It's Going, Going, Gone!

Chapter One

     As I was walking home with Benny and Ham, I noticed an orange U-Haul parked in the driveway of Elswenger's old house. "Well, listen, come over at nine o'clock tomorrow." Benny told Ham.
     "All right." Ham responded.
     "See you later."
     Finally, Benny noticed the U-Haul and nodded at the kid pulling boxes out of it. I sent the kid a small wave which he returned and followed him inside his house.

***

     At nine o'clock, Ham came pounding on my door with Benny at his side. As usual, we walked to Vincent's Drug Store to meet up with everyone else. And, as usual, they were cracking jokes and doing terrible impressions.
     As a team, we jogged down to the sandlot and took our positions. I jogged out to left field and got in my ready stance. Per usual, Benny called the play, "Hurricane! Relay to second!"
     I tipped my hat and nodded. Benny tossed up the ball and hit a line drive out to left field. I immediately got the read off the bat, drop-stepped to the left, and ran backwards, keeping the ball in front of me. I caught the ball and threw to Yeah-yeah. He threw to Bertram who threw to Timmy, completing the double-play. "Good one!" Benny shouted to me.
     I smiled and dropped back into my ready stance. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the new kid dressed in very poor baseball attire trying to take a very deep left field at the foul line. I shrugged and looked at Squints. He shrugged back and we held our positions. Benny called the next play, "Bertram! Go to one!"
     Benny hit the ball to Bertram who caught it on the short-hop and threw to Tommy at first. "Yeah! All right!" Benny cheered.
     The ball made its way back to Benny. "Yeah-yeah, throw to one!"
     Yeah-yeah received the grounder and threw to first. "Yeah-yeah, go to two."
     Yeah-yeah caught the fly ball and threw to Bertram. He caught it and threw to Tommy, completing an amazing triple-play. "Squints!"
     Squints called the ball and caught it before throwing to Bertram and finishing a double-play. In the distance, I could hear growling from behind the fence, causing me to flinch and momentarily lose focus.
     I zoned back in to find a fly ball coming towards the new kid. Technically, I could call it and save him the trouble, but I want to see what he's got. The kid lifted up his glove and fell on his butt. I sighed in second-hand embarrassment. Benny sighed, too and put down the bat. "Okay! I'll get it." The kid shouted.
     I crossed my arms and slowly blew out a breath, trying and failing to maintain patience. Benny seemed to be having the same problem because he sighed again. The kid grabbed the ball and after some not great encouragement from Squints, threw the ball. It fell to the ground a mere five feet in front of him. Except for Benny and I, my team laughed their butts off.
     The kid ran away and I started to follow him before Benny gave me a look that said, Hang on. I have a plan.
     I smiled back and retrieved the ball before gunning it across the field to Benny who caught it bare-handed. Afterwards, he winced and shook his hand out, but still sent me a shy smile, causing my cheeks to turn slightly pink.

***

     It was eight-thirty on Saturday morning when Benny came knocking down my door. "Any chance you got an extra hat lyin' around?" He asked me.
     I leaned against the door frame. "What for?"
     "The new kid. I'm gonna teach him to play."
     I smiled warmly, Benny did the same thing for me nine years ago when we were five. I grabbed my hat, glove, and the extra bat for the new kid before following Benny down the street to the new kid's house. Us, in our jeans and baseball t-shirts, walked right up to the kid. "Hey." Benny greeted him.
     "Hey." I added.
     The kid looked up, then looked back down at his busted toy glove. "I'm gonna go play some ball. And we need an extra guy. You wanna go?" Benny asked.
     "No. Thanks." The kid answered.
     "Why not? Don't you like baseball?" Benny questioned, always the more diplomatic between the two of us.
     "Oh, yeah, but, uh..." the kid started, searching for an excuse.
     "But what?" I asked.
     The kid stood up, "But my glove, it's busted. Uh, see, no, I can't go. Thanks, though."
     "It's okay." Benny pulled a glove out of his waistband, "I got an extra one."
     Considering how full his hands were, Benny handed me the glove and I tossed it to the rookie, "Come on. Let's go."
     The kid opened the screen door and told his mom where he was going. Us three kids jogged down the street to the usual meet-up point. "Hey, what's your name, rookie?" I asked him.
     "Uh, Scott. Scott Smalls."
     "Is it cool if I call you 'Rookie?'"
     "Oh, uh, yeah, sure."
     "Quit grilling him, Hurricane. You're gonna make him nervous." Benny scolded me.
     "'Hurricane?'" Rookie asked me.
     "Yeah, when I'm batting, I'm pretty unpredictable. I could be hitting slow-rollers to third or homers out in right field."
     "Usually, it's the homers. You're gonna make me go broke if you hit 'em anymore often." Benny noted.
     "You're already broke, Benny." I teased him.
     Benny rolled his eyes. We walked up to see Ham doing another one of his terrible impressions, "I'm da gweat bwambwino."
     "What?" Everyone asked.
     Ham took the stick of licorice out of his mouth. "I'm the Great Bambino." He enunciated.
     "Who's that?" Rookie asked.
     Ham turned around and looked at Rookie. Benny and I sighed and looked down at our feet. This will be a lengthy process. I thought. "What did he say?" Ham asked DeNunez in disbelief.
     "What, were you born in a barn, man?" Bertram asked.
     "Yeah-yeah, what planet are you from?" Yeah-yeah asked.
     "You never heard of the Sultan of Swat?" Squints asked.
     "The Titan of Terror?"
     "The Colossus of Clout?"
     "The Colossus of Clout?"
     "The King of Crash, man." Benny tried.
     "Oh, yeah, the Great Bambino. Of course. I thought you said, 'the Great Bambi.'" Rookie lied terribly.
     However, it seemed to slightly calm the atmosphere. "That wimpy deer?" Ham asked.
     "Hey, you're one to talk, Ham! You had no idea who he was until I told you." I shouted.
     "Hey, chill." Benny told me, draping his arm over my shoulders in an attempt to help me calm my temper.
     I became red in the face and sent a silent prayer that nobody noticed. But, just my luck, Yeah-yeah started glaring at Benny. Yeah-yeah was my best friend, he was like having a brother. I'd been asked out before but Yeah-yeah reminded me that we were young and that we needed to focus on other things, and, turns out the guy just liked me for my looks. I zoned back into the conversation when Benny started pulling away from me. I let out a tiny squeak and followed after him.
     Benny smiled lightly and pulled me closer. I blushed more and kept my eyes focused on the path ahead. "Why'd ya bring him, Benny?" Bertram asked.
     "'Cause there's eight of us, and he makes nine." Benny answered.
     "Excuse me?" I asked, offended.
     "Well, you're only allowed to play schoolyard games and those are over." Benny reasoned.
     "But what happened to disguises?"
     "They don't work, Hurricane."
     "Yeah-yeah, so would my sister, but I didn't bring her." Yeah-yeah interrupted.
     "That's because your sister's a highschool soccer player." I noted.
     Yeah-yeah rolled his eyes. "With nine guys, we've got a whole team, Yeah-yeah." Benny argued.
     "No. With Elswenger, we had a whole team. Elswenger could catch." Ham fired back.
     "And throw." Bertram grumbled.
     "Come on, Benny, man. He ain't game." DeNunez pushed, "You saw the way he threw."
     "Yeah. You have already filled up all the empty positions since Elswenger moved to Arizona." Tommy argued.
     "Right. And now I get to rotate eight positions instead of seven. I need practice, guys."
     "You're the best on the team. You don't need any practice." Ham argued.
     "You guys talk about me like I'm not even here!" I shouted, shrugging Benny's arm off my shoulders.
     "Hurricane, don't be that way." Benny pleaded.
     "No. I'm going to the dugout and not coming out until you apologize, all of you."
     I stormed off to the dugout and sat down, ignoring all the pleading protests. The boys continued arguing about Rookie as I began to fall asleep in the shade. As my eyes fluttered shut, I was awakened by someone tapping on my hat. "What?" I grumbled.
     "I'm sorry. We all are." Benny said, gesturing to the team standing around me.
     "You know, I checked the rules of the tournament this fall and girls are allowed. Girls can play, as long as they follow all the rules and their hair won't get in the way."
     Benny's eyes brightened, "I knew you'd find a way. We can run four in the outfield so nobody gets benched."
     I smiled and got up. As a team, we walked out onto the field and took up our positions. "Smalls, you take left-center." Benny said.
     "Where exactly is that?" Rookie asked.
     "It's over there, man."
     "Here?"
     "That's left. I said left-center."
     "Okay, right. Here?"
     Benny nodded and walked to home plate. "Come on, Benny, man. He's never gonna catch the ball anyway. Let's just play." Squints demanded.
     "Yeah-yeah, get two." Benny called the play.
     Yeah-yeah fielded the ball and threw to Bertram at second base. Bertram to Tommy. Tommy to Ham. Ham gave the ball to Benny who called the next play, "Hey, Smalls, throw it to second."
     "Okay." Rookie shouted.
     Benny tossed the ball up and hit it to Rookie. He tried to catch it, but didn't drop-step and wound up falling on his butt. Smalls quickly got up and ran to go get the ball. I flinched when I heard an all too familiar bark. "A square, Benny! The kid's a square." Squints commented.
     I continued to flinch every time I heard a bark. I saw Smalls run the ball into the pitcher's mound instead of throwing it. In unison, Benny and I jogged up to Rookie. "You can throw it, you know." Benny said.
     Smalls took off his hat, "No. I can't. I don't know how. Thanks for taking me here, but I think I'd better go."
     "Hey, hey. You think too much. I bet you get straight A's and shit, huh?"
     "Benny, language." I scolded him.
     Benny rolled his eyes. "No, I got a 'B' once. Actually, it was an A-minus, but it should've been a B." Smalls protested.
     "Man, this is baseball. You gotta stop thinking. You just have fun. I mean, if you were having fun, you would've caught that ball. Do you ever have a paper route?" Benny said.
     "I helped a guy once."
     "Okay. Well, chuck it like you would throw a paper." I connected.
     "When your arm gets here. Just let go, just let go. It's that easy." Benny said with a demonstration.
     "How do I catch it?" Rookie asked.
     I opened my mouth to say something, but Benny cut me off, "Just stand there and stick your glove out in the air, I'll take care of it."
     "About time, guys. My clothes are going out of style." Squints complained.
     "They already are, Squints!" Yeah-yeah shouted.
     "Shut up!"
     I jogged back to my position and listened to Benny call the play. "Smalls! Throw it to second base."
     Before Benny even tossed the ball, Smalls stuck his glove out. Luckily, the ball landed right smack in his glove, causing Squints to pull his glasses off and clean them on his shirt. Smalls threw to Bertram at second base and Bertram threw it in. Once again, I flinched when I heard a dog's bark.