“A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation”
Listen to this chapter, “Banquet Night.”
In the days that followed, none of the kids at school seemed to detect the uneasiness within the “Big Four.” Then came the night of the banquet. Ella and Cynthia went “stag.” Ken, as Ella had suspected, took Sandra. Steve, much to everyone’s surprise, took Carolyn Bullenhacker, who was notoriously known as the “little wolverine.”
“I told you,” Cynthia whispered to Ella, “that Steve was quitting me for another girl.”
“Oh, Cynthia,” Ella said, “I wouldn’t pay any attention to it if I were you. You know Carolyn’s reputation. Steve was probably trapped into asking her tonight.”
Cynthia only shook her head and refused to listen.
“Listen, honey,” Ella advised her, “no man is worth that much. Forget him. He’s not the only star in the sky.”
“I can’t forget him!” Cynthia wailed. “I have always loved him, and I always will!” And she ran into the powder room. Ella shook her head in pity.
Meanwhile, Ken and Sandra were playing a pretty big game of pretending. To the onlooker, they were enjoying themselves to the fullest. But Ken was concentrating on Ella, doing everything he could to make her jealous. And although it seemed pretty exciting to Sandra to be having a date with Ken—her very first date—she was secretly drooling over Jim Donaldson, her childhood sweetheart from sixth grade. She had first gotten a crush on him at a party when they were playing Spin the Bottle and he had given her a peck on the cheek. For Jim, the infatuation had lasted only a few weeks, but on Sandra’s part it still lasted, and her admiration had deepened. Now Jim Donaldson was having a good time with JoAnn and was totally unsuspecting of his secret admirer.
Just then Sandra’s thoughts were interrupted. “Sandra, look over there,” Ken was saying. “Do you see what I see?” He chuckled softly.
Sandra looked in the direction Ken was looking and saw what Ken was laughing at. Poor Julie had a problem. As the first banquet of the year for Riverdale High was for the junior high too, the place was swarming with seventh and eighth graders. And three of them surrounded Julie.
Two seventh-grade boys, Billy and Dennis, and an eighth grader, Eddy, had been secretly fighting over Julie. Now they were bringing the battle out into the open. They had all three endeavored to escort her to the table, all three had tried to sit by her, and now they were “discussing” who was going to “take” her home. And they were doing it in no uncertain terms. Julie’s embarrassment was written all over her face. After a long struggle, Eddy dropped from the race. Then Dennis came up with a bright suggestion.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “Why are we fighting like this? I think Julie should have something to say. It’s a lady’s privilege to go with whoever she wants to.”
“That’s right,” agreed Billy. “Well, Julie, is it going to be me or him?”
Quite taken by this sudden announcement, Julie did not know just what to say. Hoping to stall for time to figure things out, she said, “Well, since you fellows have to be so formal, I will not cast a vote until I have heard a ‘campaign speech’ from both of you.”
So while they were throwing their line at her and making ridiculous promises, Julie thought. She could tell they meant business in their own small way, and she couldn’t just drop it. Why and how had this all started in the first place? Seventh-grade boys don’t fight over freshman girls every day. Well, she was little for her age and a year younger than she was supposed to be for her grade because she had started school in another state when she was five years old. And her dimpled baby face didn’t help matters much. But still—seventh graders? That was exaggerating a little too much.
She glanced at Eddy, who was still looking on with amused concern. He was her age, even though he was an eighth grader. She looked back at the other two. Billy was a little doll, and Dennis was the “brainchild.” They were both pretty popular. She looked back at Eddy. He was a combination of them both. Oh, if only she were a couple years younger, she’d have it made.
“Aw, don’t listen to him,” Billy was saying. “He’ll never keep any promises.”
“He’s the one who never keeps any promises,” Dennis insisted, “You know he’s just a wolf, anyway.”
“Oh, yeah?” Billy retorted. “Well, you’re just a gopher,” he said, knowing Dennis was sensitive about his slightly protruding front teeth.
Julie, recognizing the purpose of the remark, scolded, “Now that’s enough, both of you! Now tell me, Billy, what would your reaction be if I chose Dennis?”
“W-why, I guess I wouldn’t like it very well,” he stammered.
“But would I still be your friend?”
“Any friend of Dennis is no friend of mine,” he bluntly replied.
“What about you, Dennis,” Julie asked, “if I should choose Billy?”
“Well, I don’t suppose I’d like it very well either,” Dennis said, “but I wouldn’t hate you for the rest of my life if you did.”
“What would you do?”
“What could I do,” he said, “but go back to the girls in my class.”
“Without a fight?” Billy asked rather roughly.
“It wouldn’t do me any good,” said Dennis.
“Oh, brother!” muttered Eddy, who had been silent until now.
Julie looked at him and smiled as if reading his mind. Then she turned back to the other two and said with a most sober face, “Just as I thought. Both of you show too many signs of immaturity to have a girlfriend.”
This statement startled Billy and Dennis. But Julie was not finished. “This may come as a shock to you but, Billy, I am not a soft little thing who swallows flattery and a big line. Neither am I a hard-headed woman, Dennis, who won’t listen to reason.”
“You see, fellows,” said Eddy, not boasting, “you just don’t understand women.”
“Now just a minute, big brother,” said Billy, “who gave you a right to butt in?”
“This is a free country, isn’t it?” Julie stuck up for him.
“Yeah, but he said—”
“Never mind what he said,” argued Julie. “I’ve decided.”
“E-Eddy?” asked Dennis, wrinkling his nose.
“Eddy,” Julie answered emphatically.
“Boy, what a sneaky thing to do!” Billy mumbled under his breath.
Paying no heed to him, she turned to Eddy, saying, “It’s getting sort of late. Don’t you think we’d better start home?”
Eddy smiled. “Better luck next time, fellows,” he said. Then nodding to Julie, he said, “Okay, let’s go.”
Since Julie’s house was just three blocks east of the school and Eddy’s house was one block north of hers, it did not take them very long to walk the distance. Most of the way they walked in silence, both of them too timid to talk. It was a beautiful night, however, with the full moon shining high above the treetops and casting a strange glow on the red, yellow, and brown leaves on the ground.
“How did you know the way I felt about you tonight?” Eddy said to break the silence.
“Well,” she said, “fellows who really like a girl enough won’t do anything to embarrass her in public like Billy and Dennis were doing.”
“Yes, but I could have meant what I said when I said I would surrender and let the other two divide you.”
“Well,” she smiled, “I kind of had a feeling you didn’t.”
By this time they were on Julie’s front porch. Eddy didn’t know what else to say then but, “You’re sweet.” And he lifted her head gently with his hand. “I only wish we were a couple years older,” he whispered. But she pulled away.
“I think I see a light in the kitchen,” she said. Touching his hand slightly, she whispered, “Thanks for everything. I’ll see you.”
There was a moment of silence as her pretty brown eyes gazed into his radiant face. It was as if they were communicating with some strange radar with a mutual message of, “I like you, too.” Then she turned and disappeared into the house.
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