Sunday morning, like the last week, was for going out to the track and picking up after race night. There really wasn’t a lot different about it this week from the previous one, although it went a little bit more quickly for no good reason. They wrapped up in the middle of the morning. Except for Chuck, who wanted to work on the 15 car some more, they figured that the rest of the day was to take some down time. After all, there hadn’t been much time to just kick back and relax for the last week and a half for any of them.

“I’m just glad that Moonshine Valley isn’t open for the season yet,” Will sighed as they worked. “It’d be tough to make races at M-50 or Calhoun County on Friday, here on Saturday and Moonshine Valley on Sunday, do our work here and have to go to school, too.”

“Yeah, no fooling,” Telzey agreed. “I feel like I’m just about as busy as I want to be now. But when we get out of school, we can do the work here during the week.”

“Fortunately, we don’t have a lot of school left,” he said. “I think we may just give Moonshine Valley a pass until school gets out. Last year I raced here on Saturday and there on Sunday, but I only raced a few times on Friday night.”

“It’ll be busy, that’s for sure,” she nodded. “I’m just glad to have an afternoon off. What do you want to do this afternoon, go out and mess around with the ATV and go-kart, or just veg out and watch NASCAR?”

There was no contest. After they finished picking up trash around the track and doing some odd jobs, they rode back to the house with Ray, grabbed some snacks, and settled down on the couch to watch the day’s race, starting with the pre-race show on the SPEED channel, while Ray joined them in his easy chair. It felt good for Will and Telzey to snuggle up together on the couch, and the feeling of closeness was comforting. Somehow, everyone fell asleep, and not only did they miss the pre-race ceremonies and the start, but they managed to sleep through the first two thirds of the race. That, as Ray observed afterwards, was no big loss. The sleep was welcome, and the best part of the race was the last thirty laps, anyway. In fact, that’s why he thought a thirty-lap feature was about right.

It was almost a relief to get back to school on Monday. It wasn’t that school was difficult, or at least more difficult than usual, but with the summer break coming on it just wasn’t the highest thing on Telzey’s priority list. While she wanted to get good grades and usually did, the track and the freedom of summer were calling, and it was progressively more difficult to keep her mind on her work.

From what she could tell from the TV the war in Iraq was over with, and the frequent e-mails she got from her parents reassured her that everything was all right with them. The idea that the war was over with was reinforced when President Bush made the announcement that major combat operations had been completed, although there were still a lot of problems with rioting, looting, and things like that. That caused her hopes to increase that her parents would be home before long. At that, she hoped it wouldn’t be too soon, since their arrival at home would pretty well bring her racing to an end, and she hoped to at least be able to get in a few more races. Still, she missed her parents and wanted to have them back so she could be in a regular family again.

Her spirits were lifted late one evening along in the week, when her mother called her. “I just got your DVD last night,” she reported. “It was really thrilling to watch your race. We put it on a laptop in the comm center and a bunch of us sat around watching it. It was really neat to see how well you did.”

“Gramma said that she sent a DVD of last Saturday’s race to you,” Telzey reported. “So it’s on the way. That race was actually a lot more exciting.”

“Oh, we got our fair share of excitement,” her mother replied. “We watched the whole thing, not just your race. Someone even got some popcorn and it was almost like we were really at the races back when I was a kid. It was really neat. I don’t know if your father got his copy yet, I haven’t talked to him in a couple days.”

That was neat that her mother was so excited about seeing the DVD. That meant it was unlikely that she’d want her to quit racing on a regular basis. But there was a more important question that affected her racing future: “Do you have any idea how much longer you’re going to be there?”

“No idea, Honey,” her mother replied. “I think it’s going to be for a while, yet. This is a lot different than the last time, and from what I’m hearing the situation isn’t going to stabilize for a while. At least we’re here in Kuwait where it’s safe.”

“Is there any chance they’re going to move you up into Iraq?”

“I wish I could tell you Honey, but I don’t know. In the real short run, I don’t think so, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we’re here for another six months or a year. From what we can tell it’s still really dangerous up there and we’re not a combat outfit, you know that.”

“I realize you have to be there, Mom, but I wish you were home.”

“Well, I wish your father and I were home, too,” her mother replied. “But it’s almost certainly not going to be for a while. This is what we’re paid to do, and what we signed up for, so we have to do our jobs. It won’t be forever and we’ll be back together.”

“I know, Mom. It’s just that I miss you. I’m enjoying the racing and hanging around with Will, but I wish you could be here with me to see it.”

“I do, too, Honey. Keep on racing and keep on sending the DVDs.”

This hadn’t been the first phone call she’d had from her parents, but this one had cleared the air on several things that she’d been wondering about. First off, there was no opposition from her mother to her continued racing, and if her mother approved, her father wasn’t likely to oppose her.

More importantly, it was likely that her parents wouldn’t be home as soon as the news reports had been hinting. This one conversation hadn’t been hopeful in that regard, and although there had been no real predictions made, Telzey now thought that there was a good chance that she would still be in Bradford when a new school year started. While that meant that she stood a good chance of getting in a full racing season, it also meant that her family would be apart for a long time to come.

*   *   *

After the first weekend of the real racing season, it was obvious that they couldn’t do a three-race weekend and still get their work done just yet. The following Friday they headed up to M-50 with just Ray’s Modified and Chuck’s Sportsman. That mostly was to give Ray a chance to get his car out for the first time in the season, and to give Chuck a chance to work on the tune of his car without having to do it under the pressure of a points race.

M-50 Raceway was up close to Lansing. It was a nice little track well out in the country. It was about the same size as Bradford Speedway, but the pits were all located outside the track limits, on the back side of it from the grandstand. The infield was just solid grass with no wall on the inside of the track, so a spin into the infield didn’t have much to hit. The group of people there was very friendly and it was a nice place to race. Will and Telzey watched most of the race from a small grandstand on the pit side of the track, and it had a great view, one they wished they had at Bradford.

The next day was Saturday, and like the previous week they spent much of the morning cutting grass around the track and doing some of the various maintenance items needed for a race. This week they took a good break for a meal and a little rest before Telzey and Will ran their cars down to the pits, got settled in and made their qualifying runs. Once again, both of them had good runs but weren’t the fastest. Telzey had what she thought was a very good qualifying lap for the little experience that she had, and her respect for the car that Dean Sprinkle had built just increased. This was a fast little hot rod and it had given her little problem so far.

This evening, her grandparents had purchased the more expensive pit passes, so they could join Telzey in the pits. This was something new, and while the races couldn’t be seen as well from the pits it was a different experience for them.

As the qualifying times had worked out, both Will and Telzey started toward the back in the second heat. Telzey was in the row ahead of Will, and it was a mad race. There were several cautions, two accidents, and spins aplenty. Telzey managed to keep it going straight, but Will overcooked it when trying to pass Gustafson and did three turns right down the back stretch to cause one of the cautions. When everything settled out, Gustafson wound up winning, but Telzey was in second and Will was in third.

In the Sportsman race, Chuck did a lot better this week, finishing third in the first heat after a battle with Jim Kaufmann. This was the best he had yet run with the 15 car, which at least proved that the car had lots of potential, even though it still needed some work.

While the Street Stock races were going on, Will and Telzey circulated through the pits a little bit, to talk with some of their competitors. Telzey hadn’t met Alan Gustafson before, but found him interesting. As Will had told her, he was big, not well coordinated, and talked with a speech impediment; she had been told that he had cerebral palsy and she believed it after meeting him. But he was a really nice guy with a good sense of humor, and that year he had a car that could reward his obvious talent. It was clear that he was going to be steady competition all season long.

They talked with some of the other competitors a little more briefly, but time was flying and they wanted to be back to watch Chuck run in the Sportsman heat, so they didn’t have a lot of time. Finally, it was time to head over to get him sent off, so they hurried back, just stopping to wave at some of the other Pony Stock racers, including Matt d’Lamater and his girlfriend Larissa Zoisite. As they passed their adjoining pit stalls, Larissa was nowhere to be seen, but Matt was standing there in earnest conversation with a tall blonde that they knew a little too well: Ashley Hitchcock.

*   *   *

So far, so good, Ashley thought. She’d only had a brief chance the previous week to talk to Matt, but she had managed to make a little bit of an impression on him. She really hadn’t been able to find out much information about him – the sort of things she might need to know to separate him from his girlfriend. It was a risk to have to approach him here, with his girlfriend close by, and with the possibility of being seen messing around with him at Bradford. That was a risk that she about had to take if she wanted to get close enough to him to get him to do what she wanted.

Really, about all she could do was to act interested, well fascinated, with him and what he was doing. She knew enough about racing from hanging around with Chuck all those months to be fairly knowledgeable about it but she realized that a lot of men were more impressionable if she acted as if she knew nothing. About all she could hope to accomplish this evening was to get some of that information she needed to make an independent approach, and maybe let him think that the grass might be greener on the other side of the fence. She didn’t notice Will and Telzey pass by a short distance away, though she thought if they had seen her, they wouldn’t have any idea of what she was up to anyway.

The big thing she got out of it was to find out that d’Lamater raced on Friday nights at Meridian Raceway, a dirt track located quite a ways to the east, about as far away on the other side of his home as Bradford was this side of it. That was good for her; it was a place that no one from Bradford was likely to see her, and she could probably be a little more forward there.

The problem remained about getting to Meridian in the first place without a car, but maybe there was something she could do about that. Anyway, it was worth the effort to try working on him there, and she hadn’t seen anything that led her to think that she might not be able to push his girlfriend to the side.

*   *   *

Telzey started near the back of the pack again, thanks to her good finish in her heat race. This time it didn’t work out so well; she made some decisions that could have been better, and got mired in a pack of cars racing for about tenth place. It took a while to work her way through them, but by the time she was free of that battle the laps were winding down and the best she could get out of it was eighth place. Jack Kaufmann spun twice, so had to go to the end of the line, so it came down to a battle between Will and Alan Gustafson for the win, and this time Will managed to bring off the win, for his first feature win of the season. From the way things were shaping up, it looked as if he had a very good chance to run for the season track championship, although there was a long way to go before that would be settled.

Chuck also started near the back of the pack in the Sportsman race and ran well for the first part, but about halfway through the race his handling began to go sour on him. He couldn’t figure it out, but just kept pressing on while car after car passed him. He wound up with an eleventh-place finish, and it was only after he got back to the pits that he discovered that a tire had gone very soft on him. It wasn’t enough to flatten it but it was quite low, more than enough to louse up the handling. It was bad luck, but it was just one of those racing things, and the way the car had performed otherwise made him think that he had a better chance in the future.

As Telzey rode home with her grandparents after the race, she thought that while it hadn’t been a good night, it hadn’t been a bad one, either. She had made some mistakes that had cost her, but she was learning from them and it would be less likely that she would make them in the future.

*   *   *

When it had first become clear to Telzey that she’d be at her grandparents for an extended stay, one of the things that had made the thought palatable was that her aunt Susan would be there. Telzey’s mother Sheila was the oldest in the family and Susan was the youngest. Though Susan was several years older than Telzey, the two of them had always gotten along well and had fun together. There were things about growing up that Telzey just hadn’t been able to ask her mother without being really embarrassed about it, but in the past she’d been able to ask Susan about them, and that had worked out well.

However, Telzey had forgotten a minor detail: Susan was in her first year of college at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, nearly six hundred miles away. Susan hadn’t been home since Telzey had been there, although they had talked on the phone a few times. Telzey had been looking forward to when Susan would be home for the summer.

Like the weekend before, Telzey spent Sunday afternoon at the Austins, in theory watching the NASCAR race at Richmond, but in practice falling asleep in Will’s arms on the couch once again for most of the race. They did wake up in time for the last few laps of the rain-shortened race and the part they were awake for was not the most exciting Winston Cup race they’d ever seen. However, when Telzey happened to glance outside at her grandparents’ house, she saw a strange car in the driveway, and realized that Susan must have gotten home.

Not surprisingly, the car was packed to the roof with stuff from Susan’s dorm room, and Telzey wondered just how she’d been able to drive it. She and Will headed across the driveway and helped with the unloading, but Will was wise enough to head for home before the serious girl talk began.

Susan was clearly Telzey’s mother Sheila’s sister – the family resemblance was remarkable. Susan was taller than Telzey, but a touch shorter than her sister, with long brown hair rather than her sister’s neck-length cut. Even their voices seemed a lot alike. It was a while before Telzey got to sit down with Susan on the back porch and just talk for a bit.

“So how did you like college?” Telzey asked. She really hadn’t thought much about going to college – it was an option that lay out there, she was sure, but it was far enough in the future that she really hadn’t given it much consideration.

“Oh, it was all right,” Susan sighed in a tone that made Telzey think that it wasn’t all that great. “The work, well, a lot of it is dumb and pointless, and at the same time it’s harder than I was expecting.”

“Did you do all right?” Telzey frowned.

“Yeah, I guess,” Susan sighed again. “Look, Telzey, I haven’t gotten around to telling the folks yet, but I’m giving some thought to not going back there.”

“Why’s that?”

“Oh, the school is all right, I guess,” Susan explained with a shrug, “but it’s a long way from home and I got pretty homesick there for a while. They get snow like you wouldn’t believe, and Houghton is an old town and a beat up, dirty one. And, well, I didn’t like a lot of the kids. I could never find a guy I could stand for more than one date. I was in a dorm where there was a lot of drinking and pot smoking and kids sleeping around, if you know what I mean. When you’re not one of the party crowd you’re kind of left out.”

“Is there that much partying? Telzey wanted to know.

“It sure seems like it,” Susan shook her head. “Sometimes, especially on the weekends but almost any night of the week someone is blaring loud music until it’s time to get up, there are a lot of drunks running around, and I could hardly walk down the halls without getting pawed. If you like that kind of life I guess it’s all right, but I had other things to do, like study and sleep.”

“So what do you think you might do instead?”

“I don’t know,” Susan sighed again. “There’s several things I could do, but I haven’t made my mind up yet. Maybe go to Western or Grand Valley; they’re a lot closer to home, so I could come home on a weekend if I really wanted to. There are a couple other places that I could transfer to, as well. But, well, I’ve thought about doing something else, too. I keep thinking about doing like Sheila did, join the service. It seems to have worked out pretty well for her, but when I think of her over there roasting in some desert while you’re sitting here, I can see the down side, too.”

“I’d sort of been thinking about joining the Army when I get out of high school,” Telzey admitted, “but I keep thinking the same thing. We’ve lived in a couple of neat places. When we were in Germany, we got to travel around and see a lot of things. North Carolina is nice, not anywhere near as bad in the winter as it is here, and there are things I like to do there. But then you risk getting sent to some place like the Persian Gulf, like Mom and Dad. I get the impression that they’re doing all right, it’s just that there isn’t a lot to do but work and be bored.”

“When this broke out, one of my professors quoted someone or another as saying, ‘War is an organized bore.’ I get the feeling Sheila would agree.”

“So do you have any idea what you’re going to do?”

“No, not really. I’m going to make a trip or two around and see what a couple other colleges are like. I really liked Grand Valley, but I decided to go to Michigan Tech instead because I wanted to get far enough away from home that I wouldn’t be tempted to come home all the time. That was a mistake, I guess. Anyway, I’ve got a couple months to figure it out and there’s no point in rushing it. I think what I’m going to do is to relax a bit, catch up on my sleep, and think about it. I really need to earn a little money this summer but I don’t think I want a full-time job.”

“Why don’t you go next door and talk to Mr. Austin?” Telzey suggested. “He was saying just today that they need someone to take tickets and do some odd jobs out at the track. It might only be a day or two a week, but it would be a little money.”

“That might not be such a bad deal,” Susan agreed. “Mom tells me that you’re hanging around with Will a lot and working out there some. I didn’t think you were old enough for a work permit.”

“I’m not,” Telzey admitted. “I’m just kind of helping out with a few chores, like picking up trash and cutting the grass. In return, Mr. Austin is loaning me a race car and helping me with my expenses, like entry fees.”

A frown crossed Susan’s face. “I didn’t realize you were racing out there. Aren’t you too young for that, too?”

“No, I’m not even the youngest one racing Pony Stocks,” Telzey grinned. “There’s a kid that just turned thirteen last month. He’d raced go-karts for a while so it’s not like he’s starting from scratch like I did, but he’s driving an Escort and he’s giving up some engine to us Dodge drivers.”

“I’m sorry,” Susan shook her head. “Somehow I just can’t imagine you as a race car driver. I keep thinking you should still be playing with your Barbie dolls.”

“No, they got left in North Carolina,” Telzey grinned. “I think I’ve grown up a little since I saw you the last time.”

“You sure have,” Susan smiled. “You’re not that much smaller than me. I’ll bet I have a ton of clothes that are just a little too small for me and would be a perfect fit for you. Maybe we should go through them some time.”

“I’d like that. I don’t have a lot of summer clothes with me, and I’ve outgrown some of the ones I brought. Grandma and I have talked about going shopping some time, but we haven’t done it yet.”

“It’s best if you don’t go shopping with Mom anyway,” Susan laughed. “Mom’s ideas about clothes, well, they’re not real stylish, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I think I do,” Telzey giggled. “They would have been pretty square when she was a kid.”

“You got that right. I think you want to wear something that’s, well, a little more up with the times.”

*   *   *

Monday morning dawned clear and cool, so Telzey dressed for school about like normal, which is to say, jeans and a sweatshirt. Over the course of the day it warmed up a lot, and it became uncomfortably hot in the school. During gym class she was especially hot, and after it was over with she took a long, cool shower, then wound up sitting on the bench in front of her locker in the nude, unwilling to get dressed.

Kayla was nearby, nude herself, of course – she never wore clothes in the locker room for a minute more than she had to. “What’s the matter, Telzey?” she asked.

“I just don’t want to get back into these hot clothes,” Telzey admitted. “I don’t know why I wanted to wear something this warm today.”

“It got hotter than I expected, too,” Kayla told her. “I think I’m just going to go to class in my gym shorts and T-shirt.”

“Will they let you do that?”

“Sure, as hot as it is, they’re not going to care much,” Kayla smiled. “When it’s this warm they’ll let you get away with a lot.”

“But they’re all sweaty and stinky from gym class,” Telzey protested.

“And your jeans and sweats aren’t?” Kayla grinned. “You’re going to smell either way; you just have the choice about whether you’re going to be uncomfortable or not.”

Telzey was still wearing her gym shorts and T-shirt in the car when Chuck drove the three of them home. She put down her books and headed straight from the shower, since the gym clothes were about as bad as she thought they might be. “Hey, Telzey,” Susan called out as she passed her door. “I found a few things that might fit you.”

“Good, if they’re cool I’ll try some of them on as soon as I get cleaned up,” she replied.

A few minutes later, she walked down the hall wearing only a towel wrapped around her, and found a pile of clothes sitting on her bed. Right at the moment she didn’t want to wear more than she had to. She pulled on panties, and looked around on the bed for a likely pair of shorts.

There was one pair of denim shorts there that really seemed like they would be tiny on her, and she wondered if she could even fit into them. Out of curiosity, she put them on and pulled them up. They were snug and high cut, and rode low on her hips, but miracle of miracles, they seemed to fit. They might be a little radical to wear out on the street, but they would be all right for around the house, she thought.

Now for a top. She looked around on the bed for something light. She found a white spaghetti-strap camisole that seemed like it would do the job, although again she wondered if she would fit into it. She pulled it on, and found that the material had quite a bit of stretch – it was snug around her breasts and left quite a bit to be seen down between them. It also didn’t come down her belly as far as her navel. This was a lot hotter than she normally dressed, but she thought she looked pretty good when she looked at herself in the mirror – if the idea was to look hot and sexy.

She wondered what Susan would think, so wandered across the hall to her aunt’s room. “Well,” she said, “What do you think?”

“Wow,” Susan smiled. “Those Daisy Dukes really look good on you, and you sure fill out that top. The only thing is that I think it looks pretty tacky for a girl to have bra straps hanging out from a top like that.”

“I’ve seen it, and I think so too,” Telzey agreed. “But what else am I going to do?”

“I wonder how that would look without a bra,” Susan smiled. “I don’t think you’re too big to get away with it. Close, but not too big. Why don’t you try it?”

By this time, Telzey had been regularly wearing a bra for a while and was used to it. It had been exciting when she first was able to wear one, since it made her feel like she was growing up, but as time passed it became just something else she had to deal with, along with some of the other not so fun aspects of being a girl. It was just about unthinkable for her to wear a top like that without a bra, but with Susan’s urging she decided to give it a try. She went back to her room, pulled up the top, and wiggled out of her bra, then pulled the top back down.

The top was cut such that it went a long way to providing the function of a bra without actually being one, and to Telzey’s surprise seemed even more comfortable. “You know,” she told Susan, who stood there watching, “I almost think I could get away with that.”

“Oh, I’m sure you could, in the right place,” Susan agreed. “It’s not something that you would want to wear to school, but there are places where it would be all right.”

“Yeah,” Telzey snorted. “I’ve seen places like that around Army bases.”

“Oh, don’t be such a square,” Susan said. “Look, I figure there are a lot of ways that girls can dress, and you have to dress appropriately for what you’re doing. The way I see it, you can dress classy, flashy, trashy, or sloppy. You have sloppy down pretty good. That outfit is trashy, there’s no question about it, but like I just said, there’s a time and a place for trashy. In school, or in college, most girls dress either sloppy or flashy, which I take to mean looking good without showing too much skin. Then, there’s classy, you know what that means, and it’s no more appropriate for most schools than to dress trashy. Around the house, most girls either dress sloppy or trashy, and like I said you have the sloppy part down pretty good.”

“I’m not sure I want to even dress around the house in this combination,” Telzey shook her head.

“Tell you what,” Susan laughed. “How about I put on something that’s about as trashy? Maybe that’ll spread the effect and you won’t feel like you’re sticking out so much.”

“Well,” Telzey agreed dubiously, “I suppose we could find out.”

In only a couple minutes Susan had changed to a snug black camisole top, like Telzey without a bra, and a red plaid low-rider skirt that was so short that it barely covered her butt when she was standing up. “Trashy enough for you?” she asked.

“Easily,” Telzey giggled. “Boy, I can sure think of some streets where I wouldn’t dare wear something like this.”

“Well, I can, too,” Susan laughed. “But when you want to knock a guy’s eyes out, this will sure do the job. What do you say we head downstairs and find a Coke and something for a snack?”

A few minutes later they were sitting on the back porch, working on some veggies and drinking their Cokes. “You know,” Susan commented, “we really ought to be lying out in the sun, working on our tans.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Telzey agreed. “That’s something else I’ve got to get, a good swimsuit.”

“Something racy or something straight?”

“Well, I was sort of thinking something straight for when I actually went swimming, but like you said, there are times that you don’t want that.”

“Right, for lying out in the sun you probably want something racy,” Susan agreed. “I’ve got a couple you might want to try on.”

“I don’t know why that should surprise me,” Telzey giggled. “After all, considering these clothes they probably have about as much material as the average handkerchief.”

“Not that conservative,” Susan laughed. “I mean, if you want to wear a granny suit, that would serve.”

They teased each other about clothes for a while, and went on to talking about other things, like the possibility of a big shopping expedition sometime in the near future. It just about couldn’t be on Saturday, since Telzey was normally busy from early in the morning until well after dark at the track. “Maybe some day after school this week,” Susan suggested. They were so busy talking that they didn’t notice anyone approaching until there was a light knock at the door.

Telzey glanced up, to see Will standing there. Without thinking, she glanced up and said, “Oh, hi. Come on in, Will.” Then, she realized what she was wearing and wondered for an instant if she really wanted him to see her dressed like that. But it was already too late; she knew as soon as she thought about it that she’d have to tough it out and try not to show her increasing embarrassment.

Will walked casually through the door. He had been hanging out around the Griffin house a lot since Telzey had been there. “Hi, Telzey,” he said in a nonchalant voice. “I was wondering if maybe you would like to take the ATV . . .” he began, then stopped in mid-sentence. “Wow,” he said in pure awe as he searched for words, but all he could manage was another “Wow!” He shook his head and added, “Wow, you look sexy.”

“Thanks, Will,” she grinned. “I do like to look like a girl once in a while, you know.”

“No fooling you look like a girl,” he said, his eyes bugging out. “I guess I’m going to be glad that summer is here.”

“See, I told you, Telzey,” Susan laughed. “You really can knock a guy’s eyes out with that outfit.”

“Yeah,” Will agreed, trying to keep his stare from straying too far below her chin. It was a hopeless cause. “You sure can.”

“Maybe we ought to have second thoughts about lying out in the sun in some tiny bikinis,” Susan laughed. “We might give him a heart attack.”

They sat around talking for a while, but for once Telzey was not all that interested in going out and riding around on the ATV or the kart – there was still some catching up to do with Susan. There would be plenty of time to run the machines some other time. Will usually wasn’t all that interested in girl talk, but he hung around this afternoon for some reason, in fact, until it was time to head home for supper.

“That was fun,” Telzey giggled after Will had left. “And you’re right, it is fun to draw attention because of the way you dress. After supper, let’s head back upstairs and see if we can find something flashy for me to wear to school.”

*   *   *

“Wow,” Kayla said when she saw Telzey the next morning. “I guess you really can dress like a girl.” She stood back to look at the outfit Telzey was wearing. It was a short, pleated plaid skirt sort of like the one Susan had worn the evening before, although not quite as daring. It was matched with a light camisole and an open sweater. It was not the kind of image that Telzey had presented in the past.

“You think it looks all right?” Telzey asked with a grin.

“I think that Will had better find a baseball bat and follow you around,” Kayla laughed. “I think you look pretty hot.”

“Well, as long as it’s going to stay warm I might as well dress for it,” Telzey protested lightly. “It’s mostly my Aunt Susan’s idea, after all. She thinks that I dress too much like a slob most of the time.”

“A lot of girls around here do,” Kayla smiled.

That wasn’t the only complement that Telzey got over the course of the day, and some of them were pretty nice. It just convinced her that she was going to have to learn a little more about how to dress nice – and that was something she was sure that Susan would be able to teach her.

As was more or less the normal case, Kayla, Telzey, and Will got together for lunch, which today was pizza again, as if that was a big surprise. “Dad was talking with Chuck and me last night,” he reported. “They’re talking about going up to M-50 again Friday night, but just taking the Modified and the Sportsman again.”

“Darn,” Telzey said. “That’s a nice track, I wanted to race my little Pony up there.”

“Oh, we’ll get to sometime,” Will replied. “What they were thinking is that Moonshine Valley opens Sunday, and he thought we might like to take our cars over there. Maybe the Sportsman, maybe not. They don’t normally run front-wheel drives, but they’ll race any class if they have three cars. Dad was saying that Jack was thinking about going, and a couple of the other regulars were talking about it last week.”

“Well, in that case, it makes things a little different,” Telzey nodded. “Kayla, are you racing this Friday after school? I want to make it to at least one of your meets. I mean, you’ve come to my races a couple of times, it’s only fair that I go to one of yours.”

“Yeah, we’re going to have the annual Booster tournament here,” she replied. “Rachel and her brother are going to be here. She and I and our moms have been talking about having some of the kids from our teams over to the house after the meet for a little party. Since the two of you are faster racers than any of us, maybe you’d like to come along if you aren’t going to a race someplace.”

“I didn’t say we weren’t going to the race,” Will told her. “It’s just that we won’t be racing. On the other hand, it might be fun to hang out with some kids once in a while.”

“Are you sure we wouldn’t be out of place?” Telzey asked. “We are racers, but we’re not runners.”

“Oh, most of the kids are pretty cool,” Kayla smiled. “We won’t have all of the teams there, and maybe there’ll be some boyfriends and girlfriends there, too. It’s a little too cool to use the pool, but we can hang around out back and have a little fun.”

“It might be an idea, then,” Telzey nodded. “Don’t get me wrong, I love racing my little Pony and hanging out with race people, but I don’t have to do it all the time, either. Why don’t you ask Rachel and your mom and see if it’s all right? I mean just to be on the safe side.”

“I don’t think it will be any problem,” Kayla said, “but I’ll ask.”

*   *   *

It felt strange for Telzey to know that Ray and Chuck were heading to a race, while she and Will were staying in Bradford. It was also strange to be going to any school sporting event – she just hadn’t been interested in football down in North Carolina, and by the time winter sports season rolled around she had been more interested in staying with her family, and then just her mother. Prior to that, they’d been in Germany, and school sports just hadn’t been a big deal there in her grade level, and not much at any grade level.

Telzey had little idea of what to expect, but at least expected to see a crowd watching. That turned out to not be the case – there were a handful of spectators joining Will and her in the low bleachers at the track in back of the school. She doubted that there were very many people at all who weren’t close relatives or friends of the kids running in the meet.

Both she and Will had known that Kayla and Rachel had a reputation of being good runners, but they hadn’t known just how true was. Kayla and Rachel raced each other about the same way that she and Will did – good friends off the track, but seriously competing with each other on the track. Neither of the two runners were particularly good at sprints or hurdles, but when the distance got over 400 meters there was no one who could touch them but each other. Kayla won the 1600 by barely a nose over the little red-headed Rachel, and it was a race that could have gone either way since they hadn’t been half a yard apart the entire distance. Beyond that, the races were mildly interesting if not exciting. In whispers, Telzey and Will agreed that they’d rather they’d have gone to Calhoun County Speedway with Ray and Chuck because the racing would easily be better, but at least now they’d been to a track meet of Kayla’s once.

Eventually the meet wound up; the teams packed up their stuff and headed for home. Telzey and Will caught a ride over to the Holst house with Kayla’s mom and dad, and some of the other runners and their families showed up in the next few minutes. Kayla’s dad, Kevin, soon had the grill going and Will offered to help out with it – he’d fried burgers in the concession stand at the track as young as age ten, and knew what he was doing. Kayla’s dad seemed grateful for the help.

Telzey didn’t know very many of the kids who were there – several of them were from Hartford, Rachel’s school – and of course she didn’t have the mutual interest in running, so felt a little out of things at the beginning. It wasn’t until Kayla introduced her around that things got a little better, since a lot of the kids were interested in the fact that Telzey’s mother was serving in the Army in the Middle East. Things got even more interesting when Kayla let it be known that Telzey raced a car out at the speedway, and that she was pretty good with it.

Since the kids there were all young teenagers, none of them had much experience with driving anything at all, except for a couple country kids who had a little experience with tractors, and a few who had driven riding lawnmowers. To think that a girl their age could be driving a race car was unusual, to say the least.

“You mean a real car?” one Hartford girl asked. “Yes,” Telzey replied, “a ’92 Dodge Shadow.”

“How fast do you go?” another asked. Telzey had to be honest and say she really didn’t know, since the 24 car didn’t have a speedometer.

“Do you win a lot?”

“Not a lot,” she explained two or three times. “Only one race this season, but two top fives and a top ten one other time.” Telzey didn’t exactly make it clear that her racing totaled all of three evenings.

Of course, a lot of kids didn’t believe her, but when Mrs. Holst said that she’d watched Telzey racing much of the disbelief cleared up. “As far as I know Will and Telzey will be racing out at the Bradford Speedway tomorrow night,” she told the kids. “You might like to come out and watch. They put on some exciting races.” Telzey figured that there would be a few new spectators the next night.

Once the food was served a lot of the questions died out. Several of the families left after the food was eaten, but a few kids including Rachel and her brother Casey hung around talking about one thing and another. Telzey had already known that Casey was sort of Kayla’s boyfriend – although Kayla had chickened out and hadn’t actually kissed Casey at the finish line at the track meet a week earlier. She hadn’t realized that Rachel also was sort of Kayla’s brother JJ’s girlfriend, too – she was almost two years older so it wasn’t real serious, but the four kids spent a lot of time hanging around together and were anxiously looking forward to the summer months. Casey was about as dedicated a runner as Kayla and Rachel, while JJ really thought more in terms of football.

All in all, Telzey decided she liked the other three kids, as did Will, and both looked forward to hanging out with them some over the summer.

Eventually, as the shadows began to grow long, Rachel and Casey’s parents gave Will and Telzey a ride home on their way back to Hartford. As they watched them head up the street, Will commented, “Well, that wasn’t as bad a night as I thought it might be. They’re actually pretty nice for people that aren’t racers.”

“Yeah, they seem cool to me, too,” Telzey agreed. “I still sort of wish we’d gone to M-50 with your dad and Chuck, but I think it worked out all right. I suppose I’d better head in. It’s going to be a long day again tomorrow, and we’ve got all that grass to mow again.”

“Yeah, the sooner we’re done, the sooner we can mess with the cars,” Will agreed. “I guess I can stand to go to bed.”

“Me, too,” Telzey agreed. “You know what?” she giggled.

“What?”

“Do you realize that this has been our first date that hasn’t involved cars in one way or another?”

“No, I hadn’t realized that,” Will laughed. “Was this actually a date, or what? I kind of think of a date as something like going to the movies.”

“Well, we probably ought to try that sometime,” Telzey giggled again, “but I think I like messing with the cars more.”

“Well, if this was a date, I suppose we ought to end it the right way,” Will laughed.

“What’s that?”

“This,” he said, taking her in his arms and bringing his lips to hers. They’d kissed before, sometimes passionately, sometimes in front of a crowd, but this time it was somehow a little more serious than it had ever been before. It went on for a long time, holding onto each other, their bodies grinding against each other, their tongues beginning to explore each other.

Finally they pulled apart. “I guess we better go in and crash,” Will said softly. “See you in the morning.”

“I guess,” she sighed, feeling strange and yearning after the heat of that kiss. “Just one more thing.”

“What?”

Her answer was to lean forward and kiss him again.