'd
help you in any way I could. But Mr.
Williams would be sure to realize I wasn't you
and we'd both be in all kinds of trouble."
"No, he wouldn't," Pam coaxed. "No one
would."
"Mike and Randy can tell us apart," Penny said.
"They're in your class."
"If you got in at the last minute," Pam told
her, "they couldn't speak to you till afterward. Besides,
even if they suspected we'd done a switch, they
wouldn't give us away. Please, Penny?"
But Penny shook her head firmly in the
negative.
Still, Pam didn't give up. All the time she was
in the shower, she kept calling out new arguments over
the hiss and spatter of the water. And when she came out
of the bathroom, she took in what Penny was
wearing with an appraising eye, then headed for the
closet to select identical clothes. "Just in
case you decide to save my life after all," she
said winningly.
Following her out to breakfast, Penny tried to steel
herself anew. The insidious thing about Pam's charm was
the way it could make you doubt your own convictions,
make you wonder if maybe you were being stuffy and
unreasonable after all.
On the way to school Pam worked ceaselessly on
Penny. She had an answer for every one of Penny's
arguments. Her most telling point was that she might
fail in trig if she flunked this test; she might
not even graduate.
It was like water wearing away stone by dripping
constantly upon it. The habit of helping Pam, of
doing as she wanted, was so deeply ingrained in
Penny, that gradually she felt the foundations of her
resistance melting away. At last she gave into the
extent of saying, "Well, I'll see, Pam.
I'll think about it."
She found herself thinking of little else that day, moving from
class to class as in a bad dream. Several
teachers
68
DOUBLE DATE
remarked about her unaccustomed abstraction. And every time
she encountered her sister, Pam exerted a bit more
irresistible pressure. Finally, knowing it was wrong,
but unable to withstand Pam's coaxing any longer, Penny
agreed to do as her sister wished.
As she slipped into Pam's seat in trig class that
afternoon, seconds ahead of the bell, Penny's sense
of guilt was so overwhelming, she almost wished Mr.
Williams would see that a deception was being
practiced upon him. How had she ever let herself be
talked into this, she wondered wildly? A mad
instinct toward flight flared up in her, but it was too
late now. She was trapped here in Pam's seat,
wrapped in Pam's identity. Anything she did now
to destroy the illusion that she was Pam would get both
of them into serious trouble. As she sat cowering there, her
heart shaking her with its nervous beating, she caught
Laurie McGregor's eye from across the aisle.
Laurie smiled at her in friendly unsuspicious
fashion, even leaned over to speak.
But Penny was saved by Mr. Williams, saying in
his most scholarly manner, "All right, class.
Let's get right down to business. The test questions are
on these papers I'm going to pass out."
Penny's pen moved almost automatically, answering
questions quite similar to those she had answered in her own
class earlier. Her handwriting was so like Pam's,
Penny knew, that it would have taken a most observing and
suspicious eye to detect the difference. And why should
the teacher suspect that anything was being put over on
him? Why should anyone doubt that she was Pam?
It wasn't fear of discovery that made Penny spend
the

  longest and most miserable hour of her whole life
in the math room. Her conscience wouldn't let her
forget for a minute the dishonest thing she was doing. Still,
when the papers had been collected and the bell ending the
period had rung, Penny felt an upsurging of
relief. Guilt-ridden as she was, at least the
shameful thing was over and done with now. All she need
do was escape. And try to forget.
  Laurie McGregor paused to talk with Randy
Kirkpatrick and for that Penny was grateful. She
didn't want to get involved in conversation with
anyone. It wouldn't be safe. Penny hurried
toward the door, but just short of it she felt a
detaining hand on her arm and glanced up fearfully
into Mike Bradley's frowning face.
  "What's your rush, Pam?" Mike's tone
held a note of sarcasm. "Aren't you speaking
to anybody but football heroes now?"
  Penny gulped, "Why, yes, of course,
Mike. I-just didn't see you."
  "Don't hand me that," Mike growled. "What's
the pitch? You rushing off to meet Spark somewhere?"
  Penny looked at him through her lashes in what she
hoped was Pam's melting, beguiling way. "Why,
Mike, you silly," she breathed reproachfully, just
as Pam would have.
  To her surprise, it worked. Mike's frown
faded and an unwilling grin took its place.
"Maybe you were just trying to get away from the
unpleasant smell of a trig test. Did it give
you a lot of trouble?"
  "Oh, no," Penny began, then broke off
abruptly. She couldn't imagine Pam admitting
she hadn't had trouble with a test of any kind. "That
is," she amended hastily, "it wasn't too
bad."

DOUBLE DATE
  Mike's brows lifted a little in surprise. And
at that exact second, Penny heard Mr.
Williams" voice behind her, saying, "Miss
Howard, will you come here a minute?"
  She actually swayed, she was brought up so
suddenly by the teacher's words. Fear of discovery
spurted through her veins like ice water. What had she
done to arouse Mr. Williams' suspicion? Could
she have made such an utterly stupid error as
signing her name "Penny" instead of "Pam"?
  Her heart hammering, she made her way through the
crowd of departing students to the teacher's desk. Mr.
Williams, whose tall lanky build and short
haircut gave him a deceptively youthful
look, stood with one bony hand resting on the stack of
test papers. One fearful glance assured Penny that
hers wasn't the one on top.
  "What about that past-due assignment?" the teacher
asked.
  Penny said in a sort of gulp, "I-I'm
sorry, but I don't have it today." Darn Pam
anyway! Why hadn't she told her?
  Mr. Williams asked gravely, "And what
did you promise me yesterday, Miss Howard?"
  What had Pam promised, Penny wondered
wildly? That she'd bring in the assignment today? That
seemed logical, still-Penny murmured, as
indefinitely as possible, "I'm terribly
sorry, but with the test and all-was her voice sort of
ran down.
  Mr. Williams said, "Speak up, Miss
Howard. I can't hear your excuse. It's not like you
to be at a loss for words."
  Not like you? Penny felt as if she were choking.
  Then Mike's voice said, just behind her, "Pam,
you'd

  better hurry. We'll be late for-was he
broke off then, embarrassed. "Oh, I'm
sorry, Mr. Williams. I didn't realize
Pam was talking to you."
  Never had an interruption been so timely! Penny
was able to gather her wits sufficiently to apologize
again, to promise to get the assignment in tomorrow without
fail. With Mike to lend moral support, she
even managed to smile up at the teacher, just as Pam
would have done.
  To her astonishment Mr. Williams smiled
back and let her go with only a, "Well, don't
forget again,
Miss Howard."
  Not until she was safe outside the math
room door did Penny expel her breath in a
long sigh of relief.
  "Okay, kid," Mike said, his voice low, "you
can drop the disguise now. I won't give you
away."
  Penny stared up at him, her eyes wide. "You
know?"
  Mike nodded, glancing around to be sure no one
was within hearing distance. "I began to suspect when you
said the test wasn't bad. Then when you got so scared
over old Williams calling you back-well, I
caught on for sure. Pam isn't scared of
Williams. She's got him wrapped around her
finger. It's just when he dishes out test grades she
gets worried."
  "Then," Penny said gratefully, "you only
called me Pam in front of him to help me out?"
  "That was the Marines landing," Mike grinned at
her.
  "You certainly saved my life," Penny
admitted. "I was getting all bogged down over that
past-due assignment."
  "How did she get you
to
pinch-hit for her?" Mike's tone was
suddenly grave. "It's not a very honest thing to do."

DOUBLE DATE
Flushing painfully, Penny found herself pouring out the
whole story, telling Mike about the flat tire,
about Pam's worries over failing math. She
finished, looking up into his eyes for a candid moment,
"And you know how persuasive Pam can be."
"You, too?" Mike's grin was wry. "I thought
maybe constant exposure carried some kind of
immunity. But if you can't hold out against her-was
"I will after this," Penny said firmly. There was a
determined set to her chin as she and Mike walked
down the corridor side by side. "I won't ever
get involved in anything like this again."
"It's a pretty shady business," Mike
agreed. "You could get into a bad jam, both of you."
"I know," Penny nodded miserably. "But it
isn't only the idea of getting caught. I feel
so awful inside, so ashamed and sorry. And I got
so scared, talking to Mr. Williams, I felt as
if I was going to faint."
"It showed, too," Mike said, with a little chuckle.
"For a second there, I thought I was going to have to catch
you."
But Penny couldn't laugh about it, couldn't say
anything more for the hurting lump in her throat. When they
reached the angle of the hall where their paths parted,
Mike gave her shoulder a little comforting pat.
"Better forget the whole thing," he told her.
"Your secret's safe with me. Be seeing you."
Penny felt abjectly grateful for his kindness.
And watching Mike stride off toward his next
class, she realized with a little shock of surprise that
she had been talking to
THE DECEPTION

  him without the slightest trace of
self-consciousness. For a moment she wondered that this should
be so. Then her troubling sense of guilt wiped out
any slight satisfaction she might otherwise have
felt.
A SORT OF FRIENDSHIP
  Later that day, telling Pam all about it, Penny
admitted, "I never felt so low and guilty over
anything in my whole life! And if it hadn't been
for Mike, stepping in at the crucial moment, we'd
have been caught-not that I'd care much, the way I
feel."
  "There now," Pam soothed, "take it
easy. I'm sorry I got you onto such thin
ice. But I forgot all about the darned assignment."
At Penny's accusing look, she added, "I
guess it was wrong to ask you to take the test for me.
But, gee, Pen, I was scared I'd flunk. Can't
we just forget the whole thing now?"
  "Maybe you can," Penny said unhappily.
  The twins were out in the big side yard of Howard
House, in jeans and flannel shirts, raking up the
leaves that- lay all about in brown and gold
profusion. Penny rather liked the job, but Pam kept
looking up hopefully in case some boy she knew
might be passing by, one to whom she could delegate
her share of it.
  Loading leaves onto the little metal cart in which
she would wheel them out to the rubbish burner for disposal,
Penny said grimly, "There's one point I want
to make absolutely clear. I'll never do a thing
like that again, never as long as I live."
  "I won't ask you to," Pam promised.
Then, a demon of

  mischief dancing in her eyes, she added, "But
I hope you got me a good grade."
  Penny glared at her over an armful of
leaves. "Better than you deserve. And you'd
better get that past-due assignment in tomorrow, as I
promised."
  "Don't worry about a thing," Pam said. "I can
take care of routine matters like past-due
assignments."
  "So Mike told me," Penny's tone was dry.
  "Oh, he did, did he?" Pam stopped raking
and her gray eyes narrowed just a little. "Any other
gems of inside information Mr. Mike Bradley
had to pass on to you about me?"
  "Well, he did say," Penny couldn't help
telling her, "that he thought I ought to be immune
to letting you talk me into things, after all the years
I've been exposed to you."
  "What a charming thought," Pam drawled.
"Makes me sound like measles or something."
  "It didn't the way Mike said it," Penny had
to admit.
  "How did he say it?" Pam pressed.
  "As if he's had some trouble resisting you himself."
  "Well, good," Pam nodded a trifle
smugly, leaning on her rake. "I'll wear him
down all right. It's just a matter of time."
  Penny didn't like the little confident
smile that played around Pam's mouth as she said that.
. . .
  During the weeks that followed, Pam worked on
Mike harder than ever. She didn't concentrate
on him exclusively. That wasn't Pam's way.
She liked a lot of attention, from a lot of boys.
And she had no trouble getting it. Randy
Kirkpatrick, quietly attractive and with an
apparently unlimited amount of spending money,
took her out most
  often. But big, amiably blustering Spark
Mathews was with her whenever he could manage it,
despite the fact that his being the mainstay of the
football team made the feminine competition for his
favor keen indeed. And Mike, too, although at first
he made some effort to hold out against her charms,
soon slipped as completely under Pam's spell as
the others.
  Penny guessed that even a degree of resistance
to Pam's wiles was just too much
to
expect of any male. But Mike was the only one
whose bedazzlement she found hard to take. If Mike
could just have held out, Pam would have been so welcome
to the rest of her admirers. Penny wouldn't
have minded at all. Not that she let Pam know of her
secret disappointment. Or Mike. Pride
helped her keep her own deep liking for him a
secret from Pam, close as they were. It wasn't
easy, but Penny managed. Maybe, she told
herself, it was a part of growing up to be able to keep things
shut up inside of you. Sometimes she wondered whether
Mother and Gran didn't suspect how she felt about
Mike. But, if they did, they said nothing.
  Mike and Spark and Randy came often to the
Howard's. Sometimes, if two of them turned up at
once, Pam would suggest that Penny come out with them for a
soda or a hamburger or whatever casual
entertainment was afoot. And sometimes Penny went and
sometimes she didn't. She couldn't see that her
presence mattered much, one way or the other. She
didn't care, really, so far as Spark and Randy were
concerned. They were pleasant enough company, but they meant
little to her personally. With Mike it was different. With
Mike it hurt to realize herself a fifth wheel.
  But gradually, there came about a subtle shift in
Mike's

  attitude toward Penny. She became an
individual to him, not just Pam's sister.
Their work on the school paper threw them together to a
considerable extent and in circumstances quite apart from
Pam's sphere of activity. Without Pam around
to constantly overshadow her, Mike seemed to realize
that Penny was a person, too. The fact that she
proved to have a definite knack for reporting was
another motivating factor in their changed
relationship. Penny became for Mike, in his
capacity as editor, a sort of ever-dependable
Girl Friday. They worked together well as a team and
Mike delegated to her all sorts of small,
necessary jobs that were yet not sufficiently important
to engage the time and attention of his assistant editor,
owlishly solemn, caustic-tongued Bob
Purcell. Penny didn't mind. Quite the contrary.
Almost before either of them realized it, Penny and Mike
had become friends in a casual sort of way.
  Being friends with Mike was quite the most wonderful thing that
had ever happened to Penny. Impersonal as their
contacts were, she was grateful for Mike's liking.
Never before had she felt so at ease with a boy, so
untroubled by self-consciousness. She could talk with
Mike, seriously or lightly, without getting all
stuttery and embarrassed. Even the knowledge that Mike was
aware of the most shameful act of her life
no longer troubled Penny quite so deeply. That day she
had substituted for Pam at the trig test still made
a dark blot in Penny's mind. There had been times
during the intervening weeks when she had felt almost
unbearably driven to confess the whole shoddy
business to Mother, or Gran. Only the knowledge that by so
doing she would get Pam into trouble, too, deterred
her. And

DOUBLE DATE
  Mike seemed to have forgotten all about it, just as he
had advised her to do. Penny supposed that was best.
  She was grateful for the change in her relationship with
Mike and determined to do everything she could to keep things
on this new and infinitely more satisfactory
basis. As for Mike, he treated her as he might
have treated another boy-or a sister, perhaps. He
bossed her around. He kidded her. He called her
a dope for letting Pam impose on her. And, in
an occasional brooding mood, he tried to worm out
of her how he really stood with Pam.
  Of course, Penny didn't feel in the least like
a sister toward Mike. But that was her own affair.
Friendship was better than nothing. So she kidded him
back, thankful not to be ignored. And even
the hurt of listening to Mike rave about Pam's
charms was a small price to pay for the privilege of
having him confide in her.
  It was a shame, really, that Mike had fallen so
hard for Pam. Thus Penny reflected one
November day as she sat in the cluttered little
alcove off the journalism room, which constituted the
office of the
Glen Crier.
Penny was ostensibly writing up some notes on
yesterday's y-Teens meeting. But Mike was
banging out an editorial on the typewriter just
opposite her, so it was hard to keep her mind
entirely on her work. Pam, Penny knew, was
by no means sure she preferred Mike's company
to that of Randy or Spark or the rest of the boys she
dated. It had been different just at first, when Mike
had seemed a shade standoffish and hard-to-get. Then
Pam had really worked on him. Penny could have told
Mike-only, of course, she wouldn't, that it was always
that way with Pam. She'd try hard as anything to get
a boy under her spell, then simply add him

to her collection. Or she might decide she
didn't want him after all.
"Is that what you're hoping will happen in Mike's
case?" Penny asked herself sternly. "Do you
imagine then you'll catch him on the rebound, just because
you're friends after a fashion?"
She felt hot color creep across her face at
the thought and bent her head determinedly to the job at
hand, even if it was pretty much of a routine one.
"There now," Mike said, easing his paper out of the
typewriter. "This takes care of next week. But
good ideas for editorials are sure hard to come by.
You don't happen to have any, do you?"
Penny glanced up at him thoughtfully. "I do have one
you might be able to use later on."
"How much later?"
"Well, it's about the Prom."
"Prom stuff's for spring," Mike said. "But
tell me."
"Some of the girls were griping about this at lunch. You
know, Mike, it's really not very fair the way it is
with the Prom," Penny said earnestly. "All the
senior girls work on it like crazy, serve on
committees and everything like that. Then it develops that a
lot of them don't get to go to it. And you know why?"
"Because they don't get invited?" Mike suggested.
"But they're free to invite dates of their
own, you know."
"Yes, but who can they ask?" Penny demanded. "You
know perfectly well lots of the senior men go and
invite junior and soph girls. But if the senior
girls asked younger fellows, they'd be accused of
cradle snatching and kidded to death."
"Yeah," Mike admitted, "I suppose they
would."

DOUBLE DATE
"Besides," Penny pointed out, "Prom tickets
aren't cheap. You kind of hesitate to ask a man
to assume a lot of expenses for a date when you ask
him to take you. And if the girl pays, the boy
feels silly. It's murder."
Mike scratched his head consideringly, his blue
eyes thoughtful. "Yeah, I see your point. We
might do a piece about that closer to Prom time-not that
it'll probably do any good. Speaking of dances,"
he said then and Penny's heart skipped a beat,
"tell me something. Is Pam already dated for the
Sweater Hop?"
Penny's heart resumed its normal pace. She
looked down at the tips of her loafers, just in
case that flash of bright crazy hope might
have left some reflection in her eyes for Mike
to see. "Why-yes, she is. She's going with
Spark."
"I just wanted to be sure," Mike nodded a
trifle grimly. "I'll stay home and save my
money."
Penny's eyes lifted to his face. "The Sweater
Hop's not very expensive, is it? Informal, no
corsage, just held in the gym."
"Any date with your sister," Mike informed her,
"is likely to run into money. Of which, if you'll
pardon a sordid mercenary note, I have very little at
the moment. Not that I'm complaining," he hastened
to add, "about your twin being an expensive woman, that
is. She's worth it, believe me."
Penny frowned slightly, the familiar instinct
to rush to Pam's defense rising within her. "You make
her sound- not very nice," she accused.
"Simmer down now," Mike chuckled drily. "I
didn't mean to razz Pam. Any woman's
expensive to date very often. A movie here,
hamburgers and sodas there, it all counts up. And
my allowance is strictly from hunger. I'm

  looking around for an after-school job, but
so far I haven't found one."
  "But could you handle a job along with your school work
and being editor of the
Crier
and all?" Penny asked.
  "I'd be a busy little bee," Mike grinned.
"But think of all the lovely green stuff I'd have
to squander."
  Bob Purcell came in then, said, "Hi,"
casually to Penny and dropped a sheaf of scrawled
pages on Mike's desk. "There you are, slave
driver. Once we get this stuff whipped
into shape-was
  As soon as she had finished writing up her club
notes, Penny eased out of the door with a murmured,
was "Bye, now." Neither Mike nor Bob seemed
to notice, so intent were they on their work. Penny
stopped at her locker to get her coat and a couple
of books. There were a few students still in the halls,
but Penny didn't see anyone she knew well,
anyone who might be walking home her way. She
hadn't planned to meet Pam. Pam was a cheer
leader now and busy this afternoon with a Pep Club
meeting.
  Walking along through the crisp fall
sunshine, Penny felt a slight edge to the wind that
whipped her hair backward from her face. Before long
it would be winter, she thought. But Penny liked winter.
The snow should be beautiful, out here away from the city's
grime. Penny could see the white, unbroken
expanses quite clearly in her mind. And there would be
skating on the frozen lake back of the high school,
and sleigh ride parties. Penny had never gone on
a sleigh ride in her life. And her skating had
been done on a city rink, with tall buildings in the
background.
  Oh, she was glad they'd moved to Glenhurst.
She liked everything about it so much better than the
city. The friendliness of neighbors, the more casual
way of living,

DOUBLE DATE
the opportunity that had been afforded her to see more of
Mother, to get closer to her. She and Mother had had
several good talks since that day when Mother had urged
her to go to Headlines Club without Pam, if Pam
didn't care to go. And because of these talks Penny
felt she had come to see her problem a little more
clearly and to make a beginning toward solving it.
Her job on the
Crier
was a step in the right direction, a big step. Pam
thought she was silly to waste so much time on it. Pam
didn't hesitate to tell her so. But Penny
didn't consider it a waste. She enjoyed the work and
through it a whole new circle of friends had been opened
up to her. Besides Mike, there were lots of other people she
liked on the
Crier
staff, people she enjoyed being with, people who accepted her as
an individual, not just a sort of shadowy echo of
Pam's more vivacious personality.
"To them," Penny reflected as she walked along,
"I'm me, I'm an individual. I don't have
to be forever trying to measure up to Pam. To Maggie
and Bob and the others it doesn't matter that Pam
has more dates than I. They accept me at face
value, they seem to like me for myself. If I'd gone
on trying to copy Pam, trailing after her into Pep
Club, just because that was what she wanted to do, maybe
I'd have got better acquainted with Laurie and
Susan and the rest of the glamour crowd-but I'd have
been just Pam's droopy twin to them. And Mike and
I would never have been friends as we are-was Penny's
thought broke at the pricking realization that
they weren't good enough friends that it would occur to Mike
to ask her to the Sweater Hop, since Pam was going
with someone else.

  "Even so," Penny assured herself staunchly,
"being myself is better."
  Nothing was going to shake her hard-won certainty of
that.
ALMOST A DATE
  Gran finished a new sweater for Pam just in time
for the Sweater Hop. It was a luscious lime
green, which went perfectly with Pam's
meloncoJored pleated skirt. Gran had barely
started Penny's matching sweater, but that didn't
matter since Penny wasn't going to the Hop.
  "You could have," Pam reminded her, "if you'd
wanted to. Spark's boss, so far as the whole
team's concerned. He could have got a date for you
easily and we could have gone together."
  "I know," Penny nodded. She was sitting
cross-legged on her bed, in corduroy skirt and the
slightly rumpled white blouse she had been wearing
all that Saturday, watching Pam start to get ready
for the dance. It was quite early yet, only around
seven-thirty. But getting ready for a dance,
even an informal school affair like the Sweater
Hop, was a leisurely process with Pam. Right
now she was fresh from her shower and just starting to take her
hair out of curlers. She stood tall and intent before
the dresser mirror, her yellow terry-cloth robe
belted tightly around her slim middle, her bare
feet thrust into lamb's- wool scuffs.
  Now her eyes met Penny's in the mirror and
she asked,

her tone sharpening a little, "Why do you say 'I know"
in such a wistful sort of tone?"
"I didn't mean to sound wistful," Penny said.
She really hadn't. Pam was imagining things. She
went on, "I know you offered to have Spark get someone
for me so we could double-date."
Pam turned her full attention to her curlers
once more. "Well, then! I don't see why you
wouldn't. Don't you like dances?"
"Of course," Penny admitted. Who didn't?
She could imagine nothing more wonderful than to
go to
the Hop with Mike-if Mike had asked her. If
anyone else within reason had asked her, she
probably wouldn't have turned him down,
either. But to have Pam tell Spark to get someone for
her-well, she wasn't that eager to go.
Pam was frowning. "You'll hardly ever double-date
any more like we used to. Why, Penny? What's
got into you?"
Penny supposed Pam was entitled to an
explanation. She told her, "It's not that I
don't like double-dating. But the idea of you having your
date drag someone along for me-well, can't you
understand how unnecessary that makes me feel? If someone
had asked me to the Hop, of his own accord, then
I'd think it was fine for us to go with you and Spark. But
the other way's no good."
Pam turned around slowly to look at her. "You
never used to mind."
A wry little smile pulled at Penny's lips.
"I minded. It was just-well, I was willing to let you
fix up dates for me, rather than not getting to go
places at all."
"And," Pam fingered the last curler out of her hair,
her

DOUBLE DATE
  gray eyes questioning, "you don't feel that way about
it any more?"
  "That's it," Penny admitted. "I guess
maybe I've grown up. I seem to be
reconciled to doing without dates, if I can't get
them for myself."
  "But that's silly!" Pam dumped the curlers
into her dresser drawer impatiently. "Penny,
it's that stuffy crowd you've got in with. They've
warped your sense of values! You can't be content
to simply work on the paper all the time!"
  "I don't think my friends are stuffy," Penny
argued hotly. "They happen to be interested in the
same things I am. We get along fine. And I
like working on the paper, or I wouldn't do it."
  "Mike takes advantage of you," Pam
insisted. "So does Bob Purcell, wishing half
his work on you. But do any of them ever ask you for
dates? Do you have any fun? Why, that crowd
doesn't know it's alive. Bob thinks he's so
intellectual and Maggie-was
  "Pam, stop it!" Penny broke in. "Let's
not fight. Bob's okay when you get to know him. And
Maggie and I are good friends. As for Mike, if
I'm satisfied with the way he treats me, you
don't have to worry."
  "He could have asked you to the Hop tonight,"
Pam argued. "He didn't ask me."
  Penny glared at her. "He found out you were going with
Spark, that's why."
  "Did you tell him so?"
  "Well yes," Penny admitted. "He asked
me if you were already dated."
  "Why didn't you go to work on him?" Pam
demanded.

  "If the conversation got that far, I should think you could
have wangled an invitation out of him quite easily."
  "Maybe I didn't want to," Penny said.
"If I have to- to wangle invitations-was she broke
off, hating the very sound of the word, then rushed on before
Pam could say anything. "Besides, Mike said he was
broke. He's looking for an after-school job."
  "He is?" Pam's brows lifted a little in
surprise.
  "Yes," Penny said firmly, "although I don't
see how he can handle one, in addition to everything else
he does."
  Pam said thoughtfully, "I guess his folks
don't have too much money. They live in a sort of
dumpy little house. Anyway," she went on,
pursuing her own train of thought, "the Hop
costs practically nothing. You should have got him to ask
you. The trouble with you, Pen, is you aren't realistic.
You must learn you can't just be aloof and wait for a boy
to make all the advances. You have to lead him on without
his knowing it."
  Penny said angrily, "Will you stop telling me
what I should do? That may be your system, but there's
no reason it should work for me. We're two different
people. Just because we happen to look alike doesn't
mean we're the same inside. You use your methods
and let me figure out things for myself!"
  "Why, Penny!" Pam exclaimed, staring at her
in surprise. "I do believe you're really mad.
I was only trying to help."
  "Well, don't!" Penny said flatly. But she
felt herself cooling off a little. It was impossible
to stay angry with Pam.
  "It's just that I hate to think of you sticking around
home brooding all evening." Pam's voice sounded
troubled.
"Who's brooding?" Penny asked. "For that matter,
who's sticking around home? Maggie and I are going
to the movies."
"I suppose that's better than nothing," Pam
said.
"It certainly is," Penny agreed, hopping down
off the bed. "Maybe you wouldn't enjoy it, but
Maggie and I expect to have fun."
Penny proceeded to get cleaned up, to change into her
rust-colored jersey dress with the wide brown leather
belt. Pam was still working on her hair when Penny
called from the doorway, "Got to go now. Have fun."
"Oh, I will," Pam smiled at her. "You,
too."
Penny nodded and went on out into the living room where
Mother was arranging little white chrysanthemums in a
luster bowl on the coffee table. Mother was wearing a
gold-colored blouse and a slim black velveteen
skirt. Her hair was brushed up from her ears
to disclose tiny golden earrings shaped like shells.
She looked quite youthful and very pretty.
Penny said, "The flowers are pretty and so are you."
"Well, thanks, dear," Mother smiled her
pleasure at the compliment. "Lucius sent them.
He's coming over tonight to play some bridge and bringing a
friend with him."
"A man friend?" Penny asked teasingly.
Mother laughed a little. "Well, yes, I believe
so."
"A double-date," Penny said, her voice
confidentially low, "for you and Gran."
Mother's amused voice was low, too, so that Gran,
dressing in her bedroom, wouldn't hear.
"Probably," Mother confided, "he'll be around
seventy. Most of Lucius' friends are, I've
found. But I won't mind, so long as he plays
decent bridge."

  Penny shrugged into her coat and caught up her
gloves and wallet as the doorbell chimed.
"That'll be Maggie."
  Mother told her
to
have a good time and Penny ran lightly down to join her
friend at the front door.
  "Hi," she greeted Maggie, "you're right on
time."
  "So are you," Maggie said, as they moved down the
walk.
  There was a sign on the lawn that read HOWARD
HOUSE-INTERIOR DECORATION. The front of the
house was skillfully floodlighted, so that it stood
out clearly against the night, like a stage setting.
Penny was so used to the sign and the floodlight, she
wasn't consciously aware of them at all.
  Just as she and Maggie reached the sidewalk,
however, there was a brisk pattering of applause and a
male voice startled them, saying, "You look like a
couple of leading ladies, making your entrance in the
first act. I couldn't resist giving you a hand."
  Bob Purcell's scratchy dry voice
identified him to both girls, even before they could
make out his lanky outline clearly in the darkness.
  "Bob, you goon!" Maggie said. "You scared
us."
  "Sorry," Bob chuckled, falling into step with
them. "Where you two heading?"
  "The movies," Penny said.
  Bob drawled, "By the strangest coincidence,
that's my destination, too."
  "You mean you're not going to the Hop?" Maggie
asked in mock horror.
  "Please," Bob said. "Dancing is not one of
my
outstanding accomplishments. And I refuse to indulge
in activities in which I cannot excel."

DOUBLE DATE
They walked along together, the three of them, kidding and
laughing, till they reached the theater. There
stood Mike in the bright Neon glow. Penny's
heart leaped. Bob hadn't said a word about meeting
Mike.
Yet Mike was saying to him, "You're late, character."
He addressed himself then to Penny and Maggie,
"What did you do to detain him. Come on now,
confess."
"We're innocent, so help us," Penny said.
And Maggie added, "He attached himself to us like a
leech. We couldn't escape him."
Bob explained, with complete gravity, "I was just
passing Penny's house when they came out.
Naturally my ingrained chivalry rose up and
refused to let me slink off and leave them to walk
all alone through the jungle darkness. Who knows what
dangers threatened these two fair flowers of
American womanhood-was
"Okay, okay," Mike laughed. "But let's
get in now, shall we, before the main picture starts?"
He put a hand on the girls' shoulders to get them
under way and he and Bob followed close behind. It was
the most natural thing in the world for all of them
to troop into the theater together, to find seats side
by side. Fate seemed to be with Penny in that
detail. Maggie edged in first, then Bob,
then Penny and Mike. This was better than her
dreams, Penny thought.
She had a hard time keeping her mind on the
picture. It was so wonderful to sit there beside
Mike, eating popcorn out of the same box,
occasionally feeling their fingers touch accidentally. A
sort of electric current seemed to pass through
Penny when this happened, engendering a most agreeable
little shock. If only it could have been happening
to Mike, too. If only he might have reached

out, during the picture's more romantic moments, and
given her hand a little squeeze. But, of course, he
didn't. He only passed her the popcorn and
spoke casually a few times about some point in the
picture. Still, warm thankfulness wrapped Penny
about like a cloak, to think she hadn't let Pam fix
up a dance date for her. Then she'd have missed this.
Of course, she reminded herself grimly, it was in no
sense a real date with Mike. It had just happened.
But Mike didn't seem bored, he acted as if
he was enjoying himself. Maybe, now that the ice had
been broken, he would ask her to go out with him sometime.
At least on a double- date with Maggie and Bob.
Penny knew it was foolish to let herself
hope so hard, but she couldn't help it.
Afterward, Mike suggested that they stop at the Hangout
for a soda. Penny's heart lifted still higher. He
hadn't had to do that at all. He
must
have wanted to. Not until they reached the place and
found it closed and dark did realization strike them.
"Not a brain cell working!" Bob mourned. "We
should have known."
"But why?" Penny was the only one who didn't
understand.
"It's never open on nights when there's a dance at
school," Maggie explained.
Mike looked at his wristwatch in the glow of a
street light. "It's after ten. The drugstores
won't be open, either."
"Come on over to my house," Maggie said, "if
you'll settle for hot chocolate and cookies."
"I'll settle for anything," Bob said. "I'm
hungry."
Mike, too, was agreeable. So they walked the four

DOUBLE DATE
blocks to Maggie's house through the brisk cold
night. The moon was bright above and when
Penny glanced up, she saw that more stars than she could
ever remember seeing were scattered across the sky.
Mike was looking up, too. He said, "When I was
a kid, I used to study them. For a while I thought
I wanted to be an astronomer. There's the
Dipper. And there's Venus."
Penny's
eyes
followed his pointing finger. "They remind me of that
poem by Stevenson about "thousands of millions of
stars.""
"You like poetry?" Mike asked.
"Some," Penny admitted. "I like the kind that
makes sense, so I can understand what the poet's
talking about."
"Good girl!" Mike grinned. "You and I both.
Some of this modern stuff's so obscure, I'll
bet even the poet's confused."
Bob Purcell jumped into the conversation then in
disagreement and Maggie took prompt exception
to his views. The result was a four-way argument
all the rest of the way to Maggie's house. Her
parents proved to be in bed, but Maggie led the way
to the cheerful rather old-fashioned kitchen. She and
Penny made hot chocolate and got out
cheese and crackers and cookies while the boys
set the table. It was fun lingering over the food,
talking and laughing and arguing, with Maggie warning them
now and then not to get too noisy. Penny hated to have
the evening end.
But eventually they realized it was time to break up.
After whispered good nights and smothered laughter in the
front hall, Penny and the two boys went outside
together.

  At the sidewalk, Bob said casually, "I'll
take Penny home. It's right on my way."
  And Mike, who lived in the opposite
direction, agreed without a moment's hesitation,
"Okay. It was fun. Be seeing you," and strode off
with his long easy stride, his hands thrust deep
into his pockets.
  The taste of disappointment was bitter in Penny's
throat. Darn it, she thought, why couldn't Mike have
lived her way and Bob just the opposite? But no,
fate was always dealing her low blows like that. Anyway,
even with Bob taking her home, the evening had been
almost as good as her dreams.
MOTHER GETS A BREAK
  The clear crisp early fall
  days merged into the muggy cold of November.
Gran, who often quoted poetry, of which she knew
a great variety of snatches, murmured feelingly,
was "The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the
year-""
  But she didn't really mean it. The next minute
she would be singing over the dishes, or laughing at
something Celia or the twins had said. They were all very
happy that fall. Both Gran and Celia had
made friends in Glenhurst, just as Pam and Penny
had. It was a friendly town and there were always a great many
church and club activities afoot, as well as the
more purely social doings. Chipper old Lucius
Hancock came often to the house, as did other friends
of Celia's and Gran's. As for the twins' friends,
they were always stopping by, sure of a warm welcome.
Boys and girls often gathered in the cheerful upper
rooms of Howard House, to play games or
records, or just to sit talking and laughing over the
apparently inexhaustible bowls of popcorn and
pitchers of hot chocolate Gran always seemed
to supply so effortlessly.
  Once Randy Kirkpatrick said, "This is a
nice place
to
be, you know it?" He looked around the big informal
room speculatively, as if he were trying
to figure out why.
  "There's something kind of warm and hospitable about the
atmosphere."
  Mike, who was sprawled low on the couch with his
long legs thrust out before him, nodded. "Sure there
is. That's why we hang around so much. It couldn't be
the company."
  "Take it back," Pam threatened, picking up
a pillow, "or I'll bop you."
  "Okay, okay," Mike grinned at her.
"I'm too comfortable to fight."
  He and Randy had dropped in unexpectedly that
evening. They had arrived separately, half an
hour or so apart. Now Pam sat on the couch between
them, while Penny hunched cross-legged on the
floor in front of the record player, going through
stacks of albums. She was looking for an old
Harry James recording that all of them had
decided they wanted to hear. Somehow, although she was
aware that both boys had stopped by to see Pam,
Penny didn't feel awkward or ill at ease
about it. Randy always treated her so agreeably and her
friendship with Mike was so firmly
established, there was no cause for self-consciousness.
If she had given the matter a thought, Penny would
simply have felt that she was one of a congenial group,
as welcome as any of the others and quite as much at
ease. The past few months had done that much
to improve her mental attitude and give her a
truer perspective.
  Randy went on, pursuing his train of thought
doggedly, "Sometimes houses almost seem to have
personalities, just like people. This one's got a nice
easy-going one."
  "Yeah," Mike agreed, "it sure has. Some
houses kind of make you feel like a louse if you
spill popcorn or get a
  speck of mud on the floor or bump into a
table. But not this one."
  "Giving all the credit
to
the house," Pam said aggrievedly, "when actually
it's the charming people who live in it!"
  Penny chuckled. "I think he's hinting for
popcorn."
  "You're p-sositively p-sychic," Mike
beamed at her.
  "We'll have to pop it ourselves," Pam
said, jumping up and slipping her hand into Randy's.
"Gran's gone to the movies with Mr. Hancock and
Mother's deep in balancing books for the month's end.
Come on, Randy, you and I will pop corn. Mike,
you help Penny find that record."
  Thus, Penny thought wryly, might a queen bestow
her favors. "Mike, stay with Penny. Randy, come
help me." Another night it might be the other way
around. And whichever one Pam invited to accompany her
to the kitchen would go eagerly, gladly, just as Randy was
going. And the one left with her would hide his
disappointment, as Mike was hiding it.
  "Oh, well," Penny thought philosophically,
as Mike squatted down beside her on the floor and
picked up an album, "Pam's giving me a
break this time, even if she doesn't know it."
  was "Clair de Lune,"" Mike said,
turning the pages of the album. "That's one of my
favorites."
  Penny glanced up at him in surprise. "Is
it, Mike? I love it, too. Put it on, why
don't you?"
  "Okay," Mike grinned, getting up and putting
the record on the turntable. "Set us to looking for
Harry James, will they? We'll show
"em."
  He proceeded to select a whole stack of
classical records, Penny siding withand abetting
him. Glorious music

  poured out into the room. Mike lay on his stomach
at Penny's feet, his chin on his palm, his blue
eyes dreaming. Neither of them said much. Words weren't
necessary. The music seemed to weave a sort of spell
about them, they simply listened and enjoyed it.
  Penny thought wistfully, "We do like the same
things. We're congenial in so many ways. Oh,
Mike, if only you could realize we have a lot more
in common than you and Pam. If only you felt about
me as I feel about you-was
  Pam came in from the kitchen then, with Randy at her
heels bearing a big bowl of popcorn. "Well,
isn't this cozy," she said. "Just a pair of
longhairs."
  "Good music's wasted on you," Mike jeered.
  But the way his face lit up at the sight of
Pam made a knife twist in Penny's heart. .
. .
  One day shortly before the holidays, Pam and
Penny came home from school to find Mother
so swamped with customers that they both had to pitch in and
help her. Business at Howard House had
improved steadily, to the point where Celia was
seriously considering hiring a full- time assistant.
She had to do so much chasing back and forth on various
jobs, with furnishings and bolts of drapery
material loaded into the old station wagon Lucius
Hancock had helped her procure, that she often
had to call in Dorothea Crane to take care of the
shop during her absence. Mrs. Crane had studied
interior decoration before her marriage and now that her
children were in school, she was quite willing to help Celia
out whenever she was needed. In fact, she would have liked
to work at Howard House every day. And Celia was
eager to have

DOUBLE DATE
her do so, as soon as she felt she could afford the
additional expense.
This particular afternoon, it seemed to Penny that Mother was
filled with a kind of restrained excitement. Her
eyes were shining and her cheeks seemed pinker than
usual. She continued to wait on customers with her
usual agreeable competence, but all the time Penny
had the feeling that Mother was anxious to have a
moment alone with her and Pam in order to tell them
something. Or was she just imagining that, Penny wondered,
as she tried to hang onto her own patience and cope
with a rather fluttery woman customer who couldn't make
up her mind about table lamps? Penny noticed
Pam casting an occasional inquiring look in Mother's
direction, as if she, too, sensed something strange
in her manner.
Not until the shop had cleared at closing time, did
Mother get a chance to inform them, "I've got the most
wonderful news! All afternoon I've been simply
popping to tell you."
She rushed on to supply details. Randy
Kirkpatrick's mother had stopped in at the shop
earlier. She was, according to Celia, quite beautiful,
stunningly mink-coated, and very pleasant.
?"
"It's easy to see," Mother said, "where Randy gets
his nice ways. Of course, his father may be
perfectly agreeable, too, for all I know. But his
mother's wonderful. So friendly and easy-mannered and not
at all condescending." She had told Celia
she'd been wanting to meet her, having heard so much
about the twins and her from Randy.
"But I soon began to suspect that was
only a ruse, Mother informed Pan and Penny, her
blue eyes sparkling, a little smile quirking her
mouth. "She was very interested

in the shop and spent quite a bit of time browsing around and
looking at everything, sort of appraising it and me,
it seemed. Well, the upshot was, she asked if
I undertook full scale jobs of decoration. And,
of course, I said yes. So then-was Mother sounded quite
breathless with wonder at the memory of what had
happened next, "she asked me to come over tomorrow
morning for a conference about doing over the whole
downstairs of the Kirkpatrick house."
"That's wonderful!" Penny exclaimed.
And Pam echoed, "Wonderful! Why, they've got
one of the most absolutely spectacular houses in
Glenhurst."
"I know," Mother nodded, reaching out to give them both
an enthusiastic hug. "There's a terrific amount
of prestige to a job like that. If Mrs.
Kirkpatrick likes my work-well, you can just
imagine all the jobs it'll mean in the future."
"And more money," Pam added, beaming.
"You can get Mrs. Crane to help every day,"
Penny's eyes were alight, too.
All during dinner the Kirkpatrick job was the
main topic of conversation. Gran, who had heard the
good news before the twins
got
home from school, had prepared an especially nice
meal by way of celebration.
Pam asked thoughtfully, over dessert, "Do you
suppose Randy suggested the idea to his folks?"
She reminded Penny, "You know how he was talking
about our house one night upstairs, about how friendly it
seemed, what a nice personality it had, as
houses go? Maybe he got to talking that way to his
mother, too."
"If he had any part in it, I'm glad,"
Celia said. "I suppose he might have mentioned
me, if he knew they were

DOUBLE DATE
  thinking of having some re-decoration done.
Anyway, it's the kind of break I've hoped for.
The Kirkpatricks are important people in town;
they have a lot of wealthy friends, some of whom may need
their houses done over."
  "Do you suppose," Pam asked with a little
Mona-Lisaish smile, "Randy figured
this might be a way to get in good with me?"
  "Modesty," Gran snorted, "is certainly not
one of your virtues, Pam."
  "Well, I don't see why you say that," Pam
objected. "I'm just being realistic. Randy's been
pretty unhappy lately over my seeing so much of
Spark. He just might have figured that this would be a good
way to sort of make a favorable impression."
  "So he persuades his family to spend all that
money doing over their house," Gran said drily,
"just to make a favorable impression on you? Really,
Pam!"
  "Money," Pam argued, "doesn't mean too
much to the Kirkpatricks. And, as Mother said, they
may have been figuring on having the work done. But
Randy may very well have persuaded his mother to come
to Howard House."
  "If he did," Mother smiled, "I'm
grateful. So long as I can suit the
Kirkpatricks, I won't care how I happened
to get the job."
  "Anyway," Pam went on blissfully
pursuing her own train of thought, "I'm glad she
came to see you before Randy realized he doesn't have
to worry about Spark any more."
  "How come?" Penny asked, her attention arrested.
  "Now that the football season's over," Pam
admitted, "I've suddenly begun to realize that
Spark's just a teensy

  bit dull. I mean a girl can't go on
simply panting with vital interest over different
methods of forward passing and stuff like that. And there's
no getting around the fact that football is
Spark's main topic of conversation."
  "It always was," Penny couldn't resist reminding
her. If only it could have been Mike Pam had
decided to scuttle.
  "Better watch that," Pam said drily. "Your
claws are showing a little."
  Mother spoke thoughtfully, and apparently she had
been pursuing her own train of thought as diligently
as Pam had. "Those English manor-type houses
are usually rather dark, so I suppose I'll have
to keep the color scheme as light as possible."
  Penny opened her lips to answer Pam, then thought
better of it and closed them again. Maybe she had
sounded a little catty. After all, it was none of her
affair if Pam chose to drop Spark Mathews.
  "Randy," Pam went on dreamily,
"is really lots more super than Spark. I think
Spark's shoulders just sort of bewitched me for a
while."
  "Where does Mike come in?" Penny asked,
keeping her voice quite casual and indifferent.
  "On the other hand," Mother said, "the trend just now
is toward darker shades, especially for the walls.
It's going to be quite a stimulating problem to work on,
but I'm sure I can lick it."
  "Of course you can," Gran said with staunch
confidence.
  "Mike?" Pam's eyes met Penny's.
"Oh, he's pretty super, too, when you get right
down to it. If he just had the convertible and all the
money to spend on a girl that Randy has-well, how
irresistible can you get?"

DOUBLE DATE
  Penny said, "I don't think that's very nice.
After all, Mike can't help it because he doesn't
have much money."
  "And Randy," Pam admitted, "can't help it
if he has."
  "Mike's getting a job starting Monday,"
Penny told her.
  "He is?" Pam asked interestedly. "Where?"
  "At McKee and Dane's," Penny said, "as
a stock man. He'll be working every day after school
till Christmas, then just on Saturday. He was
telling me about it this afternoon when I was doing some
personals for the
Crier."
  "He
must
need money," Pam said. "McKee's stays open
till nine o'clock every night till Christmas, don't
they?"
  Penny nodded. "All but Wednesdays. I
guess you won't be seeing much of him for a while
except at school."
  "Oh, well," Pam shrugged. "I'll try
to bear up."
  "Those mullioned windows," Mother said consideringly,
"have a certain old-world charm, but they're tough
to drape. I wonder if hand-blocked linen-was her
voice trailed off.
  After a minute, Gran got to her feet.
"Well, Pam, it's your turn to do the dishes."
  "Oh, I can't!" Pam wailed. "Penny, will you
be a perfect darling and switch with me? I
forgot all about it being my turn tonight and Randy's coming
by at seven so we can catch the early movie."
  "Okay," Penny agreed.
  She thought, "If it had been Mike she was going
with, I might have objected to switching. But why should
I put obstacles in her way if it's only
Randy?"
  A little smile pulled at her lips as she started
stacking the dessert plates.
THE SLEIGH RIDE
  December was a magic
  month, filled with rush and bustle. Penny had
never been happier and Pam was caught up in her
customary gay whirl of activity, boys calling
up and dropping in, wonderful dates shaping up,
fun and excitement. Penny had her share of things
to do, too, and if they were less spectacular than
Pam's activities, they were, nonetheless,
satisfying to her and thoroughly absorbing.
  Howard House swarmed with customers,
necessitating Dorothea Crane's working there every
day. Already Celia was knee-deep in the
preliminaries of doing over the downstairs rooms in
the Kirkpatrick's home. The actual work
wouldn't be started until after the first of the
year, but a great deal of planning was necessary, which
entailed frequent conferences between Ellen
Kirkpatrick and Celia. Sometimes these were held
at the Kirkpatricks", sometimes at Howard
House. Randy's mother was enthusiastic over
Celia's ideas. The two women became very friendly
during their endless discussions of color and fabrics and
all the other angles that entered into a large-scale
decorating job. During her visits at the
Kirkpatricks', Celia also met Randy's father,
Dolph Kirkpatrick, and Ellen's brother,
Paul Gerard, who was staying with them for a while.
  Neither Pam nor Penny gave too much thought to

DOUBLE DATE
Mother's job with the Kirkpatricks, other than to be
glad she had got it and happy for her because it was working
out so well. They were both busy with their own affairs.
The rush of school work immediately prior to the
Christmas vacation period filled the greater part of
their days. Evenings there were countless things to do, skating
on the frozen lake, school club activities,
movies and dancing parties.
The Headlines Club sponsored a sleigh ride
for its members one Wednesday night, with
food and square dancing afterward in the school gym.
Penny and Maggie Wright and Bob and Mike
gravitated toward each other to form a casual sort
of foursome. The night was cold, but clear and starry.
Everyone was bundled to the eyebrows and scarcely
felt the nip of the wind as they all snuggled down
companionably into the roomy straw-filled sleigh.
Up ahead the broad-beamed horses swung along
rhythmically to the jingle of their sleigh bells. The
crowd sang all the old songs and a lot of new
ones, their voices ringing through the night, their breath
puffing out in clouds along with the music. Feeling
Mike's shoulder firm against hers as the sleigh
lurched around a corner, Penny knew a wonderful
kind of elation that grew out of being young and full of bright
improbable dreams and capable of enjoying each new
experience keenly and to the fullest extent. She
sighed, a very small sigh of sheer pleasure.
"Cold?" Mike asked.
Penny was going to say, "No," but she changed it
to, "Not very," as Mike's arm went around her.
It didn't mean a thing, Penny reminded herself
sternly as her heart leaped. He was just holding her
against him to keep her warm. He'd have done the same
for Maggie

  or any other girl he happened to be sitting
next to. Penny didn't suppose there was a boy
in the whole sleigh who didn't have his arm around
someone. It was practically unanimous. Sleigh
rides were so wonderful!
  She sat there, close to Mike, feeling warmth
creep through her, while talk and laughter and corny
jokes eddied about them. The voices made a sort
of sweet music in Penny's ears, combined with the
jingling bells and the crunch of snow under the sleigh's
runners and the horses' hooves. Mike's rather good
baritone rang out, starting the singing up again. Penny
sang, too, along with the others, although she had only
a vague idea of what she was singing. She scarcely
moved, there beside Mike, feeling the pressure of his
arm about her and wishing the ride could last forever.
  It didn't, of course. But back at Glen
High there were gaily decorated tables in the gym,
stacked with sandwiches and doughnuts and quantities of
hot punch. The crowd gathered around them hungrily
and the food melted away. Then there was square
dancing, with Mr. Norton, the athletic
director, doing the calling. Mr. Norton did
not look like his staid school-day self at
all. He had on a violently plaid shirt and a
red neck-scarf. Even his voice sounded different,
raucously gay and devil-may-care, shouting "Swing
your partner!" and "Do-si-do!"
  Penny danced with Mike and Bob and a boy named
dark from her physics class. Then Mike again.
She wasn't terrifically in demand, but she wasn't
a wall flower, either. The realization filled her with
new confidence.
  "A happy medium, that's me," Penny thought, as
she danced the next number with Maggie. "But there are

DOUBLE DATE
always more girls than boys at an affair like this, so
I'm doing okay."
Penny had never had as much fun at a dance as she
did that night at the Headlines' party. She tried
to analyze her pleasure and realized that she wasn't
worrying about her popularity the way she used to.
She wasn't scanning each boy's face
anxiously, with a desperate hope burning within her that
he might be going to ask her to dance. She was
infinitely more relaxed and easy than she had ever
been at a party before. The crowd about her were friends; she
liked them and they liked her. What was there
to worry about and get into a dither over?
"The next one's a Virginia Reel," Bob
Purcell's dry voice said in her ear. "I
reel like nobody's business. How about it,
Penny?"
She nodded, smiling. "Okay, Bob."
Moving through the intricacies of the dance, with Bob's
hand tight on hers and Mr. Norton's brisk
voice calling, "Bow to your partner" and "Promenade
all!" Penny thought, "Quite a whirl I'm having-in
more ways than one." And her smile was so vivid and
her eyes so bright that Mike Bradley, looking
down into her face as the dance whirled them momentarily
together, was startled by her complete resemblance to Pam.
Just then it would have been quite impossible, even for anyone
who knew them as well as he did, to tell them
apart.
Pam, who had had a date with Randy that night, got
in just a few minutes after Penny did. Penny
hadn't made a move yet to get undressed. She
was sitting on the edge of her bed, her feet thrust out
before her, a little reminiscent smile curving her
mouth.

She said, "Pam, it was the most
absolutely terrific evening! I can't ever
remember having so much fun!"
"Well, good, baby," Pam said agreeably.
"A sleigh ride and square dance doesn't
exactly send me-but everybody to his own notion."
She went on then before Penny could answer, "Randy and
I had fun, too. After the movies he took me
out to the country club for something to eat. I just love it
there!"
Listening with less than half an ear as Pam
proceeded to describe her evening at length and in
detail, Penny thought, "I don't care how
gorgeous the country club is, or how swanky the
crowd. I'd rather spend my evening exactly as I
did."
The memory of Mike's arm, firm and hard around
her in the sleigh, and of the way he had laughed down at
her while they were dancing, made a warm glow in
Penny's heart. Tonight he hadn't seemed to mind that
she wasn't Pam. In fact, he'd scarcely
seemed to notice. And he had brought her home,
despite the fact that Bob Purcell wouldn't have
had to go a step out of his way to do so. If this
realization had occurred to Mike, he hadn't mentioned
it. Neither, thank goodness, had Bob, who
had seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly, in his own
sardonic way, in Maggie's company.
"Hey!" Pam squeezed Penny's shoulder,
snapping her back to the present. "I don't
believe you heard a word I said."
"I did, too," Penny assured her. "You went
to the movies and afterward Randy took you to the country
club."
"And what else?" Pam demanded.
"What-else?" Penny repeated. "Was there more?"
"I knew you weren't listening," there was a trace of

DOUBLE DATE
exasperation in Pam's manner. "Penny, this could be
serious. Pay attention now and stop daydreaming.
I've been telling you Randy's parents were at the
club-and his uncle." Pam's voice underlined the
last words portentously. At Penny's blank
look, she reminded, "You've heard Mother mention his
uncle, Paul Gerard?"
Penny nodded, still mystified, and Pam went on,
lowering her tone confidentially, "Mother didn't tell
us he was absolutely one of the most attractive
men you ever saw. Older men, that is. He's sort
of a combination Ronald Colman and
Gregory Peck with maybe just a dash of Clark
Gable. Very suave and sort of debonaire. And you
know what he is? A foreign newspaper
correspondent-only he's taking a leave of
absence because of being sort of worn down by all his
harrowing experiences. And all Mother told us was that he
was a newspaper man! Can you imagine?"
"Well, but-isn't he a newspaper man?"
Penny asked doubtfully. "I don't see-was
"You will," Pam went on grimly, "if you'll just
wait till I finish. The thing is, Penny, he
kept asking me questions about Mother. He pumped me
absolutely dry! I mean, there was no detail
too small to interest him vitally. I think," she
added ominously, "he's falling in love with her."
"But-was Penny objected faintly, "Mother hasn't
said much about him at all!"
"She has and she hasn't," Pam insisted.
"She's really mentioned him quite a lot, along with
Randy's parents. I mean, she hasn't exactly
singled him out to talk about. But, in a way, I
guess that isn't so good."
"It isn't?" Penny asked doubtfully. There was a
strange
109
heaviness in her chest at the thought of Mother actually
getting interested in a man, even Randy's
attractive bachelor uncle. "How do you mean,
Pam?"
"Well," Pam elaborated, "if she really is
as intrigued with him as he seems to be with her, she just
might feel she'd rather we didn't know about it yet.
Maybe she wants to wait till he asks her
to marry him before she confides in us."
Penny supposed it could be like that. On the other hand-
She objected, "But, Pam if she's not specially
interested in him, that's the way she'd act, too. I
mean, maybe her not talking about him simply means
he's not important to her."
"I hope you're right," Pam said with a little sigh, "but
I don't think so. I have a feeling-was she broke
off to lay one hand dramatically over her heart,
"here. Honestly, the way he wanted to hear every little
detail about Mother comand he's so perfectly
fascinating! It's easy enough for you to be
philosophical about the situation, but you haven't
seen him yet and I have. Actually, I don't see
how any woman could resist him."
"Even Mother?" Penny asked anxiously. "You know
we got pretty worried about that man she
worked with in the city-was
"Him!" Pam sniffed. "Why, he was fat! And
beginning to get bald, too. Mother wouldn't even be
tempted by the thought of marrying him-was
"Marrying?" Penny repeated, staring at Pam.
"Aren't you rushing things a little?"
"Well, it's a possibility," Pam pointed out.
"There's no use burying our heads in the sand."

DOUBLE DATE
"No, but-was Penny began, when the door of their
bedroom swung open and Mother stood there on the
threshold in her coral flannel robe, her hair
tousled and her eyes sleepy looking.
"What are you two talking about?" she asked, her
voice low so as not to disturb Gran. She added then,
with a little smile, "It's pretty late for such long
drawn-out conversation."
"We didn't mean to wake you," Pam told her,
while Penny felt warm embarrassed color
creep across her face. "We were just talking about our
dates-stuff like that."
"Did you both have fun?" Mother asked, struggling with a
yawn.
"Oh, yes," Penny told her. "I had
a wonderful time. Mike brought me home."
"He did?" There was a faint note of surprise
in Pam's tone, in the lift of her eyebrows. "You
didn't tell me that."
"You didn't give me a chance," Penny grinned
at her. "You were so intent on telling me about your
evening with Randy and about seeing his folks at the country
club and all."
Pam's gray glance rested on Mother's face as she
added, "I met his uncle, too. The one you
mentioned."
"Oh, yes," Mother nodded, smiling, "Paul."
First names already, Pam's glance said plainly
to Penny. Aloud she said. "He's so
attractive. Why didn't you tell us he was
simply out of this world?"
Mother chuckled, then yawned again. "I should have thought,
at your age, you'd have found him
one-foot-inthegraveish. He's well over forty."
"So are a lot of perfectly fascinating men,"
Pam argued.

  Mother stared at her. "Don't tell me, darling,
that you've developed a crush on a man old enough
to be your father. Paul Gerard's a charming
person, but his nephew's much more suitable for you."
  Pam said with dignity, "I haven't any crush
on anybody. I simply pointed out that Randy's
uncle is very attractive and that I didn't see
why you'd never thought to tell us so."
  "Oh," Mother said, "is that all you meant? Then
I must apologize for the oversight. The truth is,
I've had so many other details on my mind when
I'm at the Kirkpatricks, maybe I haven't
paid enough attention
to
Paul."
  "He seemed quite interested in you," Pam said
pointedly.
  Mother patted her shoulder, smiling. "I hope you
gave me a good reference, dear. And now you two
simply have to quit talking and go to sleep. It's
late."
  Quite a while after they had got into bed, Pam
spoke to Penny in the dark. "I wonder," she
asked thoughtfully, "how it would be to have a stepfather?"
  Penny objected sleepily, "Mother didn't
sound a bit like she was falling in love. I don't
see why you're so worried."
  "You didn't see Paul Gerard,"
Pam said.
  "Anyway," Penny spoke firmly, "Mother's
a grownup woman. She has a perfect right
to remarry if she wants to."
  "I suppose so," Pam said, after a long
considering moment. "Just the same, I'm glad he'll
be leaving Glenhurst in a month or so.
Middle-aged romances usually take longer than that
to get anywhere, I imagine."
  Penny thought wryly, "Sometimes young ones do,
too."
  But it seemed to her that some progress had been
made tonight.
PENNY PLANS A PARTY
  Each year on New Year's Eve a big
formal dance was held at the Glenhurst Country
Club. Randy had invited Pam to it well in
advance of the date, lest she make other plans for the
evening. Had he but known it, Pam had been figuring
on attending the dance with him ever since she first learned
of it. The possibility that he might not ask her
simply didn't cross her mind.
  For such a very special occasion a new formal
seemed indicated. When Pam broached the
subject, Mother asked, "How would you like one
as a Christmas gift from Gran and me?" Her
smiling glance went to Gran's face for the confirmation
she knew she'd find there.
  "That would be perfect," Pam breathed.
"Absolutely perfect!"
  So Pam chose material and a pattern, with Mother
paying the bill, and Gran made the dress. The
result of her inspired efforts was a breathtakingly
lovely concoction of palest yellow net and
taffeta, with a boned strapless bodice and an
incredible swirl of skirt.
  Seeing it, Penny was almost sorry she had
declined, when Gran and Mother offered her a new
formal for Christmas, too. She had chosen instead a
street-length dress in a soft copper-colored
velveteen with marching gold

  buttons. But it, too, turned out quite
beautifully in Gran's expert hands. And there
wouldn't have been much sense in getting a formal when she
wasn't going to the dance.
  "Randy probably could have lined up a date for
you," Pam reminded her, "if you had let me ask
him. But you're so persnickety about things like that
lately."
  "You'd feel the same way," Penny told her,
"if it was a question of my having to get a date for you."
  "But what will you do New Year's?" Pam asked,
her gray glance troubled. "It's only a couple of
weeks off."
  "I'll do something," Penny assured her, with more
confidence than she felt. "Don't worry about
me."
  There was fresh snow for Christmas. It began
to fall on Christmas Eve, so that when the twins and
Mother and Gran came out of the candlelight service at
church, the soft white flakes were swirling and blowing,
cold and refreshing on their faces. The next day
passed in a gay confusion of gifts and Christmas
calls, of friends and neighbors dropping in. The
Howards' living room was cozy with a blazing log
fire on the hearth, with the enticing scent of Scotch
pine, with talk and laughter and Christmas carols on
the record player. Lucius Hancock lingered
most of the day, having been invited to dinner. Paul
Gerard stopped in briefly, so that Celia had a
chance to thank him in person for the lovely red roses
that he had sent her. Other friends of Mother's and
Gran's stopped by, as did many young people. Maggie
Wright and Jean Dickey and Susan
Farnsworth, Randy and Mike and Spark Mathews and
Bob Pur-cell-so many others Penny could
scarcely keep track of them.
  Switching off the tree-lights late that night,
Celia said, "It's been a wonderful day,
hasn't it?"

DOUBLE DATE
  And Gran added, "This is the sort of friendliness
I missed so in the city. Thank goodness, we moved
away before I began to believe the wells of human
kindness had dried up entirely."
  Mother stood for a moment, a little smile pulling at
her mouth. Then she chuckled. "Guess what!
Paul Gerard invited me to the country club dance."
  "He did?" Pam exclaimed. Her voice
sounded just a little sharp.
  "Well, that's nice," Gran said. "I hope
you told him you'd go."
  Penny didn't say anything for a minute. She was
observing how young and sort of filled with wistful
anticipation Mother's face looked. Why, Mother
wasn't old enough to not have any dates and fun any more,
to simply work all the time. It wasn't fair
to expect she'd be satisfied with a life like
that.
  Penny said firmly, "I hope you said you'd go,
too."
  Pam flashed a warning glance at her, but Penny
ignored it. Just because Mother went to a dance with Paul
Gerard needn't necessarily mean she was planning
to marry him. There was no point in Pam's getting
into a tizzy over it.
  Pam spoke doubtfully. "Wouldn't you feel a
little out of place? I mean, both of you? The
crowd'll probably be quite a bit younger."
  Celia smiled. "Oh, I don't know. Paul
says the Kirkpatricks and lots of their friends will be
there. Maybe I won't seem too ancient."
  Gran snorted, "That's silly. What a way
to talk, Pam!"
  "Oh, I didn't mean you were really old,
Mother," Pam amended hastily. "But it's been so
long since you've gone to a dance-was

  "I think I still remember how to act," Mother
told her.
  "What will you wear?" Penny asked interestedly.
  "My black dinner dress is perfectly good,"
Celia said, "and quite new so far as
Glenhurst's concerned. It should do nicely. But I
didn't actually tell Paul I'd go yet. I
said I'd let him know."
  "But why-was Penny began. And then she stopped
abruptly.
  The troubled way Mother was looking at her made the
reason for her hesitation painfully clear. Penny
thought starkly, "She's worried about me. She knows
Pam's got a date. And now she herself has a
chance for one. But I'm the problem. She doesn't
want to leave me out in the cold."
  Aloud Penny told Mother, "Don't hesitate
on my account. Just this afternoon I had a wonderful
idea about what I'd like to do New Year's Eve.
I hadn't got around to asking you yet, the place
has been so full of people today, but I thought it would be
lots of fun if I could have some kids over that
night. Not a big party, or anything. Just four or
five people maybe. Maggie and Jean and-oh, maybe
Bob and a couple more boys to sort of even it off.
I haven't had time to put much thought on it yet, but
if you wouldn't care-was She certainly hadn't had time
to put much thought on it, Penny reflected wryly.
The whole idea had popped, full-fledged, into her
mind just that minute. It had been born of
her desperate need to think of something, so that Mother
wouldn't feel she'd have to stay home on her account.
  Mother said, "Why, no, dear, I wouldn't care.
If it's all right with Gran."
  "Of course, it's all right," Gran said
staunchly.

DOUBLE DATE
  Her bright blue eyes met Penny's in a very
knowing way. Did Gran see through her ruse,
Penny wondered? Oh, well, what did it
matter, so long as she went along with the idea so
agreeably? Good old Gran. Penny slipped
her arm around the plump shoulders to give her a big
hug.
  Gran said, "Leave the refreshments to me. You just
keep "em amused and occupied and I'll feed
'em."
  So that was settled. Mother would accept Paul
Gerard's invitation and Penny would invite some people
over. She hoped Maggie and Jean could come and that
they'd have some bright ideas about who else to invite. This
was going to be pretty short notice for a New
Year's Eve party, even a small one. She'd just
have to do the best she could to work it out.
  Getting ready for bed that night, Pam accused
Penny, "You certainly didn't back me up very
well. What are you trying to do, throw Mother and
Randy's uncle together?"
  "No," Penny said, "but Mother's got a right to have
a little fun."
  "Well, of course," Pam agreed. "But you
saw for yourself today how attractive Paul Gerard
is. Don't you think it would be simply playing with
dynamite for Mother to see too much of him?"
  "Maybe," Penny argued, "but that's for Mother
to decide, isn't it?"
  Pam snorted. "I get so mad at you sometimes.
You just won't look at things realistically. Do you
realize if Mother married him, he'd want her to go
away somewhere with him when he starts working again? New
York, Paris, anywhere!"
  "Mother simply wouldn't desert us," Penny said,
climbing

  into bed and snuggling her cheek down against the cool
pillow.
  "Well, she certainly couldn't take us along.
It would just be a mess anyway you look at it."
  "I'm too sleepy to look at it
tonight," Penny said.
  But a small qualm of uneasiness stirred in
her. What Pam said made sense. It wouldn't be
an easy problem to work out, if Mother should decide
to marry Paul Gerard. And there was no denying that he
was handsome. The gray hair at his temples gave
him a look of worldliness and distinction, a look that was
augmented by his rather sardonic smile. Anyway,
Penny reminded herself as Pam switched off the light
and got into bed, still kicking the subject of Mother and
Paul Gerard around, it was certainly up to Mother
to decide.
  "All you have to decide," she told herself just before
she dropped off to sleep, "is how to get a New
Year's party put together in less than a week. .
. ."
  As a matter of fact, it didn't prove
nearly so hard as Penny had feared. A few phone
calls the next morning established the fact that she
wasn't the only one who had been in danger of not
having anything to do New Year's Eve.
  Maggie exclaimed, "Why, Penny, that's a
grand idea! Of course, I'll come. Want me
to ask Bob? We're going skating this afternoon. I'm
pretty sure he can make it New
Year's."
  So that took care of two guests.
  Jean Dickey also accepted Penny's invitation
with enthusiasm. When Penny asked her if she knew
of any more boys they could get, Jean answered
thoughtfully, "Shall I sort of feel out Curt
Watson? He lives next door to me,

DOUBLE DATE
only he's been away at college. He's just a
freshman, though, so he wouldn't be too old. He
was griping the other day because there wasn't much to do around
here. He'd probably be tickled pink to go to a
party."
The thing seemed to snowball under Penny's very eyes.
She ran into Jerry Clark from her physics class
that afternoon when she and Jean were playing table-tennis at
the Park House. His brother Bill was with him and
both boys were so friendly, playing doubles with Penny and
Jean and giving them pointers on their backhand, that
Penny felt emboldened to bring up the subject of
New Year's Eve. And, sure enough, neither of them
had anything planned. They'd be glad to come to her little
party.
That night as Jean and Penny talked on the
phone, Jean reminded her, "Now you've got four
boys and only three girls."
"I know," Penny admitted. "It never seems
to come out even. But Gran says any number up
to ten or so is okay with her. So that gives me a
little leeway."
Penny couldn't help a wistful wish that it had been
the other way around. If she had an extra girl,
instead of an extra boy, she might have got up the
courage to invite Mike Bradley. Of course,
he could have something else planned for New Year's
Eve. Penny didn't know. Except for a little
while on Christmas, she hadn't seen or heard from
Mike since the beginning of the school holiday the
previous week. And outside of their encounters at
school, she hadn't seen much of him for the week or so
before that. Mike's part-time job had been keeping him
busy until nine o'clock at night when McKee and
Dane's Department store closed. So Penny
hadn't even had the

  bitter-sweet pleasure of seeing him briefly
when he came over to take Pam out.
  Jean's voice at the other end of the telephone
wire brought her gradually back to the
present. "There's Cindy Wentworth," Jean was
saying. "You might try her. She's lots of
fun."
  "That's a good idea," Penny agreed. "I'll
call her up right away."
  But when she got Cindy on the phone, a further
complication developed.
  "Gee, Penny," Cindy said, "I'd love
to come. I've been wondering what to do New
Year's. But-was her voice quavered a little with
anxiety, "Betty March and I were talking this afternoon
and we agreed to do something together. You couldn't," she
asked hopefully, "use another girl, could you?"
  "Why-yes," Penny said rather breathlessly. "Yes,
as a matter of fact, I could." Why, it was almost like
Fate pulling the strings, she thought. Now she would
need an extra boy. She could ask Mike-and
keep her fingers crossed hoping he'd be able to come,
that he'd want to.
  "Oh, wonderful!" Cindy exclaimed
enthusiastically. "I know Betty'll just love it,
too. Thanks a million, Penny. . . ."
  So that, Penny thought, hanging up slowly, was that.
She wondered whether Pam would know anything about
Mike's plans for New Year's Eve.
Asking would be the only way to find out.
  Penny went into the bedroom, where Pam was brushing
her hair into a soft dark cloud before the dressing-table
mirror. "Who were you phoning?" Pam asked
curiously.
  Penny told her. She told her, too, about
Betty March.

DOUBLE DATE
"Now I've got an extra girl," she said,
"where before it was an extra boy. Honestly!"
"Let's see," Pam pursed her lips
thoughtfully, "who else could you ask?"
"How about Mike?" Penny suggested quickly. "You-
don't happen to know what he's planning, do you?"
"Mike?" Pam's brows lifted a little. "He's
been such a stranger lately. I wouldn't know."
"Well, he's been working," Penny reminded.
"He didn't have much time for dates till just this
week."
"So he keeps telling me," Pam chuckled. "So
finally I relented and let him talk me into going to the
movies with him tonight. You want me to ask him about
New Year's for you?"
Penny shook her head. "No, thanks.
I'll ask him myself when he comes."
The doorbell rang just then and Pam said, "That must
be him now. Go down and let him in, why don't you,
and then you'll have a good chance to invite him to your little
party."
The superior way Pam said "your little party" made
Penny half-angry. She didn't have to sound quite so
condescending, even if she was going to a dance at the
country club.
"Hi, Mike," Penny said, as she opened the
door.
"Oh-hi," Mike said, with a little chuckle. "You
know, for just a sec, I thought you were Pam."
"Well, I'm not," Penny said flatly. Maybe
it was the lingering heat of her annoyance with Pam that lent
her courage. She asked, "Are you all tied up
New Year's Eve, Mike, or would you care to come
over to a sort of party I'm having? Nothing
elaborate," she went on, moved by

  the need to put all her cards on the table, "just some
kids coming over. Jean and Maggie and Bob and a few
others."
  "Sort of fugitives from the rarified
atmosphere your sister's going to breathe out
at the country club?" Mike asked, grinning down
at her.
  Penny thought there was a slightly bitter twist
to his grin. Apparently he had asked Pam to do
something with him New Year's Eve-and had been
disappointed.
  "Something like that, I guess," Penny admitted,
smiling, too. "We'll have fun, though," she added
firmly.
  "Sure, we will," Mike said, laying a big hand
on her shoulder in friendly fashion. "Thanks for
asking me."
  Penny's heart lifted like a runaway
elevator.
A WORD OF ADVICE
  Holiday week flew past. The weather was
terrible, slush and sleet and raw penetrating wind,
under a sky the color of gray slate. But Penny
was so busy she scarcely noticed the weather. And
Pam was even busier. Pam went to parties, she had
dates almost every night with one boy or another.
Penny's activities were less exciting, a hen
luncheon party at Maggie's, the movies one
night with Bob Purcell and Jean Dickey and her
next door neighbor, Curt Watson.
Penny had endless conferences with Gran over
refreshments for the party, with Maggie and Jean about things
to do New Year's Eve to keep the fun rolling
along. This would be the first party she had ever given without
Pam's co-operation and Penny was understandably
anxious about its success.
  One afternoon she stopped in the drugstore to have a
Coke between errands. Mike's voice hailed her from
a booth. As always, Penny's heart hurried a little
faster at his nearness.
  "Why-hi, Mike," she answered.
  "Come on, join me," Mike motioned toward the
empty bench opposite him. "I am feeling lower
than an angle worm's stomach at the moment.
Maybe human companionship will help."
  Sitting down at the narrow table, Penny's
knees bumped

against Mike's. She had brought her own Coke over
from the fountain and now she took a few thoughtful sips,
her gray glance on Mike's face. "Why are you
so low?" she asked.
"Hah!" Mike's laugh was hollow. "Funny you
should ask me that. My despondence is directly
due and traceable to your charming sister."
"Oh," Penny said. Then, after a moment's pause,
"Did you-have a fight?"
Mike shook his head in the negative. "Nothing so
definite as that. In a way, I wish we had. A
good battle sometimes clears the air and resolves a
lot of grievances. But, no, Pam and I are on
as good terms as we ever were-I guess. It's just-was
Mike's voice grew more troubled, "well, it's so
hard to know where you stand with a girl like Pam. I mean
there are so many guys hanging around her all the time, you
sort of get lost in the shuffle."
Penny nodded. That was the way it was, all right. That
was exactly the way Pam wanted it, too.
"She seems," Mike went on in a brooding
sort of tone, "to figure that if one boy friend's a
good thing, ten boy friends are ten times as good. The
competition's rugged. I never saw a girl like her."
He eyed Penny gravely for a minute. "You're not
like her a bit, are you, Penny? Inside, I
mean."
"I guess not," Penny murmured.
"She wraps you around her finger, too," Mike said.
"Look at the way you do half her homework, lug
books home all the time for both of you. Look at
the way she risked getting you into a bad
jam that time in trig."
"I just help her with homework," Penny defended
Pam

DOUBLE DATE
automatically. "And that trig deal well, we never
intend to pull anything like that again."
"You
never intend to," Mike corrected.
But Penny shook her head. "No, Mike, Pam
promised she'd never ask me to, either."
"Boy, you're sure loyal to her," Mike grinned
crookedly.
"Well, naturally," Penny said. "After all,
we're sisters, twin sisters. But-was suddenly she
felt a need to confide in Mike, as he had been
confiding in her. She went on seriously, her eyes
wide and candid on Mike's face, "I haven't
been just drifting along in Pam's trail lately.
I've been striking out for myself more, not being such a
carbon copy." She admitted, twisting her Coke
glass around and around in her fingers, making the cracked
ice tinkle, "It used to be, I'd try every way
I knew to imitate Pam, to be exactly like her.
But lately I've come to see that just because we
look alike, it doesn't mean we're anything
alike inside. So I'm trying to be me, Penny.
That's why I go to Headlines Club and work on the
paper. Pam thinks it's silly, but I like it. And
I've been making my own friends, or trying
to-not
just drifting along in Pam's crowd, put up with because
I'm her sister. It-hasn't been too easy, but
I think it's worth while."
Suddenly, Penny realized that this was probably the
longest, certainly the most revealing, speech she had
ever made to a boy in her whole life. She felt
embarrassment creep over her, felt herself flush.
Her voice cracked a little, saying, "I-can't think
why I'm burdening you with all this-was
"Why not?" Mike's voice was as steady as his blue
eyes on hers. He reached over and laid his hand
briefly, warmly

  over Penny's hand where it clung to the black marble
edge of the table. "Why shouldn't you unburden yourself
to me? We're friends, aren't we? And I've
certainly been spilling my troubles to you."
  Penny seemed to feel the pressure of his hand
lingering on hers even after he had released
it. She murmured, "I've comnever talked like this with
anyone before, any boy, that is."
  "Then it's time you got started," Mike grinned.
"As they say, confession's good for the soul. But to get
back to Pam, it looks as if she's at the root
of both your problems and mine. I guess," Mike
said in a philosophical sort of tone, "I
shouldn't complain, though. I'm not the only guy she's
got going around in circles."
  Penny nodded. There was no question about that.
  "Randy," Mike enumerated, "Spark and me."
His glance questioned Penny. "Wouldn't you say that right now
we're the three she sees the most of?"
  "Not Spark anymore," Penny said. "He's
getting edged out by Joe Henderson."
  "Neck-and-neck at the straightaway?" Mike
asked wryly. "Sounds like a horse race. Would you
say I'm getting edged out by Randy
Kirkpatrick?"
  "No," Penny said quickly, "I wouldn't say that,
Mike. I'm sure Pam likes you, too."
  Mike shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder."
  "She wouldn't bother with you if she didn't."
Penny knew Pam well enough to be sure of that.
  Now it was Mike's turn to twist his
Coke glass, to stare down thoughtfully into its icy
depths. "It's kind of funny in a way," he
admitted. "Randy's been able right along
to
give her a bigger whirl, on account of having the car

DOUBLE DATE
and more money to spend. Not that I mean that's all she
sees in him," he amended quickly, his eyes coming up
to meet Penny's. "Randy's a good guy aside from
that. But anyway," Mike's chuckle sounded just a
shade bitter, "it's kind of ironic. I get
myself a job so I'll have some money to throw around,
too. So what happens? I had to work so late
till Christmas, it gave Randy and Joe and
Spark and the rest a clear track. Now that I only
work on Saturdays, I can ask Pam for a date.
But does she understand, as I'll bet you'd understand,
Penny? Not on your life. She's riled at me
because I've been quote neglecting her unquote."
He sounded so unhappy, Penny had to say something
comforting. "Oh, Mike, I don't think she's
really riled. She went out with you one night this week,
didn't she?"
"Yeah," Mike nodded. "One measley
date we've had since I finished working nights.
So here I am, with plenty of lettuce and no girl
to spend it on. How do you like that?"
Penny said, "She'll get over it. This week's
been pretty busy. And of course Randy asked her
to the dance New Year's 'way in advance."
"Yeah," Mike said, "I know. I had all that
explained to me very sweetly in words of one syllable
by your sister."
"But it's true, Mike," Penny told him
earnestly. "Pam wasn't just giving you a
run-around." She was feeling just then the pull of two
loyalties, one to Pam, which was very familiar, and a
newer one, amazingly strong, to Mike, whom she
liked so well. Frowning, Penny thought, it couldn't
be too unfair to Pam if she gave Mike just a
teensy steer in the right direction. Almost of their own
volition, her lips began to move, saying,
"There's-just one thing,

Mike, if you wouldn't mind my giving you a word of
advice."
"Boy, I need it," Mike said. "Shoot."
"It's funny with Pam," Penny's voice was low
and just a little unsteady, "but I've seen it
happen so often, I'm sure it's the case.
Pam-seems to sort of lose interest in a boy if
she feels-fairly sure of him. It hasn't
happened yet with Randy, because, as you said, he's able
to give her such a terrific whirl. But-she was very
interested in you right at first, Mike, when she wasn't
sure you were interested in her."
Mike stared at Penny for a moment. Then he said
slowly, "That's right. She did act then as if I
was something pretty special."
"It's always like that," Penny said faintly. "Then,
when she can tell someone really likes her a lot-was
her voice ran down miserably. It wasn't
easy to tell Mike these things about Pam, even though
she felt he was entitled to know them. But Mike had
seemed so sunk and unhappy, she hadn't been able
to
stop herself. Well, now he knew. She'd done
all she could for him.
She made a little move to get up, but Mike
caught her hand, stopping her. "Wait a minute,"
he said. "I want to get this straight. When I was
hard-to-get, Pam wanted me. Now she's got
me, she's hard-to-get. Is that the way it works?"
Penny nodded. "I-have to go now, Mike.
Really."
"I'm going, too," Mike said, getting up as
Penny did. "I'll go with you."
"I've got lots of little errands," Penny warned.
"I have to stop at the dime store and McKee's."

DOUBLE DATE
  "I've got plenty of time," Mike said. "And
I'm a good package carrier."
  Walking down the street, he said thoughtfully,
"Gee whiz, a guy would have to have a hole in his head
to go to all that bother over a girl-even Pam."
  Penny murmured, "I shouldn't have told you all
that. I've never talked to anyone else that way."
She caught her lip hard between her teeth.
  Mike slipped his hand under her arm and squeezed it
gratefully. "Don't feel bad about it, Penny.
Believe me, I appreciate your help." He
shook his bare blond head ruefully. "When a guy
gets a girl under his skin the way I've got your
sister, it warps his judgment."
  "You really like her a lot, don't you, Mike?"
Penny asked huskily.
  "That," Mike said, "is the understatement of the
year."
  In a way, Penny felt better, but in another
way, she felt much worse. It was a relief to know
she hadn't undermined Mike's feeling for Pam. But
there was a deep pain within her at the realization of just
how terrific that feeling was. . . .
  On New Year's Eve all was rush and confusion
at the Howards". Everyone was getting dressed at
once and all of them managed to get in each other's
way. Randy and his uncle Paul came by for Pam and
Mother fairly early, to carry them off to the
Kirkpatricks', where a crowd of friends were
assembling before the dance. Mother looked more beautiful in
her long black dress, with the white orchids Paul
had sent, than Penny could ever remember having seen
her. And Pam, of course, was absolutely
devastating in her new yellow formal, with a black
velvet

  ribbon around her throat and tiny black velvet
gloves and Randy's wrist corsage of yellow
rosebuds. Penny breathed a small sigh of
relief to have her out of the house before her own guests,
particularly Mike, arrived.
  Gran heard the sigh and misinterpreted it. She
murmured, her arm around Penny's shoulder
as the downstairs door closed on the sound of departing
voices, "First dance you want to go to, honey,
I'll make you just as pretty a dress."
  "There's nothing wrong with this one," Penny said
gratefully, smoothing the copper-colored
velveteen over her slim hips. "I just love it,
Gran."
  "You look mighty pretty," Gran told her.
  "So do you," Penny said.
  And Gran went bustling off toward the kitchen in
her good maroon crepe, with a little organdy party apron
tied on over it for protection. "Flatterer!" she
chuckled.
  A few minutes later, Lucius Hancock
arrived. "Hello, Penny, or Pam, as the case
may be," he boomed cordially as Penny let him
in.
  "I'm Penny," she told him, smiling, and led
the way upstairs, where she put his hat and coat
away in the closet.
  "You don't mind my coming over to lend your grandmother
moral support and also help her serve the
refreshments?" Lucius asked earnestly.
  "Of course not," Penny told him. "I'm
glad to have you."
  "Thank you, my dear," he said. "New Year's
Eve is a singularly dismal occasion to spend
alone."
  Penny's pitying glance followed his erect back
as he headed toward the kitchen. In honor of this
special occasion, Lucius was wearing a white
shirt and neat

DOUBLE DATE
pin-striped dark suit, quite at variance with his
customary- casual sport clothes. A little amused
smile twisted Penny's lips. He was kind of
cute when you got right down to it. And so was Gran.
They were probably going to enjoy her party as much as
any of the younger guests.
The bell rang again and Penny's friends began arriving
so quickly that she was kept busy letting them in. When
Mike came, he was carrying a small oblong
florist's box, which he presented to Penny with a
flourish.
"Why, Mike!" Penny exclaimed in pleased
astonishment when she had opened it to discover two
creamy gardenias nestling inside. "You needn't have
brought me a corsage- but it's beautiful!"
"Glad you like it," Mike dismissed her
thanks largely.
Soon the crowd was all assembled and the fun began.
Penny and Maggie between them had figured out enough games
to keep things from slowing down. In between they played
records and danced a little. Gran and Lucius
presided over the delicious buffet supper like a
pair of amiable genii, bringing in reinforcements of
sandwiches and cake and soft drinks whenever the
original supply looked a little depleted. At
midnight there was a raucous tooting of horns and
bursting of balloons. Everyone, including Gran and
Lucius, locked arms in a big circle and sang
"Auld Lang Syne." "Happy New Year,
Happy New Year," everyone exclaimed to everyone
else.
Nor did the gayety run down then. More games were
played. More records listened to and danced to. By the
time the last guest had departed, after telling Penny
what a wonderful evening it had been, the hour was very
late indeed.
"Two o'clock!" Gran exclaimed, yawning
widely. "I

  can't think when I've stayed up

late-or had so much fun. It was a grand party,
Penny."
  "Everyone seemed to enjoy it," Penny nodded,
slipping her feet out of her pumps and rubbing her
insteps ruefully. "I had a wonderful time myself.
You were swell to help with everything."
  "Lucius and I had a fine time," Gran
chuckled. "And now, I'm going to bed. The kitchen's
a shambles, but we'll feel more like coping with it tomorrow."
  "I'll just put my corsage in the
refrigerator," Penny said. "Then I'm going
to bed, too."
  But alone in the kitchen, she stood for a long
dreaming moment, with Mike's flowers cradled in her
palm. They were turning a little brown around the edges;
their fresh sweetness had grown just a bit cloying
now. Or so an unbiased observer might have thought.
But not Penny. To her dazzled eyes the corsage
Mike had given her was as beautiful as it had been
when first she took it from its nest of sheltering
tissue. And however wonderful Pam's dance might
have been, Penny wouldn't have traded the evening just past
with her for anything in the world.
PENNY LEARNS THE HARD WAY
  Lying late abed the next
  morning, Pam and Penny discussed their
respective New Year's Eves in detail.
The dance had been wonderful, according to Pam. She
proceeded to tell Penny all about it. There had been
only one flaw.
  "Honestly," Pam leaned her chin on her palm
the better to see Penny in the bed next to hers, "you
can't imagine how Paul Gerard hung around Mother.
Randy's father danced with her, of course. So did
several other friends of the Kirkpatricks. But
Paul-well, he couldn't seem to get her away from
them fast enough. Penny, I'm worried. He acts
as if he's seriously interested. I wish Mother
didn't have to spend so much time at Randy's house.
I mean, I think it'll only add fuel to the
fire."
  "If she's doing over their house," Penny
objected, "I don't see how she can stay away.
Anyway, Pam, it's her own business. I mean,
if she and Randy's uncle should fall in love-was
  "Don't just lie there and act as if it's
inevitable," Pam interrupted. "We certainly have
a right to do what we can."
  "I don't see why," Penny argued.
"Anyway, they're

probably just friends. It may never amount to anything more
than that."
"You," Pam informed her, "didn't see them last
night, the way they looked into each other's eyes, the
way they danced, as if they were enjoying it so
thoroughly."
"Mother hasn't had a chance to dance and have fun for a long
while," Penny pointed out. "Most likely she'd
have enjoyed herself whoever she went with."
"And that gorgeous white orchid corsage he brought
her-was Pam broke off suddenly to send a look of
inquiry Penny's way. "That reminds me, I
noticed you had a corsage in the refrig last
night when I put Mother's and mine away. Who from?"
"Mike," Penny admitted, feeling a pleasant
warm glow.
"Mike?" Pam repeated in obvious astonishment.
Then she asked, "How come he's throwing his money
around so freely?"
"I guess he's had a little more to throw around since
he works at McKee's," Penny suggested.
"Maybe I should help him spend it." Pam lay
back on her pillows and stretched luxuriously.
It was Penny's turn to lean up on one
elbow, the better to look at Pam. She asked,
"Will you tell me something?"
"I might," Pam said.
"Who do you really like best?" Penny pressed.
"Randy or Mike or Joe or-was
"Do I have to like someone best?" Pam broke in
smiling. "They're all so nice."
"I thought maybe you had a preference," Penny's
tone was a shade wistful. "You go out most often with
Randy."
"Have you been keeping records?" Pam teased. Her

DOUBLE DATE
eyes narrowed just a little. "Why this sudden concern over
my love life? You needn't worry. I can handle
it." Penny had no doubt that she could.
Once the holidays were past, it was only a
hop-skipand-a-jump until the twins' birthday on
the twentieth of January. But during those weeks just
before she was seventeen, something quite wonderful happened
to Penny.
The first time Mike phoned and asked to speak to her, not
Pam, Penny could scarcely believe her ears.
Then she thought he must be calling about some
Crier
business. But no! It developed that he wanted her
to go with him to the Drama Club play the following
Friday. He was asking her, Penny, for a date!
As soon as she could manage sufficient breath for
speaking, Penny said she'd love to go. After their
conversation was over, she hung up and drifted into the
bedroom, her feet scarcely seeming to touch the
floor.
The pale winter sunshine streaming in the window was much
brighter than it had been a few minutes before. The
checked gingham drapes seemed more vivid.
Gran's voice, lustily singing along with the kitchen
radio sounded much more melodious than usual. When
Pam came in a little later, she found Penny lying
face upward across her bed, smiling beatifically at
the ceiling.
"For cri-yi!" Pam said in surprise. "What
are you so happy about?"
Gradually Penny's shining gaze focused on her
twin's face. "Oh," she said, "it's you. I
didn't hear you come in."
Pam chuckled. "That I can believe. You were a
million miles away. What on earth were you
dreaming about?"
135
Penny said, her smile warm and confident, "I
wasn't dreaming. Something nice just happened."
She proceeded to tell Pam about it. When she had
finished, Pam's expression had altered from initial
astonishment to studied indifference. "That's swell,"
she said rather flatly.
"Pam, tell me, did Mike ask you first?"
Penny had to know. It was vitally important. She
braced herself for her sister's answer by reflecting that
it was better to be second choice than not to be
asked to go out with Mike at all.
But Pam shook her head in the negative. "No,
he didn't. Not that I could have gone with him, if he
had. Joe Henderson asked me a week ago.
We're double-dating with Laurie McGregor and
Randy."
"We're double-dating with Maggie and Bob," Penny
confided. Happiness was a warm glow within her. She
hadn't been second choice, after all.
Penny couldn't have enjoyed the play more if it had been
the newest Broadway hit. Sitting next
to Mike in the high school auditorium, laughing
at and applauding the far-from-professional efforts of the
cast, she had a wonderful time. So, apparently,
did Mike. Afterwards, with Maggie and
Bob, they wedged themselves into the crowded Hangout for
malteds. Over in a corner booth, Penny caught
a glimpse of Pam in the midst of her super-
smooth crowd. But as the twins waved at each other,
Penny felt no slightest twinge of envy.
Funny, she thought, how her viewpoint had changed
in a few short months. No longer did she feel
insecure and self-conscious. And it was surprising
how many friends she had made, since she had struck out
for herself

DOUBLE DATE
and stopped drifting along in her sister's wake.
Her popularity would never equal Pam's, nor be
as effortless. Penny had to work harder to make people
notice and like her, but certainly the result was worth
the effort. Tonight as she stood with Mike and Maggie and
Bob in the crowd around the Hangout fountain, ever so
many people stopped to speak to her as they passed by.
Maybe they weren't so sophisticated as Pam's
friends, but Penny liked them the better for that, she
felt more at ease with them. And, feeling Mike's
shoulder press against hers, as someone squeezed past
him, Penny felt a glow of complete contentment.
After that night was over, Penny was half
afraid to count on another date with Mike. He
had said he enjoyed himself, that they must do something again
soon. Still, she was doubtful. But her doubts proved
unfounded. Mike took her out several more times during
the weeks that followed. They went ice skating and to the
movies. Often, after they had been working on the
Crier,
Mike would suggest stopping at the Hangout on their
way home from school for a Coke or a malted.
Penny was so happy it scared her a little. This was
better than her dreams, because this was real, this
wonderful gradually ripening friendship with Mike. No
longer did she have to imagine how it would be to indulge
in long discussions with him on every subject under the
sun. They talked about books and poetry, school
questions, life in general. Mike wanted to get
into newspaper work later on, he told Penny quite a
bit about his aims and ambitions. And Penny listened,
interested, flattered by Mike's confidence. It
didn't even seem odd to her that Mike so seldom
spoke of Pam. Or, at least, it didn't
strike her as odd until later.

Pam, on the other hand, quite often spoke of Mike
to Penny. She couldn't, she admitted,
see what Penny found so fascinating about him.
"Honestly," she said, "the way you hang on his
slightest word is silly! What's so wonderful about
Mike Bradley? Randy's much better looking."
"That," Penny said, "is a matter of opinion. I
think Mike's better looking."
Pam shrugged. "You shouldn't be so obvious about it
though. It's a mistake to let a man realize you
think he's so terrific. It goes to his head."
Penny said confidently, "Mike's not like that."
"You needn't talk as though I don't know what
Mike's like," Pam's tone carried a note of
exasperation. "I've gone out with him, too."
"I know," Penny said. "You probably know him as
well, or better, than I do. But we're good
friends, Mike and I. And when two people are
friends-well, it just seems as if they understand each
other."
Pam sighed. An annoyed sigh. Penny thought,
"If she didn't have more dates than she can keep
up with, I'd almost think she was jealous. But that's
silly. . . ."
Later, looking back, it was easy for Penny to see
different signposts that should have caught her attention
sooner, had she not been so blinded by her
admiration for Mike. The way he never spoke of
Pam and seemed anxious to hurry on to some other
subject when Penny brought her sister's name into the
conversation. The way he was particularly attentive
to Penny whenever Pam happened to be around. The way
he always wanted to go to the Hangout, where Pam was
especially likely to see him and Penny

DOUBLE DATE
  together. But Penny, happily blind and blindly
happy, didn't notice.
  She did notice that Pam went out of her way
to be nice to Mike, at school, or whenever they
encountered each other accidentally. Pam would turn on
the full blast of her charm, smiling up at Mike
provocatively, using all the little winning devices
at which she was so adept. And Penny's heart would
quiver within her and she would hope hard that Mike could
hold out against Pam's wiles, that their friendship was
stronger than the former attraction Pam had held for
him.
  And then there came a night when Pam went to the
movies with Joe Henderson and Mike dropped
over to see Penny. Mother was playing bridge at the
Kirkpatricks and Gran went
to
bed fairly early to read a detective story.
When Pam and Joe got home, they found Penny and
Mike sprawled comfortably on the floor in front
of the record player, a big bowl of popcorn between
them, listening raptly to Liszt.
  "Honestly!" Pam exclaimed, stepping over them
in disdain and sitting down on the couch. "You two
longhairs!"
  Joe flopped down comfortably beside her. He
grinned at Mike, asking, "You can get away with
an evening like this? Pam's more expensive to entertain,
I can tell you!"
  "Yes," Mike said, "I know."
  He was looking directly at Pam as he said
it. Pam didn't say anything. She simply sat
there, looking at Mike.
  "That's right," Joe chuckled. "You switched
twins in midstream, didn't you?"
  The silly words, the rich sweet music in the
background scarcely touched Penny's consciousness.
She was aware

only of the way Pam and Mike were looking deep
into each other's eyes, each unwilling, or
unable, to withdraw his gaze. Watching them, it seemed
as though a heavy hand closed around Penny's heart.
Something in that look passing between Pam and Mike was
too revealing. Penny couldn't ignore it, or
pretend it wasn't happening, much as she would have
liked to. Why, she thought, the old spark of
Mike's interest in Pam hadn't died. She had
simply persuaded herself that this was the case because she
wanted so desperately to believe it. But Mike was
just as crazy about Pam as ever. His look revealed that
clearly.
Penny told herself, "It should be plain enough, even
to a dope like you. You were even the one who told him how
to get her interested again. Play hard-to-get, you
told him. Don't let her see she's got you where
she wants you."
So Mike had followed her advice. He had even
gone farther and pretended to be interested in someone
else. It had started on New Year's Eve, when
he brought this someone else a corsage.
"You fell for it hook, line and sinker," Penny
reminded herself. "Every time he asked you for a date, you
were only too eager to accept. You believed he
really liked you, because that was what you wanted to believe.
And because you were friends, it didn't occur to you that
Mike would use you as a decoy. But it's really
Pam he wants, it's always been Pam."
The bitter hurt within Penny swelled and grew
until it seemed that her body wasn't big enough
to contain it. She was vaguely aware of voices
carrying on some kind of conversation. She even took
part in it, to some extent. But she held one of the
records she had taken from its album so tightly that
it snapped under the pressure.

DOUBLE DATE
  "Hey!" Mike said, grinning at her. "Don't
you know your own strength?"
  He picked up the pieces of the record and
Penny took them from him and dropped them into the waste
basket. "It wasn't a very good one," she said.
  And then the voices went on, her own among them.
And eventually the hateful evening was over.
  Lying in bed in the dark, long after Pam had
fallen asleep, Penny kept her arms locked
tight across her chest to hold the hurt in. She
wouldn't go out with Mike again. She wouldn't continue being
merely a means by which he could win Pam back. Let
Pam have him if she wanted him. She was welcome.
  But hot tears squeezed themselves from under
Penny's lashes and she thought despairingly, "Oh,
Mike, Mike, how could you treat me this way, when
I thought we were friends? How could you hurt me so?"
  It wasn't like Mike to be inconsiderate, or
cruel. His feeling for Pam must simply have blinded
him to the effect of his scheme on Penny. Or
maybe he had thought she realized what he was doing from
the start.
  But she hadn't. She had taken his pretended
interest for the real thing. And now, lying there in the
sheltering dark, Penny knew that tonight had ended even
her friendship with Mike. For there were some things friendship
couldn't survive and a lack of honesty was one of them.
AN APOLOGY
  Penny took a quick preliminary look into the
Crier
office to satisfy herself that Mike wasn't alone
there. She had been avoiding him except in the
company of others for more than a week now. And she
meant to go right on doing so. But this afternoon Bob
Purcell was draped across a corner of Mike's
desk, arguing some matter with him. And Maggie Wright
and another reporter were diligently searching for something
in the back files. So Penny went on in.
  "Hi," she greeted all of them
casually. Then, to Bob, she said, "Here's the
report of the Student Council meeting."
  "All written up, I hope," Bob said,
taking the sheets of paper she handed him.
  Penny nodded. "I'm afraid it's a little
late."
  "Yeah, Mike's been beefing about it," Bob
admitted.
  "You're darn right, I was beefing," Mike
growled. "That report should have been in yesterday,
Penny, and you know it!"
  "Brother, is he in a mood!" Bob ambled
over to a typewriter and inserted a blank sheet
noisily. He began to type in a brisk staccato
outburst of sound.
  "I've got a right to be!" Mike frowned at
Penny. "I don't know what's got into you
lately. You used to be

DOUBLE DATE
the most dependable assistant I had. But now it
seems I can't ever find you when I need you. You
didn't even show up yesterday after school and, boy,
was I snowed under!"
"I was busy," Penny said, her voice
low.
She was well aware that Mike had been swamped with
work the day before. She had looked in after school, but the
fact that he was all alone had stopped her at the
door. Of course, she had figured that someone else
would be turning up to help him.
"Quit riding her," Maggie said good-humoredly.
"Just because she started out working herself down to a nubbin for you
doesn't mean she's got to keep it up. She
finally got smart, that's all."
Penny gave Maggie a grateful grin. "I can
help for a while now," she told Mike. "What do
you want me to do?"
He proceeded to tell her and she got to work with her
usual quiet competence. For the next hour, while people
milled distractingly around the little office, Penny
kept her mind on the job at hand. She concentrated
so closely that she didn't notice how the crowd was
thinning out, until suddenly only she and Maggie and
Bob and Mike were left. Fortunately Penny was
at a good stopping point.
She said, "This is finished now. And I'll really have
to get going. It's after four-thirty. You coming,
Maggie?"
Bob Purcell objected, "Not yet she
can't. She promised to help me finish the humor
column."
"Sorry," Maggie told Penny. "I let him
twist my arm."
"It doesn't matter-was Penny began, then broke
off as Mike got to his feet and yanked the cover
over his typewriter.

"I'm through for the day, too," he said, stretching. "You
won't mind closing up when you're finished, will you,
Bob?"
As Bob agreed, it seemed to Penny that a rather knowing
look passed between the two boys, almost as if this had
been prearranged. Was Maggie in on it, too,
Penny wondered?
But she had no choice except to cross the
journalism room and walk down the corridor to her
locker, with Mike ambling along beside her. While
she got her coat on, he shrugged into his battered
leather jacket. Together, almost silently, they went out
through the heavy doors and down the long flight of stone
steps.
"How about stopping for a malted?" Mike asked as they
reached the street.
But Penny said, "I-think I'd better
get home. I've got lots of things to do."
Mike nodded. "That's what I thought you'd say."
But instead of letting it go at that and heading in the
direction of his own home, he fell doggedly
into step with Penny. "Okay," he said, "let's have
it. What have I done to make you sore?"
Well, this was it, Penny thought. She had hoped that
if she avoided Mike as much as possible, if she
treated him with cool civility when chance threw them
together, he might gradually get the idea that she had
seen through his elaborate ruse to win Pam back.
She had thought that when he realized this, he might
simply let the whole sorry business drop, without
any discussion. But-apparently this was not to be the
case.
When she didn't answer immediately, Mike went on,
his tone actually a little aggrieved, "If you're
mad, at least

DOUBLE DATE
  I've got a right to know why. I'm entitled to some
explanation."
"You're
entitled to an explanation!" Penny glared up at
him, stopped in her tracks. "Well, I
like that! After the way you've treated me, Mike
Bradley, using me as- as nothing but a come-on
to get Pam interested in you again!"
  Mike stood there, looking down at her rather
shamedly, thrown a bit off balance by her
unaccustomed anger. He said, "But, gee, Penny,
I didn't think you'd be sore. I thought you
realized all along what I was doing. Why, it was you
who put the idea in my head."
  Penny's jaw jutted out grimly. "I told you
how Pam was, but that didn't mean I was willing
to co-operate in your schemes-not if I'd known what
you were up to! I don't think it was fair-or-or
kind-was she stopped talking before her voice broke
up entirely.
  "Gee, Penny," there was real regret in
Mike's tone, "I didn't realize you'd feel
like that."
  "Well, I do," Penny said hotly. "When
two people are friends, as I thought we were, they shouldn't
have to examine each other's motives to be sure one
of them isn't taking advantage of the other. You ought
to be able to depend on your friends."
  "Penny," Mike said, gripping her elbow,
"listen to me. I told you I thought you
realized what I was doing. You've got to believe
that."
  There was no doubting the sincerity of his tone, of his
blue eyes looking down so steadily into hers.
Penny felt the first hot glow of her rage begin
to die down a little.
  Mike's voice went on, "I should have come right out
and asked you if you'd help me. But I honestly
thought you

understood. After that talk we had that day in the
drugstore, when you gave me that steer on
Pam-well, I guess I just figured you'd be
willing to go a little further and help me
get
her interested again. I-guess I thought that because I
knew we were friends. And I figured the same way you
do, that friends can count on each other. Why, Penny,
I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, or make you
mad. I guess I've just been pretty stupid
about the whole thing. But you can't condemn a guy for
stupidity, can you?"
Of one accord they started to walk on slowly,
Mike still gripping Penny's elbow. After a few
steps, she admitted, "I guess I was
pretty stupid, too, or I'd have realized
sooner what you were trying to do. After all, I- knew
how you felt about Pam."
It wasn't fair, she realized, to blame Mike
because her own eyes had been so dazzled with dreams she
hadn't been able to see clearly. Why would he
realize she was letting her imagination run wild,
convincing herself that he had got over Pam, just because that was
what she so desperately wanted to believe?
"No," Mike argued, "it was my fault. I
realize that now. I had a lot of nerve, just taking
it for granted that you'd help me get Pam back.
I'm sorry, Penny, will you forgive me?"
She nodded. "But count me out of your schemes. If
you want to keep on making Pam jealous, you'll have
to get yourself another girl."
Mike said, "Maybe that won't be necessary. She's
been pretty nice to me lately. But you and I are
still friends. Remember that."
"I will," Penny told him, her throat aching.

DOUBLE DATE
"Okay," Mike said. "Now is there any reason
a couple of friends can't have malteds together at the
Hangout?"
"I guess not," Penny said. She even had to laugh
a little. . . .
The next time Mike called up, it was Pam he
asked for. And Pam, airily disregarding a
tentative date with a new man in her life named
Peterson, said she'd love to go to the movies and
what time would Mike be over?
That settled, she came into the dining alcove where
Penny was laying the table for dinner. "What do you
know!" Pam exclaimed with a slight lilt in her
voice. "That was Mike."
"Was it?" Penny asked, arranging the silverware
with geometrical precision.
"He asked me to go to the show with him," Pam said.
"That's nice," Penny said calmly. "It's a
cute show. Maggie and I saw it last night."
Pam stared at her for a moment, the slightest hint of a
frown wrinkling her brow. "Don't you care?" she
asked then: "After all, Mike's been taking you out
more often lately than he has me."
"Oh, well," Penny's shoulders in her yellow
sweater moved in a little shrug. "He can ask anyone
he wants to for a date, I guess." She glanced
up from her task to Pam's face then, her gray
eyes inquiring. "But I thought you were going
to play table tennis with Pete."
"That wasn't definite," Pam said. "He was going
to call up first. I'll just tell him something else
has come up. Unless," she added, "you'd like to play
table tennis with him?"
"In your place?" Penny said drily. "We
haven't tried to pull a switch on a boy in a
long while, Pam."

"They always used to get onto it when we did,"
Pam remembered with a little reminiscent smile.
"I'll never forget that time in the city when I talked
you into going to the movies with my date, because another
boy had asked me to go dancing and I thought that sounded
like more fun."
Penny wouldn't forget it, either. The anguish she had
suffered, trying to be talkative and vivacious like
Pam, trying to keep the boy-his name had been
Harry something-fooled into thinking she was Pam. But it
hadn't worked. He had been pretty angry with them
both for a while over the attempted deception. But
Pam had got around him, as she always managed to get
around boys. It had been Penny he held a
grudge against.
Pam said thoughtfully, "I'm not so sure you
couldn't get away with pretending to be me now.
You've got a lot more poise than you used to have. Of
course, you don't talk as much as I do, but I
doubt Pete knows us well enough to tell the difference."
Penny said, "Don't be silly. I haven't any
intention of going out on your date with Pete. You just
get yourself out of it the best you can."
"Okay," Pam said. "It was just an idea."
She went on into the bedroom, humming happily under
her breath. Penny's lips twisted into a wry
smile. A date with Mike wouldn't have pleased
Pam nearly this much a month ago. Apparently his
well-laid plan was working.
Later that evening, after Pam had gone out with Mike,
Paul Gerard called up and invited himself over for a
bridge game. Lucius Hancock was always
available for a fourth, so he and Gran and Mother and
Paul were sitting around the card table in the living
room, when the doorbell rang

DOUBLE DATE
  and Penny went downstairs to answer it. Rather to her
surprise, she saw Randy Kirkpatrick standing
on the doorstep.
  "Why-hello," she said. "Pam
wasn't expecting you, was she?"
  Randy shook his head. "I suppose she isn't
home."
  "No, she's not," Penny admitted.
  Randy sighed. "Oh, well, I guess that was
too much to hope for. Anyway," he went on,
"I'm starving. How about you coming out to the Lighthouse with
me for a hamburger?"
  "Why-okay," Penny said, even more surprised
than before.
  Randy followed her upstairs and kibitzed at the
bridge table while Penny got her coat. Then
they went out together into the chill clear winter night.
Penny hadn't ridden in the green convertible for quite a
long while. Randy switched on the radio and music
spilled out sweetly.
  He asked, his tone rather glum, "Who'd Pam go
out with?"
  Penny told him and apparently it wasn't the
answer he expected. He said, "I thought Mike
had been concentrating on you lately."
  "Oh, I wouldn't say concentrating," Penny
murmured as lightly as she could. "We've just dated
a few times."
  Randy brooded for a while in silence.
Then he said, "I guess once you get a yen for
Pam, you don't get over it easily."
  "I guess not," Penny agreed.
  The Lighthouse was warm and brightly lighted,
well- filled with customers for a week night, and
gay with juke-box music. The hamburgers and
French fries were

delicious. Randy's conversation did seem to keep
veering around
to
Pam, but Penny didn't mind listening to his
troubles. She ate and put in a sympathetic word now
and then, which seemed to be all Randy expected of her.
At least, Penny was glad to see that his appetite
wasn't impaired. He ate three hamburgers,
a piece of apple pie a la mode and drank a
malted, while all Penny could hold was one
hamburger and a chocolate soda.
Once Randy asked anxiously, "Will you tell me
the truth about something, Penny?"
"Of course."
"Do you think Pam likes me as well as any of the
rest of the guys who are always hanging around her?"
Penny nodded emphatically. But that was as
far as she meant to commit herself. The last time she had
had a conversation like this, it had been with Mike
Bradley. And she had made the mistake of going
on to suggest to Mike how he could
get
Pam more interested in him. She wasn't going to stick
her neck out again. She wasn't going to say another
word on the subject. Let Randy and Mike and all
of them figure Pam out for themselves.
The next time there was a lull in Randy's tale of
woe, Penny merely intended
to
point out that it was time they were getting home. That was the
safest way. . . .
DISAPPOINTMENT
  One night early in February, Penny asked
Pam bluntly, "Who are you going to invite to the
Cupid Caper?"
  This was the valentine dance, sponsored by the
Girls' Athletic Club, where the customary
dating procedure was reversed and the girls asked the
boys to be their guests for the evening.
  Pam, creaming her face at the dressing table
preparatory to going to bed, glanced around curiously.
"I haven't quite decided," she said.
"Why? Did you want to ask Mike?"
  "Well," Penny said slowly, "not exactly.
I was thinking of asking Randy, if you didn't have him
in mind."
  "Randy?" Pam's brows lifted in astonishment.
"Since when have you two been on such chummy terms?"
  "Oh, it isn't that," Penny denied. "But I
felt sort of sorry for him the other night when he
dropped over and you were out with Mike. I think
Randy's getting the idea he's being lost in the
shuffle." She brushed her hair a couple of
strokes before adding thoughtfully, "So, I figured if
you weren't going to ask him to the Caper, maybe I
would. I thought we might double-date."
  Pam said drily, "You're getting to be such a
sympathetic listener lately everyone's telling you his
troubles."
  Penny grinned at her and, after an unwilling
moment,
DISAPPOINTMENT

  Pam grinned back. Penny asked, "Can I
help it if you've got so many guys on the string, you
can't keep them all happy?"
  Pam chuckled. "I guess I have been
letting Randy down a little. But to tell you the truth,
I was seriously thinking of asking him to the Caper.
I'm really quite fond of Randy," she admitted.
  "Are you?" Penny asked.
  Pam nodded. "I like Mike a lot, too,
though," she said thoughtfully. "I guess when you get
right down to it, those two are tops with me."
  Penny had suspected that for a long time. The rest
of Pam's boy friends came and went and shifted.
Randy and Mike seemed practically permanent.
Pam turned all the way around from the mirror
to look
straight at Penny. "I will ask Randy," she
decided. "So if you'd like to ask Mike, go right
ahead. And let's double- date like you said. It would be
fun."
  "Well," Penny said consideringly, "I'll think
about asking Mike. But don't rush me. . . ."
  She was inwardly a little surprised at the way
things had turned out. It always surprised her when the
rudimentary principles of psychology worked so
smoothly. She had been quite sincere in telling Pam
she was thinking of asking Randy to the dance. But that
statement of hers seemed to have tipped the scales of
Pam's favor toward Randy, too.
Penny wondered, "If I'd thought about asking
Mike in the first place, I wonder if Pam would
have decided he was the one she wanted?" But there was no
sense in going into that, even mentally. All she need do
now was to screw up her courage and ask Mike to go
to the Caper with her.

DOUBLE DATE
  As a matter of fact, Mike himself brought up the
subject the next time he and Penny happened to be
alone together.
  Penny was checking over the Personals and Mike
had just finished proof-reading an editorial when he
asked, out of a clear sky, "You know something? I just
thought of a keen way you can prove you really have forgiven
me for the stinking way I treated you a while back."
  "How's that?" Penny asked, glancing up.
  "Invite me to the Caper," Mike said.
  Penny's heart beat a bit faster. But she said
lightly, "Oh, I could, could I?"
  "Sure," Mike said, grinning. "Unless you've
already asked someone else."
  "No," Penny admitted. "I haven't yet."
  "Okay, then," Mike went on coaxingly.
"I'll think you're still mad at me unless
you do."
  Penny said, smiling a little, "Well, I'm not
mad, so I guess I'll have to ask you if that's how
you feel about it."
  "Fine," Mike beamed. "I accept."
  "Shall we double-date with Pam and Randy?" Penny
asked.
  "I don't care," Mike said. "Whatever you'd
like."
  And so it was decided that the four of them would go together.
It all seemed so simple and effortless, after all
her preliminary fretting and fuming over the matter.
That was always the way, Penny thought wryly. The things
you worried about never worked out as you expected them to.
She was to learn that it was the things you didn't worry
about that threw you.
  The next couple of weeks whirled past in a
pleasant dream for Penny. Gran made her a
new formal, as she
DISAPPOINTMENT

had promised. It was pale green taffeta with a
stiff little peplum of black lace, very becoming
to Penny's height and slimness. Pam felt a little
abused over having to wear a dress from last
year, but Mother was adamant, despite the fact that
business at Howard House was good and her commission
on the almost completed Kirkpatrick job a
substantial one.
She told Pam, "If I start getting you new
formals for every dance, I'll go broke in no time.
You've only worn your yellow one once."
Pam said, "It wouldn't do for this dance. I wore it
New Year's Eve and I was out with Randy then,
too."
The amused glint in Mother's eye indicated that she
did not consider this argument absolutely
unanswerable. But Pam went on before she could say
anything, "Never mind. I'll wear my ice blue
from the Prom last year. Randy's never seen that one."
The Cupid Caper was to be held on the Saturday
night before Valentine's Day. All that week,
Penny could scarcely contain her excitement. The
weather was typical of February, slush and icy
rain. But the dismal gray of the sky could have been bright
sunny blue for all the effect it had on Penny's
soaring spirits. The more she thought about Mike actually
asking her to invite him to the dance, the more wonderful it
seemed. And it wasn't, she had learned by questioning
Pam, because he had found out first that Pam was
going with someone else. Of course, Penny reminded
herself, it could have been his conscience needling him.
Maybe he still felt guilty over the way he had
taken advantage of her friendship. But, on the other
hand, maybe he really preferred to go to the Caper with
her.

DOUBLE DATE
Penny swung back and forth giddily between doubt and
delight.
The last few days before the dance crawled like so many
turtles. By Friday afternoon, Penny actually felt
sick and headachey with anticipation. At least, she
thought it was anticipation until she began to sniff and
sneeze around dinner time. Even Gran's good dinner
tasted flat and unsavory.
Penny murmured, getting up just before dessert was
brought in, "I don't think I want any. I'm
going to lie down."
Mother gave her a troubled, sympathetic look. "I
do hope you're not getting a bad cold."
"Of course, she isn't," Pam said staunchly,
her eyes on Penny's face. "There are so many
colds at school, it's hard to keep from picking up
a teensy germ."
"It won't amount to anything," Penny said.
But crawling into bed and pressing her hot cheek into the
pillow, Penny wondered whom she was trying
to convince, Mother or herself?
Mother brought her in a fizzling drink a little later and
took her temperature. "Oh, dear," she said,
frowning down at the thermometer, "I was afraid you
had one."
"I'll be okay," Penny said thickly, as Mother
tucked her in.
But she felt worse by morning, alternately hot
and cold. Her throat was scratchy, her eyes
inclined to water. Pam, her face grave with
sympathy, brought her breakfast on a tray. But
all Penny wanted was fruit juice.
"If this isn't the foulest development," Pam said
unhappily. "Mother's called the doctor."
"Oh, no!" Penny moaned. It wasn't that she
didn't like
DISAPPOINTMENT

cheerful, well-groomed Dr. Everett. But to have a
doctor made her illness such a positive thing-and
she just couldn't be ill! Not really! Not today of all
days!
Mother and Gran and Pam hovered around her
sympathetically till the doctor came. Flu, that
was what Penny had. Bed till further notice,
Dr. Everett prescribed firmly. Two kinds
of medicine.
"But I'm going to a dance tonight," Penny insisted.
The doctor was sorry, but she'd better have someone
get in touch with her young man and break the sad news
to him. She was not going to any dance. Penny managed
not to cry until after the doctor had gone. But it was
a good thing he left quickly, because she couldn't have held
out very long. Miserably Penny buried her head under
the covers.
Everyone came to the bedroom door to commiserate with
her. The muffled blur of Pam's and Gran's and
Mother's voices penetrated but vaguely to Penny.
It was a shame, they all agreed. They were
terribly, terribly sorry.
Penny sniffed almost inaudibly, "Will you call
Mike, Pam?" She didn't take her head out from
under the covers.
She heard Pam's regretful voice saying,
"Yes, I will, Penny. But it's just awful!"
After a while Penny fell into a fitful sleep.
She slept the greater part of the time for the next
couple of days, waking to eat when food was pressed
upon her, to take her medicine. Once she noticed
a little cluster of pink rosebuds in a white vase
on her bedside table.
"Those are from Mike," Mother, who was bringing her a
tall eggnog explained. "Your corsage for the
dance-and he said to tell you he was awfully sorry
you're ill."

DOUBLE DATE
Penny nodded miserably. "It would have to happen right
at this time."
Mother patted her shoulder gently. "That's the way
things go sometimes. But there'll be other dances."
Pam was sleeping in Mother's room these nights, but
she hovered often in the doorway to talk to Penny.
By Monday evening Penny was feeling enough better to be
curious about several things. The dance, for one.
"Was it nice?" she asked Pam wistfully.
Pam nodded, her gray eyes suspiciously bright.
"Yes, it was. Gee, I wish you could have been
there! The decorations were super-big white spider
webs all around, with hearts in them instead of
spiders. And ever so many people asked about you and were sorry
to hear you were sick. I didn't realize
how many friends you have, honestly!"
Penny felt a warm little glow of pleasure. Pam
wouldn't make up a thing like that just so she'd feel good.
It must be true.
"What did Mike say when you called up and told
him I couldn't go?" she asked then.
"Well, he felt terribly about it, of course.
He was disappointed and all-who wouldn't be? But he
seemed to feel worse about your having the flu than
about missing the dance."
"Did he really?" Penny asked.
Pam nodded emphatically. "He sent your
corsage anyway. But he wouldn't go to the Caper
stag, as he could have. And he's called up every single
day to see how you're doing."
Penny sighed, a small sigh of sheer pleasure.
"You know something?" Pam said. "I'm beginning to think
you're the one Mike likes best around here, not me."
DISAPPOINTMENT

  It seemed to Penny that there was a note of regret
in her sister's tone. She said, "Oh, Mike and
I are friends, that's all. You're the one he's really
got a yen for."
  "I'm not so sure of that any more," Pam
said. "Not so sure at all."
  Penny asked then, "Did you and Randy have fun at
the dance? Tell me all about it."
  Pam proceeded to do so. But as Penny listened,
her thoughts strayed a little from Pam's enthusiastic
recounting of all the fun and excitement of the Cupid
Caper. Was there, she wondered wistfully, even the
ghost of a chance that Pam was right about Mike liking her
best? Pam probably didn't even mean it,
Penny told herself firmly. Most likely it was just
a kind sisterly ruse to make her convalescence a
little happier. If so, it was very sweet of Pam, because
the ruse was certainly serving its purpose. Right
then, in spite of everything, Penny felt wonderful.
PENNY HAS AN IDEA
  "Fine thing!" Mike said on
  Penny's first day back at school after her bout
of flu. "The lengths some people will go to break a date!
You could have come right out and told me you'd changed your
mind, you know."
  Penny kidded back, "I know, but that might have
hurt your feelings."
  "Yeah," Mike nodded. "I bruise
easily." He said then, his blue eyes steady on
hers, "It was a darn' shame, that's what it
was."
  "I know," Penny said, her voice a little
husky. She grinned up at him, "Got any work
for me around here?" They were standing in the cluttered
Crier
office and Mike answered, "There's always work around
here. Want
  to write up some club news for me? I've got
an editorial
  to dope out."
  "Sure," Penny said.
  She gathered up the scribbled club meeting
notes that
  someone had written, while Mike went over and
sat down
  at his typewriter. Maggie Wright came in and
got busy,
  after greeting Penny joyfully. It all seemed
nice and usual
  and Penny was glad to be back. People came and
went.
  Mrs. Gebhard, the journalism teacher came in
for a brief conference with Mike. In between interruptions,
Mike
  pecked away at the typewriter, but it
seemed to Penny that he was throwing away more sheets
than he was keeping. Every now and then he would crouch for a
while like Rodin's Thinker, chewing his knuckles
thoughtfully.
  "Having troubles?" Penny asked, when she laid
the finished club news on his desk.
  "Sure am," Mike admitted. "Say,
Penny," he said then, "it's March and that's
practically spring. Maybe I'll do that
editorial we were talking about a while back."
  "About the Prom?" Penny remembered.
  "Yeah," Mike said, "and how a lot of the senior
girls work on it, but don't get to go."
  "It's a crime!" Maggie spoke vehemently.
"We're getting fed up! Half the guys ask
juniors or sophomores, and the seniors get
left out in the cold."
  "Unless they've got a regular man of their
own," Beth Conover, a tall blond girl who
had just come in, added emphatically. "It's not fair
at all!"
  "Now wait a minute," Mike said. "I'm
outnumbered. Hey, Bob," he called to Bob
Purcell, who had gone into the journalism room
on some errand or other, "come back here and
lend me moral support. I've got a lot of
huffy females to deal with."
  The ensuing argument waxed hot and long, Bob and
Mike upholding the male prerogative to ask
whomever they wanted to the Prom, Penny and Maggie
and Beth standing firm on their contention that the senior
girls weren't getting a square deal.
  "But they can ask juniors if they want to,"
Bob insisted. "They can ask guys who've already
graduated, anyone they like."
  "Some of them do that," Penny agreed.8Ask older

DOUBLE DATE
fellows, that is. But not all of us have an older man
on the string to invite. As for asking juniors, if
we did that deliberately we'd be razzed to death and
you know it."
"Then there isn't any solution of the problem,"
Mike shrugged. "So what's the use doing an
editorial about it and getting everybody all het
up?"
"Maybe," Penny said thoughtfully, "there is a
solution."
"What?" four voices asked simultaneously.
"I was reading something the other day in a
magazine," Penny said. "It told about a date
bureau that had been set up in some college, so that
students who didn't know a lot of people, or didn't
know them well enough to ask for dates, could register there.
Then whoever had charge of it matched the registration
cards up according to interests, types and all. That way
a lot of people got acquainted and went out together who
might never have met other
wise."
"I didn't know college students were that shy,"
Bob said drily.
But Penny said, "Some of them must be. This article
gave the name of the college and everything. And it said the
idea worked out fine and was very popular with the students."
"Now wait a minute," Mike said. "Let me
get this straight. Are you suggesting we set up a
date bureau like that here at Glen High?"
"Just for the Prom," Penny told him. It seemed as
if the idea were growing and taking more solid shape in
her mind as she outlined it. "We could call it
Prom Dates, or something like that. And the
Crier
could sponsor it, give it some good publicity. It
would work this way. If a girl wanted to go to the
Prom and didn't figure she had
  much chance of being asked, she could register with the
bureau. Just senior girls, of course, because after
all, it's the senior Prom. But in addition
to dateless senior boys, we'd let junior boys
who were willing to date senior girls register,
too. That way, there ought to be enough to go around and if the
bureau matched them up, the girls wouldn't feel
funny about going with younger boys. Or at least I
shouldn't think they would." Her questioning glance went
to Maggie, to Beth.
  "It sounds super to me," Beth said.
  And Maggie nodded vigorously. "I think so,
too."
  "It could be a Dutch treat deal," Beth
suggested. "That way a lot of guys without too much
cash wouldn't be scared to register. Still, they wouldn't
feel queer about it, as they would if they actually
asked a girl to go fifty-fifty on expenses."
  Mike's and Bob's glances met thoughtfully as the
girls chattered enthusiastically on. "What do you
think?" Mike asked.
  Bob wagged his head ruefully. "I hate to say
so in front of her, but I think the girl's just had a
terrific idea."
  "It sounds okay to me, too," Mike
had to admit.
  "Why, man," Bob exclaimed, "it'll tap that
big untouched reservoir of fellas who haven't quite
got the nerve or the cash to ask a girl to the
Prom! And if you don't think the girls'll
go
for it, listen to these three yacketyyacketting over it
before Penny's idea has hardly had time to take
shape."
  "Yeah," Mike said wonderingly, "listen . .
."
  Two weeks later, with full faculty
approval, the
Crier
ran an editorial entitled, "Why Should Any
Senior Girl Be A Forgotten Woman at
Prom-time?" In writing it,

DOUBLE DATE
Mike had waxed eloquent on the subject.
"Only senior students and their guests may attend
the Prom," he had written. "But every senior man
who asks a junior or sophomore or even
(pardon the expression!) a freshman girl to the
dance, does one of his own contemporaries out
of a possible date by so doing. Unfair as this
practice obviously is, we have little hope of
changing it. However, Penny Howard, one of the
reporters on this paper, has come up with a scheme
to give the senior girls a break." Mike then
proceeded to outline the basic idea of the Prom
Dates bureau in detail. Interested students, his
editorial explained, would fill out a simple
application blank with such information as name, age,
height, weight and general type of date wanted.
This registration would be open only to senior girls
who weren't averse to paying their own way, and
to junior and senior men who were willing to
escort
a senior to the Prom. The committee in charge of the
project would then attempt to match up
prospective dates on the basis of the information
supplied on the registration cards. A booth would be
set up for such registration in the hall just outside the
journalism room.
The
Crier
came out on Wednesday and, although the Prom was still
almost two months off, the "Prom Dates" booth
did a flourishing business all that day after
school. Penny, who with Beth Conover, had charge
of the first day's registrations, was congratulated so many
times for her brilliant idea that she felt a warm
rosy glow envelop her.
"How does it feel," Beth kidded her
goodhumoredly, "to be a benefactor of humanity?"
"Wonderful," Penny admitted. "Just wonderful!"
She

asked then, "How many names would you say we've got
already?"
"Lots," Beth admitted. "Fifty or more,
I'll bet. Girls
and
boys," she said enthusiastically. "I was a smidgin
scared for fear we'd be swamped with females. But
almost as many boys signed up as girls-and this is
only the beginning. . . ."
That night at dinner, Pam said, "I think it's
really a keen idea, Penny. How did you happen
to think of it?"
Penny explained. Mother and Gran seemed as
interested as Pam. Penny finished, her cheeks a
little flushed, "I didn't know Mike was actually
going to put my name in his editorial."
"Why not?" Pam asked. "Credit where credit is
due. After all, you thought up the whole thing."
"Yes, but we all talked it over and lots of people
made good suggestions. The whole
Crier
staff deserves credit, not just me."
"Don't be modest," Pam admonished. "Let
Mike give you a build-up if he wants to.
After all the work you've done for him, you've got one
coming."
"It was work you liked doing, wasn't it, dear?" Mother
said understandingly.
Penny nodded. "I love it. Working on the paper's
lots of fun."
"I saw the line-up at your booth after school,"
Pam said. "It looks as if the idea's catching
on in a big way."
"I guess it is," Penny agreed.
It was nice of Pam not to be even a shade
supercilious about the whole thing. Girls as popular
as she and her friends didn't need anything of the sort,
of course. But there were so many others who did.
Maybe, Penny

DOUBLE DATE
thought, she'd be signing up herself one of these days. But
not yet. Not quite yet. The Prom wouldn't be held
until May. And, as Gran frequently quoted,
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast."
PAM HAS A PROBLEM
As
winter warmed and melted into early spring, Howard
House hummed with activity. Although Celia had
finished her job for the Kirkpatricks, other good
commissions followed in its wake, sparked by Ellen
Kirkpatrick's enthusiastic satisfaction. The
shop was left more and more in Dorothea Crane's
capable care, while Celia was occupied with outside
work.
  Gran, who was always busy, became more so than ever
in April. Lucius Hancock fell on the
newly waxed floor of his real estate office and
broke his leg. So in addition to taking care of the
housework and the twins' needs, Gran made frequent
trips to cheer up Lucius, whose old bones knit
slowly.
  "Honestly," Gran said, "it's no wonder
poor Lucius gets grumpy. The cast's bad
enough. But living all alone, with only that pottering
Mrs. Enright
to
do for him by the day comwell, it's very boring for him. And
her cooking!" Gran shook her head eloquently.
"You should have seen how he enjoyed that angel-food
cake I took him."
  Another time, Gran might make him a custard,
or a rich chicken broth to keep up his strength.
Hardly a day passed that she didn't find a moment
to stop by and play a game of cribbage with him. But
she seemed to thrive on
  the extra work Lucius made her. Her brisk
energy seemed boundless.
  Mother continued to see a good deal of Paul Gerard,
who was lingering at the Kirkpatricks' long enough
to finish a book he was writing. But Penny thought their
friendship was a fine thing, so much pleasure did both of
them seem to derive from it. And Pam had grown more
philosophical about the whole matter, coming around
gradually to Penny's viewpoint that it was, after
all, Mother's affair and not theirs.
  "It might be fun to have a stepfather," Pam said
dreamily on one occasion, "especially such an
attractive one as Paul. And if his book should
turn out to be a bestseller, he'll be a
celebrity."
  "Now you're getting carried away," Penny
chuckled. But she was glad Pam had stopped
fretting about it. Much as she herself hated the thought of
any change in their way of living, Mother's happiness
was the important thing.
  Then, one evening at dinner, Mother announced quite
calmly that Paul would be leaving Glenhurst in a
few days.
  "Leaving?" Pam exclaimed in surprise.
  Penny and Gran looked inquiringly at Mother,
too.
  "Why, yes," she said. "Is that so astonishing?"
  "What about his book?" Penny asked.
  "That's finished," Celia said. "He's already
sent it off to the publishers. Now he's going
to Europe to do a series of articles for a news
magazine."
  Penny's glance sought Pam's, but Pam was staring
wonderingly at Mother. "You mean," she asked, "you
don't mind?"
  "Mind?" Mother repeated. "Why, it's a
wonderful
  break for him, dear. A series of key articles
in a magazine with a circulation of-was
  "I don't mean that," Pam
interrupted. "I mean-well, don't you mind
personally?"
  Mother smiled at her. "I'll miss him, if
that's what you're getting at. We're good friends,
we've had fun together. I'll certainly look
forward to seeing him again, if he ever comes back
to visit Ellen."
  "But you're not in love with him?" Pam asked.
  Mother's smile widened. "Now where did you ever
get such a romantic notion as that?" Her amused
glance went on to Penny. "Did you think Paul and
I were in love, too?"
  Gran chuckled drily. "It's their age,
Celia. At seventeen girls do a lot of thinking
about love. Don't you remember?"
  Mother nodded. "I should have remembered. But,
darlings, I had no idea you were worried about me."
  "We weren't worried, exactly," Penny put
in. "At least, I wasn't. I figured if you
were in love, it was your own affair."
  Mother said, "I'm glad you figured I was old enough
not to lose my head." The corners of her mouth
tipped up a little.
  Pam said indignantly, "Well, I didn't
think you'd do that, Mother. But Paul
Gerard's a very attractive man. And I was
afraid, if you married him, he'd want you to go
away-was
  "It was just," Penny backed Pam up earnestly,
"that we didn't want anything to change. It's so
nice living here in Glenhurst, having Howard
House and getting to see a lot of you."

DOUBLE DATE
"I like it, too," Mother assured them. "And while
I won't deny that Paul has a lot of charm, I
wouldn't dream of marrying him, even if he wanted
to marry me, which he doesn't. In fact, I doubt
very much that Paul ever marries. He's too confirmed
a bachelor, not at all domestic. And the rootless,
wandering sort of life he's lived has too strong
a hold on him to be easily broken."
was "A rolling stone gathers no moss,"" Gran
quoted sagely.
Pam asked wonderingly, "And you don't care even
a little speck about him going away?"
Penny's eyes, too, were fixed inquiringly on
Mother's face. The smile that had been tugging at
Mother's mouth won out completely. "Well, I can't
honestly say that," she admitted. "At
my age, an occasional corsage, and invitation to go
dancing, is quite flattering. And Paul plays a good
game of bridge. But my heart isn't broken,
I assure you. And I'm quite satisfied with my
life just as it is."
So that was that.
As spring came on Penny found herself busier than
ever, almost as busy as Pam, whose whirl of activity
she no longer had any cause to envy. Between school
work and dates and their various club activities,
neither girl had much time to spare. Pam had more dates
than Penny, but Penny was invited out often enough, to the
movies, or a basketball game or some other
school affair, so that her evenings weren't
discouragingly empty. Pam's train of admirers
shifted and changed, except for the ever-faithful Randy.
Mike, for some reason neither Pam nor Penny
wholly understood, had stopped pursuing Pam
entirely. Secretly, Penny suspected this was a
further result of her advice to him to play
disinterested and thus win Pam's favor. But
he seemed to be overdoing it a little, in view of
Pam's already aroused interest. Penny continued to see
a good deal of Mike at school, through their work on the
Crier
and the increasingly active Prom Dates bureau.
Often Mike would buy her a Coke at the
Hangout on their way home. The easy friendship between
them remained the same and Penny enjoyed every aspect
of it. But Mike never phoned Pam any more to ask
for a date, never dropped over to see her
unannounced, as he used to do so often.
"I don't know what's got into the big dope,"
Pam said indignantly one night as she and Penny
were getting ready for bed. "He doesn't act mad
or anything, when we happen to run into each other,
but-was her voice trailed off unhappily.
Penny said, "Maybe he just got tired of being one
of a mob scene."
"But that's silly," Pam argued. "Competition
shouldn't discourage a man. According to psychology, it
should encourage him, make him want to follow the
crowd."
Penny shrugged. "Maybe Mike never studied
psychology."
Pam shook her head. "I know he used to be sort
of crazy about me. He made it plain enough. But
lately- well, I just don't like his attitude.
I don't like it at all!"
Penny went into the bathroom to brush her
teeth. Pam's voice followed her. "I didn't
do a thing to him, either. I didn't break a date or
anything. How does he get that way?"
Penny thought of all the boys who hadn't done a thing
to Pam, and yet had been given the air when someone
new came along. Probably they couldn't understand
it, either. Maybe they had felt as Pam was feeling
now.

DOUBLE DATE
Of course, it wasn't that way with Mike, though,
Penny remembered. Mike was still interested in Pam.
He must be simply putting on an act.
Otherwise Penny couldn't understand his change of
attitude any more than Pam could. It just wouldn't
make sense.
She squeezed toothpaste onto her brush
thoughtfully, as Pam's indignant voice went on
and on. When Penny came out of the bathroom, Pam
was still talking.
She said decisively, "No man has ever given
me a brushoff before! And Mike needn't think he's
going to get away with it. I'll show him I'm the one
who'll decide when we're through."
Penny inquired, "What are you going to do
about it?"
"I'll play up to him," Pam said, "as I've
never had to play up to a boy before. Mike has no
idea how sweet I'm going to be
to
him from now on."
"But why?" Penny asked, her voice a little husky
from pushing itself around the lump in her throat. "Why do
you bother unless you like Mike better than Randy and
all the rest?"
"It's a matter of pride now," Pam said, her
eyes narrowed determinedly.
Penny made a final effort. "I should think it would
be an awful lot of trouble to go to unless you really
want him back."
"Maybe I do," Pam admitted. "I've
certainly missed him."
Penny sighed, but it was such a small unobtrusive
sigh Pam didn't even notice it.
That night Penny dreamed that she and Pam had a
bitter quarrel, during which she cried out, "You can't
have Mike back-I want him! If you'd just leave
him alone,
PAM HAS A PROBLEM
171
maybe he'd like me. I won't let you start working
on
him
again. I won't!"
In her dream, Pam laughed at her outburst, a
harsh,
cold
laugh, utterly unlike her. Penny woke with that
taunting laughter ringing in her ears. But the bedroom
was
cool
and dark and quiet, with only the sound of Pam's even
breathing in the bed next
to
hers.
Penny burrowed her cheek deeper into the pillow and
tried to fall asleep again. But her thoughts milled in
futile circles. Maybe, if she told Pam
how well she liked Mike, it would make a
difference. Maybe then Pam would leave him alone.
But Penny had too much pride to throw herself on her
sister's pity. And Mike, she remembered
miserably, didn't want to be left alone. He
was trying to get Pam back. That was the basis of his
pretended indifference. And now Pam was going
to try to get him back. Neither of them, Penny thought
bleakly, should have to try very hard.
Her last waking thought was a wry one. She guessed
she might as well sign up for Prom Dates after
all. . . .
EVERYTHING HAPPENS AT ONCE
  "Hey, wait for me," Mike
  Bradley's voice stopped Penny in her
tracks at the top of the school steps.
  As he caught up with her a second later, she
asked, "Did you take me for Pam?"
  But Mike denied this, a little pointed edge to his
tone. "I can tell you from Pam all right, even if
I haven't seen much of you lately."
  They moved on down the long stone flight of steps
side by side, a tall girl in a gray wool
suit with a tangerine scarf at the throat, a taller
boy in brown cords and a tan jacket.
  What Mike said was true enough. Penny had been
avoiding him since the night when Pam had announced
her intentions so frankly. It seemed that every time she
saw him around school, Pam was right there beside him,
laughing beguilingly up into his face, using all her
wiles on him. No wonder Penny had hurried
on about her own business, since the sight of
Pam and Mike together wasn't exactly pleasant
to her.
  "What gives?" Mike demanded bluntly.
"Am I poison, or something?"

"Of course not," Penny told him. "I've-been
pretty busy, working on Prom Dates and all."
"Yeah, I know," Mike said. "We're all
busy, with graduation coming up. But could you spare me-was
he consulted his wristwatch with mock gravity,
"maybe fifteen minutes of your valuable time?"
"Of course," Penny said, amused at his
exaggeratedly businesslike manner. "If I
forgot something I was supposed
to
do for the
Crier-was
She broke off as Mike shook his head. "You
didn't forget anything. This is a personal
matter. Look," he laid a detaining hand on her
arm, "could we stop in the park a little while? There's
something I want to ask you."
It would be something concerning Pam, Penny felt
sure. Every instinct within her strained against listening
to Mike's confidences. But she couldn't very
well refuse, so she let him take her where he
wished. This turned out to be a bench near the little
lake, with birds singing in the tall old trees
overhead and a gray squirrel, fat and saucy,
frisking close to their feet.
Penny saw no point in dodging the issue. She
said, "It looks as if you're all set with Pam
again, just as you wanted."
Mike's blue gaze was disconcertingly direct on
hers. The soft spring breeze ruffled his hair
forward and he shoved it back with an impatient hand.
"Who said anything about Pam?"
"Why-no one," Penny admitted in surprise.
"But weren't you going
to
tell me how well your scheme had worked?"
"What scheme?" Mike frowned. "You mean "way
back last winter when I tried to rush you and make
her jealous?"

DOUBLE DATE
"No," Penny said, "I mean just lately, the way
you ignored her for a while. That's what won her
over, Mike. Why, her whole attitude toward you
has changed."
"You're telling me?" Mike grinned wryly. "But
I still don't see why we're discussing Pam.
It's us I want to talk about. You," he touched the
top button of her jacket, "and me."
"But-was Penny's eyes were so wide with astonishment,
the lids felt stretched, "I don't understand."
"For a bright girl," Mike sounded a little
uncomfortable, "you're not very bright, if you know what I
mean. I think you've got a sister complex. Stop
thinking about Pam for a minute and concentrate on you."
He leaned a little nearer and Penny was acutely
aware of his arm, stretched along the back of the bench
behind her, not touching her, but close.
He went on, "It's time you and I got a few
things straightened out." He stopped then and was silent
for so long, Penny was just about to ask, "What things,
Mike?" when he started speaking again in a tone
slightly jerky with embarrassment. "A guy hates
to come right out and admit he's been a big dope, but
that's exactly what I have been."
"A-dope?" Penny repeated blankly.
"D-o-p-e," Mike spelled it out. "You know
of a better way to describe a guy who takes
months to figure out which girl he likes best?
I've been batting my brains for weeks,
looking for a reasonable way to explain it to you. The thing
is, Penny-was he groped for words, "well, I was
dazzled by Pam. That was all it ever amounted to, but
I was so dazzled, I managed to convince myself there was
more to it than that."

Penny shut her eyes for a minute, trying to get her
bearings, trying to believe she was really hearing what
she seemed to be hearing. But when Mike went on
talking, she opened them again and fixed her rapt,
attentive gaze on his face.
Mike admitted, "I think maybe I got the
two of you kind of confused in my mind, as if you were
one person with two personalities. Sometimes, when
I had a date with Pam, it seemed as if something were
lacking. The times I enjoyed most were when we just
stayed home and you'd be around all evening, too. Am
I making any sense at all, Penny?"
She nodded, not quite able to speak. And Mike went on,
haltingly, trying to put into words how the magic Pam
held for him had dimmed, how he had finally realized
that Penny's friendship was more important than anything
between Pam and him.
"I should have known sooner," Mike apologized.
"The way we always like to talk and kick
ideas around, nights like the one when we got to playing
records and had such a swell time."
"The sleigh ride," Penny remembered, her mouth
curving.
"Yeah," Mike said, "you'd think I'd have seen the
light.
But, no. Thick-headed, that's me."
"You're not," Penny denied. "You're not a bit."
Pam had always dazzled people, she always would. Penny was
glad, though, that Mike had got undazzled at
last.
"For weeks," Mike told her, "I've been
trying to let you know I'd come to my senses. I
felt-kind of self-conscious about asking you for a real
date after taking you
for

DOUBLE DATE
granted so long. But I didn't date Pam. And
I don't intend to."
Mike's indifference, Penny realized, had affected
Pam exactly as she had suspected such treatment
would. Only she had been mistaken, wonderfully
mistaken, Penny saw now, in thinking it was merely
pretended indifference. It was the real thing.
Mike hadn't been fooling.
The happiness this knowledge brought must have shown through in her
face. Because Mike's tone dipped a husky note
lower as he said, "Penny, if you don't stop
looking at me like that, I'll-was
She felt his hand on her shoulder, pulling her
close into the circle of his arm. She knew then for
sure that she wasn't dreaming, that Mike was actually
saying these wonderful, these incredible things to her. His
other hand closed over hers and Penny's fingers felt
perfectly at home curled up there.
Mike asked earnestly, "Do you suppose it'll
convince Pam if I invite you to the Prom? Because
that's what I'm going to do. Will you go with me,
Penny?"
She nodded. "I'd love to, Mike." Suddenly
though, she remembered something and exclaimed,
"Golly, I'll have to get my name out of the Prom
Dates file!"
"Relax," Mike chuckled. "I took it out. Just
happened to notice it and figured I wanted a chance
to ask you first. Gee, Penny," his hand tightened on
hers, "you're swell not to hold it against me for being
such a dope."
Penny admitted, "I've been pretty
dopey, too. When Pam told me she was going
to try to get you back-well, I didn't say a
word
to
stop her. I thought it was what you wanted."
Mike shook his head. "How wrong can you get?"

They sat for a time quietly, not needing words
to express the new warm understanding between them. Penny
thought it wasn't really so strange that Mike had
taken a long while to realize that their friendship was more
than it seemed. She hadn't realized it herself, she
had been afraid to hope too much. She had been
firmly convinced that anyone Pam wanted, Pam could
get. She suspected that Pam thought that, too. She
was in for a rude surprise. How would she take it,
Penny wondered? But she was so happy that even the
threat of Pam's displeasure couldn't spoil it.
"Oh," Mike spoke suddenly, "there was something
else I was going to tell you. Headlines Club
has put your name up for Prom Queen."
"My name?" Penny gasped incredulously.
Each club had the privilege of nominating a
candidate for the coveted honor. All seniors were
eligible to vote and the outcome was a question of
popularity. Besides the queen, her court of six
attendants was decided upon by the voting. All the
most popular girls in the class were among the
nominees, including Pam.
"Don't sound so flabbergasted," Mike teased.
"You're pretty darn" popular, especially
since you dreamed up the Prom Dates idea."
But Penny shook her head. "I won't stand a
chance."
"Defeatist!" Mike accused. "I'll vote for
you."
"Then I won't get a complete white-washing,"
Penny said. She breathed a small, ecstatic
sigh. Even if she hadn't a hope of being chosen
queen, it was wonderfully flattering to be nominated.
Mike walked home with her and when they got there they
lingered on the front walk, talking and laughing, as

DOUBLE DATE
Penny had seen Pam and some boy do so many times.
In fact, they were still loitering there when Randy
Kirkpatrick's convertible drew up at the curb
and Pam called, "Hi, you two." She asked
Mike then, her tone honeyed, "Were you looking for
me?"
"Nope," Mike said cheerfully, as he and Penny
moved toward the car, her hand tight in his.
Pam's surprised glance went from Mike's and
Penny's clasped hands to Mike's face. She
looked at Penny then and a slight frown marred the
smoothness of her brow beneath the soft dark hair.
"What's wrong with you two?"
"Right, you mean," Mike corrected.
"Penny, tell me!" Pam commanded. "Don't just
stand there looking as if something wonderful's happened."
"They look pixilated to me," Randy chuckled.
"Mike asked me to the Prom." Penny smiled up
at him.
"And she's one of the candidates for Prom Queen,"
Mike added, smiling down at Penny. He
transferred his attention momentarily to Pam.
"Does that sound wonderful enough to explain the way we
look?"
"Penny, how swell!" The warmth of Pam's tone
seemed to fool Randy and Mike completely. Only
Penny detected a faintly hollow note in it.
"I asked Pam to the Prom," Randy confided
wistfully to the world at large, "but she hasn't even
told me whether she'd go yet."
"I said I was practically sure I
would," Pam told him quickly.
"Penny makes up her mind faster," Mike informed
Randy. "Or maybe it's just my irresistible
charm."
During the raucous laughter that followed, Pam got
out of the car.

"Give you a lift home?" Randy asked Mike.
"Sure," Mike said. He squeezed Penny's
fingers in farewell. "Be seeing you."
The convertible zoomed off and Penny turned to face
Pam. But Pam was already on her way into the house.
"Of all the double-crosses!" she flung across her
shoulder.
Penny hurried after her. Luckily Mother was busy
with a customer and Gran was talking to someone on the
phone, so no one delayed the twins. In the
privacy of their bedroom, Penny denied hotly,
"It was not a double-cross!"
"I'd like to know what else you'd call it!" Pam's
eyes were blazing. "Going after Mike behind my
back!"
"I didn't!" Penny felt anger to match
Pam's rising wake in her. She had meant to be
diplomatic, to try to make Pam understand.
But if Pam wanted to be stinky about the situation,
she could be stinky, too. She heard her own voice,
as though it belonged to some total outsider, saying
coolly, "It's not as if you owned Mike or any
other boy. I guess he has a right to like me best
if he wants to. He made up his own mind."
Pam's eyes widened in astonishment. Obviously,
this was not the attitude she had expected in Penny.
For a moment she was speechless. And Penny took
advantage of that moment.
She said, "If you'll just listen and not go blowing your
top, I'll tell you what happened." And she
proceeded to do so. As she talked, she felt her own
anger fading. Why should she be angry with Pam? Why
should Pam be angry with her? She tried hard to make
clear just what her relationship with Mike was. A
friendship which had grown gradually to be something more than
that. A warm liking equally shared. An understanding and
congeniality of

DOUBLE DATE
interest that had brought them closer and closer together.
Finally Pam asked, and she didn't sound so angry
any more, just indignantly questioning, "But if you two were
gone on each other, why didn't you warn
me when I told you I was going after him? Why did
you just let me go ahead?"
Penny knew then that it was Pam's pride that had
been hurt, nothing deeper. And she was glad. She
assured Pam, "I didn't know how Mike felt
till today. I thought it was just me. Honestly, Pam,
I figured he was pretending to ignore you, in order
to get you interested again."
Pam said drily, "That made two of us who were
mistaken."
Penny nodded. She admitted then, "It's the most
absolutely wonderful thing that ever happened to me,
having Mike like me. And when I think of going to the
Prom with him-was she broke off to smile at Pam
mistily. "You don't really care, do you, with so many
other boys to choose among?"
Suddenly Pam smiled, too. She reached out
to give Penny a brief hard hug. "Not really,
I guess. It's just that it's kind of startling to have you
take a boy away from me. But, in a way, I'm
glad it happened. You certainly shouldn't lack
confidence in yourself after this."
They laughed then, both of them, warm, healing
laughter. And it seemed to Penny that the closeness between
them was a finer thing for the subtle shifting of
values that had taken place. Always before she had
felt that Pam contributed so much more to their relationship
than she, Penny, ever could. Maybe some of the
resentment she used to feel for Pam's greater
popularity had grown out of her sense of
inadequacy. But she didn't feel inadequate

  any more and her resentment was nothing but a wry
memory. Now, in this moment, Penny felt secure
at last in her own triumph as an individual.
And Pam's manner seemed to be touched with a new
respect, rather than the kindly pity Penny had
sometimes sensed in her.
  Being twins was going to be even more fun after this, she
had a strong suspicion.
ChapterTwenty
SENIOR PROM
  Time alternately flew and
  dragged during the next few weeks. Sometimes
Penny thought that Prom night would never come. Then again
it seemed she couldn't possibly squeeze in all
the things she had to do before then.
  "Relax," Mike kidded her. "You're so
excited I'm afraid you're going to take off like a
sky rocket."
  Already their association had assumed a sort of
form, or pattern. Mike came over to see her
three or four nights a week. Sometimes they went
out and sometimes they didn't, depending on their mood
and the state of Mike's finances. But whether they did
something special, like going in to Chicago to a show, or
whether they just took a walk or sprawled in front
of the record player, listening and talking and eating
popcorn, both of them enjoyed it. The important
thing was being together. There were so many things to talk about, so
many interesting discoveries to be made about each other,
how they thought and felt, what they planned to do with their
lives. Mike, Penny learned, wanted to be a
teacher.
  "Maybe I'll never get rich," he grinned.
"But it's a good life, with time for reading and writing,
all the things I like to do. And I think it's an
important job."
  Penny thought so, too. She felt proud of
Mike and

happy in the understanding that seemed to grow and deepen between
them day by day.
During those crowded busy weeks, two surprising
things happened. Mother got a quite overwhelming
commission to do an extensive job of decoration at the
country club. Which meant that Howard House was
firmly established and Celia's professional
reputation assured. It was Gran, however, who
sprang the biggest surprise.
One evening at dinner, she announced out of a clear
sky that she and Lucius Hancock had decided
to get married. "It's only sensible," Gran said
firmly. "We're very fond of each other and you'll
be able to manage without me, now that the girls are
practically grown up. And Lucius is so
lonely, rattling around in that big house of his alt
by
himself."
Mother, her eyes suspiciously bright, got up and
went around the table to give Gran a hug and kiss.
"Darling," she said, "we'll miss you dreadfully,
but I think it's wonderful! I know you'll be
happy. Lucius is a grand person."
Pam and Penny kissed Gran and wished her
happiness, too. But when they were all seated again and the
excitement had cooled down a bit, Pam looked
at Penny and started to laugh. And Penny knew
exactly what she was laughing at, so she got
convulsed with mirth, too.
"What's wrong with you two?" Mother demanded, frowning.
And Gran looked quite huffy until Pam
explained, between giggles, "It's just that we had Mother
practically married to Paul and nothing came of that.
But we didn't even dream that you and Lucius-was she
dissolved into laughter once more.
But now they were all laughing together. It was a very

DOUBLE DATE
gay meal. And when Lucius came over later, the
warmth and gayety continued. He seemed just like one of the
family. But then, Penny realized, he had seemed
that way for quite a long while, only they hadn't
noticed it.
Finally it was only days till the Prom. Such
full days, bubbling with such sweet excitement. The
dance was to be held at the country club. Pam and
Randy were double- dating with Penny and Mike. And
afterwards the Kirkpatricks were turning their
pine-paneled rumpus room over to their son and his
guests. Randy had asked Pam and Penny to suggest
all the people they'd like invited to his post-dance party.
So it was to be quite a mixed crowd. Both the
Headlines Club and Pep Club would be well
represented. Penny was going to wear the
lovely dress Gran had made for the Cupid
Caper. And Gran had made Pam one just like it,
only in yellow instead of green. But the off-shoulder
necklines, the little stiff black lace peplums,
were identical.
Never before had Penny looked forward to an evening with
such anticipation. She had little hope of being chosen
Prom Queen, but just to be one of the nominees, to have
her friends in Headlines out campaigning for her, was a
big thrill. It seemed to Penny that she had more friends
than she had realized. So many people stopped her in the
halls at school to wish her luck. This was due
partly, she realized, to her work on Prom Dates.
The bureau had matched up a considerable number of
names. For the first time in school history, every senior
girl who wanted to would be attending the big dance.
And a lot of them figured they owed their chance to do so
to Penny.
"You know," Maggie Wright told Penny one day as

  they were walking home from school together, "you just might
win."
  Penny hooted derisively at the
possibility. "With Pep
Club
backing Pam and Art Club solidly behind
Laurie MacGregor? You mad dreamer!"
  "Yes, but-was Maggie broke off with a little shrug.
"Well, we'll see. I don't want to get your
hopes up."
  "Don't worry," Penny laughed. "You
won't."
  At last the magic night came. All day it
had rained, but around dinner time the skies cleared and a
sliver of new moon emerged from its curtain of
clouds like a prima donna taking an encore. Such
a flurry of activity overwhelmed the upper floor
of Howard House that no one even knew about the moon
till much later. After an early meal, partaken of
in pin curls and frenzied excitement by the twins and in
almost as great anticipation by Mother and Gran, the
girls began getting ready. This involved a
hectic succession of showers and manicures, of
near-despair over a curl that wouldn't set right, a
slip strap that broke at the last minute. But
finally both Pam and Penny were ready. And it had
only taken a little over two hours.
  "You look wonderful, both of you," Mother told
them, her eyes shining.
  And Gran agreed, "They certainly
do."
  "You're just saying that," Penny teased, "because you
made our dresses."
  "Naturally," Gran nodded.
  Mother laughed, collapsing on the couch beside Gran.
"I'm certainly glad there aren't any more of you."
  "So are we," Pam said, slipping her arm around
Penny. "Two's company."
  The doorbell sounded then and Pam begged, "Will you

DOUBLE DATE
  let the boys in, Mother? We want to make an
entrance."
  As Celia went down the stairs, smiling, Pam
and Penny rushed back into their bedroom. They giggled
and whispered and fussed with their hair and make-up for a
good ten minutes before emerging into the living room again.
  Mike and Randy, who had been sitting on the
couch, got to their feet hastily at sight of the
twins.
  "Wow!" Mike said, his blue eyes lighting.
  And Randy said, "Likewise!"
  Randy and Mike looked quite wonderful, too,
Penny thought, in their white dinner jackets and
black trousers. Especially Mike.
He handed her a florists' box and Penny thanked
him and took out the orchid it contained.
  "Oh, Mike-it's beautiful," she murmured,
her entranced gaze lifting from the lovely flower
to Mike's face.
  Pam was going through practically the same routine with
Randy. Mother and Gran exclaimed admiringly over
the corsages, too.
  "We'll just carry them till we
get
there," Pam suggested sensibly. "Then we won't
crush them with our coats."
  "Good-bye, dears," Mother called after them as they
went down the stairs. "Have fun, all of you."
  "Don't expect us home till late," Randy
warned her.
  And Mother laughed, a reminiscent sort of laugh,
and said, "I won't. It's Prom night."
  After he had helped her into Randy's car and
climbed in beside her, Mike whispered against Penny's
cheek, "You'll really knock "em for a loop tonight,
baby. Am I a lucky guy!"
  Penny thought, "I'm the one who's lucky," as
she turned her lips for Mike's kiss.
  The evening seemed to merge into a mad and
lovely

confusion, once they arrived at the club. The big
ballroom was decorated in blue and gold, the
school colors. The music was smooth as cream.
Penny had enough partners to make her feel flattered and
desirable. She danced with Mike and Randy and Bob
Purcell. Then Mike again. She would just as soon
have danced every dance with Mike, but, of course, she
didn't tell him so.
Mike said, "Hi, beautiful," when he took her
in his arms for that second dance. "Don't forget
you're my girl."
"I won't," Penny murmured, feeling her heart
bump happily under her pale green bodice.
Then it was time for intermission and a drum roll drew
everyone's attention and silenced the babel. Through the
microphone, the orchestra leader requested all the
candidates for Prom Queen to please line up on
the bandstand.
"Come on, Penny," Mike caught her hand
excitedly.
He and Randy brought Penny and Pam to the foot of the
steps. Together with the other nominees, the twins stood in
the bright glare of the lights, smiling out over
the circling crowd of faces.
"Isn't this fun?" Pam whispered, squeezing
Penny's hand. "Aren't you popping?"
Penny could only nod. Even when the losers were
winnowed out, she'd have this shining moment to remember.
Another roll of drums and the school principal,
Mr. Weaver, looking unaccustomedly formal and
handsome in his dinner jacket, stepped forward. In his
plump hands was a crown of imitation jewels. "It
is my great honor," he said portentously,
histo bestow this crown on the girl, chosen by the vote of
her classmates, to rule over tonight's festivities
as queen. Also it will be my privilege to name the six
girls who have been chosen by student vote to

DOUBLE DATE
serve as her Court of Honor. But first-was Mr.
Weaver's slightly unctious voice droned on and
on and Penny let her eyes and her attention wander.
Mr. Weaver never could resist the opportunity
to make a speech. Her seeking glance found Mike,
down there in the front of the crowd, and she smiled at
him. And Mike beamed back proudly.
At last Mr. Weaver wound up his remarks, which had
taken all of ten minutes. "And now," he
said, "it gives me great pleasure to place this
crown on the head of the most popular senior girl
at Glen Township High." As he spoke, he was
moving down the line of candidates toward Pam and
Penny.
"Pam's going to get it," Penny thought, the tension of
waiting building up unbearably within her.
Pam was feeling the tension, too, Penny realized,
wincing slightly at the tight grip of Pam's
fingers on hers under cover of the bouffant skirts of
their dresses.
"Miss Penny Howard," Mr. Weaver said, quite
unbelievably, so that Penny stared at him
blankly for a moment, until she felt the slight
pressure of the glittering crown as Mr. Weaver
placed it on her head.
Then she knew that it was true. She had been chosen
Prom Queen. Most popular senior. How it had
happened, she couldn't imagine. But the weight of the
crown on her head lent the absolute touch of
reality.
After that there was applause, there was cheering. Pam
hugged Penny and pressed her cheek tight against
hers, not kissing her, for fear of smearing their
lipstick, but exclaiming, "I'm so
glad, Pen." If she was also surprised, or
disappointed, she hid it well.
When the din had been quieted with another drum
roll, the Court of Honor was named. Pam was
among those.

So Penny hugged and congratulated her, too. And the
losers descended the steps of the bandstand, smiling as if
they didn't care.
All the rest of the intermission was filled with
congratulations for the lucky winners, their friends clustering
proudly about them. Penny's friends were the proudest of
all, Maggie and Jean and Bob, so many, many
others. More friends than Penny had known she had. And
Mike, of course. Mike, standing there solid and
smiling beside her, moving away only long enough for
Penny to pose with her court for pictures to appear
in the school annual, the
Crier,
the
Glenhurst Daily Journal.
"Ah, fame," Mike cracked, slipping his arm
through Penny's when the music finally began again. "Is
it getting you down a little?"
Penny said, "It's wonderful-but-was
Pam, just behind her, put their feeling into words
bluntly, "But, personally, I'd like to get off
somewhere for a minute to catch my breath. You, too,
Pen?"
Penny nodded. And Randy, whose arm was through Pam's,
said, "I know just the spot. Follow me, chillen."
He led them down a hall to the trophy room, whose
deep leather chairs and couches were inviting and
deserted.
"Just the place," Pam murmured, collapsing
onto a long couch. "Won't you all join me?"
The four of them sat down, side by side, deep on
their spinal columns, their legs thrust out before them.
Music filtered in faintly from the ballroom.
"Boy," Mike said, "this is something like!"
Randy put his arm around Pam and she leaned her head
on his shoulder. Mike's arm went around Penny.

DOUBLE DATE
"Pardon me," he said with mock gravity, "but your
crown's on crooked."
Penny laughed and, taking it off, set it on her
lap. "I still don't know how I happened to get
it," she admitted.
"Shall we tell her?" Mike asked the
others.
"It might go to her head," Randy suggested.
"No, it wouldn't," Pam said. "Penny's not the
type to get carried away because she's the most
popular girl in the senior class."
"But I'm not," Penny said. "Not really. It
was-well, maybe it was because of the date bureau."
"You see?" Pam said. "She's modest."
Their eyes met in a long, level look of
understanding. And Penny thought what a change the year just
past had made in their relationship. They were as
close, or closer, than ever. But it was a
closeness now of mutual respect, not of one leading
and one following. No longer did she resent Pam,
or envy her. There was no cause to. As for friends,
she might not win them so easily as Pam, but she had
as many. Tonight had proved that. Maybe, Penny thought,
the fact that you had to work harder for the things you wanted
to achieve wasn't such a disadvantage after all.
Who minded a little work when the results were so
imminently satisfactory?
Pam turned her attention back to Randy once more.
Penny's glance fell on the crown on her knees.
Its imitation jewels winked back at her. But she
only stared at it for a minute, this tangible
symbol of her achievement. Then her eyes lifted
to Mike's.
"Hi, Queen," Mike said, his blue gaze reaching
deep, his arm tightening about her.
SENIOR PROM

  "Hi," Penny murmured.
  As Mike's lips came down to meet hers, the
crown slipped off her lap and lay on the thick
carpet. And Penny didn't even notice.