Free The Pool Party by Gary Soto Page A

me and my
compa
Pete Salinas when we—”
    “Shoot pool?” Rudy interrupted. It didn’t seem right. Tiffany was the richest girl at his school. Rudy couldn’t picture her leaning over a pool table, muttering, “Eight ball in the side pocket.”
    “Yeah, like when me and Pete Salinas,” his grandfather started, “were down to our last quarter and we found ourselves without shirts—”
    Rudy rolled his eyes, because the story sounded familiar. Pretending to be startled, Rudy shouted, “It’s the phone,” and ran away. He ran to the side of the house where his mother was vacuuming the car. “Mom!” he screamed over the wail of the vacuum. “Mom, I got invited to Tiffany’s pool party! What’s a ‘pool party’?”
    His mother turned and, by accident, the invitation was sucked into the hose, which gagged and moaned before the card descended into the belly of the vacuum.
    “The invitation!” Rudy screamed. He hastily turned off the vacuum and opened it up. He plucked out the invitation, whichwas crinkled but still sweet-smelling. He also plucked out and pocketed a marble he had been looking for.
    “Look,” Rudy said, flapping the invitation at his mother.
    Mother took the invitation and read it slowly. She smelled it, a wrinkle cutting across her brow. “
¿Quién es
Tiffany Perez?”
    “A girl at school.”
    “A girl?” Rudy’s mother looked curiously at him. She smelled the invitation a second time and handed it back.
    “
No sé.
I don’t know what a ‘pool party’ is,” Mother finally said. “Ask Estela.”
    Rudy trotted away, his untied laces slapping around his ankles, and passed his father, who was carrying a plastic trash bag over his shoulders. “Hey, Dad! I’m invited to a pool party,” Rudy boasted.
    “That’s good,” Father said. “Give me five,
hombre.
No, ten! No, fifteen and twenty.”
    They slapped palms and spun away. But Rudy’s father stopped in his tracks. He looked back at his son, his head tilted in wonder. “What’s a ‘pool party’?” he asked. He shrugged and lifted the trash bag onto his shoulders.

    Rudy approached his sister, Estela, who was raking grass clippings. Her hair was tangled, and she looked hot. A mustache of sweat clung to her upper lip.
    “Where have you been?” Estela snapped. “Where’s my sandwich?”
    “Grandpa ate it.”
    “Grandpa ate it!” she screamed. Her eyebrows became arched with anger. “Forget it. Don’t expect me to do extra work now. Rudy, you’re such a—”
    “Look, Estela,” Rudy said. He shoved the invitation at his sister. She unfolded the invitation and read it. She looked at her brother and asked, “Tiffany Perez invited you to her house? Isn’t she real rich?”
    “I guess,” Rudy said, shrugging his shoulders. He figured that anyone who had more than a dollar fifty was rich. He had a pinch of dimes and nickels, and a few penniestucked away in his drawer. At last count he had almost two dollars to his name.
    She sniffed the invitation. “Why would Tiffany want you there?”
    Rudy thought about that for a second and answered, “Maybe she likes my style.”
    “Get real,” Estela growled, then added with kindness, “Rudy, a ‘pool party’ is a swim party. You have to be polite. You can’t eat with your fingers.”
    “Oh, it’s that kind of party,” Rudy said, a light coming on inside his head. He pictured himself wiping his mouth every time he took a bite of food or sipped a drink.
    Just then Rudy’s best friend rode up on his bike.
    “What’s happening?” asked Alex.
    “Look at this, Alex,” Rudy said, shoving his invitation at his friend.
    Alex read the invitation three times, his lips moving over each word. He licked his lips. “
Híjole,
Tiffany Perez is rich. You’re going to eat good.”

Chapter 2
    “ W e got a job. Let’s go!
Ándale!
” Rudy’s father called from the back steps. Rudy and his grandfather were in the yard playing cards. They wore baseball caps that shaded their