𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝑆𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟

One

I was shaken awake by my little brother, he loomed over me with his red hair messed up from sleeping and his freckle covered face wore a big smile. He always did this in the mornings for school, but school was over. It was the first day of summer and that meant it was baseball time. 

"Get up Jacklyn! Get up we're going to the sandlot! Come on the boys are waiting downstairs!" my brother, Hamilton, cheered.

He was already dressed for the day. A white and orange striped shirt, jeans, black converse, and a navy blue baseball cap. I got up and rubbed my face groaning. It was 8 in the morning! Well, what did I expect from Benny, he loves baseball it's his life. I pushed Ham out the door and told him to tell the guys that I would meet them at Vincent's Drug Store.

"Hey, Jackie said she would meet us at the drug store. Race ya!" Ham shouted.

The front door slammed shut multiple times. I sighed and walked into the bathroom to freshen up. I threw my light brown hair into a wavy ponytail and grabbed some clothes, one of my Yankee shirts, high-waisted jeans, Yankee hat, and black hightop converse. I grabbed my glove, my skateboard, and an apple. When I stepped outside the warm summer wind hit my face as a welcome. I got a running start and hopped on my board taking a bite from my apple, I looked over the landscape and saw a moving truck. A family of three were walking in and out of the house. A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes noticed me and waved, which I returned. I got to the drug store and saw some of the guys outside sitting on the sidewalk. Most of the boys were about 11 or 12 except Benny, Bertrum, and me we were 13 and Tommy was 9. I threw my apple core at Yeah-Yeah.

"Hey Hey what gives, Jackie?" he said throwing the core in the trash. 

The guys laughed and greeted me, Benny and my brother were inside. I said hello and asked how they were. Benny walked out with Ham, they were arguing about something. I waved and they smiled.

"Hey Jackie! How are ya? Got your glove" Benny asked.

"I'm good and I have my glove. Oh, did you guys know there's a new kid movin' into our street?" I asked.

They all shook their heads, except Benny.

"Yea, I saw that kid before we came here. He waved." Benny stated.

"Well maybe we can ask if he wants to play, alright let's go to the sandlot!" Bertrum said jogging ahead.

Once we got there, it felt like home. We've all known each other since we were babies and this place well Benny and I discovered it when we were Tommy's age. We've played baseball here ever since. Our positions were never really told to us we all just went to the same places each time. Benny would bat first, Ham was the catcher, DeNunez was the pitcher, Yeah-Yeah was shortstop, Bertrum was second, Timmy was first, I was third, Squints was right field, and Tommy was left field. We went to our positions and got warmed up. 

"Yeah-Yeah take it to second," Benny instructed.

He tossed the ball into the air and hit it toward shortstop, Yeah- Yeah easily caught the ball and threw it to first. The ball made its way around the diamond and eventually went back to DeNunez. 

"Woah!" someone whispered.

I figured it was Tommy behind me, he was new to baseball and had trouble catching some times. Benny told Tommy to try this one, he hit the ball but it went into center field.

"Hey watch out!" Ham called.

I spotted the boy from the house standing behind some tall weeds. The ball landed next to his foot. I ran out to the field being the cutoff to throw it back in. The boy picked up the ball and stared at it, I waved my hands indicating to throw it into me.