Waiting It Out - Benny Rodriguez - Book 1

Last Day of School

Ahh...

The last day of 8th grade. I've never liked school.

The last day of school is always the best. Field Day is a close second but Bertram's older sister says they put Field Day on the last day of school in high school so it's the best of both worlds.

On the last week-ish of school, the teachers don't care and just let the students play board games all class anyway. 

No surprise pop quizzes, no stressful exams coming up with equally stressful homework attempting to "prepare" you for them.

Me, Benny, Bertram, and Kenny are the same age, in the same grade. Ham and Timmy are both 12 in the 6th grade. Tommy's 9 and in 3rd, and Squints and Yeah Yeah are 11 in the 5th grade.

And that's another thing about school ending.

Baseball.

The nine of us play at this run down baseball diamond we call the sandlot. 

I stumbled upon it around 8 years ago when I was walking around town as a little 6 year old girl. 

My parents sent me out of the house because they need to "speak in private". I've never been close to either of my parents. They're both big fans of a teeny little thing called child neglect. 

I knew they were fighting, I just didn't know how bad it was. 

I came back home that day to find my mom's car gone and my dad drinking a glass of brandy. 

He sat me down that night and told me he got a job that would cause him to be out of town most of the time. I'd only end up seeing him one weekend every month and that I'd be staying with Benny and his mom when he wasn't home. 

When I was 12, I started staying home even when he wasn't there just cause I could handle being in a house by myself. 

Jen, Benny's mom, would still check up on me and have me over for dinner every other night. She was more of a mother to me than my real mom. Even when she was here.

My dad never acknowledged my mother's exsistence after the night she left but it's not like I wanted to anyway. Again, I wasn't at all close with either of them.

To continue the happier point, we would play baseball on the weekends and holiday breaks when we could but school made it harder for us to get together. 

However, during summer, we'd play everyday unless we absolutely couldn't.

Kenny's our pitcher, Ham's catcher, Timmy's on first base, Bertram on second, I'm on third base, Squint's fourth base, Yeah Yeah's in right field, and Tommy's in center. 

Benny's usually the one hitting but me and him switch at least twice every time we play. 

We don't have anyone in left field since Elswenger moved but we make do.

Me and Benny just walked out of last class together, finally being done with the 8th grade forever.

"I totally beat you at poker." I say walking out of the class door.

"Did not. I had two pair." Benny retorts.

"And I had full house." I say back.

"You did not." Benny says, stopping us walking.

"And you know that how?" I say looking at him from my peripheral.

"Look me in my eyes and say you had full house." he said gripping my shoulders and staring in my eyes intensely.

"Fine. I didn't have it." I admit through gritted teeth while rolling my eyes and continuing our walk through the double doors that lead us outside of the middle school building.