May 24th,
(I decided not to make Benny's pov. Because it was too hard lol so it's only in the first chapter;) )
It was the next day, I woke up around 8:00 am and opened my curtains to let some light in. As I look out I see Benny walk out of his house. He was crossing the street coming towards my house. I was surprised so I hurried to put some decent clothes on and ran downstairs right as he knocked on the door. I opened the door and saw him wearing a blue hat, a baseball jersey and tank top and some jeans and brought his bat and glove. I thought he was adorable and liked his style. He didn't even have to try to look good. "Hey, um, I was wondering if you would want to come with me and some friends to play some ball." I kinda looked at him funny when he asked that. "Ball?" "Yeah, baseball." "Uh, I don't play baseball" I said with a giggle. He looked a little upset and got a little red cause he didn't know what to say after. There was a little pause. "But I can watch." I said smiling at him. "Yeah, that'd be great! Let's go!" "Mom, I'm going out I'll be back in a while." I yelled to my mom who was in the kitchen. I shut the door behind me and started walking with Benny. "Where are we going?" I asked Benny as we were walking down the street. "Vincent's drug store to buy us a ball." It didn't take long to get there because it was right up the street. When we got there he walked over and started talking to some guys for a second, and they turned and looked at me. Benny turned to me and introduced me to his friends. "Valerie, I'd like to introduce you to Scotty smalls, Timmy and Tommy Timmons, Alen McClennan, we call him yea-yah, Kenny DeNunez, Michael 'squints' palledorous, Bertram Grover Weeks, and that's Hamilton Porter. He said while pointing to all Of them. "Nice to meet you guys." I said excited, but they all had a confused look on their face and didn't say anything, they just looked over at Benny. "Yeah well, uh, she's new in town and she's just gonna watch us play ball, come on let's go to the sandlot." Benny said to everyone. I was walking behind all of them for a while, and I could tell they were talking about me. "But Benny she's a girl" I heard Bertram say. "Yeah yeah, why are you bringing her anyways?" "Because we could teach her to learn and play." Benny said with a serious face. "But why?" Smalls said looking up at Benny. Benny didn't say anything after that, he just shook his head and kept walking, I didn't know why he would want to teach me either. I played softball before but that was two years ago. I was pretty good at it, but not as good as them, and I was a girl.
When we got to the sandlot I saw Benny walking over to me. "You can sit here and watch, and if you wanna catch or something you can." He said while handing out his glove to me. I knew he wanted me to play, so I got up and took the glove. "Okay Benny, but I'm a little rusty." I said looking at him and he just smiled and rolled his eyes as if I was lying when I said I was rusty. I went out to left center and waited for Benny to hit a ball towards me. I heard him call my name. "Valerie throw to second!" He hit the ball and it flew towards me. I was kinda worried I wouldn't catch it, but as I stuck my glove out in the air I felt a strong force hit my hand. I couldn't believe I actually caught it. I look at Benny and see him smiling at me and clapping. I smile back and throw it to Bertram who was at second. "Okay, let's play some ball!" All the boys were surprised at me. They didn't think I was any good and I honestly didn't either. And until then I realized how fun it actually was.
We played for hours that day, until it got dark and had to head home. The guys started to talk to me a lot after that and didn't seem to have a problem with me playing with them. Each one was heading home and the group became smaller and smaller, soon, smalls had to head home. "I'll see you at 8:00 tomorrow" Benny said to smalls as he was about to go inside. It was just me and Benny then, and as we got to his house I was about to say bye but he kept walking with me. "I can walk you home, I know it's just across the street but I'd like to talk to you a little more" I couldn't believe what he was saying. I felt like he actually liked me. I didn't know why cause he could've had any girl at school or in the neighborhood. But I liked that about him. He spoke his mind and was honest about those things. As I get to my front door , he looked at me as if he didn't want me to go inside. "Do you wanna go for a walk?" I said In a quiet voice because everyone was asleep. "Sure, I'd like that." We started walking around the block and it was really quiet so we whispered to each other. "Do you wanna play with us again tomorrow?" Benny kinda sounded happy saying that. And I couldn't resist seeing him again. "I'd love to!" "And maybe we can hang out a little after we leave the sandlot, you know, just you and me." He said. He sounded a little nervous not knowing what my reply would be to that. "Okay, what do you want to do after?" I couldn't believe he wanted to spend time with me. He was about to reply but then I heard a door open. "Valerie come on get inside!" My sister Angela said laughing. "Well I gotta go, my sisters calling me. You can tell me tomorrow" I said looking into his brown eyes. "Okay well I'll see you at 8:00, I'll come by your house." "That sounds great!" I smiled at him and turned to go to my house. He jogged over to his house and waved bye and we both went inside.
As I close the door, I turn to go upstairs to my room but my sister stops me. "So who's the cute guy?" She said with a smirk on her face. "He's just a friend, we play baseball." "Y'all look too close to be just friends" she said laughing, I just laughed with her and tried to go upstairs. "Come on what's with you? You've barely known him for two days!" "Yeah and I said were just friends" I laughed "well if something happens between you two let me know I wanna be the first ho hear!" She said to me and went to her room. I went to mine and changed out of my clothes to put some pajamas on and climbed in bed to try to get some sleep. Again I couldn't stop thinking about Benny. I was really tired and it was late an night so I turned on some music to try to get my mind off him and get some rest.
