The Banana Split Affair (15 page)

“In that case, both boys are in for a
really
big surprise. Double trouble.”

“Are you referring to
us
as ‘double trouble,’ my dear twin?” Chris joked.

“Well, we are, aren’t we?”

“Let’s just hope Keith and Jason don’t think so. They’d better have a good sense of humor, or we’ll both become wallflowers. Very unhappy wallflowers, too.”

“Don’t even think that way. Be positive.” Susan glanced over at the clock on her night table. “It’s late, Chris. We’d better get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for both of us.”

“For all four of us, you mean.” Chris stood up to leave. “I’ll say good night, but I don’t think I’ll get much sleep tonight.”

“Me either. But just think: If we can all get together tomorrow, everything will be resolved, one way or the other, by tomorrow night at this time.”

“Right. ‘One way or the other’ Somehow I’m not exactly thrilled with those odds!”

“Go to sleep!” Susan insisted, pulling the covers over her head. “We need our rest for the big confrontation tomorrow.”

Confrontation, thought Chris as she tossed and turned, trying to unwind. What a frightening word! It was a long, long time before she finally fell asleep.

Chris and Susan sat opposite each other in a red vinyl
booth at a local coffee shop on Sunday afternoon, trying to make small talk. But the fact that both of them were scared stiff was obvious. They had taken back their own identities, and oddly enough, it was taking them some time to get used to being themselves again.

“What time is it?” Chris asked, drumming on the table nervously.

“Christine,” Susan said crossly, “that’s the twentieth time you’ve asked me that in the past ten minutes. It’s five minutes after two.” She twisted a strand of hair around her finger.

“Where are they? Do you think maybe they’re not coming?”

“I know Jason’s coming. He’s promised to give me one more chance. I told him he didn’t have to spend any more than fifteen minutes with me if he didn’t want to but that he at least had to hear me out. I’m positive he’ll be here.” She glanced over at the glass door of the restaurant, hoping to see his familiar outline, but there was no one there except a father who had just bought ice cream cones for his three children.

“There’s no reason why Keith shouldn’t come. He thinks we’re just getting together for a cup of coffee. Although I did mention that I had something in particular that I wanted to discuss with him.”

“Oh, Chris, are you sure we’re doing the right thing?”

“We’ve already been through this. We’re doing the only thing we
can
do.” Susan leaned her head in her hands. “I wish I’d never even heard of the Banana Split Affair.”

“I know what you mean,” Chris agreed. “I’ll never be able to eat another banana split for the rest of my life.” She twisted around in her seat so that she, too, could see the front door of the coffee shop. “I’m going crazy just sitting here waiting. I’m going to go peek out the window and see if I see any familiar cars coming into the parking lot.”

Just as she neared the front of the restaurant, Keith walked in, wearing a big grin.

“Hiya, kiddo! Sorry I’m late. But you know how unreliable those buses are. You can never predict how long it’s going to take you to get from one place to another.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Hi, Keith,” said Chris. “You seem like you’re in an awfully good mood.”

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

“That’s good.”

“Why?” He glanced at her quizzically. “Oh, that’s right. Didn’t you mention something over the phone about something important you wanted to discuss with me?” He frowned. “Not bad news, I hope.”

“No, nothing bad. Just ... surprising.”

“Gee, now I’m dying to know what’s going on. Let’s find a quiet little table for two and you can fill me in.”

“I already have a table, over there, behind that post.”

“Okay. Then let’s go sit down.”

“Wait a second, Keith. I ... there’s someone sitting with us. Someone I’d like you to meet.”

“Okay.”

“But you’d better brace yourself.”

“It’s not your long-lost husband or anything like that, is it?”

“No.” Chris laughed despite her nervousness.

“In that case, how bad can this be?”

He strode off in the direction she had indicated. All of a sudden he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Oh, my gosh!” he cried, so loudly that everyone in the restaurant looked up to see what the commotion was about. “You’re her! I mean there’s two of her. Two of you.”

“Hi,” Susan said meekly. “You already know me, Keith. I’m Susan Pratt, the girl in your art class.”

“You’re
Susan? Then who is ...” He turned around and faced Chris, totally bewildered. “Then who are you?”

“I’m
Chris
Pratt, Susan’s twin sister”

“Twins!” He just stood still for a few seconds, his mouth wide open. “So if you’re Susan and you’re her sister, then who have I been going out with for the last two weeks?”

“You’ve been going out with me, Keith,” answered Chris. “But I’ve been pretending to be Susan.”

“Pretending to be Susan? I’m sorry if I sound dense, but would someone please tell me what’s going on here?”

“It’s really quite simple,” Chris began patiently. “For as long as we can remember, Susan has wondered what it would be like to be me. And I wondered what it would be like to be her. Since we’re identical twins and people can never tell the difference between us anyway ...” She went on to explain the Banana Split Affair and how it had come about. When she finished, Keith looked at her in amazement and plopped down into the booth opposite Susan.

“I don’t believe it! I mean of all the devious, sneaky ...”

“But we weren’t trying to be sneaky!” Susan protested. “We weren’t trying to hurt anybody or anything like that. We just wanted to see how it was to be the other twin. You can’t look exactly like someone else all your life and
not
wonder what their life is like! We just went ahead and traded identities so that we could find out.”

“Are you really mad, Keith?” Chris asked softly, sitting down next to him. “I don’t blame you, I guess, but do you think you could ever forgive ...”

Just then she was interrupted by a boisterous voice. “Hi, there! Hiya, Susan. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here ...” Jason stopped midsentence. “What is this? There are two of you! Well, I’ll be!”

“Hello, Jason,” said Susan. “I’m glad you could come.”

“Am I seeing double?”

“No,” Susan said calmly. “Why don’t you have a
seat? It’ll be easier for you to take the shock if you’re
sitting down.”

“Uh-oh,” Jason muttered. “This doesn’t sound good.”

“First of all,” Susan began, “Let me introduce everyone. This is Keith West, who goes to our school.”

“Hello, Keith. Are you sure there aren’t any more people in this restaurant who look just like you?”

“Nope.” Keith laughed. “I’m an original.”

“Now,” said Susan, “I’m the girl you’ve been going out with. I told you my name was Chris, but really it’s Susan. Chris here is my twin sister”

“So why were you using her name? Ever since the accident ... Oh, yes, that reminds me. Everything’s been cleared up out of court. You won’t have to appear after all. That creep who ran into me finally confessed that it was his fault. The fact that I had an eyewitness was what did the trick, too.”

“Thank goodness!” Chris and Susan exchanged relieved looks.

“But which one of you really
did
see the accident, then?”

Susan explained the Banana Split Affair to him, every detail from start to finish. She ended it up by saying, “That’s why it was so important that you give me one more chance, Jason. I wanted to tell you what was going on. We were sworn to secrecy during the last two weeks. But now that you know everything,” she went on, turning bright pink, “I thought maybe we could give it another try. Since we didn’t hit it off too well when I was trying to act like Chris, maybe things will go better when I’m acting like myself.”

“Amazing,” Jason breathed, shaking his head. “You two are really something!”

“Something good or something bad?” Susan ventured timidly.

The two boys exchanged glances. “What do you say, Keith? Should we be mad at these two little devils or should we let them off easy?”

“I don’t know,” Keith said slowly. “After all, they made real fools out of us. Here we both thought we were going out with girls we thought we knew pretty well, and it turns out we had no idea of their real identity. We didn’t even know there were two of them!”

“Yes, I guess that is pretty lousy,” Jason agreed. “They’ve been playing games with us. Toying with our affections, you know?”

“We have not!” Chris protested. “Keith, I never lied to you about anything but my name.”

“And the fact that you were the same girl who’d been in my art class all semester. Don’t forget that.”

“Well, yes, that’s true.” Chris shifted in her seat, growing more and more agitated. “But everything else I ever said or did was completely sincere.”

“Even when you held my hand?”

“Yes.”

“Even when you agreed that you wanted to keep on seeing me for a long time?”

“Definitely.”

“Even when you kissed me?”

“Oh, yes. Especially then.”

“Well, Jason,” Keith said, “I’ve heard all I need to hear. How about you?”

“Tell me, Chris. I mean Susan. I described the kind of girl I’m most compatible with, remember? The egghead type, someone just like me? What makes you think that Susan Pratt and I would get along together any better than Chris Pratt and I?”

“I can answer that one,” interjected Chris. “My sister here is the original bookworm. She’s read books whose
titles
most people can’t even pronounce! And she knows all about music and theater and art. In fact, she’s a terrific artist herself.”

“I can vouch for that,” volunteered Keith. “The real Susan is in my art class, and she’s the most talented student in the whole school.”

“I still don’t know,” Jason said slowly.

The two girls sat in silence. “I know that things got out of hand....” Susan began.

“Women,” sighed Jason. “You can’t live with ‘em, and you can’t live without ‘em. I guess we just have to accept these merry pranksters for what they are.”

“You’re absolutely right, Jason. We men have no choice. Besides, I have to admit that I’m kind of stuck on the mystery girl who pretended she was Susan but has turned out to be Chris.”

“I know exactly what you mean. I’ve always had a funny feeling about the Chris sister who turned out to be Susan. I knew there was something going on, that there was more than what appeared on the surface. And now that I know what happened, I’m kind of flattered that she went to all this trouble to explain things and get them all straightened out.”

“Well, Jason,” Keith said, “it looks like we’ve got ourselves a couple of girl friends. Good old cupid just won’t leave us nice guys alone.”

“You’re right,” agreed Jason. “Why fight it?” He reached for Susan’s hand under the table.

“What a relief!” Susan said to her sister.

“See? I hate to say ‘I told you so,’ but ...”

“Do you remember, Chris, when we first started the Banana Split Affair? We were trying to get Mom and Dad’s permission, so we told them it would be an educational experience. I didn’t believe it at the time, but I have to admit now that I sure did learn a lot!”

“Me, too!” agreed Chris. “All about the way people react to other people and how to try changing the things I never liked about myself too much ...”

“And I also learned that there’s no one else I’d rather be than me!”

“Me too!” A bit embarrassed, Chris added, “Although I realized that there are some things about you that I’d like to incorporate into my own personality. Things like taking myself and other people more seriously, learning to do something worthwhile, like your art ...”

“And I found out how much I’d been missing by hiding behind my shyness all my life!”

“Hey, are you two going to gab all day? I’m getting hungry,” Keith exclaimed with mock anger “And here comes our waitress, just in time.”

“Hi, kids,” said a young woman in a fresh pink uniform. “I’m Carol, your waitress for today. What would you like?”

All four exchanged glances and diabolical smiles. And then four voices cried out, “Banana splits, of course!” then burst into hysterical laughter.

Copyright © 1985 by Cynthia Blair

Originally published by Fawcett (ISBN 0449701751)

Electronically published in 2014 by Belgrave House

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No portion of this book may be reprinted in whole or in part, by printing, faxing, E-mail, copying electronically or by any other means without permission of the publisher. For more

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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.