surprise. “I’ve never even talked to him.”
She went to the door and let Paul in, liking him right away; liking the easy way he walked and the warm blue eyes and the way one eyebrow went up a little higher than the other when he talked.
He said, “I came by to see Ernie.”
“Ernie—” Lynn hesitated, wondering what to say. “Ernie’s upstairs. He—he’s not feeling awfully well. He tried out for the football team today and he—”
“I know,” Paul broke in. “I was there. That’s what I wanted to talk to him about.” He glanced at the stairs. “Do you think it would be all right if I just went on up?”
“Why, yes,” Lynn said. “I think that would be fine. It’s the first door on the left.”
She and Dodie stood in the hallway, watching him mount the stairs and turn down the upstairs hall. They heard him give a sharp rap on a door.
“Why did you let him go up?” Dodie whispered accusingly. “Ernie’s going to be furious! You know he doesn’t want to see anybody, even Nancy.”
“I know,” Lynn said. “But I have a feeling Paul’s different. I think he’ll want to see Paul.”
The boys were upstairs for a long time, and when they finally came down together, Ernie had a smile on his face.
“Paul saw me at the tryouts,” he said. “He thinks I’ve got the stuff for the team; I just haven’t had practice enough. He’s going to work out with me some this year, and next year I’m going to make it.”
“Fine!” Lynn replied, glancing gratefully at Paul. “I’m sure you will, too.”
Ernie said, “We’re going to pick up Nancy and go to a drive-in for a hamburger. Want to come along, Sis?”
“Which sis?” Dodie asked.
“Not you, small fry,” Ernie told her. “Big sis.”
Lynn said, “Well, I—”
She glanced at Paul. He was smiling at her.
“I wish you would.”
“Well, all right. I’d love to.”
And that is the way it had begun, quickly, easily, simply—because Paul was the kind of boy who would go out of his way to help somebody who was having a tough time, and because Lynn happened to be there, and maybe because the hamburgers had been a little overdone and they had laughed together about them, and there had been stars, and the River Road, when they drove back, had been drenched in moonlight. Not one thing alone, but all of them, had added up to the fact that it was a special night, and when it was over Paul had asked, “What about next Friday? Want to go to a movie or something?” and Lynn had answered, “Yes.” The next year, Ernie had made the football team. And by that winter, Lynn and Paul were going steady.
Because Paul was as he was, easy and cordial and quick to like everyone, he picked up friends everywhere he went, and, through their friendships with Paul, several “outsiders” were drawn into the Crowd. But generally speaking, the little group that sat on the left side of the front steps and called out greetings to Lynn and Nancy as they came up were from the Hill.
“Hi there, you two!” somebody shouted “We were wondering where on earth you were. We’ve already been through ‘who’s been where’this summer and have a brand-new topic.”
“Well, goodness,” Lynn exclaimed, joining the laughing group, “we are behind on things! Catch us up.”
“Guess what!” Holly Taylor cried, catching Lynn’s hand and drawing her down onto the steps. What is the most exciting thing you can imagine happening in Rivertown? To us, I mean!”
“The most exciting thing?” Nancy joined the discussion. “I can’t imagine. Maybe Hollywood talent scouts have discovered the beauties at Rivertown High and are planning to make a movie hen, or the school has decided to give flying lessons during gym class, or—”
“Oh, more exciting than that!” Joan Wilson exclaimed. “I’d keep on making you guess, but the bell will ring soon and then we won’t have time left to hash it all over. We’re going to make our debuts!”
“Our debuts!” Lynn’s eyes opened in amazement. “What on earth—”
“We knew you’d be surprised!” Everyone began to talk at once. “We just learned it today. Mrs. Peterson is behind it of course, and it’s going to be the most fabulous thing . . . you can’t imagine . . . parties every weekend, and a whole week of them during Christmas vacation ... a huge Presentation Ball in the spring...”
“Slowly!” Nancy fairly shouted above the excitement “Please, please, one at a time! Lynn and I want to digest this thing. Suppose just one person tells it.”
“Well, I will,” Holly Taylor said quickly, “because I heard about it first Mrs. Peterson was talking to Mother on the phone, and she’s got the whole thing organized already. It’s the first time there have ever been debutantes in Rivertown! Twenty girls have been selected, invitations were mailed last night, and they are going to start things off by being the town’s very first debs. All their friends and families will have parties for them during the year, and at Christmas there will be a whole week of big dances, just for them and their escorts. And in the spring, there will be a great ball, with everyone chipping in toward a big name orchestra. Everyone will be presented—” She ran out of breath. “It will be just fabulous,” she ended.
“Dances all Christmas vacation!” Nancy echoed happily. “Why, then Ernie will be home for them. How super!” She turned eagerly to Lynn. “Paul will be home, too!”
“Yes,” Lynn said, her own excitement beginning to rise. “It does sound marvelous. But how do you know which girls were selected? Who is doing the selecting?”
“Mrs. Peterson, I suppose,” Joan Wilson answered. “Since she’s the one behind it all. But she—well, it sounds awful to say it this way, but there are really just a certain group of girls she can select. What she wants is to start a debutante tradition, a sort of ‘entrance-into-society’ thing, the way they have in Boston and Atlanta and places like that. So she’s got to choose girls from the Hill.”
Lynn nodded, accepting the fact without question.
“I suppose so. Twenty. Well, that takes in all of us, I guess and a few others besides.”
“Of course, Brenda Peterson will be one,” Nancy said.
They were all silent a moment. Then Holly said, “Well, of course. Mrs. Peterson wouldn’t be doing it at all, if it weren’t for Brenda.”
Somewhere a bell rang. The sound filled the air, and instantly the steps became alive with people. The girls scrambled to their feet, momentarily deserting the subject of the debuts.
“Let’s try to get seats beside each other in home room this year,” Nancy said, catching Lynn’s arm.
The crowd swept them forward, through the open doors into the huge central hallway. The smell of the high school rose up around them—books and chalk and desks and people and, somehow, the faint odor of chewing gum. It was a familiar smell, and to Lynn it brought back three years of memories.
When I walked down this hall the last time, she thought nostalgically, Paul was walking beside me, carrying my books, and we were both laughing because school was out and we had the whole long summer in front of us. And now summer is already over, and Paul is at college, and I’m back again without him.
Suddenly, from close behind her, there came a whistle, clear and intimate, and a low voice said, “Well, Miss Chambers! A good-looking gal, but snooty as ever!”
Lynn whirled to find herself looking into the mocking eyes of a dark-haired boy with a thin face and a sarcastic curl to the comer of his mouth.
With