hard knock life ◇ sandlot

✖ | chapter fourteen

"SON OF A bitch!" benny breathed, grabbing smalls by his arm. kenny and ham were okay. timmy, tommy, and bertram. squints and yeah-yeah.

so now he just had to get smalls out of there.

they had a good advantage on him, it shouldn't be too hard to get out of there now. benny attempted to push smalls in front of him, but the kid was intent of being too scared to move his feet quickly.

naturally, at the first sign of trouble, smalls began wailing. the fence neared closer and closer, the other boys all screaming and slamming their hands on the fence for the two to run.

benny ran like he'd never ran before, to the point where his chest ached. it was towards the point of where he was practically carrying smalls, and he skidded to a stop before the fence.

"go, go, go!" benny demanded, eagerly smacking smalls on the back. the man was drawing closer.

"c'mon, man, c'mon!" he whined, and the other boys tried to help coax him over.

"benny, man, you gotta climb!" bertram demanded, his eyes wide with. fear for his friend. he quickly scaled the fence, before pulling him and the blonde over the side of the fence.

benny let out a groan as smalls landed directly on top of him, and the boys quickly helped him to his feet, before tearing off in the opposite direction, back towards the timmons.

after the carnival was out of sight, the local pool came into view. the nine boys all collectively dropped to the grass.

"...bitchin'." bertram breathed, and they all snickered.

hopefully that wouldn't come back to haunt them. hopefully.

"i...totally...saved your ass, smalls." benny smirked, propping his hands behind his head. smalls smiled weakly.

"i saved your ass!" tommy grinned, suddenly sitting up and looking to timmy and bertram.

"...don't tell mom." he quickly added, in regards to the curse word. timmy rolled his eyes and shoved tommy, who toppled over back onto the grass.

"c'mon. it's pretty late." benny grunted, and pushed himself off the ground. the boys all instantly agreed, and followed without hesitation.

***

it was around 12:30 by the time the boys had gotten back. their sneakers and hats were all lazily strewn about the treehouse, the radio was on a soft crackle, and the boys had finally simmered down.

so, that was when yeah-yeah had decided to get them riled up again.

benny had known what the boy was doing the second he'd grabbed those first pairs of converse.

yeah-yeah's face looked like he was about to explode from laughter, the dirty sneakers tucked deep into his chest as he subtly worked on the laces.

and not a single other person noticed as he took converse after converse.

they only noticed when it was too late.

yeah-yeah sprung up, his shrill laugh filling the treehouse, before he made a b-line for the exit, carrying seven pairs of shoes in his arms.

"...the hell's he doing?" ham raised a brow, and the boys all went to the window.

yeah-yeah had passed the dugout, laughing like a hyena the whole way, when he abruptly stopped beneath the telephone line. and then...then they realized what he was doing.

"NO-!"

all the boys screamed, and tore out of the treehouse in their socks.

and up went the first pair of shoes, which successfully remained dangling from the telephone wire. followed by two more pairs, before everyone reached him and hoped their shoes were not now caught on the wire.

ham's, timmy's, and smalls' were the only ones to have been caught.

and Ham became furious. kenny, on the other hand, found the whole situation very funny.

"you think that's so hilarious, don't you?!" ham barked, and kenny nodded.

"yeah, man, i do-"

before he could mock him any longer, ham ripped his converse out of his hands, adding the now fourth pair of shoes stuck on the same line. kenny now only stared in shock.

bertram, tommy, and squints all darted back to the treehouse, while they still had their converse.

"...you're getting that, porter." kenny frowned, before marching back with the other boys. timmy let out a long sigh, staring longingly up at the shoes, before slowly retreating, smalls close on heel.

"...i oughtta beat you up." ham hissed, giving the tan kid a hard shove, before he to marched back to the treehouse, completely consumed with anger.

"aw, c'mon! since when did you guys become a buncha pansies?!" yeah-yeah teased, his shrill laughter echoing throughout the sandlot. no other guy laughed, no one even so much as acknowledged him.

"...guys-?"