"Ava, go out and enjoy the sunshine!" My dad called.
We just moved to Utah and it's 98 degrees. We used to live in Colorado, so it's a really big difference. I'm used to freezing cold weather, not blazing hot sun.
"Why Dad?"
"Ava, go outside. Maybe you'll make some friends. I saw a bunch of boys going that way," he said, pointing to the left.
I rolled my eyes, "Fine. I'll be back later," I mumbled and walked outside.
The sun hit my back and it felt like I was going down in flames. I walked around a little bit, but I didn't see anyone my age. I was about to turn around but I heard someone yelling. A boy that was about a foot shorter than me was talking on his cell phone. He was standing in the middle of the sidewalk yelling into his phone.
"God dammit, DeNunez, you're not coming?" he shouted. He paused for a couple of seconds and then continued, "we're not going to have enough players! We have to play against the Phillip's team today!" He listened to the person on the other end of the phone for about a minute, then scoffed and hung up. He took off his baseball cap and started to fan himself and then put it back on his head.
I sat down on the curb, fanning myself with my hand, trying to cool off. The boy had a Yankees cap on, my favorite baseball team.
Another boy ran up to him who was bigger and taller than the other one. "Where the hell is he?" He shouted.
The boys had an argument, but it seemed like they were just mad.
"How do we play baseball with 8 people?" The shorter one cried.
My head perked up when I heard baseball. I love baseball. Baseball is literally my life. Before I could even think about it, I felt myself walking towards the boys.
"Can we help you with something, girly?" The taller one asked.
"You need an extra player?" I asked.
"Yeah, but not from a girl. Girls are wimps," the tall one scoffed.
"Wimps? I'm like a foot taller than you. I could take you right here, right now," I threatened.
The tall boy started to walk towards me, but the short one grabbed his arm and pulled him back. I just shook my head.
"Come on, Ham, we do need an extra player," the short one said.
The tall one shook his head and looked me up and down. "Nah. We would never hear the end of it if we had a girl on the team."
"But we're desperate," the short one pleaded.
"Do you even know how to play?" The tall one interrogated.
"Do I know how to play? I bet I could get a home run first try against your dumb little team," I said.
"Alright, let's go, crapface!"
"You're on, idiot," I said.
I followed them to the diamond and I saw a bunch of boys laughing together.
"Where's DeNunez? Phillips is gonna be here in like 10 minutes!" A tall boy shouted.
"He's not coming," the short one I was talking to earlier said.
"What?"
"We got another problem on our hands too, Benny," the taller one said.
"What?" The tallest asked.
"Her," he said, pointing at me.
All of the boys' jaws dropped to the floor. They stared at me in awe and I just giggled. I looked at the tallest one and smiled. He was really cute.
"This your girlfriend, Ham?" One boy teased.
"Shut your mouth, penis breath! I would get actually get a pretty girl."
"Like you could," I mumbled.
That made all the boys laugh and he rolled his eyes.
"W--Who are you?" The cute one asked.
"Uh, I'm Ava. Who are you guys?" I asked.
"Um, well... hi Ava, I'm Benny Rodriguez--call me Benny," he stammered.
"Hi, Benny. You talk to girls much?"
"Uh, my mom?" He guessed, nervously.
I giggled.
"Uh, anyway... that's Squints," he said, pointing to a short boy with huge glasses. He took his glasses of his face and quickly rubbed them against his shirt. He slammed them back on his face and smiled.
"this is Bertram," he said, pointing to a tall boy with glasses. "This is Timmy and Tommy," he pointed to two boys. "That's Yeah-Yeah."
He pointed over to the boys I was talking to earlier who were sitting in the dugout. "That's Ham," he said, pointing to the bigger one, "and that's Smalls."
"Nice to meet you guys," I said with a smile.
"So what are you doing over here?" Benny asked.
"Basically, Ham challenged me to get a home run against you guys."
"Ham!" The group shouted.
"Why would you do that now?" Benny cried.
"I'm sorry! She was annoying me and asking if she could play with us!"
"You want to play?" Benny asked me.
"Well, he was whining about not having 9 players, so I said I could play. That is, if you need help. If you don't, I'm probably way too good for you guys anyway."
"No, we do!" Benny said.
"Benny! She's a girl!" Squints shouted.
"Yeah, we can't have a girl on our team," Timmy said.
"Yeah! We can't have a girl on our team," Tommy repeated.
"Come on, guys. She could be really good," Benny said, hopefully.
"Benny, you remember what happened last time you did this?" Ham asked, pointing at Smalls.
"Hey!" Smalls shouted.
Ham just laughed and flipped Smalls' hat off his head.
"Okay, Ava. How about you try against us once and we can see how good you are?" Benny suggested.
"Alright. Get ready to lose, bud," I said.
