All you ~ benny rodriguez ~ the sandlot

14. the final days of summer

It was three days before sophomore year started. i was freaking out like crazy because i did not want this summer to end.

"benny, man it's to hot out here to be playing baseball" DeNunez says

"yeah, yeah truly!" yeah-yeah follows up

"yeah i'm gonna have to agree with them on this one benny, i'm sweating like a pig!" i say to him

"come on guys just one game! we already had one off day!"

"benny it's the end of summer! one more off day won't hurt! we still have two days to practice till school starts!" ham says

"please benny!" squints says

"yeah! please benny!" all the boys say pleading him.

benny looks at me waiting for me to say something. i quickly put my hands together and give him puppy dog eyes.

"fine fine fine! but one one condition! we play half of a game!"

"alright deal!" ham says getting up to shake his hand.

we start the game but eventually half of a game turns into a full game, then a full game turns into 2 games then eventually everyone forgot about the heat and we ended up playing untill 5 o'clock"

"i'm tired of baseball man, and my shoulder hurts" DeNunez says.

"he's right we can't just waste the last days of summer just playing baseball like we did the whole summer" squints says

"then what do we do! we are banned from the pool, and this town has nothing else to do!" benny says

"i'm pretty sure i saw a lake when me and scotty were first moving in"

"well why didn't you tell us earlier!" ham says

"i don't know you guys are the ones who have lived here your whole life!" i say snapping back.

"hey what if we camped there for the night" scott says

"wow smalls i didn't know you could actually have the right idea sometimes" squints says, i hit him on the back of his head again.

"ouch!" he says flinching.

eventually we figured out our plan in the dugout of the sandlot. everyone will say that we are spending the night at the treehouse and then we just walk to the lake.

me and scotty got home and told mom and bill that we are staying the night at the treehouse.

i packed a few things and got our old tent out of the garage.

at sunset we left and we met up with benny and then eventually met up with all the boys and started walking to the lake.

as soon as we walked onto the shore of the beach me and benny started setting up the tent while the boys jumped into the water and wrestled eachother.
after a good 40 minutes of struggling to put up the tent me and benny finally got it up.

"what a doozy!" i say breathing heavily and wiping the sweat off my forehead.

"i'm gonna head into the lake.. do you wanna go in with me?" benny asks me

"sure i'll be there in a second" i grab my swimsuit from my bag and change in the tent while the boys are in the lake. it is the same red bikini i wore the day we got kicked out of the pool.

i walked out of the tent and walked towards the lake. i caught benny's attention and he stopped wrestling squints and just watched me as i walk into the lake with his mouth open.

i eventually catch him staring and i swim over to him
"what? do i have something on my face?" i say looking at him.

"no.. it's just.. your look really beautiful" he says blushing.

i smile at him then swim away so he doesn't see me blushing.

"let's play marco polo!"
after a few rounds of that we all started to get hungry and eventually got out of the lake.

me and scotty made a fire and we used our skills from when our dad taught us when we were young.

everyone cheered as the flames lit up in the wood. ham brought the smores stuff and started making smores for everyone.

"how do you want your s'more smalls?" ham says asking scott

"um.. medium.. rare?" scott says confused by his question.

"your killing me smalls!"

i rolled my eyes at the two of them then sat down in a lawn chair we brought, i sat right next to benny.

i sat back in my chair taking a deep breath and taking in this moment because i know this isn't gonna last forever.

i open my eyes to see ham handing me a smore.

"oh thanks" i say taking it out of his hand and taking a bite.

"this is really good ham! wow im surprised!" i say.

"yeah that's the only thing ham knows how to 'cook'" squints says.

"shut up!" ham says back.
eventually everyone started sitting down around the fire and talking about how late we should stay up.
i watched as the boys all argued about the time they should stay up till.

"they aren't gonna last till 1 am!" benny says leaning over and whispering to me.

i giggle a bit, but not just on the comment he made but also how close he was to me.

an hour later which it was about 12:49 am, one by one, the boys started dropping like flies.
they all made up excuses to sleep when they walked into the tent.

"i got church in the morning!" or "my mom expects me to be home by 8"

me and benny were the only ones outside while everyone was sound asleep in the tent.

benny got up and place down a blanket.
he sat down and patted the spot right next to him signaling to go sit down next to him which i did.

he laid back and put his arms behind his head. i also laid back next to him.

he pointed at the stars and constellations i watched him in awe pointing at them.

"im really glad i moved here benny"

"im glad you moved here to. your the most amazing girl i ever met"

"i don't want this summer to end, or this night to end" i say scootching a bit closer to him as he wraps his arm around my shoulder.

we sat there looking up at the beautiful night sky and drifted off to sleep.