For the better( Benny Rodriguez)

5.

June 1st, 1962
Somerville, California

"Man, I hate Benny sometimes, he's making us practice at like 9 in the morning again!" Yeah yeah said as we walked up to my new house.

"Oh shut it man, we should be used to it by now" squints said and then looked over to me

"So Casey, are you coming to the sandlot today" I laughed a little bit

"believe me guys, there is nothing more appealing than playing baseball all day in 90 degree weather, but I have to unpack"

"I forgot, I feel like you've already been here for like a week" yeah yeah said as we walked up the stairs to the house.

"Me too it feels like I've known you guys for like ever" I opened the door to the house and walked inside to see muffins on the table by a note. 'I have to work at the dress shop until 6 today, Casey I left some sandwiches for you and squints today. Have a lovely day I'm sorry for leaving like this- Junebug :)'

Squints sighed and ate a muffin, we sat on the couch and yeah- yeah started talking.

" So Casey, who do you think is the cutest boy from the sandlot?" He asked and I rolled my eyes,

" do you really think that the only thing on a girls mind is boys? Ughhh." I said and went upstairs to my new room with all of the boxes laid out.

There was a twin sized bed and a bookshelf in the room, it was definitely way two Boring for me.  I first unpacked all of my books onto the bookshelf, I had romance, fantasy, funny, nonfiction, and pretty much anything else. I also put some of my pictures on a string of twine and hung it up on the bookshelf. Next I had all of my vinyl in it's box next to the shelf. I put all of my clothes in the closet.

I put my extra pillows on the plain, white sheeted bed along with more cozy blankets and such. I unpacked a small table to put next too my bed and my several notebooks and sketchbooks inside of it. I put a cute dainty lamp with flowers on it on the small table, also with a few candles.

The next thing I did was get my desk in my room and put a lamp, pens, paint, and other things onto it. I got a cool spinning chair to go with it and then put all of my instruments by it like my guitar and saxophone, the instruments I played at my last school. The last thing to do was decorate, I put posters all over my walls in of the several bands I had liked, and some celebrity crushes. The marvelettes, Beatles, beach boys, Pink Floyd, I loved music, mostly pop but I also like to try and see if I like other styles.

By the time I was done with decorating my room, it was about 4:00 so I decided to put on a sweatshirt and Jean shorts and I headed to the sandlot, just to watch them play. I really loved watching people play and do things that they are good at. It's always very satisfying. I've never really had anything that I am super good at, I'm just alright at everything I'm not great at anything. I don't have a favorite thing to do, I just switch between almost all of my hobbies.

I arrived to the sandlot and walked to the side, Benny was about to hit the ball that he had just thrown into the air but he saw me and it caught him off guard. Everyone was shocked and looked to see what he had his eyes on. Kenny came running over as he saw me. I smiled and waved.

" Hey Casey! Wanna play some ball?" He asked

" I'm just here to watch, I just got done setting up my new room." I said and smiled but then I saw Benny with a semi- angry look on his face.

"No way! Would it be alright if I went to see it?" He asked and all the other boys chimed in

" I wanna see your room!" Squints said,

" Yeah-yeah me too!". I sighed and thought about it for a moment,

" Ok, alright, fine. But you guys can't touch anything!" I said and they all got off of the field except for Benny. I walked over to him and took his baseball bat from him.

" come on, it will be fun I promise." I said and he smiled.

~

The boys walked into my room and where inspecting everything. Kenny was looking at the music. Squints, yeah-yeah, Timmy, tommy, and Scotty looked through my old stuffed animals in the closet. Ham and Bertram looking at the posters. Me and Benny walked into the boy filled room and he went to sit on my bed, I followed him. He grabbed a sketch book and flipped through the pages. It was mostly sketches of people from my school, old crushes, celebrities, teachers. I drew anybody I could get my hands on.

"These are very good y'know, like really really good." He said and I smiled

"those are from last year, I haven't drawn since then" I said and he looked at me.

" why not? Your really good at it." He said and I sighed.

" it's just not my thing I guess, nothing really is." He looked at me for a while and then the doorbell rang. I got up and dusted myself off, me and Benny went down the stairs to see who was there.

" Hi Casey, Im sorry for ruining anything, the door was locked." June said and laughed.

" Oh it's fine you didn't ruin anything, everybody is just checking in on my new room I guess." I said and she looked at me and at Benny

" I'm glad your getting along with everyone so far." She said and I got a bit nervous, I decided to go up to my room. All of the boys had moved on to Squints room so I laid on my bed.

Benny came in and started messing with my guitar.

" This is sorta like a baseball, you should try playing." He said and I turned over to him.

" playing guitar and playing baseball are two very different things." I said and he sighed. He then picked up a book,

" what about this book it seems to be like a  boy is hitting on a girl, like how a bat hits a baseball." He said and I went over and snatched the book out of his hand.

" I just don't see how you don't like baseball, just please try to play with me. It will be fun I promise." I looked at him, I am now realizing why Kenny thought I would've liked Benny. He is very cute the fluffy hair, perfect figure, gorgeous eyes. CASEY! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT!! you don't have time for boys and he doesn't have time for girls. It would never ever ever work. I don't like Benny though. I don't want a boyfriend.

"I'll play with you" I said, smiling at him. " but only under one condition." I said

" and what would that be?" He said, leaning on the bookshelf and looking over me. He looked at me like nobody has ever looked at me before. But I snapped out of it.

" you have to stop touching my books!" I said and put the book on the shelf and pushed him away. He looked surprised and I looked just the same, and then we both bursted out laughing. He leaned back and accidentally slipped onto by bed and it made such a big thud that something fell from a shelf above. It was a box of baseball cards, my dad's baseball cards. They spewed all over my room and I felt my heart shatter a little bit.

Benny saw this and quickly picked up all of the cards and put them back into the blue box. He got up, put the cards on the shelf and looked at me.

" I'm sorry about that." He said and left awkwardly. I didn't know what to say and I just stood their in silence, How the hell did you already mess up your priorities? God Casey what the hell is wrong with you? Stay away from Benny before things get too bad.

YAY ANOTHER CHAPTER DONE!!!
Also. I just found this account again and I can't wait to finally update this story!!!

-C