West || Benny Rodriguez (Book 3)

13

Naomi's P.O.V.

September 22, 1962

I walked Lucy into preschool, dropping her off with Mrs. Wiskson, "Nice to see you again Naomi."

I smiled, "It's good to be back in Utah."

She smiled as she took Lucy away from me and walked back to the rooms. I waved her on and turned around and walked out of the building going about 2 blocks down to Ricky's Sports.

"Oh look we are working the same shift." I hear as soon as I walked in. Lucy was standing behind the counter.

I rolled my eyes, "Couldn't dream of a better day to do so."

She wore her famous cherry red lipstick pairing it nicely with the minty fresh gum she was chewing on.

"Yeah, boss said he needed me today too," She paused playing with her hair, "said why not."

I nodded, "Well great, I'm going to do inventory."

She put her hand up, "I got all that finished last night, you can park it right here."

I rolled my eyes as I stood in front of her, "What do you want?"

"I heard that you ran away from the police." She said, as she stopped messing with her hair, "Why?"

"I haven't clocked in ye-"

"What happened to your mom?" She reacted.

I sighed, "Are you asking for a confession out of me? I ain't run from no police. What happened to my mother doesn't concern you."

She looked down at the counter, "They are going to come looking for you if you ain't careful."

I rolled my eyes, "They ain't coming to look for me, they don't care about me."

Before she could say anything I walked to the back of the store, putting my things away and officially clocking it.

"Getting caught my ass." I whispered out.

—

After my shift, I ended up getting Lucy and heading back home. I kind of wanted to go play with the girls but it's been a while since I was able to see the guys and play with them.

"Cam! Are you home?" I called out as I opened the front door.

"I'm about to head to the sandlot, Yeah-Yeah said he had something to show us." Cam said coming around the corner.

I smiled, "Well wait up, let me grab my glove."

He looked at me shocked, "Wait, miss. I have no time for anything but Benny, is coming to play," he paused as he put his hand over his heart, "baseball?"

I rolled my eyes, "Shut up." I paused pointing to the counter, "I got Lucy her own glove a few days ago, would you please get it?"

It wasn't anything special, it was a baby pink tee-ball glove, with some foam squishy baseballs. She's still into her pictures but slowing getting into baseball. And if I had the chance I was going to get her into it.

"Okay let's go." I mumbled as I walked out of my room holding my glove and bat.

We walked down the sidewalk heading towards Bennys house, I usually would want to drive because of the main road, but we meet this older couple across the street, Mr. and Mrs. Brownly. Their backyard meets up to Benny's neighborhood so he just cut through their yard to get there.

"What do you think Yeah-Yeah wants to show us?" I asked Cam.

"Well knowing him," he paused looking down at Lucy and then back at me, he mouthed, "probably a playboy."

I rolled my eyes, "Well that's disgusting."

Cam chuckled as we reached Benny's front door, "I'll go get Smalls, I'll be right back."

I nodded as my hand connected to the screen door. I saw down the hallway Beth's head pop out, "Benny! Naomi's here!"

I heard footsteps, then appeared Benny walking out from his bedroom door, "Hey there Ni, what'ca doing here?"

I sightly head up my glove and bat, "I missed playing. Also Cam told me that Yeah-Yeah wanted to show us something."

Benny chuckled, "I can only imagine what it is," he paused, "Ma I'm going to the sandlot! I'll be back for dinner!"

"Okay! Be careful!" She called back out.

"Are y'all ready to go?" I hear Cam called out, there stood with Smalls.

I nodded, "Yes, let go."

Then we were all off to play, I honestly can't remember the last time that I played with these goof balls.

—

"Look who decided to join us!" Benny called out.

The rest of the guys were already there, all standing around looking at Yeah-Yeah. Their attention went over to us, and locked eyes with me.

"Ni, you ain't gonna want to miss this." I heard Squints yell out.

I looked up at Benny and back towards the boys. We slowly made our way to the group of guys and there stood with Yeah-Yeah, Jolene.

I smiled, "Jolene! You ain't tell me you knew the guys." I walked over to her giving her a hug.

"You guys know one another?" Ham called out, "You knew my sister?"

"Yeah, me and Jolene met at the store, she was buying a new glove and invited me to play with her and the other girls." I explained.

"You play baseball?" Ham then directed his attention to Jolene.

Now that I'm seeing them next to one another, they do look like siblings, she had blond hair, but I do see that hint of ginger. They same freckles, eyes, I mean you could tell they were siblings. Just minus the weight part, she was as skinny as me.

"I've been playing baseball, if your head wasn't too far up these boys asses, you'd would have known." She remarked, crossing her arms.

"I mean, really, my sister Yeah-Yeah?" Ham asked.

Yeah-Yeah looked down at Jolene, "Yeah-Yeah she too good to be true."

Jolene smiled as she went in for a kiss. All the boys yelled, telling them to get a room, all yeah-yeah did was flip us off as they still kissed, quickly putting it down as Jolene pulled away.

"I need to get back to my team, maybe one day we can all play against each other, boys against girls." Jolene smirked, "Unless y'all are too scared to lose to a bunch of girls."

They all started cracking jokes, telling her to piss off, and they would be happy to kick their butts, and whatnot. Soon Jolene left leaving me to the guys.

It never felt so good to play baseball with a bunch of boys before.

—