1. | PUMPED UP KIDS [THE SANDLOT]

13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

—
Luna walked up to Mr. Mertle's house scared as hell. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Her hands became sweaty. She lifted up her hand and knocked on the door immediately regretting her actions.

"Hello? Who's there?" Mr. Mertle asked opening the door.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Mertle, but my name is Luna Rudd and I just happen to have hit a baseball in your backyard by accident." Luna explained.

"And you want me to get it?" Mr. Mertle asked with a grin.

"If you don't mind." Luna chuckled nervously.

"Wait, you said your name was Luna Rudd?"

"Yes." Luna nodded.

"Well, come on in. I'll let you get the ball yourself. My little furry friend would like to apologize for what he's done to you." Mr. Mertle smiled before walking back into his house. Luna sucked in a breath before following him.

Mr. Mertle opened up his back door for Luna to walk through. She slowly walked out, being alert for any attack from the beast.

"Hercules!" Mr. Mertle yelled out. Luna's eyes widened as the beast walked out from his dog home. "We have a guest."

The beast walked up to Luna making her cower away back slowly. He sat down in front of her, opening his mouth. She squeezed her eyes shut waiting for the beast to attack her but ended up feeling a wet substance on her face. She gagged at slobber the beast left on her face.

"Hercules hates when people trespass. So when you jumped over the fence, he was just trying to tell you nicely that you have to go to through the front door." Mr. Merttle said.

"That was him being nice?" Luna asked, he nodded.

She scoffed, quietly mumbling. "I wonder what he's like when he's being mean."

The beast— Hercules— nudged her hand with his wet nose. She opened her hand and he dropped the 'Babe Ruth' ball. Luna gasped in excitement and in disgust. Luna stood up, and walked past Mr. Mertle, heading towards the front door but he stopped her.

"Luna," He called out. "I believe this belongs to you."

Luna scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion. In his hand was a rusty, silver chain. She took it from his hands and scanned the chain and recognized it as the charm bracelet Philips had thrown over the fence. Happy tears brimmed in Luna's eyes.

She sniffled. "How'd you find this?"

"My little friend in the back gave it to me." Mr. Mertle said.

"Thank you," Luna hugged Mr. Mertle, lightly sobbing. "You don't know how much weight you just lifted off of my shoulders."

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since that boy, Philips, threw this bracelet over your fence— I haven't been able to connect to a certain someone." Luna smiled.

"Someone died in your family?" Mr. Mertle asked.

"Yeah," Luna replied. "My dad died but that wasn't the person I've always wanted to stay in touch with. It was my older sister."

Mr. Mertle sat at his desk. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't think I should talk about it with you. I don't want to bother you." Luna sighed.

"It's no problem, Luna. It's good to talk to someone at some point and well, if you haven't noticed, I have a lot of time on my hands." Mr. Mertle explained.