The Summer Of '62 || Benny Rodriguez x Reader

Chapter 4

"Hamilton "The Babe" Porter!" Ham says, swinging his bat from side to side, warming up his arms. "Long ball Porter, cmon DeNunez!" He points at the imaginary stands in the outfield and we all collapse in laughter at how ridiculous he looks.

Kenny pitches the ball and it goes straight into Benny's glove, making us all laugh again.

"You call that pitching!? This is baseball, not tennis! Give me something to hit!" Ham yells, annoyed at our laughter.

"Give him a basketball, maybe then he'll hit it!" I yell, earning a few laughs from the boys.

"Alright Ham, this is my heater, I DARE you to hit it!" Kenny says, a mischievous grin crossing his face.

"You'll be sorry."

Kenny winds up and pitches the ball, sending it flying towards Ham. The familiar crack of a bat fills the sandlot and we see the ball fly over our heads and to the other side of the fence.

"Ham you idiot! Now we can't play no more!" Benny complains, taking off his umpire mask.

I laugh at their childish behavior as the boys chase Ham around the field, yelling and throwing their gloves at him. They chase him all the way to home base, where Yeah Yeah continues to beat him with his fists.

"It's fine, I'll get it!" I call out to them, making my way over to the fence.

"NO!!!!" I hear Squints yell, but I just assume he's still scolding Ham for sending their only ball over the fence.

I'm about halfway up the fence when I hear yelling and I turn around.

"Guys calm down, I'm just gonna get the ball!" I say, confused at why they're all running towards me.

Benny gets to me first and wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me down from the fence.

"Get off of me! What are you doing?!" I exclaim, shoving him away as he sets me down.

"Holy crap you could've been killed!" Squints exclaims, out of breath from the short run.

"Yeah yeah truly, what are you doing?"

"You guys were all throwing a fit so I just thought I'd—" I start, but Squints cuts me off.

"If you were thinking you wouldn't have thought that."

"You can't go back there y/n." Benny says, looking at me, his eyes full of worry.

"Then how do we get the ball back?" Scotty asks, voicing my thoughts.

"We don't." Timmy says.
"We don't." Tommy repeats.
"It's history."
"It's history."
"Kiss it goodbye."
"Kiss it—"
"Shut up Tommy!" Timmy snaps.

"It's gone man." Bertram says, clarifying the brother's exchange.

"We'll just get another ball tomorrow, we'll never see it again." Benny says, shrugging.

"Why not?" I ask.

All the boys look at one another before turning back towards us,"The Beast."

"What is that?" Scotty asks.

"Smalls, y/n, listen to me." Benny says, coming over to us. "Go to that fence, real slow, and be quiet."

"But I saw something—" I start, but Benny quickly interrupts me.

"It'll be okay, just go." He says, putting a hand on my shoulder. Scotty tries to protest as well, but the boys just ignore him.

Scotty and I slowly creep up to the gate, the boys complaining to us to be quieter in the process, and we each peek through a hole. We see the ball in the middle of the yard and I'm about to question why they're being such scaredy-cats when a huge paw comes out of nowhere and grabs it.

We both stumble backwards, running back towards the group.

"It got it! It got the ball!" Scotty says, terrified.

"What the heck was that thing?" I say.

All the boys look at each other before turning back towards us.

"Campout!!"