Benny Rodriguez; 1962

Moving to California

May 2nd, 1962

There is one all-time greatest moment in the history of sports,and it happened in the 1932 World Series.

We've been in this car for two whole days, I'm exhausted. Scotty keeps complaining and Bill is talking non stop about how excited he is for us to see the new house. We had to move all the way to California from Oklahoma just for Bills new job. I left all of my friends, family, and sports. I had to quit the softball team a week before we even moved because the coach didn't want me to have to leave in the middle of the season even though we literally had one game. We moved two weeks before school let out so I have no time to make new friends considering I won't even be going to school.

"Are we almost there?"

"Yeah, we'll be there in ten minutes."

"Thank God."

We have passed tons of restaurants, parks, stadiums, and just buildings in general. Needless to say, it's been pretty boring.

"Don't use the lords name in vain."

"Sorry."

Bill is one of the most religious people I know but sometimes, he's far from it. We go to church every Sunday and sometimes he makes me and Scotty sit down and read our bibles. I don't have a problem with reading our bibles but he cusses rarely and just says sorry but if I ever cuss, he gets so mad at me. Mom and Bill have only been married for about a year and as soon as we got settled into our old house we had to move here, amazing.

"We're here." He pulls into the driveway of a pink house with a bunch of windows at the front and it looks like the front door is down a hallway. It's pretty big and mom even said that I got the second biggest room just so I could decorate as much as I wanted. We moved into a pretty cool neighborhood I guess, there's a lot of kids though.

"Get your boxes out of the U-haul truck and take them to your rooms. Isabella, yours is the second one down the hallway on the left. Scotty yours is the first one on the right."

I grab two boxes and stack them, they're pretty heavy not gonna lie. I was smart enough to mark my boxes with my name unlike Scotty who is now looking through all of the boxes. I carry them to my coordinated room and see that my bed and dresser is already in here. I have a pretty big closet and there's two windows.

I go get the rest of my boxes and see Scotty waving at a boy who is carrying a glove and he only smiles and nods. He's beautiful, he's real tan, jet black hair, and he's tall. He sees me looking at him and smiles and I smile back before turning away quickly. I also see a red headed boy walking to his house that is three houses down carrying a glove, I wonder if there's a team or something. Behind him there's a few more boys turning and walking to different houses with gloves, maybe they just play around.

"What was that about?"

"Oh shut it Scotty." I nudge him and he laughs.

~~~~~~~

I'm decorating my room and turn around to see Scotty standing in my doorway staring at me like a weirdo. He tends to do this a lot but most of the time he sort of just walks in, looks at me, and then runs out.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Maybe a minute or two."

"Why?"

"Just watching you decorate, I need help decorating mine."

"You are literally the scariest person I know but I'll help you tomorrow because I'm about to go to bed. I'm exhausted."

"How am I scary? You do this all the time."

"I do not."

"Whatever, you walk into my room all the time and literally stand there."

"I do not."

"You do when you sleep walk."

"That's completely different from when I'm awake."

"I bet, goodnight sis."

"Goodnight Scot."

I finish setting everything up which only takes about ten minutes and then I look at the time to realize that it's eleven o'clock, so much for going to bed early.

I turn off my light and then climb into bed, getting comfy and then realize that I have to pee.

"Damnit." I whisper, just in case these walls are thin.

I get up to use the bathroom and when I'm walking back I see mom is standing in the kitchen looking out the window. She is just as weird as Scotty is, she looks out the windows often and her excuse is always "I saw an owl"

"Mom? What are you doing?"

"Our neighbors have a son around your age I think and he's laying on their roof."

"Really?"

"Yeah, come look."

I look out the window to see the boy that smiled at me and Scotty earlier today laying on his roof staring at the sky. He looks like he's thinking or just staring off in space, not sure

"He doesn't look very happy."

"Go talk to him, see if he's okay." She nudges me and my jaw drops.

"Are you serious?"

"Well of course I am. You need to find friends here anyway. Plus, he's cute; a total keeper."

"Oh good lord. I'll be back."

I carefully unlock the front door and open it and run across the street. He sees me and sits up.

"Hi." I stand there awkwardly with a little smile on my face.

"Hey."

"My mom wanted me to come check on you because you don't look very happy but I feel like you were thinking about things or you were just staring at the sky so I might just go back to give you time to yourself." I was talking way too much and the boy doesn't even know my name.

"Oh, it's fine. Thanks for checking on me though. I'm Benjamin but my friends call me Benny." He laughs and it sounds angelic

"Am I allowed to call you Benny?"

"Of course you are."

"My names Isabella, call me whatever you want honestly."

"It's nice to meet you Isabella."

"Nice to meet you Benny."

I stand there for what feels like hours but it's actually only been a few minutes.

"Well, I guess I'm gonna go back. Have a good night."

"You too."

I walk back into the house just to get pampered with questions from mom about what we talked about, what his name is, just everything she could think of and eventually I say goodnight and run to my room.

Mom and I have always had a great bond until a few months back when she told me that I was being selfish and that I needed to start spending more time with my family. We had gotten into an argument because Scotty wanted to hangout one day that I was with the softball team and I told her no, she was pissed but she eventually got over it. She likes to say that I spend too much time to myself and away from my family but I'm pretty sure everyone does that sometimes.

I look out the window to see Benny climbing into what I'm assuming is his bedroom window and closing it. I can't believe I talked to a boy and especially him, I mean he's gorgeous and just breath taking.

I sigh and lay my head back on my pillow. Today has been very uneventful but also eventful. I close my eyes and I immediately fall asleep.

A/N: I know this chapter isn't long but I didn't really know what to put on this one but I promise the rest of the book will be longer than this.