Debutante Hill by Lois Duncan

Masters! If you want to talk about the debutante parties, go talk to Brenda Peterson. Her mother is running them, not mine. I don’t have a single thing to do with it.”
    â€œAnd if she did,” Anne put in quickly, “it wouldn’t be any of your business, Dirk. Why do you always have to be so rude to people?”
    Dirk retorted, “I’m not being rude. I’m just being friendly. I’ve never had a chance to talk to the Princess of the Hill before. It’s a shock to see her mixing it up at our level.” He turned back to Lynn, a mocking light in his eyes. “Well, Princess, since you won’t be going to the debutante party this Saturday, how about you and I painting the town together? Or do you think your Hill crowd would ever speak to you again?”
    He was laughing at her, baiting her, putting her in a position where she would have to be rude to him in reply.
    How bitter he is, Lynn thought.
    She raised her eyes and looked Dirk full in the face. It was a handsome face, in a lean, arrogant sort of way. Like Anne, he was thin, and his features were very much like hers, but there was something else too, a kind of hardness that was completely lacking in Anne. His eyes were dark and mocking, and his hair fell forward over his forehead in a careless, rakish way, as though he did not care enough to push it back.

    To Lynn’s surprise, she felt her heart begin to beat a little faster.
    He is handsome, she thought but so tough and insolent and cocky! How I’d love to take him down a peg or two . . . and I know how to do it.
    If she had thought, she would never have done it—not really. It was the kind of thing that was fun to think about and to laugh about with the girls, but never, never actually to do. It was with real surprise that Lynn heard her voice saying, coolly and easily, as though it were the least important thing in the world:
    â€œWhy, thank you, Dirk, that would be very nice. I’d love to go out with you Saturday night.”

4
    When she thought back upon it later, Lynn decided it was worth it, worth every minute of it, just to see the look of shock upon Dirk’s face. He had been standing there grinning at her, waiting to see her wriggle and squirm in an effort to be polite and still refuse his left-handed invitation. Her simple words of acceptance took him completely off guard and left him staring at her in bewilderment.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI said thank you, I’d love to go out with you Saturday. What time will you be by for me?”
    â€œWhy, I—I—” Dirk’s smile was gone now. “I didn’t mean—that is, you—you don’t really want to go?”
    â€œOf course, I want to go.” Lynn said sweetly. She knew she should back out now; it was the perfect moment for it but she was too amused by Dirk’s discomfort to let the situation drop. “How about eight o’clock? Do you know where I live?”
    â€œSure,” Dirk said, “I know where you live. But your folks. What will they say? They don’t even know me.”
    â€œThey’ll meet you,” Lynn said, “Saturday night.”
    The bell rang, announcing the end of lunch hour and the beginning of afternoon classes. Lynn got to her feet for she knew she could not have continued the conversation a
single moment longer without bursting into laughter and ruining the whole effect. Seeing Dirk embarrassed was so completely out of character!
    Now she gave him her brightest smile and joined the crowd moving into the building.
    It was funny. Terrifically funny then—and it would have been even more so if there had been someone to share it with, but she could think of no one to tell. Nancy, Joan, Holly—they would all be horrified. A date with Dirk Masters! Why, it was as far out of the question as dating Satan himself.
    And the more Lynn thought about it, the less amusing it began to seem to her. Yes, she had succeeded