The Sandlot///A Benny Fanfiction

One of the Boys

Two weeks have passed, and I've spent my whole two weeks of summer sitting in my house, while Scotty plays baseball with his friends. I swear, I think we swapped lives. Today Scotty stormed in my room, shaking me frantically to wake up.

"What is it Scotty?!" I yell, pulling the sheets over my head.

"Grover is sick today, and we need another player. Katie c'mon let's go!"

"Who in the hell is Grover?" I groan.

"One of our infielders, his first name is Bertram, but I call him Grover. C'mon Katie you played infield didn't you?"

"I was center fielder." I groan again.

"Well you're still pretty good at almost all the positions." Scotty assures me.

"You really want me to play?" I say, sitting up.

"Yes." He replies.

"Fine." I sigh.

"Alright hurry! Benny is waiting!" Scotty turns and runs downstairs.

I get out of bed and immediately look for my glove, and I couldn't find it anywhere.

"Scotty?!" I yell, but I hear no response.

I dash out of my room and run downstairs.

"Scotty where is my glove-

I look to see Benny and Scotty, standing in the doorway, staring at my ratty hair, my pajama pants, and my old, beat up softball jersey.

"Oh god." I whisper.

Benny and Scotty stood still not saying anything. Scotty slowly lifted his arm and pointed to the kitchen counter, where my glove was.

My face felt extremely warm and turned slowly and ran upstairs, throwing on a pair of jeans, tennis shoes, and my Yankees jersey. I then ran across my room and put up my hair, washed my face and brushed my teeth. I took a deep breath and walked calmly down stairs.

"You ready?" Scotty questions.

I nod with embarrassment.

"Okay let's go." Benny says, heading for the door.

I run right next to Scotty and soon enough, we get to the Sandlot.

I slowly follow Scotty and Benny to the field.

"Hey Benny, who's the chick?" Squints hollered.

"Okay guys, this is......" Benny stopped and looked at me.

"Katie." I say, yep, this guy is not going to be a friend of mine.

"This is Katie. Katie this is Ham, Timmy, Tommy, Yeah-Yeah, Squints, and Kenny. Now Bertram is gone, and that leaves us at eight, so Katie will be-

"Benny, Benny, hold on. Let's think about this." Yeah-Yeah blurts.

"Yeah-Yeah, I thought about it, and Katie is going to be our 9th man- or girl- whatever! She's playing okay?!"

"Benny, she's a girl. I don't think you've noticed that."

That was it, that was the last straw. I'm tired of being shy and too embarrassed to stand up and stand out.

"What's wrong with being a girl?" I pipe in.

Yeah-Yeah just puts his head down and chuckles. The rest of the boys look at me and quietly giggle.

"What? I can throw a ball just as good as you can." I snap again.

"Really? Let's see it." Yeah-Yeah announces, and all the boys nod their heads.

I take my glove and fit is smoothly on my hand. I lift my head to tell Scotty to hand me the ball.

"Okay, how far you want me to throw it to you?" I say.

Yeah-Yeah jogs back a few steps, and stands along home plate.

"Stand by the pitchers mound, if you even know where that is." He laughs, and the boys do it along with him, but I noticed Benny stood perfectly still, watching.

I take proud steps and stomp my right foot right next to the mound.

"Alright, I'm waiting." Yeah-Yeah mocks.

Okay Katie, you can do this, show him that you can do anything he can. Prove them all wrong. Show them you fit in.

I take a deep breath, wind back, point my glove at Yeah-Yeah's face and whip my arm across my body.

I close my eyes and pray that I didn't miss completely. I hear a pop and look up to see the ball in Yeah-Yeah's glove, and his eyes wider than the baseball itself. I look around to see the boys' mouths wide open (except for Scotty's), and then I turn to see Benny, his expression was the most shocked of them all. Then I hear him whisper,

"Man you really got an arm."

"Thank you." I say, turning to him.

"Alright, we playing or what?" I shout.

The boys nod, still frozen. I smile wide, and turn to Benny and wink before I run up to Yeah-Yeah, who is still holding the ball in his glove.

"Hey-um, what's Bertram's position?"

"Second."

"I'm sorry what was that?"

He unfreezes and faces me.

"You heard me." He snaps.

I laugh and head towards second.

"Alright let's go!" Benny yells.

"Going one!" He yells before hitting the ball to Timmy at first.

The ball was soon hit to me and I swiftly scooped it up and threw it quick and hard towards first.

Timmy caught it and threw it to Ham. And I promise, after Timmy caught it, I swear I heard him say,

"Ow."