If Telzey had thought about it in the slightest – which she hadn’t – she would not have been surprised to have fallen asleep in the truck on the way home. She vaguely remembered cuddling up next to Will, and that it felt very good to snuggle up next to him, but that was about all she remembered.

The nap in the truck gave her something of a second wind. Once she got back to her grandparents’ house, she took the time to sit down and write an e-mail to her parents, mostly telling them about the race on Saturday night and that she’d done very well, that she had a trophy and everything. She did not tell them anything about Ashley or the crash. She also told them that she’d been with the Austins today when they bought two stock cars, and that she expected to be able to race again some soon. There was no point in getting them too alarmed, after all; there was no hope of covering up the future racing since she knew her grandparents were also e-mailing her parents, and even from this same computer. At the same time there was no reason to get them all upset with something that hadn’t happened yet, either.

That really was about all she had the energy for, and she was nodding her head to even finish that much. The lack of sleep was catching up with her, and it didn’t take long for her to get her pajamas on and get into bed. Sleep wasn’t long in coming, either, and she wasn’t sure if she dreamed about being snuggled up with Will, or just remembered it.

After the nice weather of the weekend, Monday dawned rather more like what April would normally be like – rainy, cold, damp, and windy – an excellent morning to stay in bed. There was no chance of that, though; this was a school day and she had to get up.

The lousy weather brought one unexpected result of Chuck’s breakup with Ashley on Saturday, but it was a welcome one. For most of the last school year, Will had to walk to the bus stop and ride the bus to school, since Chuck had been in the habit of picking his girlfriend up at home, and, of course, she’d objected to the little brother being there. Now that Ashley was history, that meant Will and Telzey could ride to school with Chuck.

Though Bradford Middle School and Bradford High School were in different wings of the same building, the middle school and high school students were on a slightly different schedule so they didn’t have a lot of interaction with each other, except before and after school, when even that was limited. There was no way for Telzey and Will to know what stories Ashley might have spread around the high school and the cheerleaders, although Chuck was certainly going to find out. The subject didn’t even come up in the middle school – and, for that matter, Telzey’s winning the Powder Puff race didn’t really have that much of an impact.

What did have an impact was the kiss that Will had planted on her in the winner’s circle. The teenage denizens of Bradford Middle School – at least the girls – were not much different than teenage girls anywhere: they gossiped continually, and since they were loaded with erupting hormones, much of the gossip was about boys, romance, and sex. Now there was a new and very public romance to gossip about, and the fact of where it happened was only color to the basic “Wow, he kissed you right out in front of everybody! That had to be so cool!”

It proved that at least some of her classmates had been to the race, enough of them to spread the word at something approaching the speed of light. By lunch time, when the three regulars of Telzey, Will, and Kayla gathered in the cafeteria for lunch – not pizza today, at least – Telzey had heard about it at least fifty times, and was frankly a little sick of the topic.

“I think most of it comes from the fact that most of these girls have never had a real kiss,” Kayla observed rather loudly as the sight of Telzey and Will sitting together at lunch brought on more than a few scattered whispers and giggles around the room.

“I think you’re right,” Telzey agreed. “They can only think about how neat it could be. And, you know, it is kinda neat,” she smiled at Will.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “To hear the bull around the locker room and the boys, the girls would rather talk about it than do it. But I’ve had girls come on to me today that would never have spoken to me last week. Go figure.”

“Maybe it’s because you’ve proved that you’re willing to have a girlfriend and actually kiss her,” Kayla laughed. “Most of these girls don’t have that.”

“Well, it is kind of nice to have a boyfriend,” Telzey grinned. “I mean, nothing is probably going to come of it, since I probably won’t be around here that long. But that’s no reason that it can’t be fun while it lasts.”

“Yeah, it’s easy to forget that you’re not going to be here all that long,” Kayla said. “You’ve been here, what? A month and a half?”

“About that,” Telzey said. “From what I hear the war is going really, really good, so there’s the chance that I might not even be back next fall.”

“That does put some limits on it,” Kayla agreed. “Have you heard anything?”

“No, and I probably won’t until right before it’s going to happen,” Telzey replied. “Actually, I’d guess that the odds are about equal that I’ll be here until at least sometime next year, and maybe finish out the school year. I just don’t know. That’s what it’s like being an Army brat.”

“Well, it’ll be different to be in high school next year,” Will said, trying to change the subject a little.

“Yeah, unless we get real lucky, we’ll have Ashley around all the time,” Kayla snorted. “From what I hear, the cheerleaders seem to think they run the school.”

Will shook his head and snorted. “I always thought it was the football players.”

“That’s the way it works,” Kayla laughed. “The football players run the school and their cheerleader girlfriends run them.”

“So where does that leave us racers?”

“On the outside looking in,” Kayla laughed. “And that’s the way you want it, too. If you really cared, you’d be a football player, or I’d be a cheerleader like my mom wanted me to be.”

*   *   *

The weather really hadn’t improved much by the time that school let out, so it was nice to be able to ride home with Chuck – not that there would be a lot of home time involved, since all they planned to do was to change clothes and go work on the new cars.

“So,” Will raised the question, “I suppose Ashley was lying all over the place today.”

“Pretty much, in the morning, anyway,” Chuck laughed. “Of course, she called up all her cheerleader friends yesterday and told her version of the story, but there were enough people out there who saw the real thing that the truth sort of got out. So then there were enough people who were calling her a liar to her face that she decided to pick up and go home at noon.”

“I wonder how long that’ll last,” Will smiled.

“She probably thinks it’ll blow over in a day or two,” Chuck said. “And it probably will. It’s not going to change her mind about anything, though. On the other hand, I had enough people come around and comment that she’d shown her true colors so that it might not matter a whole lot.”

“I suppose,” Telzey said. “But I don’t think she’s the kind of person that’s going to forget about something like that.”

“Probably not, but at least she’s out of my life,” Chuck said. “I don’t even want to think about her any more. Let’s try working at getting the cars ready for next weekend.”

“That’s mostly going to mean your car,” Will replied thoughtfully, glad to be on a different topic. “You got any idea where we start?”

“I think we might as well get the engine out of the 86,” Chuck said. “There’s some work to do on it that will be easier on an engine stand. While there’s other stuff to do on the 15, it’s pretty well piddly stuff by comparison.”

Telzey looked over at him. “I hope that there’s enough I can do to be useful.”

“Oh, we’ll find something,” Chuck told her, “but I think Dad wants to talk to you about that, too.”

It didn’t take them long to get clothes changed and head out to the shop. The 86 car was bent up enough in the rear end that it couldn’t be moved on its own wheels, so they had to jack it up and put dollies under it to get it into the main shop, and Ray had to help push it.

“Before you get started too seriously, there’s something I want to talk to all of you about,” he said. “Telzey, I look at you messing with the 24 car about like I think of the boys working on their cars. That is, an opportunity to learn the skills. So I’m going to do it the same way with you that I do it with them. You’re responsible for your own car. If there’s work to be done, you do it. Now, we all realize that you don’t know much about it, so we’ll show you how to do things, help you with things, and maybe there’ll be something that we just have to go ahead and do. But mostly, the 24 car is going to be your baby.”

“I understand, Mr. Austin,” she replied. “I really want to learn to do this stuff anyway.”

“Well, that’s good,” he replied. “That much said, we also realize that you’re not as strong as the guys, or have the body mass to be able to muscle things, and of course we’ll help when that happens. At the same time, there’s stuff we’re going to call on you to do if for no more reason than you’re smaller and can squirm your way into some of the harder-to-reach places, so it goes both ways. And sometimes, like on the 15 car, everybody is just going to have to pitch in until the job is done. If that happens, and it doesn’t matter whose car it is, if it’s your car I want you to be doing more on it than anyone else to the limit of your ability. What goes around in this life, and in this sport, comes around, Telzey. Always be ready to lend a hand to the next guy because the time will come when you’ll need him to lend you a hand.”

“I think I realized that already,” she said.

“Good enough,” he said. “Let’s let the guys get started on pulling that engine, while you and I go over the 24 car from one end to the other, we’ll make up a list of what needs to be done.”

“I thought that it was pretty well ready to go, from what you said yesterday at Mr. Sprinkle’s,” she replied as she followed him in the direction of her new car.

“Well, yes and no,” he said. “There was nothing major that I saw, but I couldn’t go through it thoroughly. About all you can do in a situation like that, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a race car or if it’s a car you’re thinking about driving on the street, is to check out the stuff that you can see and easily inspect and hope that the level of quality represents what you can’t see.”

“Makes sense,” she said.

There was a clip board with some scratch paper on it sitting on the car, and Ray had already written several items on it, mostly things they’d noticed the day before, things like the need for a new battery, new seat belts, changing the logos, and a few similar items.

They spent a good hour going over the car, and the list had several more items on it by the time they were done. Most of them were fairly minor, like a loose bolt holding the battery box down, but Ray thought that the brakes looked like they might be a little marginal, requiring the rotors to be turned and new pads installed. “That’s one of those things I’ll have to show you how to do, and probably look over your shoulder while you do it the first couple times, since brakes are an especially critical item,” he explained.

“Actually, a lot of this stuff you’re going to have to show me how to do or at least help me with,” she replied.

“The first time or two,” he told her. “After that, you can probably do it on your own. Now, I want you to get a spiral notebook, one like you’d use for school, and turn it into a car logbook. Anything you do to it should be recorded, especially oil changes and any repairs you do. Also, you should record your races in it, where you started, where you finished, any problems with the car, and like that.”

“I didn’t realize there was that much to it,” she said.

“Well, to tell the truth, it’s more to get you in the habit of doing it. With this car once we’ve got it ready to go you can probably get by with giving the car a once over before you go out with it, fluid check, gas, brakes, tires, like that. But if and when you go to a more advanced car, that kind of information can be invaluable, so you might as well learn to do it now. Plus, it’s nice to have a record of your races. You may think that you’ll never forget a race, but after you’ve done it a while you’ll learn better. In fact, I’d make up a separate logbook for the races if I were you. It might be useful if you have to move somewhere away from here and take up racing there, to be able to say that you’ve run so many heats, so many features, and finished in the top five or top ten so many times. It probably would be a good idea to keep a file of entry receipts, payout slips, and any news stories, too.”

“You mean, like if I moved back down to Fort Bragg and started racing there?”

“Exactly,” he told her. “Telzey, I hate to say it, but it’s true and you might as well get used to it. Being a girl, you’re going to have to be twice as good as the guys to be considered half as good. It was that way for my mother, and while things have gotten a little better, they haven’t gotten that much better. There’s a reason that there are no women drivers in NASCAR, and it’s not that men are better drivers than women. There are a number of talented women drivers out there and the potential for more, but unless they can prove it, they won’t have the opportunities that men have. It’s a tough row to hoe, Telzey, and a lot of women won’t go to the trouble. Once you’ve proved yourself on a local level you can probably run at that level or something close to it without too many problems, but it’s always going to be a struggle to find a better ride when you want to move up.”

“I don’t know that I want to make a career as a racer,” she replied. “I just want to be fairly good at it.”

He grinned at the statement. “We’ll see what you say in a few months, when you’re trying to con me into driving the Modified, and no, you can’t, you’re not old enough yet. It’s no great trick to find people that think you shouldn’t be driving anything, not even a go-kart or a lawnmower at your age. I think you’re both smart enough and responsible enough to be able to do it. Again, we’ll see how right I am in the next few months. Really, that’s about that. Lecture completed. What’s first on the list?”

“How about if we work on the brakes?” she said. “I mean, I know I don’t have much idea of what to do with them.”

“Good place to start,” he agreed. “Let’s get a jack and an impact wrench, and get to work.”

*   *   *

By the time they were ready to knock off and go get some supper, Ray had shown Telzey how to get the brakes apart. Really, he had helped a lot, but she was learning how to do it and able to do more and more for herself with every passing moment.

“Telzey, I told your grandparents that you’d be eating with us tonight,” Ray said. “We can head on home, we can order a pizza or something, or we could go over to the Chicago or something.”

“Whatever you want to do,” she said. “I suppose I ought to eat something but I’d like to get finished with the brakes tonight if we can.”

“No reason we shouldn’t be able to,” Ray told her. “But I’m sort of under orders that I’m not to let you kids work too late. If we work right along each night, we should be able to get everything done.”

“Why don’t we just get in another hour or two, then knock off for the night?” Chuck suggested. “That way we don’t have to get cleaned up twice.”

The idea was fine with everyone. They went back to work, and in about an hour the brakes were back on the 24 car, and the engine was out of the 86 car, sitting on an engine stand. That seemed like a pretty good place to call it a night. Chuck thought that he could pretty well wrap up the engine work the next night and install it in the 15 the following evening.

“I was thinking about it,” Chuck said as they picked up tools and cleaned up the work area. “The belts on the 24 car are expired. Both the belts on the 15 and the 86 have a year left on them. Why don’t we just take the belts out of the 86 and put them in the 24? That’d save a few bucks for now, and I want to salvage everything off the 86 I can, even though I don’t have to do it all right away.”

“I can’t think of any reason to argue with that,” Ray commented. “And that’s one of those things that has to be done on the 24 before Telzey can race it. If we’re still trying for M-50 Friday night, there’ll be a few other things, too.”

“I think we can make it,” Chuck said. “I sure would like to get some test-and-tune time on the 15 before we race it, though. If anything goes wrong, then we may have to be here working on it Friday so I can roll it out for test-and-tune on Saturday.”

“Well, as much as I’d like to go to M-50 Friday, I’d like to be sure Chuck is ready to go for here Saturday,” Will observed. “And that leads to another question. We’ve got a two-car trailer and a one-car trailer, how are we going to get four cars up there?”

“I did a little calling around,” Ray said. “I was able to horse trade the old one-car trailer and a few odds and ends for a second two-car trailer from a guy who didn’t need it any longer. I’m going to pick it up tomorrow. Chuck, that means you’re going to have to haul two cars up there behind one of the track trucks. I think probably both the Ponies, as this new trailer is just a touch on the small side.”

“No problem,” Chuck agreed. “I’m glad to see the single trailer gone, anyway. That one seemed to be getting a little shaky to me.”

“It did to me, too,” Ray agreed. “I’ve welded on it more than I wanted to over the years. It really wasn’t built to haul the weight we were putting on it. What do you say we get cleaned up and get out of here? I still wouldn’t mind getting something to eat. We can continue this discussion down at the Chicago.”

Once again, Telzey and Will rode with Chuck in his car while Ray drove his truck down to the restaurant. The place wasn’t busy at this hour of the evening. A waitress came by and took their orders, and they quickly fell into a discussion of how they were going to organize tools and spare parts and tires that they’d take to the races. The races at Bradford were no problem since there was the equipment shed in the infield that they had already used, and Chuck could use it too – they’d be better off parking next to each other in the pits, anyway. It was going to be a hassle to load up to go to races away from Bradford, and they needed to work out a system to make things a little easier. There were several ideas, and they talked it around for a while.

About that time Telzey was feeling the need to use the rest room which was located toward the back of the building. She excused herself and headed back there. A couple minutes later, as she came out, she heard a familiar voice from the kitchen area. She glanced that way, and her eyes just about bugged out. She raced back to the table, and said, “You guys won’t believe what I just saw! I can’t believe it myself!”

“What?” Will smiled.

“It looks like this place has a new dishwasher,” Telzey grinned. “Someone you know pretty well, Chuck.”

“Telzey, you’ve got to be, uh, pulling my leg,” Chuck said. “I can’t believe that would ever happen.”

“Go see for yourself,” she grinned.

“You’re sure?” he asked. “I’m not sure I’d want her to see me!”

“Well, go to the bathroom and peek around the corner,” she grinned. “Believe me, it’s a sight that you have to see for yourself.”

“All right,” he said as he got up. “I can’t believe you’re not playing a joke on me.” He headed back to the men’s bathroom, which was on the same hall as the women’s, and glanced into the kitchen to see a back side that he was very familiar with. Ashley couldn’t see him – she was bent over the sink working at a grimy pot, and he could hear her swearing at the world in general from the hall. Just unbelievable, but there it was!

Chuck quickly decided that under the circumstances it was better to not let himself be seen, so he quietly turned and snuck away. A minute later he was back at the table, still amazed at the sight. “Jeez-o-Pete,” he said. “I never thought I’d see that. I wonder how it happened?”

“Her dad said he’d like to take it out of her hide,” Will observed. “I’ll bet he laid down the law.”

“Big time,” Chuck shook his head in wonder. “She usually gets what she wants out of him without half trying. It’s gonna be interesting.”

“What’s going to be interesting?”

“What gets said around school tomorrow,” he grinned. “I am not saying a word, I just want to hear what other people say.”

*   *   *

Ashley Hitchcock was just about fit to be tied. She’d had plans to go out shopping with some friends after dinner, and this had to happen!

She’d thought the tantrum that she’d thrown around her father when she got home from the track on Saturday night pretty well had him convinced that she was right – especially when he went storming off “to have a word or two with that little punk.” She’d been in bed by the time he got back, so he hadn’t said anything further, and nothing was said Sunday about it – nothing at all. For some reason, that didn’t concern her. Apparently it was a dead issue as far as he was concerned, so she figured that Chuck and maybe that little middle school bitch had been put in their proper places.

Things had gone pretty well around school today, she thought. Her friends had all believed her version of the story, although a few nothing kids who didn’t matter thought she had to be in the wrong, just on general principles. She wasn’t one to like being snickered at, though, so she decided to not listen to it. She could ‘get sick’ and skip school; after all, no one would dare mark her down for being absent, would they?

She didn’t want to go home and have her mother ask why she wasn’t in school, so she got in her bright red Mustang, new the previous summer, and headed over to the Mall in Hawthorne just to check out a few clothing stores and hang out a while. It was better than going home, anyway. She got home about the time she normally would from school, and again nothing was said. After all, why would anyone say anything?

Then her father got home. He seemed calm, even relaxed. “Ashley,” he’d said, “I need to talk with you for a minute.”

“OK, Daddy,” she said sweetly. After all, he’d landed on Chuck late Saturday night and put him in his place.

“Ashley,” he said, a little more sternly, “this latest escapade of yours was a little over the top. Not only did you make the whole family look like fools, you cost me $3,000 to settle up the damage you caused.”

“What damage?” she asked, literally unable to believe that she could have caused any damage.

“Wrecking young Austin’s car for him,” he said. “I’ve talked to a number of people about it, and I’ve seen the video. It’s just absolutely clear you tried to wreck the girl who was driving the 66 car. If you look at the video it’s plain as mud. Ashley, you’re a headstrong fool, and you have got to learn some responsibility for your actions. You owe me three thousand dollars, and you’re grounded until you pay me.”

“Can’t you just take it out of my allowance?” she said, a little dismayed, but trying to find a way out. After all, she could get enough money to get by on by asking her mother.

“No,” he said, “because you don’t get any allowance while you’re grounded. You’re going to have to find out what it means to work for your money.”

“Well, I suppose I could look for a job,” she said quietly. Jobs could be hard to find, and she might be able to put it off till it was forgotten about. Maybe she could try acting cooperative. “Maybe there’s something you could find for me to do at the bank this summer.” That couldn’t be too bad, she thought.

“That’s not an issue,” he said. “I called in a favor or two today and got you a job. You’re working seven to eleven at the Chicago Inn, starting tonight.”

“The Chicago Inn?” she frowned. “Doing what, being a hostess maybe?” That would be terrible! People would see her, she’d be on her feet all the time.

“No,” he said. “Wear your old clothes. You’re going to be busting suds.”

“A dishwasher?” she screamed. “Daddy, no! No way! There’s no way I’m going to be a dishwasher at the Chicago!”

“Fine with me,” he shrugged. “If you’re not going to work to pay your debts, you’re going to be grounded anyway, so you’re not going to need your Mustang. I’ll just sell it, and pay off what’s owed on it after I get my money out.”

“Daddy! You wouldn’t sell my car!”

Her father just let her rant and scream until she ran out of breath. “Just remember one thing,” he said. “I’m a banker. I’ve repossessed cars and foreclosed on homes to get my money. That’s an uncomfortable part of my job. Since my name is already on your car, this one will be easy.”

Needless to say, she was just about frothing at the mouth when her father dropped her off for work. Being grounded meant that her car was deadlined, and she’d even have to ride the bus to school, something she thought she’d left behind when she got her license and her little red Mustang. He left her with one final thought. “Ashley, don’t think you’re going to get away with throwing a temper tantrum out there and get yourself fired to get out of this, either. There are worse jobs.”

“How can anything be worse?” she said glumly.

“You wouldn’t believe the dairy farms that owe me money,” he said with a smile. “You could spend your summer shoveling cow manure. It probably wouldn’t hurt you. You could stand the exercise.”

Ashley wasn’t much of a person to like being forced to do anything, whether by her father or anyone else, but he had her in a bind. At least for tonight there wasn’t much else she could do but go in and learn to wash dishes without being too sullen about it.

The dishes were endless. There always seemed to be a backlog, and some of the pots that needed to be washed were just absolutely impossible. Her nails were a frazzle after the first hour and her hands were already red and chapped. Worse, how could she keep her friends from finding out what she’d been forced to do?

There had to be something she could do to get even. Get even with her father, especially, but also with Chuck, who had obviously talked him into this. And there had to be something, anything at all, that she could do to get even with that little middle school bitch who had caused her all this trouble!

It wasn’t going to be easy to get even with her. There were lots of things she could do if Telzey were in high school, but with her in middle school her options were very limited, especially since she wasn’t into school sports or activities. There wasn’t much she could do there. To make it worse there were only about six weeks of school left before summer break, and that meant there wasn’t enough time left for some of the things she could do around school.

It was going to be hard to be patient and wait till school was back in session in the fall, and as she stood there turning the options over in her mind she realized that even if she waited there still might not be anything she could do. If she correctly remembered Chuck talking about her, her folks were in the Army, in the Persian Gulf or Iraq or something, and she might not even still be in town in the fall. As far as she knew – and she didn’t really know all that much – the kid didn’t have very many friends around here anyway, except for the Austins, so it was going to be hard to use her friends to get at her.

There had to be a way. She glanced up at the clock – not even nine yet, and eleven seemed like approximately forever, especially considering that she’d have to be doing it tomorrow night, too. And the next night, and the next, too. How long was it going to take to make three thousand dollars at a take home pay somewhere around six dollars an hour? Even if she didn’t spend any money on anything else? As well as she could do the math in her head, it seemed like it would take all summer and then some.

She reached up to wipe the sweat from her brow and a tear from her eye, and that didn’t even help: all it did was get soap in her eyes.

There had to be a way. A way out of this, and a way to get back at those people who had caused her all this trouble . . .