Like A Girl//Benny Rodriguez fanfic

6.

Barbra's POV: 24 of April 1965
I was about to leave through the door but my mom beckoned me with her finger. And I'm tellin' ya, the finger means business.
"Barbie were you about to leave this house with out sun lotion on?" Mom interrogated.
"Um, nope just putting my bat and ball outside." I stuttered. It was almost 118°, the hottest day of the year so far. Everyone was inside. It was even too hot to be outside. I bet the air conditioning companies are laughing all the way to the bank.
"Come here you little munch." She said rubbing her hands together. I could hear the sound of the sunscreen in her hands.
"Ma! I'm like full Italian, my skin was made for the sun."
"You're right. You are full Italian, that's why I don't want anything ruining your tan and making it uneven." She replied lathering me in sun lotion. Face and all. I laced up my chucks once more and headed out.
"I'll be back in a short while." I said closing the screen door behind me and walking to the sandlot.
On my way I saw Ham dragging a cooler box.
"Ham you need help?" I asked?
"Yeah! I've been lugging this thing since Fortworth St." He explained exhausted. I grabbed one side of the cooler box. We carried it over to the undercover area and threw it on one of the benches were the rest of the gang were sitting.
"Okay so.. It's been over 20 minutes since we sent Squints and Yeah-Yeah out to get the ball. We sent Ham out for drinks and he delivered. And Sleeping Beauty finally decided to join us." Benny said looking at me.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't sleep. I kept having nightmares about my dad finding out about it." I admitted.
"That's fine and all but are we all just going to ignore the fact the Benny technically just called Barbra 'beauty'." Bertie said.
"Bertie where you born with the purpose to start up some shit or is that just a side trait?" I asked sarcastically. He laughed and made kissy faces, I ignored him.
"Guys it's way hot." Timmy groaned.
"Way hot." Timmy repeated.
"Well we're just waiting on a ball and we can play." Benny said. I'm all for ball but it was literally boiling.
"You can't be serious Benny?'' Bertie asked fanning himself with his cap.
We finally saw Yeah-Yeah and Squints stumbling up the field.
"What took you two knuckle heads so long?" Benny asked.
"Ah, Squints was pervin' a dish." Yeah-Yeah explained handing Benny the ball.
"No I wasn't!"
"Yeah yeah you were. Your tongue was hangin' outta your head and you was swoonin'! 'Oh Wendy Peffercorn, my darling lover girl!" Yeah-Yeah teased.
"Shut up! I've got a lot of things on my mind." Squints retorted. I passed him a drink as he went to sit down.
"This pop isn't working Benny! I'm bakin' like a toasted cheese-it! It's so hot out here!"
"Its like 150° out there! You can't play baseball!" Kenny told him.
"Yeah, Benny he's right. Let's just call into for the day." Squints agreed.
"Yeah."
"Yeah man."
"Vote then. Anyone who wants to be... a 'can't hack it' pantywaist... who wears their mamma's bra. Raise your hand." Benny replied.
"I can handle that." A couple of the boys said as we all raised our hands in agreement.
"Fine. Fine. Fine! Be like that... So what're we going to do?"
Yeah-Yeah let out a mischievous laugh. We all stared at him.
"SCAM POOL HONEYS!" They all cheered.
"Yeah right. We're gonna go to the pool and have fun, without disturbing any girls." I
I ordered.
"I'm not into any pool honeys anyways." Benny said walking home.
Benny would have played ball all day, all night, rain, shine, tidal wave, whatever. Baseball was the only thing he cared about. But of all the things we did besides baseball, going to the pool was what he tolerated best. So we all walked home and then met back at the sandlot in our bathing suits. I honestly didn't like the whole swimsuit part of swimming. I felt uncomfortable, I never look nice in flashy girly clothes.
Oh gosh. I think I'm the last one here. I uncomfortably walked over to the boys. I stopped and crossed my hand over my chest. (Picture of her above)
"I guess we don't have to look too far for the pool honeys." Ham said smirking. I rolled my eyes.
"You look really nice. If I didn't have a thing with Wendy Peffercorn.. You'd be a shoe-in for future Mrs Palledorous." Squints said smirking.
"You look neat Ruth Jr." Kenny admitted.
"Yeah I second that." Bertie said.
"I third that. Even though she's like my sister." Yeah-Yeah said
"You're lookin' real good." Timmy said
"Real good." Tommy repeated.
"I'm glad someone likes it. I hate bathing suits." I grumbled. We took to the pool. Squints lead the way. Benny was stuck in one place eyes glued to me.
"Umm. Benny we're leaving." I notified him snapping my fingers.
"Yeah. You go first, I'll walk behind you." He said licking his lips which obviously made me weak at the knees. I continued to walk until we came to the community pool. I took my sunglasses and looked at Benny. He was looking at me but not at my eyes.
"Hey! Dude my eyes are up here. You're looking at the wrong place!" I said pointing at my green eyes.
"Your arms were in the way anyway." He said chuckling. All the rest of the boys were already in the pool. I felt like right now would be a perfect time to spend with Benny who was already in the pool.
"Is it cold." I said hesitating to take off my skirt which was covering the my bikini bottoms. It felt like I would be walking around in underwear.
"No. Just come in." Benny said looking at me while squinting because of the sun. I awkwardly took off my skirt and automatically felt the urge to cover myself.
"Hey can you hold this." Benny said putting a fist out. I held out my hand. Before I realised that he had nothing in his hands I was already being pulled into the pool.
"You suck." I hissed coming up to the surface. He laughed and pulled me closer to him. Our laughs came to a hold. We looked at each other, longingly, as if both of us wanted to say something but were both afraid to say it. I'm happy as long as Benny's hands stay were they are.
"So." He said looking at me.
"So." I repeated put my arms around his neck. It probably looked very cheesy. Like that prom first dance type of crap.
Benny took one of his hands away from my waist. And brought it to my face and stroked near my cheekbone.
"Was there an eyelash?"
"No. Just felt like it." He replied.
"Come on. I'll give you ride." He offered. I hopped on his back.
We swam over to the group of boys.
"I've been swimming here nearly my whole adult life, watching her, lotioning.. And oiling.. and lotioning, and oiling. I can't take this no more!" Squints said swimming away and getting out of the pool.
"What's he doing?" I asked
"I don't know." Tommy replied trying to keep an eye on Squints.
"Three summers of this and I think he finally snapped." Kenny commented.
"I don't know but that's the deep end.. And Squints can't swim!" Yeah-Yeah said. We watched him give Wendy a wave and he did it..
Squints Palledorous jumped into the deep end of the pool and couldn't swim.
"SQUINTS!" We all yelled at the exact same time. We all, in a rush, clamoured out of the pool to go and help our friend.
Wendy realised what was going on and jumped in after him. We ran to the side of the pool yelling and screaming his name. We all nervously waited at the poolside. I watched the male lifeguard carry Squints' limp body out of the pool and lay him down. Wendy pushed him out of the way and attended to Squints. Pumping his chest, blocking his nose, blowing into his mouth.
"Come on Squints."
"Squints please."
"Come on buddy pull through."
Squints eyes fluttered open and his turned to us and gave a smile that I'll never forget. Wendy blocked his nose once more and gave him mouth to mouth. Squints grabbed Wendy's head and held her down for a kiss. I gasped and covered Timmy's eyes since he was youngest. Wendy pulled her face away.
"YOU LITTLE PERVERT!" She squealed and picked Squints up and threw him out of the pool along with Ham, Yeah-Yeah. Benny and I realised what was going on and slowly backed away from the situation.
We sat by the pool side with the sun beating down on us.
"Squints finally had enough huh."
"After 3 summers I'd have had enough too." He added.
"Rodriguez, you finally left your rag tag team of misfits." A voice from behind us said. We both turned around.
"What do you want Phillips?" Benny spat.
"Just trying to strike up a conversation with you but it seems like I should be striking up a convo with the babe next to you."
"Leave." I said with attitude.
"You know what? I was actually getting quite comfortable." He told me sitting down.
"I'm not interested."
"Don't worry things are gonna get interesting." He whispered in my ear and put an arm around my waist. I grabbed his arm and threw it to him.
"Hey! She told you to leave her alone." Benny intervened. I gave him the I'm okay signal. I'm sure it made him pretty angry, don't know why but it did.
I got up to grab my stuff and leave. I felt my skirt being lifted up.
"Show us the rest pumpkin." He jeered.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him. He shook his arm free and put it on my waist.
"Move your hand further and I'm going to end you."
I looked the twerp in his brown, menacing eyes.
The little prick did it, he touched the bottom of my back.