HOME • RUN

/•2

I slung my backpack onto my bed, and yawned. I knew I'd promised Scotty I'd go with em', but boy was I tired.

School was long, and finally over. We only got assigned one summer book to read, which I praised the Lord for.

I took a sip of the leftover glass of sink water on my bedside. The sip eventually turned into a chug, finishing what was left.

I used my foot to kick the backpack off my bed, allowing me more space. "Y/n!" Scotty called as he sprinted into my room.

"They've already left—c'mon!" He shouted, pulling my feet off the bed.

"Okay, okay!" I shouted back as I ran out behind him. The running eventually simmered down into a steady walk. We had caught up with those guys.

This would be a little awkward for me, as I'd be the only girl. Unless there was a group a' girls the boys played with, that'd be pretty neat.

I just hoped Scotty would go run off with those new boys, and I could go home.

We arrived at a rundown little Sandlot. It had a fence going all the way around, and dusty, almost unseen plates.

The boys game had already started. Me and Scott walked in the back, him ahead of me. He fiddled with the toy glove grandma got him for his birthday one year.

"Hey look! It's the boy from yesterday." I pointed out to Scotty. Scotty nodded, and anxiously patted his glove.

"Yeah. I asked a boy who he was at school. That's Benny Rodriguez. Apparently he's a legend at baseball." Scotty told me, causing me to make "oh" sound.

"Well that's cool. You should run up there and ask to play." I told him, looking over and noticing the Benny boy was staring at us. More specially, me. Probably wondering what the hell a girl was doing out here.

"Are you crazy? I could—"

"Watch out!!" A male voice yelled. I raised my eyebrow in confusion, and looked around. Scotty fell to the ground, his mit covering his face.

I sighed, and watched as a baseball rolled behind him. I took at guess what happened. "Oh, Scott." I mumbled, helping him up.

The boys were all laughing, hard. I frowned at them, the frown turning to a glare. "Don't be a goofus, don't be a goofus." Scotty muttered to himself as he went to pick up the ball.

"We are waiting!" A boy with glasses yelled, his voice reasonably high.

Scott got ready to throw. "But you can't throw—oh."

He threw it to the ground. The boys laughed even more. Scotty's eyes weld up with tears, as he ran away from me, the sandlot, and the group of boys.

I picked up the ball, and threw it back. The boys continued to stare at me as I left. Either confused why a girl was here, or confused why I threw it so well.

I wanted to yell at them, but decided not to. My top priorities at the moment were to console Scotty.

So I ran off, and followed Scotty all the way home.

/•

"Hey." I said shortly, knocking softly on the door as I pushed it open. Scotty looked up from the book he was fiddling with.

"Hey." He greeted back, not looking up from the leatherback science book. I frowned, and sat on his bed beside him.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him, taking the book out of his hands.

"Am I an egghead? I mean you're my sister and can even throw better than me. I'm not gonna make any friends." He complained, putting his head in his hands.

I sighed and shook my head. "You're not an egghead. You are going to make friends. And who cares if I can throw better than you?"

"I do." He spoke back, looking up from his fingers. "I am just an egghead."

"If you really are then you're the best kinda egghead." I told him, smiling and taking his hands to lift him off the bed.

"How bout' we watch a movie? Eat some popcorn. That'd be fun." I asked, nudging him. His face broke into a smile.

"Okay. Sure." He agreed, taking a blanket from off his bed to wrap around himself. The blanket had different elements of the periodic table on it, making me laugh softly.

Once we got to the living room, I kneeled in front of the boxy TV. I began to look through the three available channels, before deciding on one. This channel was playing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Scotty sighed, obviously upset with the movie choice. On the other hand, I was excited. I quite liked Disney movies.

I turned to sit on the couch, curling up into the pillows with a blanket. I was tired, but knew I had to stay awake in order to keep Scott accompanied, and to keep his mind off things.

But I could tell by the look in his eyes, and the way his eyes drifted off the screen and to the ground, his mind definitely wasn't off things.

A/N

This was a quick chapter, only around 900 words. But I hope you enjoyed!

-bel