9 boys, 9 girls, 1 sandlot

Happy girls, deflated boys

The game continued in a similar manner to the first inning. 

The girls dominated. They ended up winning 18-4. 

"Come on Benny! They must've cheated!" Ham shouted, frustrated at being embarrassed by a group of girls. 

"Nah, man. They're just good at baseball," he replied, still in shock himself at the loss. 

"Molly, they're so embarrassed," Moose giggled. 

The entire team of girls started cracking up. Molly smiled slightly. 

"Don't get cocky. We still have 29 more games to play," she said wisely. Her team knew she was right. 

"Hey. You're right, but for now, let's focus on the here and now, and go celebrate our win with some ice cream. I'm buying!" Bubblegum shouted. 

The team all cheered and ran off towards the nearest ice cream joint. Despite being one of the most popular people in the Valley, she stayed a bit behind the group so she could strategize for the the next day's game, and her team could let go of all their worries for the time being. 

Meanwhile, the boys were sitting in the treehouse. No one said a word for a while. The silence was deafening. 

"Look, guys, we weren't playing well anyway. We can do better tomorrow," Benny tried to comfort his team. 

"Benny, man, this is actually hard though," Bertram replied, still deflated. 

"Yeah. We thought this was gonna be a breeze. 30 wins, and the sandlot is ours forever," Ham said next, throwing his arms in the air. 

Benny rolled his eyes and sighed. "Well, we thought wrong. Let's just step it up tomorrow. I'm going now, so see all of you at 8 a.m. Molly said they'd be here then every game." Benny gave up comforting the boys as he exited the treehouse and jumped from the fourth rung of the ladder. 

The girls were enjoying their ice cream when Phillips, the captain of the local little league team, showed up, surprisingly alone. He started to flirt with Red. She rolled her eyes at him. He wouldn't leave her alone, despite her silence and her teammates protests. 

Molly finally snapped. "Fuck off, Phillips. I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now. I will never go out with you. Now or ever. Get the memo and leave me alone," she yelled in his face. 

He left without another word. 

She rolled her eyes again and went back to eating the now melted ice cream in front of her. Her team tried to talk to her. 

"Molly?" Speedy asked. "Molly?" Hot Head was next. "Molly?" (Hops) "Molly?" (Ace) "Molly?" (Bubblegum) "Molly?" (MC) "Molly?" (Shorty) "Molly?" (Moose) "Molly?!" They all shouted in unison. 

"I'm going home," she announced before quickly running out of the store, leaving her melting chocolate ice cream on the table. 

Her teammates looked at each other, concerned about their captain, who rarely showed emotion. 

She ran down the street for a while, her endurance playing in her favor. She ran and ran until she crashed into someone. She barely whispered an apology before a familiar voice spoke. 

"Molly?" 

"Yes, that's my name!" She snapped. 

"Molly, are you ok?" Benny asked her. 

"I'm fine," she replied quietly, trying to wipe her tears without him noticing. 

"Molly, I know we don't know each other that well, and our teams are kind of in a feud right now, but you can trust me," he tried his best to comfort her. 

She looked at him.

A/N I'm so sorry for not updating for almost a month! I've been so busy. I also had major writers block 🤦‍♀️. I'll try to update more often. Comment anything you want to see happen!
-Mo