As Will pulled his head back from the car, he reached out and grabbed the window net, which had to be fastened in place before Telzey could drive out onto the track. It was good that he remembered, she thought, because in her excitement she’d clean forgotten about it.

Will stepped back from the car and signaled his father, who had by now made it up to the head of the lineup. Ray pointed out on the track, and the seven cars of the Powder Puff race headed out of pit lane. Telzey glanced up as she started to follow the car ahead of her, and saw Ann and Jack Kaufmann waving to her from the top of their hauler. She waved back, not sure if they could actually see her through the Lexan windshield of the 66 car.

Unknown to Telzey, Ray had actually fiddled with the lineup of the Powder Puff race from the way it had been drawn. He’d wanted Telzey to start at the back, mostly because he knew that the race would be slow and he wanted to give her the challenge of passing people, to help with her confidence. And he also moved Carissa Shoemaker to the pole in the 32 car, mostly because he knew that she’d driven in these events before and knew how to handle the pole position. This was a fun race – at least it was supposed to be a fun race, although he knew that Telzey was hanging more on it than just going out to have fun. He didn’t know about the grudge race building with the 86 car, or he would have done something about it.

Ray had already tipped Carissa that he’d let everybody have two or three laps to get settled in before the flag flew, and the group of cars in the race slowly headed around the track. Back at the end of the lineup, Telzey looked out through the windshield at the crowd in the grandstands. Her grandparents were out there, she knew, and so were Kayla and her family, but she didn’t think more about it than that, she only tried to keep a good formation on the car in front of her. The track seemed different under the lights than the asphalt oval she’d gotten familiar with driving during the day. It seemed narrower, more restricted; the banking seemed steeper. Or was that just her nerves showing again? She was really out here on the race track, getting set to start in a race, and somehow it seemed like a dream.

The cars drove around the track once, and again on their warm-up laps. Telzey was getting anxious, she just wanted to go! For a moment she remembered watching NASCAR races, watching the drivers go around and around the track on their warm-up laps, and she wondered how they managed to hold in the instinct to floor the throttle and go for it.

Finally – and it seemed like they’d been driving around out there for hours – the starter gave the green and white flags together. One to go; it was about time, she thought. As she drove down the back stretch, she gave some thought to flooring the throttle on the 66 car just as soon as they were heading out of turn four. At the last instant, some instinct told her to hold off – maybe it was the memory of watching Will lie back and letting the field get tangled up in turn one. Even though Will had told her that she easily would be the fastest driver on the track, she somehow couldn’t quite make herself believe that was the truth. In spite of her initial urge to stand on it and try to pass the whole field on the front stretch she held herself back to see what would happen in the first corner before she began to push the car. For now she’d just be happy to keep up with the car in front of her.

They came out of the fourth turn, and in the distance ahead she could see the speck of green flag waving as the lights around the track went from yellow to green. She mashed down on the gas pedal, and the 66 car perked up and began to roar. The field accelerated toward the start line, and Telzey, a little to her surprise, found that she was gaining on the car in front of her rapidly. Time for a quick decision – go outside and take advantage of it, or play it cool like she’d planned to do? It was more of a reaction than a decision – she let up on the throttle for a second, and moved to the outside lane although she didn’t try to pass anyone.

She was only half on the throttle in the middle of the turn and was still gaining on the field, although now she wasn’t right on someone’s tail. Good grief, she thought, is this all the faster they’re going to go?

No more holding back, now. As they passed the center of the corner, going slower than she was used to, she mashed down hard on the 66 car’s throttle, held her line on the outside, and quickly passed the two cars in front of her as they got out onto the back straight. The 86 car and another car were right ahead, running side by side, not very fast, with the 86 on the inside. She didn’t even think about it, she just kept the throttle down and passed the both of them as she braked hard into turn three. That’s one way to avoid Ashley, she smiled to herself as she set her sights on the car ahead of her.

She didn’t recall the number of the car that had started next to Carissa Shoemaker, but as she drew closer she saw it was the 47 car, running fairly close behind the 32 car. Telzey didn’t even think about it; she was running quite a bit faster than they were even though she was still comfortable with her speed on the outside line. She passed the 47 coming out of the corner, and the 32 somewhere as they went down the front straight.

In less than one lap she’d passed the whole field! Will had been right, this race had been dead slow!

Telzey thought for an instant about slowing down, just a little, to not overdo it. At the same time she realized that this might be the only chance she would ever have to do something like this, so she instantly rejected the idea.

The next three laps felt almost like practice laps. There was no one out in front of her, and from what she knew there was no one close behind – in fact, she could glance out across the race track and see that much of the field was strung out well behind her. All she had to do was to concentrate on her driving, keeping her line right as she pushed the car, braking at the right point, and getting back on the gas as soon as she was able.

By the end of the fourth lap, she was catching up with the tail end of the field, two cars running slowly in the center of the track. She didn’t even have to adjust her line much to pass them in turn one. She could see that the next car to lap was the 86 car. She wasn’t about to slow up for Ashley now, and putting a lap on her seemed just too good to be true. She didn’t want Ashley to know she was there until she blew past her, so she tried to time herself in her approach.

She could see Ashley slow quickly, and suspected that she was hard on the brakes, scared of going too fast through three and four, so her speed was much slower than necessary. That was about as good a place as any; Telzey hit the throttle to speed up as Ashley braked, shot past the 86 car on the outside, then came down hard on her own brakes. The tires on the 66 car wailed – she was close to losing it – but she was going away from Ashley even before the blonde cheerleader knew that she was even close.

It took another lap to pass the next car, and another lap after that to pass the 32 and the 47 again. Somewhere in there the 47 had gotten ahead of the 32 but Telzey hadn’t been aware of it and really didn’t think about it, they were just two more cars to pass. By now, with a lap on the entire field Telzey had more than checked out on the rest of the cars in the race, she was embarrassing them, but she didn’t think about that, because she saw another car ahead of her to pass, and yet another.

Telzey had lost track of the laps run by now, but soon she came out of turn four to see the white flag waving. One more lap! She could see the 86 car in front of her again, well within reach. As before, she wanted to be careful passing Ashley, but she wanted to pass her – it was a car that was ahead of her, after all. She closed rapidly going through turns one and two, and gained on the 86 down the back stretch, intending to go outside of the blonde cheerleader again, but as she set up for the pass on the outside, the 86 car twisted into her path and slowed suddenly. Reacting instantly, Telzey twisted the wheel to go inside. Mindful of who was driving the car she ducked as far to the left as she could. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the 86 car suddenly get sideways, but then she was past the sliding car, holding her line and running for the finish line, where the yellow and checkered flags were being waved together.

Only as she passed the finish line did the reality dawn on her – something had happened with Ashley in the 86 car. Telzey twisted her head, and out of the corner of her eye saw the car stopped on the far side of the track. She slowed down to an easy speed as she rounded the track on her cool-down lap, and as she went through three and four again, she could see the 86 car backed into the wall. It hadn’t been an easy hit; the car had hit hard, and it was badly damaged. Telzey was no expert, and it was hard to see how badly, but it wouldn’t have surprised her if the car was totaled.

She slowed to a crawl as she passed the wreck, down as close to the inside wall as she could get. A wrecker, the ambulance and a track maintenance vehicle were headed toward the wreck, but as she gawked she thought she could see Ashley moving around inside the car, although the window net was still up. That was a relief. She kept it slow the rest of the way back to the pit lane entrance, where Ray motioned her into the winner’s circle.

As the photographer came out, Ray leaned over to her and said, “Wow, kid! Two more laps and you’d have lapped the field twice! I think you were the only one there that really meant it!”

Telzey dropped the window net, then unbuckled her helmet. “That was pretty good,” she said. “What happened to Ashley in the 86 car?”

“It looked to me like she tried to block you and spun it in the process,” Ray told her with an edge in his voice. “You blew past her so quick she didn’t know what to do. We’ve got time, would you like to have your picture taken outside the car?”

“Yeah, sure!” she said with enthusiasm, forgetting about the crash of the 86 car for a moment. “I want to send a copy to my mom and dad.”

“If you don’t mind waiting a minute for your victory lap, I can probably get your grandparents down here, too,” Ray told her. “After all, we’ve got time.”

“Yeah, sure,” Telzey grinned. “That would be neat!”

Ray smiled back at her then pulled a walkie-talkie from his pocket to see if he could get the starter to find her grandparents and have them come out onto the track with her. That only took a moment, and then he put the walkie-talkie back in his pocket and glanced across the track as Telzey climbed from the 66 car. “Good, she’s out of the car,” he reported. “She doesn’t look hurt but she looks about as mad as a wet hen.”

“I’ll bet she isn’t the only one,” Telzey told him as she took her helmet off, and set it inside the car. “Chuck’s car looked pretty bad when I went by.”

“Yeah, I’m going to be interested in seeing how that one comes out,” Ray grinned.

Just then Will ran up, took Telzey into his arms, and planted a big kiss on her right in front of the crowd in the grandstand. “Will,” she said in mild protest, “that’s going to get all over the school!”

“You think I care?” he grinned. “Telzey, I’ve never seen a race like that before. You made it look like everyone else was on bicycles. I told you that you were the fastest driver out there!”

“Yeah, you were right,” she grinned, looking up into the stands to see if her grandparents were coming.

“And you sure showed Ashley who’s who,” he grinned. “It looked to me like she was so mad she tried to spin you.”

“I don’t think . . .” Telzey started. It was then, replaying the incident in her mind, that she realized that Ashley didn’t just spin – she’d tried to block the 66 car, and when that didn’t work, tried to cut down to stay in front of her, or wreck her, whichever happened. But Ashley’s attempt to spin the 66 had failed – it was too tight a corner for the 86, and she’d spun it – and spun it hard. “Yeah, I guess I do,” she said quietly. “She just doesn’t care, does she?”

“Nope,” he shook his head. “It has to be her way or nothing.”

“If that’s what it’s like to be grown up, I’m not sure I want to grow up.”

In a couple minutes her grandparents were down on the track with her, with Kayla and her mother tagging along behind. Telzey had learned by now that Kayla’s mother was the editor of the local newspaper, and she was carrying a camera, too – was this going to get in the paper, on top of everything else? It took another minute or two to get photos, some of Telzey with the 66 car and the checkered flag, along with a trophy that Mel handed her, some with Will, and some with her grandparents.

“You did great, Telzey!” her grandfather said. “How did it feel?”

“Wonderful!” she replied. “I sure wish I could do that again. That was a blast!”

“Telzey,” Ray broke in, “I think they’ve got things cleaned up over there enough so you can take your victory lap. Take the checkered flag back to the pits with you and keep it as a souvenir.” He turned to the people standing around. “I think if you want to continue this celebration that you ought to do it down in the pit stall. Will, you can lead everybody down there, and Telzey will join you as soon as she finishes her victory lap. We need keep the show going or people are going to get bored.”

There was nothing more that Telzey could do but get back in the car, start it up, and drive around the track slowly. It was a happy moment – not only had she driven a race car, she’d done it well, and won going away, admittedly against quite a bit less than equal competition. But it was a sad moment, too, since this might well be the last time she ever did it. It may have been a moment to savor, but she’d felt so alive when she’d been out there that she wanted to do it again. Maybe someday, she thought.

As she drove slowly past the wreck, she could see the wrecker crew getting the 86 car off the track. She had a better look at the damage, now – the entire back end of the car was caved in. Ashley had backed the car into the wall hard, and it looked much the worse for wear. To her inexperienced eye, it didn’t look like it could be easily fixed.

She could not help feeling sad when she pulled off the track and drove into the pit stall next to Will’s 89 car. There were a number of people waiting there for her as she shut the engine off with the kill switch and climbed out of the car. She glanced around, to see her grandparents, Kayla and her mother, Mel and his wife Arlene, who Telzey had only met a couple times, all three of the Kaufmanns, and Will, of course.

“See, Telzey,” Mel grinned, “I told you that you could do it.”

“Darn right,” Jack Kaufmann agreed. “It looked to me like you were the only one out there who was racing. Are you sure you don’t want to run Pony Stocks with us?”

“Oh, I’d love to,” she grinned. “But I don’t have a car or anything.”

“Jeez, you’re going to have to get one,” Jack smiled. “You were going like a son of a gun. I figured that it was going to be a yawner like most Powder Puff races, but you sure showed ’em.”

“Like I said, I’d love to get a Pony and race with you,” she smiled, “but, well, I don’t have any money or anything, and I don’t want to put my grandparents out that much.”

“It’s something to think about,” her grandfather said, surprising her more than a little. “Mel and Ray have been telling us that you were getting good, but I had no idea that you were getting that good.”

“Well, the competition wasn’t that good,” Telzey replied modestly. “I mean, if I’d been out there with real racers there’s no way it could have looked that good.”

“It still looked pretty good to me,” her grandmother smiled. “Your folks are going to be proud of you. I’m no race fan but it looked to me like you did pretty well for anyone your age.”

“I agree,” Arlene said softly. “It always warms my heart to see a girl race well, and you did well. There still aren’t many of us, but we can do it as well as anyone.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Austin,” Telzey said respectfully, knowing that most of a lifetime before this wizened old woman with a cane had been a championship-level midget racer in one of the cars that had been out on the track earlier that night, back in the rough and tumble days. “Coming from you, that really is praise.”

“Thank you for saying it, Telzey,” Arlene smiled. She turned to Telzey’s grandparents and said, “She really does have talent. If there’s something you can do to encourage it, you should do it. The Pony Stocks aren’t that expensive, and my husband and son have ways to work things out.”

“It deserves some thought,” Cal replied. “I’m not saying yes, but I’m not saying no, either. I think there are a few things to talk over.”

Telzey could barely believe her ears. First, she’d been praised by Arlene, who had proved that there was room for women in racing, and who’d invited Telzey to follow in her footsteps – and now her grandparents seemed to be considering it! This was not the time to beg and plead with her grandparents, she knew instinctively – but a sober, reasoned discussion while spirits were still high might mean she’d get to race again after all!

Telzey was so awash in good feelings just then that she didn’t notice Ashley Hitchcock’s approach until the blonde cheerleader was in her face. “You little bitch!” Ashley yelled. “Where do you think you get off to spin me out and wreck Chuck’s car? Don’t lie to me, I was there, I saw what you did!”

“I never got near you,” Telzey protested, her good feelings turning to anger in a moment. “You were the one trying to spin me out and you loused it up. You’re just a lousy driver and a worse sport. Where do you think you have the right to get in my face?”

“Lousy driver? You’re just a little grease monkey that thinks she knows everything. I saw you spin me out, don’t think you can talk your way out of it.”

Telzey was about ready to hit the other girl when Mel stepped between them. “Young lady,” he said to Ashley, “I’ve been around racing since before your grandparents were born, and I know a dirty move when I see one. That was a dirty move that you tried to pull, and don’t try to talk your way out of it by accusing someone else. I saw that move you made, several officials saw it, and a lot of experienced racers did, too. On top of that, I’m sure the video cameras saw it. If you hadn’t crashed, you’d have been black flagged. Don’t expect to race here ever again.”

“But she spun me!” Ashley protested. “I saw it!”

“Telzey is right,” Jim Kaufmann broke in. “She never got near you. You tried to cut down on her and lost it all on your own. Not only was it a dirty move, it was a dumb one.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Ashley screamed. “She spun me, and crashed my boyfriend’s car. You little bitch, you’re going to pay for this!” She turned around and stomped off.

Mel shook his head. “You know,” he shrugged, “I’m half tempted to call track security and have her escorted from the premises.”

“You ought to do it,” Will suggested.

“Yeah, I ought to,” Mel grinned. “But I don’t think I will, at least not just yet. I’m wondering just how much of that bull Chuck is going to take, and maybe this is a good time to end that story once and for all. I’m pretty sure he saw what happened, too. I’d like to see how he can reconcile a girl like that and a totaled race car. It might just be interesting to watch.”

“You mean whether he’ll be mad enough about his car to dump her, or something like that?” Will grinned.

“Could be,” Mel laughed. “It could be. You better get saddled up, they’ll be calling for the lineup for the Pony Stock feature anytime now.”

*   *   *

Telzey was not surprised to see that the top of the Kaufmanns’ hauler was crowded when she climbed up there after giving Will his good luck kiss just before the cars in the Pony Stock feature pulled out onto the track. Not only Jack Kaufmann’s parents were there, but so were her grandparents, and Kayla and her mother. In all the excitement, she hadn’t had a chance to talk with Kayla, but the girl was still just bubbling at watching her friend race so well, and incensed at Ashley’s actions. “That’s exactly the kind of stuff that Ashley pulls,” she said. “Screw up and blame someone else, just like Carol Lynn. Of course, all the cheerleaders will believe her, but who cares?”

“You know,” Telzey said thoughtfully, “it strikes me that there are those that do, and those that stand by and shine in the reflected light of those that do. You and I are the kind of people that do. Ashley is a cheerleader, so what does that make her?”

“Yeah,” Kayla nodded, “I see what you mean. Darn it, I like to be proud of what I accomplish for myself. I’m a darn good runner and I think I’m going to get better, and that’s something to be proud of. What do girls like Ashley and Carol Lynn have to be proud of? That they’re pretty, and their boyfriends are football players or something. That’s not an accomplishment, that’s leaning on someone else.”

“That’s very perceptive,” Kayla’s mother said. “It’s not bad to be proud of what your friends do, but it is something weak to build a life on. Very often, watchers are jealous of the people who do, because they’re seeing someone do something they couldn’t do for themselves, so they deny that doing it is an accomplishment at all.”

“That’s what Ashley was doing, wasn’t it?” Telzey smiled.

“That’s correct,” Mrs. Holtz laughed. “Or, in simpler terms, think of it as a simple victory of youth and experience over age and arrogance. If you use that line around school, please don’t let it be known that it came from me.”

“I wouldn’t tell a soul,” Kayla grinned. “That doesn’t mean I’m not going to use it, though.”

“Hey, let’s watch the race,” Telzey grinned. “I think my boyfriend is going to do pretty well.”

“Yeah,” Kayla snorted. “Getting a kiss like that in front of the whole grandstand, that’s some way to tell the world that you have a boyfriend.”

“Like we were just saying,” Telzey grinned, “those that can, do, those that can’t . . .”

“Hey, I hang out with Rachel’s brother a lot, I suppose you could call him a boyfriend.”

“Yeah,” Telzey laughed, “but has he kissed you in public? Like at the finish line of a track meet?”

“Not yet,” Kayla snickered, “but we run together in a tournament next Friday.”

*   *   *

Telzey was hoping for a clean and damage-free feature in the Pony Stocks, if for no other reason than to be an arrow in her quiver in the argument she planned on laying on her grandparents to let her get a Pony Stock and race it if there was some way that could be managed. As it turned out, the race was fairly clean, with only two yellow flags for minor spins. Jack, Will, and Alan Gustafson all started near the back of the race, as a result of having either won or done well in their heat races. It was exciting to watch the three of them work their way toward the front of the crowded field during the first half of the race. In the second half, the passing came less frequently, and the lead changed hands among the three of them several times. It all came down to a drag race out of the last turn to the three-wide finish, with Gustafson leading Will by about half a length, and Jack less than that behind Will.

“That was one heck of a race,” Jim Kaufmann said as the racers made their cool-down lap. “Watching one like that is worth sitting through all the junk.”

“Hey, if you don’t mind,” Telzey said, “I’d like to watch the last features from the grandstand, just to see what it’s like.”

“Can’t say as I blame you,” Jim told her. “See you after the race. Better get down there if you want to cross the track.”

Telzey and her grandparents, along with Kayla and her mother, got in the line to cross as the cars started to come off the track. Telzey waved Will to a stop, gave him a quick post-race kiss, and told him she was headed across to the grandstands for a bit. “See you after the race,” he said.

It was fun to sit up in the grandstands to watch the last races of the evening. Telzey was still wearing her fireproof driver’s outfit, which marked her to the crowd, and her grandmother was carrying her trophy, which underlined the point. While the racing was fun, it was also fun to have several of her classmates come up to congratulate her. So far, Telzey had not made much of an impact at Bradford Middle School, but she realized that she was going to have a little more of a reputation after this evening.

Of course when anyone mentioned the accident in the last lap of the Powder Puff race, Telzey quietly made the point that she’d never gotten near Ashley, and that Ashley had tried a dirty move and missed at it. While Telzey had little doubt that Ashley was going to spread her version of the incident around the school, it wouldn’t hurt if the truth was out there, too. As far as she could tell, the kids she talked to agreed that Telzey had not been near Ashley when she spun, and it looked like the cheerleader was trying a dirty move to them. Still, she expected that Monday was going to be an interesting day around the school, in more ways than one – that kiss in front of the grandstand was going to be making the rounds, too.

She didn’t really have anyone to cheer for in the Street Stock feature that followed the Pony Stocks, although she was glad to see that Bud Shoemaker ran well in the 32 car that his wife Carissa had driven in the Powder Puff race. He didn’t win, but he managed a top-five finish, proving that the car wasn’t all that bad. She didn’t know anyone at all in the Vintage Modified race, which was mostly a rerun of the first heat, with the black Ford and the pink Chevy going at it well in front of the rest of the pack. This time, in reverse of the first heat, the Chevy won. It wasn’t until the driver got out in the winner’s circle that Telzey realized that the “Jessie Winters” that she’d been hearing the track announcer talk about driving the Chevy was a woman! Arlene would be happy about that, she thought.

The final race of the evening was the Sportsman feature. This was a bigger race than the Vintage Modifieds, but smaller than the Street Stocks. The Sportsmen only bore a vague resemblance to stock cars, with simple lightweight bodies and cut-down roofs. The engines were a lot louder, since they had racing exhaust headers, rather than the stock exhaust manifolds of the Street Stocks, and the cars were a lot lighter, to boot. They also had racing tires, rather than the street tires of the other stock classes.

Jim Kaufmann started near the back of the Sportsman feature. It was a pretty good race, with only a couple yellow flags for spins. Jim wound up running fourth, which wasn’t anything to complain about except for the fact that he’d been running in second in a three-way battle for the position when the white flag flew, only to slip back on the final lap.

Everyone was invited down to the pits following the race, which was customary, although most of the crowd in the stands headed for home, as did Kayla and her family. Telzey and her grandparents headed back across the track to the pits, not wanting to let the magic of the evening go.

Not surprisingly, they found Will in their joint pit lane, talking with a couple kids she knew from school. For a moment Telzey debated with herself against giving Will another kiss, but then decided that after the one in front of the grandstand, another one didn’t matter. She slid up to him, put her arms around him, and planted one on his lips. “Great race, Will,” she smiled. “You should have won.”

“That’s racing, it happens,” he replied. “You missed all the action, though.”

“Ashley?” she smiled.

“Oh, yeah,” he laughed. “Boy, that was something!”

“Well, come on, don’t leave me hanging,” she laughed. “What happened?”

“A huge, screaming fight between Chuck and Ashley,” he laughed. “It looks like Chuck is going to have time to work on his car, now that he needs it.”

Telzey got a grin on her face. “They broke up?”

“Breaking up is kind of a mild way to describe it,” Will laughed. “I don’t have any idea where Chuck was during the intermission or the Pony Stock race, but I never saw him and I guess Ashley didn’t either. He was waiting here when I got off the track. I hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet when she came storming up and asked him what the, uh, freak, he was going to do about that little, uh, I’m not going to say the word, that wrecked her.”

“I get the picture,” Telzey laughed.

“Yeah, sorry,” Will grinned. “So Chuck was still pretty hot. He told Ashley not to give him any of her BS, he’d had enough of it. She knew darn well that no one had tried to wreck her, and it was clear to everyone who’d seen it that she’d tried to wreck you and failed. Well, of course she was screaming, and then Chuck asked what she planned to do about his car that she’d wrecked.”

“Oh, boy,” one of the kids from school piped up. “I can just imagine what happened next.”

“You got it,” Will snickered. “Leaving out the swearing, what she said was that she didn’t care about the car, that he was better off without it, he’d been wasting all that time on it that he should have been spending with her, so she didn’t plan on doing anything about it. And Chuck said she was wrong about one thing, that it wasn’t that he was better off without the car, he was better off without an arrogant, self-centered, lying, uh, person like her.”

“I’ll bet that set her off pretty good,” another kid said.

“Not that she wasn’t going pretty good already,” Will confirmed. “After that, well let’s just say that I’m not going to repeat the language that was used while Telzey and her grandparents are here. Her ears are way too sweet and innocent to hear that kind of thing.”

“Hey, I grew up around the Army,” Telzey protested. “I’ve probably heard more of that kind of language than you have.”

Will shook his head. “Well, maybe, but I’m still not going to talk like that around your grandparents even if I’m just repeating what someone else said. Anyway, that went on for a while, and finally she stormed off screaming that she never wanted to see him again and with him screaming back at her that it was just fine with him. Well, I’d just sat in the car watching and trying to stay out of the way, but then I figured it was safe to get out. So I was standing there next to Chuck, wondering what I could say to him, and he turned to me and said, ‘Will, one word of advice.’ I asked him what he meant, and he said, ‘Never date a cheerleader. I’ve done it and it’s not worth it.’”

“As if he’s ever going to get to date a cheerleader again after Ashley rants all around the school,” another kid snorted.

“Yeah, but it would be nice if the truth got out somehow,” Will nodded.

As the crowd was thinning out, Jim Kaufmann walked over to where they were standing. “This has been quite an evening,” he smiled.

“Yeah, it’s been one for the books,” Will agreed. “I sort of hope they’re not all like that this year.”

“It would be nice,” Jim replied. “Hey, when we get loaded up, we’re going to head down to that Chicago Inn down by the intersection. Will, I know your folks are going to be a while closing up here, but you kids are welcome to come along.” He turned to Telzey’s grandparents, and added, “That goes for you, too.”

“Sounds good to me,” Will agreed. “We’ve got cars and stuff to put away, so it’s going to be a while before we can leave. What do you say if we meet you there in half an hour or so?”

“I think we can do that,” Cal agreed. “Kids, is there anything we can do to help you get stuff put away?”

“Nothing much that I can think of,” Will said. “The support cart goes into one of the buildings down here, the 66 goes in the building out back, and the 89 goes to the shop. Telzey, why don’t we get the cart put away? Then I’ll drive the 89 down to the shop, and you follow me in the 66 and give me a ride back to the track storage building. That way we can come back here and pick up your grandparents.”

“Sure, she replied. “The sooner we get done, the sooner we can get out of here.”

It only took a couple minutes to put the cart away. It was one of the advantages of being part of the family who owned the track, since they could store cars and tools right there, while virtually everybody else had to load their cars on trailers along with all the support equipment they’d brought along. Some people were good at it and were gone already, while others were standing around shooting the bull, or fiddling around getting ready to go.

There was enough light that it wasn’t too scary for Telzey to follow Will down to the shop in the 66 car. He got out of the 89, opened an overhead door, and got back in to drive it inside while she waited. It took longer than she expected for him to come back out and slide through the right hand window of the 66. “Chuck’s in there, just staring at what’s left of the 86,” he reported.

“How is he?”

“He looks like he just lost his car and his girlfriend.” Will snickered. “I invited him to come down to the Chicago, but whether he’ll show up is anyone’s guess.”

“He probably won’t,” Telzey commented. “He’ll probably be here moping for half the night.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Will agreed. “I mean, not that I ever thought that Ashley was any good for him, but still, it’s got to hurt.”

They got the 66 put away and walked back down to the pits, which were getting pretty empty by now. Will and Telzey could see that the Kaufmanns were finally loaded up, and they were just getting set to leave. “Guess we timed that about right,” Will observed.

After they walked across the track and through the grandstand area, they found Will’s parents in the track ticket office. He stopped in there quickly to tell them they were leaving to go to the Chicago with Telzey’s grandparents, and asked if they should come back afterwards to help with closing up.

“No, we’re in pretty good shape,” Ray observed. “Maybe we’ll just lock up and come back to do the paperwork tomorrow. We’ll see you at home.”