The Summer Of '62 || Benny Rodriguez x Reader

Chapter 1

It's always the hardest moving to a new town. New house. New school. New neighborhood. But hardest of all; having to make new friends.

I moved here during the summer of '62, the year my brother would get us into the biggest pickle any of us have ever seen. Of course, I didn't know this at the time.

My parents divorced when I was just 4 years old, and ever since then, my mother wanted nothing to do with me. My father raised me on his own, doing the best he could even if that meant sacrificing his own happiness for mine.

He got remarried around a year ago, causing us to move to a completely new state with my stepmother and stepbrother, Scotty Smalls. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy my dad has finally moved on and found someone else, but leaving all my friends back home wasn't easy.

I grew up playing baseball and softball. My dad enrolling me in countless tee ball and little league teams back home. He taught me everything he knew about the beloved sport, wanting me to go on to bigger and better teams when I grew up.

My younger stepbrother has also taken a liking for baseball, and I've noticed him ask my dad if he could teach him to play catch a few times. However, I have yet to see them play outside.

Determined to spend time together and get to know him better, I peek my head down the hall, noticing his room light is turned on.

"Scotty?!" I call. "Do you wanna go play catch?"

A few moments later, he peeks his head out his door, his eyes meeting mine.

"Sure!"

He runs back in his room to grab his glove and hat.

I make my way downstairs to wait for him, making sure I let both our parents know that we'll be gone.

"Wait...where are we going?" He asks as we walk out the front door, making our way down the street. "I thought we were going to the backyard."

We moved here a week before school let out for the summer, so our parents didn't bother to enroll us until the Fall. The sun casts warmth over the town as we walk along the sidewalk, and a pleasant feeling washes over me, as if something good is going to happen today.

"I saw a sandlot not too far from here. We can play catch and maybe run a few bases." I explain.

We make our way down the street and towards the field, going in through the back way since it's the closest way from our house.

But as we make our way closer to the field, I hear the familiar crack of a bat and kids yelling.

Confirming my suspicions, I see a group of boys playing ball together. There's only eight of them, so they don't exactly have a full team.

I watch them in awe as one of the boys hits the ball towards second base, the boy on second catching it with ease before the ball makes its way through all the boys until it ends up in the pitchers glove.

"We should play with them!" I grin, turning around to look at Scotty.

"No way! They're like professionals, I can barely catch the ball." Scotty says, shaking his head.

Before I can respond, one of the boys yells out to us.

"WATCH OUT!!!!"

I turn around to see the ball barreling towards us. Scotty has his glove outstretched, so I assume he'll catch it.

But he doesn't.

The ball skims the top of his glove and he falls backwards into the dirt, the ball rolling off somewhere behind us.

I shake my head as the group of boys start laughing, reaching my hand down to help him up.

"Are you okay?" I ask, brushing the dirt of his shirt.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine." He says, fixing his hat.

I shoot the boys a glare as Scotty goes to grab the ball.

"We are waiting!"

Scotty comes back and positions his feet awkwardly, taking a few seconds to position himself before trying to throw the ball back.

The ball barely lands two feet in front of him, and all the boys collapse in a fit of laughter. Rolling in the dirt as if they've never seen anything funnier in their life. Well, all except one.

"Oh grow up you idiots!" I yell and grab the ball, throwing it all the way to the pitcher before running after Scotty.

"She...she just threw it!" I hear one of the boys exclaim as I run through the gate, trying to catch up to Scotty, who's already halfway down our street.

"Scotty!" I say, catching up to him.

"My life is over!" He groans, covering his face with his hands in embarrassment.

"Hey," I say, pulling him to the sidewalk so we're not in the middle of the street. "Who cares about what they think? They're a bunch of pre-pubescent little kids who probably just started playing ball. I bet you'll be better than them in a few weeks. Then they'll see who's laughing."

"The way you threw it to them, I wish I could throw like that." He sighs, completely ignoring my attempt of positive encouragement.

"I could teach you." I shrug, both of us continuing to walk back home.

"Really?!" He exclaims, looking at me with a bright smile.

"Yeah, of course. We'll practice in the backyard, you'll be as good as them in no time."

➽───────❥

When we get back home, we go to the backyard to practice.

I do my best to be patient with him, but it's clear he's a complete beginner. I try to get him to throw the ball back to me, but he ends up barely tossing it, resulting in it landing 2 feet away from me.

"Keep your eye on the ball, okay? If the ball moves, move your glove." I explain, after his poor attempts to catch the ball.

"Okay!" He says, preparing himself.

I throw he ball to him, probably little harder than I should have, because it hits him right in the eye when he tries to catch it.

"Shit! Are you okay??" I say, running over to him.

He clutches his eye with his gloved hand and I quickly lead him inside to get him an ice pack.

"I'm so sorry Scotty, I didn't mean to throw it that hard." I say, feeling bad for the black eye he'll probably have later.

"What happened?" His mom says, seeing her son groaning in pain as I frantically search the freezer for an ice pack.

My dad comes over and grabs a piece of meat and slaps it on Scotty's eye. I wince at the impact, it probably won't help at all, but at least it's somewhat cold.

"There. It'll be black but at least it won't swell."

"It was my fault, we were playing catch in the backyard and I threw the ball too hard." I explain.

"It's okay, it was a accident y/n." Scotty says, holding the piece of meat against his face.

Once I make sure Scotty is okay, I go back to my room. Boxes still lay on the floor from unpacking, but other than that, my room is mostly furnished.

I plop on my bed, throwing my baseball up before catching it again as I let my mind roam.

The boys at the field were really good. Maybe, just maybe I'll be able to play with them tomorrow. They probably won't be too keen on letting a girl play with them, but I'll just have to show them I'm good enough.