I grabbed a wooden baseball bat from the dugout and walked up to home plate. I brought the bat up by my face and focused on Benny's pitching. Ham squatted down behind me, and I stood in front.
"You're gonna miss. You're gonna miss. You're gonna miss," Ham kept repeating. I tried to ignore him and tune him out.
Benny threw the ball and it came spiraling towards me. It kept getting closer and I thought about the perfect second to swing.
"STRIKE!" Ham screamed, right before the ball arrived at me. He caught the ball in his glove and stuck his tongue out at me. "I told you you would miss."
I rolled my eyes and looked back at Benny. He threw the ball again, but this time I hit it. I swung with all of my might and I saw it soar. I ran to first base, my foot stomping on top of the plate. I kept sprinting to second, glancing back at the ball. It landed on the ground right by the huge fence that was there. My foot hit the second plate and I saw someone pick up my ball. I started running a little faster and soon, my foot hit third. I saw that Squints had the ball now and he was about to throw it to Bertram, who was standing right next to home. I sprinted right next to home and pushed Bertram out of the way so he wouldn't catch the ball. I ran into home, sliding in the dirt.
I heard everyone start shouting and cheering. I laid on the ground for a few minutes, tired from running. I saw Benny reach his hand out to help me up, and I took it. He pulled me up to my feet and he gave me a high-five.
"Ava, that was awesome!" he said.
"Yeah, I know," I answered, smiling.
"That was amazing!" Squints shouted.
"Yeah, it was epic!" Timmy exclaimed.
"It was epic!" Tommy repeated.
"It wasn't that bad, but I could do better," Ham mumbled.
"Let's see it, Fatso!" I shouted.
"Alright, let's do this, birdbrain," Ham said.
"Oh man," Benny mumbled.
We both looked over to see a couple of kids riding bikes into the sandlot. They were wearing letterman's jackets and they looked mean.
"Hello, Phillips," Ham said, formally.
"Hello, Hamilton," the main guy said. "Why is there a girl here?"
"She's playing, sleezebag," Ham answered.
"A girl?" Phillips asked.
Benny laughed. "She's better than all of you."
"Oh, I bet. She your girlfriend, Rodriguez?"
"Shut up, let's just play," he suggested.
"Yeah, alright. Get ready to lose, wimps," Phillips mumbled, motioning for the other guys to put their bikes down.
"You're going down, buttmunches," Ham said.
"Yeah yeah, you're going down like your mom did last night!" Yeah-Yeah said.
"Shut up about my mom, dingus!" Phillips shouted.
"Oh yeah, his mom is dead," Bertram said.
"Oh, my bad," Yeah-Yeah apologized.
"Yeah, whatever, man. I'll just beat your ass in baseball to get you back." His team walked over to the field and we filled the dugout.
"Coin flip for who bats first," Benny said.
"Yup," Phillips responded.
Smalls pulled out a quarter from his pocket and rested it on his thumb.
