She Stole More Than Just a Base

Chapter 8 Meet Mercedes Brooks

Mercedes Brooks is a very optimistic person and she can make your day very easily. She's very energetic and bubbly and she loves draft horses. She's just moved here from her rural neighborhood. She spends most of her time outside and she likes to change her hair color often. She doesn't take romance very seriously. As a matter of fact, she takes everything lightly and often changes unhappy situations into happy ones. She's very confident and isn't afraid to admit anything. Mercedes rarely blushes or gets nervous, unless she's around someone she really likes.
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Alaska's POV

"Did you guys hear that?" Benny asked, listening carefully. We all went silent, even Squints and Ham. We heard some rustling. It was coming from the dry bushes next to us. Benny walked real carefully and quietly, followed by Squints, over to the bushes. Squints peeked inside and screamed like a girl and we heard a feminine voice shriek. Then Benny yelled and backed away quickly, where areas Squints was crawling away. A girl with dyed hair shot up from the bushes and looked calm, like nothing had ever happened and she's known us her whole life. "Hey guys," she said, "you're really good at playin' ball."

"Where you watching us?" Bertram asked.

"Yeah, I was," she said casually.

"Why?" Ham asked.

"Yeah yeah, why?" Yeah-Yeah agreed.

"I just moved here and I was around and I saw you guys playing, so I watched you," she replied as if it was normal. I looked over at Benny and he was basically drooling. I felt a sharp pain in my chest because I liked Benny too.

"You like baseball?" Timmy asked.

"You like baseball?" Tommy repeated.

"I like riding draft horses, but you see, that's not possible here," she answered.

"That's cool," Christian said, elbowing me because she noticed that Benny was swooning over her.

The Jet snapped out of his trance and asked her, "What's your name?" sounding a bit eager.

"Mercedes Brooks," she told him.

"Mercedes, that's Timmy and Tommy Timmons; Michael 'Squints' Palledorous; Alan McClennan, we call him Yeah-Yeah; Christian McClennan, sometimes we call her Rocket; Alaska Adiego; Bertram Grover Weeks; Kenny De Nunez; Hamilton 'Ham' Porter; and Scott Smalls," he introduced and we spat after he said our names.

"Lovely," she said.

"Oh and I'm Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, but you can call me Benny," he added.

"Guys, I've got an idea!" Squints exclaimed.

We all started to huddle around him but he said, "Just the guys."

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Squints' POV

Everyone huddled around me, but I just wanted to talk to the guys, so I told the girls to back off.

"Guys, you know how we're training to make our own Little League team?" I asked them.

They responded with "Yeahs" and a "Yeah yeah."

"We should have cheerleaders!" I said enthusiastically. They just looked at each other considering it and Yeah-Yeah did the same laugh he did two summers ago when Smalls just moved here and we suggested we go to the pool instead of play ball because it was too hot. They all nodded vigorously.

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Christian's POV

The boys wouldn't let us huddle with them, so we chatted amongst ourselves.

"You know Benji was staring at you Sadies," I told Mercedes.

"Benjamin?" she asked.

"Yeah, Benny," Alaska said bitterly.

"He's really handsome," Sadies said.

"Yeah, he is," Laska agreed.

"I hope one day we go out together," Mercedes said.

"Cool. That's cool. Totally cool," Alaska said emotionless but I could see her eyes harden and they lit up with an angry flame.

"Are you okay Alaska?" Sadies asked. Since I was standing next to Laska and a little bit behind, I gestured Mercedes to not ask that by swiping my hand across my neck and shaking my head violently.

"Just dandy," Alaska said brusquely. I think she hurt poor Sadies' feelings because she kept quiet and it was awkward. We just watched the boys and my brother laughed weirdly The boys nodded their heads violently.

They broke apart from the huddle and Kenny cleared his throat. Scotty spoke up and said, "Alaska, Christian, and even Mercedes. Benny, Timmy, Tommy, Yeah-Yeah, Bertram, Kenny, Squints, Ham, and I have made an executive decision." I glanced at Alaska and she was holding in a laugh. She gave me a look that said, He's trying to be professional! I returned a look that said, I know, it's hilarious!

"We want you guys to be our cheerleaders," Squints said.

"Yeah yeah, The Tigers don't have cheerleaders," Yeah-Yeah said, referring to Andrew Phillips and his stupid, no good, tag along friends.

We all just glanced at each other. After about a minute, Ham was frustrated and said, "Well?"

Just then, something totally unexpected-and disgusting-happened.