CHAPTER 6

AN INVITATION

At his mom’s house the next night, Tony was watching TV when the phone rang. His mom answered and called from the kitchen, “It’s for you, Tony.”

Tony sighed, slid out of his comfortable chair, and stood up.

He walked to the kitchen and his mom handed him the phone.

“Hello?” he said.

“Hey, Tony,” a guy’s voice said. It was a familiar voice, but Tony wasn’t sure who it was.

“Who is this?” he asked.

The person laughed. “It’s Jon,” he said. “From TAG.”

“Oh, hey, what’s up?” Tony said, surprised. Why was Jon calling him?

“Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go out to the track after school one day this week. Just for practice. My uncle is friends with the guy who owns the track, and he lets me go out there during the week sometimes.”

“Um …” Tony bit his lip.

Was Jon planning on taking him out there and making fun of him or something?

Was this just a chance to get humiliated more than once a week?

“Just you and me, because my uncle’s friend doesn’t like to have a lot of people out there,” Jon added. “I was thinking Wednesday. If your dad can bring you, that is.”

“I’ll find out,” Tony said. “I keep my kart at his place, so I’ll call him and ask.”

“Cool,” Jon said. “It’ll be nice to practice with someone besides Corey and Devin. See you in school.”

Tony hung up the phone.

“Who was that, honey?” his mom asked. She was standing by the sink, drying a plate.

“Jon, one of the other TAG guys,” Tony said. “He wants to practice on Wednesday. Do you think Dad would be able to bring me out to the track?”

“Call him and see,” Tony’s mom said. “If he’s not busy, I’m sure he’ll help you.”

Tony dialed his dad’s number. No one answered, so he left a message on the answering machine.

“Hi, Dad. It’s me, Tony,” he said. “Um, Jon, from TAG, called. He wants to practice with me on Wednesday at the track. So I was hoping you could bring me and the kart out there. Call me back. Bye!”

“I didn’t know you were friends with any of the TAG guys,” Tony’s mom said when he’d hung up.

Tony shrugged. “Me either. Who knows,” he said.

Then he went back to the television. But he couldn’t stop wondering. Was Jon really just trying to be nice? Or was he just going to humiliate Tony somehow?