Sandlot Love

13

When I woke up everyone's sleeping bags were empty, except mine and Benny's. He was a wake and staring at our clasped hands like he couldn't comprehend it. I realised that we'd moved closer during the night and were curled up facing each other, our shoulders pressed together.
"Good morning" I said and he jumped
"Ash, you're awake. I'm sorry I didn't want to move and risk waking you" he said, flustered
"It's ok Benny" I said, smiling "so what's the plan for today?"
"Same as every day I guess, playing ball, except... well... the guys want a break and I can't force them to play so I thought maybe... if you wouldn't mind... um, giving me some pitching tips? I'll help you with your batting too, not that you need it of course" he was so nervous it would've been funny if he didn't look so damn cute.

"Alright sure, I'm gonna go home and get changed ok?" He nodded, smiling widely.
"See you soon"

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

I took longer getting dressed than usual, straightening my hair even though I was going to tie it back anyway, I wanted to look nice, even if I was just playing ball.

When I got to the Sandlot Benny was the only one there, he saw me coming and jogged over.
"I thought, if it's ok with you that is, if we worked on my pitching first so that I can pitch to you when we're working on your batting"
"Sounds great" I said, warming up my arm. Benny positioned himself on the mound and pitched a couple of times. He was good, but with a tendency to try too hard on the fast ones and over balance, making the ball travel too far left and miss the strike zone. I told him this, and he tried changing his technique, but then he was pitching too softly.
"Here" I said, coming up behind him "let me move your arm how it should go" I put my hand over his around the ball and moved his arm forward. "let go around here, yes I know it's earlier than you would on a regular pitch but if you leave it any later you'll over balance. Try it again" he did and improved markedly. We practiced pitching until he was getting it how he wanted it in the strike zone every time.
"Ok now for me" I said, moving into the batters box and taking my stance, he pitched and I swung, hitting the ball.
"You're waiting too late to decide whether you're going to swing" he said "you're deciding when the ball comes to you and you can't get enough power that was to hit it as far as you could"
"How do I tell earlier?"
"You look at the pitcher, watch how they pitch and tell by their stance and where their eyes go what they're going to pitch, if it's an erratic pitcher you'll have to wait until they've thrown the ball but that's not usual" I followed his advice and found myself hitting the ball much farther.

"Ash!" We both looked up to see Smalls jogging across the Sandlot "you're having dinner at my place again and your mum wants you to come home right away" I groaned.
"Sorry Benny"
"It's ok, I get that you have to go"
"Yeah but I feel bad leaving you to pick up all these balls" I gestured around me to the balls scattered all over the Sandlot.
"I'll be fine Ash, go home"