A Second Chance//Timber Fanfic (The Sandlot 3)

6. The Teams Artist

Timber's P.O.V:
I rode quickly with Tommy to get to his house. What E.J said was cold hearted and mean. The guys rode behind us in their own calvary like formation with determined looks on their faces. "This way" Tommy directed. We turned on a corner and continued to head down Glenview Road.

"You talk to her she'll listen to you". We were now standing in front of Valerie's room. Tommy had suggested that I be the one going in the "no mans land". I shook my head unsure of myself. "I'm not good with talking to girls" I whispered. "What did you do last time you were here then?" Tommy asked with an overly predictable egotistical tone. "We talked- but- I don't know" I groaned in frustration. "Just act natural" he shoved me up to the door and disappeared around the corner before I could protest. I sighed making my hair loosely float up. I knocked on the door which was pulled open shortly after.

Her curly brown hair was pulled back she seemed to have been.....crying? "Hey" she said subtly sniffling. To be honest I was really confused and didn't know to be all dramatic and beg for an answer or wether I should calm down and stop blankly staring like a doofus.

"Um, I- look the guys and me are all worried. Are you ok?" I asked talking really fast to lower my utter chances of screwing up and saying something completely stupid. "I'm fine, thank you" she said politely before starting to close the door. I acted quickly and stopped the door with my shoe like Two-Ton did previous days ago. "Wait" don't screw up. "Don't shut me out" the door slowly creaked open and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Look, I may not understand but-" I sighed and I couldn't come up with what to say next. "But?" She questioned and opened the door wider. She seemed interested now, great because now I don't know what to say. Just think of something you know a lot about, Baseball!

"But we don't care if your Steve Garvey or Babe Ruth or even Hank Aaron!, your still the same Valerie and we like you all the same" I said. She looked at me with confusion still. "What I'm trying to say is, don't listen to E.J's crap, he's a butt face anyways" she grinned and giggled. "Definitely a butt face" she nodded. "Ok, I'll meet you downstairs the guys are here too, we're going to the sandlot" I smiled. She nodded happily before shutting the door again.

"See man I told you, act natural and nothing can touch ya" Tommy said with his overly large ego. I nodded and headed downstairs. We waited for a couple minutes before Valerie wheeled down the driveway and joined us. The ride was filled with devised plans on how we would crush needmans team in the all cities championship.

We batted for bit and did some drills that Tommy taught us along with my pitching which needed some work. "Hey sis! Want to try?" Tommy motioned to the bat. Valerie was working on her notepad before her eyes darted back up. She shook her head no and looked back down. "She'll come around" Tommy nodded to the team.

"You know something, you guys are better than I remember, and with a little help from me. I can hammer you into a winning team" Tommy added with an annoying amount of spunk.

"How ever can we repay you, your holiness of baseball" Wings said completely out of sarcasm.

"Look all we wanted you to do was play with us, cause you're real good" D.P added.

"Squints coaches the games, and Benny comes by whenever he can. We just needed another play" I added trying to get to point as to why we needed him.

"How often can Benny come by" Tommy started to make a point but still angled toward the coach position. "His teams hanging on by a thread and with me gone, he's got nobody to work with" Tommy added. I was super confused and relieved that the rest of the team had the same look of confusion on our faces.

"What you talking about?" Q snapped. "I heard Benny the jet, hurt his knee, in Cincinnati last night" Q explained.

"I heard it's pretty serious" D.P continued. "Uncle chops said he was gonna be out for 6 weeks" D.P added.

"Hey knowing Benny he'll be playing in 2. That knee is always trouble" Two-Ton commented.

"Yeah?, in '96 he got that replaced and I ended his car-" Tommy stopped himself making us all look at him in complete and utter confusion. "car-career?" The next statement came out more like a question making everyone around us all the more confused.

"1996" we all questioned and we're still super confused. "I've gotta go" Tommy said hurriedly getting up.

"Replaced his knee?" D.P questioned making us all shrug in confusion, again.

"Look, if we're gonna be a real team, we're gonna need some equipment. Bats, balls, a new glove for D.P" Tommy stated before continuing again. "The last thing I want is to be a coach. I just figured that I we're gonna part, we should play like pros and play to win." He stated before saying by and walking toward the bikes.

I got up and made my way over to Valerie. She was intently staring at her sheet of paper and was concentrating on her picture, her wrist flicked here and there as she sketched out the details on the paper. "Um hey" I tried greeting. She freaked out making her pencil case drop with a loud clash. She hurriedly covered her paper and tucked it away trying to brush off her clumsiness. "H-hey, I was just um d-drawing" she said half smiling. "I can see that" I giggled. She sighed, looking at the mess she'd made.

"Thanks" she grinned after I had helped her with the mess of colored crayons and erasers. I smiled at how clumsy she was, definitely defied the 'perfection' stereotype with girls. "No, thanks for coming" I grinned. "I'm the teams cheerleader whenever they like" she winked. I looked at her notepad to see a sketch of me? "And apparently the teams artist" i added before handing her the notepad back. "Oh yeah that" she blushed and looked down at the picture."I like it" I winked nudging her. She grinned and walked to her bike with all her things in the basket. "Bye Timber" she smiled. "Bye Valerie"