she's alright {benny rodriguez}

~15~

"Hamilton 'the Babe' Porter. 'Long Ball' Porter. C'mon, DeNunez," Ham pumps himself up, and swings his bat before pointing to the sky. You were laughing at his nicknames, but you laughed even harder when he imitated Babe Ruth. All the other boys started laughing too.

"Yeah, okay," Benny says as umpire. "Yes. Let's get it," he hits his mitt. Kenny pitches and Ham misses.

"You call that pitching?" Ham asks Kenny, who just laughs. "This is baseball, not tennis."

"Give him a tennis racket," someone yells to the side.

"Gimme something to hit!"

Kenny takes this as a challenge. "Alright, Ham. This is my heater- I dare you to hit it!"

"You'll be sorry."

"You want the heater? I'll give it to ya," Kenny mumbles, and winds up his arm. He then pitches it to Ham, who hits it straight on and far across the field. You watch it as it flies over the fence, Smalls chasing after it, and lands in the Beast's yard. That's not good.

Ham cheers and takes off running around the bases. "Yeah! That's how you do it, Smalls." However, he was the only one happy about it.

Benny takes off his umpire's mask and frowns. "Ham, you idiot! Now we can't play no more!"

As Ham runs, all the boys chase after him and throw their gloves at him. "It was a heater!" he protests as he gets beaten by his team mates. "Low and outside, just like I like it!" You just sigh and watch him get chased around by the angry boys. The day wasn't even half over and Ham had already lost the ball. Smalls was the only other one not hitting Ham. He just scratched his head and looked at the fence.

As Ham gets to home base, Smalls calls, "wait a sec! I'll get it!"

"Ohhh, no. This is not good." You whisper, and look in horror as he climbs the fence. You take off running towards him, telling him to stop. "Smalls, stop! Don't do it!"

Squints notices you running and yells "nooooo!" All the other boys take off running too.

"Hey guys, I'll get it!" He looks back in confusion at all the people yelling and chasing after him. "I got it."

You and Benny reach him first, you grab his waist and Benny grabs his arms.

"Guys, I've got it! I'm getting the ball!" he protests. "Let go of me!" you set him down on the ground, him thrashing out of your grip. You almost got a hand to the face.

"Smalls, calm down!" You yell in his ear, put a hand on his shoulder and give him a look. He stops yelling and so do the other boys.

"You're gonna get yourself killed!"

"Killed, man. Geez!"

Everyone lines up cross from Smalls and takes deep breaths. You let out a sigh of relief and pat his back.

"Holy crap, you could've been killed!" Squints reprimands Smalls.

"Yeah yeah, truly! What're ya doin'?"

"Well you guys were all leavin' so i just thought I'd- I'd-"

Squints interrupts him. "If you were thinkin' you wouldn't've thought that."

"You can't go back there, Smalls," Benny informs him.

"Then how do we get the ball back?"

"We don't," Timmy says sadly.

"We don't."

"It's history."

"It's history."

"Kiss it goodbye."

"Kiss it-"

"Shut up Tommy!"

Bertram shakes his head. "It's gone, man. Gone."

"Game's over, man. We'll just get another ball tomorrow. We'll never see it again." Everyone starts walking away when Smalls asks "why not?".

"Smalls, there's a-" you start, but you get interrupted.

They all turn around collectively and look at each other before saying, "the Beast." You roll your eyes. Were they really trying to scare him?

"What is that?" He's so clueless.

Benny walks up to him and you watch as he points to the fence. "Smalls, listen to me. Go to that fence real slow, and be quiet."

Smalls protests, but Benny quiets him. "No, no. No. Just go, peek through that hole."

"But I saw something..."

"No, it's okay. Just go, go."

"Just go!" everyone whispers. Smalls looks pale, and you feel bad. He starts to walk to the fence, an everybody shushes him. You back up to the rest of the group and he tiptoes the rest of the way, squatting down to the hole. He looks back at you worriedly, but you nod in encouragement. There was a growl and he comes running away from the fence.

"Somethin' got the ball," he breathes. "W-what was that thing?"

It looked like you all had the same idea- "campout."

a/n- it's my birthdayyy :)
{mar. 15, 2021}