Sporty Girl | Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez

Part 4

Smalls smashed the ball, sending it soaring.

"Oh, man. Oh, man." Benny says while running back, following the ball.

"Run!" Ham said.

"Yes!" Smalls cheered, then began running to the bases.

"Way to go, school meat! Taught him everything." Ham cheered.

"Sure ya did, Ham." I commented while rolling my eyes, then continued to cheer on Smalls, along with the others. But then, as Smalls watches the ball, he begins to slow down.

"Oh, man, that was great. That went clear over." Bertram said while he places a hand on Small's shoulder as everyone looks over and watches the ball too. Once it was over the fence, Benny stopped running.

"Hey, uh, Smalls, third base is that way." Bertram commented as Smalls walked more towards the back of the field.

"Hey, Smalls. Smalls." Yeah-yeah tried to gain his attention.

"Go to third." Ham yelled.

"Oh, no. Oh, no." Smalls mutters.

"Yeah! Nice hit, Smalls. Nice hit. Yeah!" Benny comments then runs over to the group.

"Oh, no." Smalls continued.

"It's outta here! Who's got the big bat now, boys? Yeah!" Benny said as everyone chanted Smalls as they walked closer to Smalls, who slowly continued to walk forward.

"Smalls?" I said, confused about Smalls's behaviour change as I stood next to Benny.

"You forgot to turn." Ham comments. "You go to third base!" He stands with the rest of the group as they all stand together watching Smalls making his way to the fence. "Smalls? What the hell's he doing?"

"Maybe the shock of his first homer was just too much for him." Bertram said.

"Yeah."

Then everyone makes their way over to Smalls, who is now standing in front of the fence, back facing everyone.

"Smalls?" I said while moving closer and placing a hand on his shoulder, just as the beast began to growl. Once it stopped, Smalls turned around to face everyone.

"We got to get that ball back." He said.

"Oh, yeah, right. Good one, Smalls." Ham said then everyone laughed, but me. I knew something was up because I knew that Smalls knew what was on the other side and everyone, plus the way he's acting is different. I looked back at everyone with the same expression as Smalls.

"Yeah, good one, Smalls." Tommy said.

"Hey, forget about it, man. We'll just get another ball." Benny said.

"No, you don't understand!" Smalls snapped at them.

"Sure, we do. You feel bad 'cause you belted a homer, and now we can't play no more."

"Benny." I said sternly.

"No, you don't understand! That wasn't my ball!" Smalls yelled. Everyone was confused but that's when it clicked in my mind.

"Oh shit." I muttered so Smalls was the only one to hear it.

"What do you mean, that wasn't your ball?" Squints questioned.

"It was my step-dad's. I stole it from his trophy room. It was a present or something. Somebody gave it to him. But we gotta get it back. He's gonna kill me!" Smalls said.

"Oh. Listen to me, Smalls. This is a matter of life and death. Where did your old man get that ball?"

"What? I don't know. Some lady gave it to him. Why?"