The Summer of a Lifetime

chapter 3

I woke up a bit sooner than Kris did, so I just laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

Eventually, she slowly awoke and glanced over at the clock.

"I guess we better get to the baseball field," she shrugged.

"The what?" I asked, confused.

"That's where we're meeting all of my friends," she said, as if it were obvious, "we play baseball every day."

"I have no idea how to play baseball!" I exclaimed.

"It's alright. I'm sure someone can teach you," she shrugged.

We walked out of her room and she found a note on the door.

Went to the field early. You can come whenever you wake up. See you there.

~Andrew

She finished reading the note, then we went to her room and changed.

We both wore jean shorts, t shirts, and our Chuck Taylor's.

We walked to this field, and found five boys there.

As I walked up, all except one of them stared at me and I stood awkwardly.

I saw Andrew look at them all and frown slightly though.

"Hey guys, this is Olivia, but call her Ollie. Ollie, this is Caden, Karson, Danny, Xavier, and you already know Andrew," when she said Andrews name, he smiled at me, and I gave a small smile back. I saw Caden staring at Kristin and made a mental note to myself to tease her about that.

"Alright, let's play ball!" The one named Xavier exclaimed.

I gave Kris a nervous glance and she stepped forward a bit.

"Wait, hold on. So, Ollie has never played before, and someone's gotta teach her real fast," she said, looking at each of them.

"I, um I can," Andrew offered, blushing slightly.

We both walked to the side of the sandlot while the others began playing.

"Okay, so can you throw?" He asked me.

He tossed me a ball and I threw it to him.

Then, he threw it at me a few times so I could catch them. It was fairly simple.

Batting was the hard part. It took me a while to get it just right, but I finally did.

After this, Andrew and I walked back towards the others.

"Let's do this," Kris said smiling.

I watched as Andrew walked out to a spot they called left center, and I went to left.

We played baseball all day, and at one point, someone hit a home run and the baseball landed in a tree.

I began to climb up to it and get it and all the guys, along with Kris, came running up to me.

They all stood under me as I climbed out onto a branch and reached for the ball.

My hand was almost to the ball, so I inched myself forward a little farther, and grabbed the ball.

After that though, my foot slipped and I fell down. I closed my eyes and braced myself for impact, but it never came. I landed in someone's arms, and slowly opened my eyes.

Danny looked down at me and smiled.

I smiled back, lost in his green eyes and the way his brown hair was so perfectly on his head.

He gently set me on the ground, and it was only then that I realized how intently I'd been staring at him.

As I looked around at all the other guys who stared at us and laughed quietly, I glanced over at Andrew.

He wasn't looking at me though. He was frowning at the ground.

The rest of the day as we played baseball, my gaze wouldn't stop drifting towards Danny.

I watched his arm muscles flex when he batted, and how he'd smile when he got a home run.

I sighed dreamily, , staring at him as he batted the ball.

"Heads up!" I heard Andrew yell just before everything went black.

As my eyes slowly drifted open, I was in someone's room with an ice pack on my eye.

I glanced to my left and Andrew sat on the bed, reading a book. I leaned up quickly, confused about where I was.

This turned out to be a mistake though, because it made my head throb. I put my hands on it.

Andrew gently pushed me backwards so I was laying down again.

"What happened?" I mumbled.

"We were at the sandlot and you weren't paying attention. The ball hit you in the eye and you were unconscious," he told me, and the memory came flooding back to me. I made a note to myself to quit swooning over Danny.

"Where is everybody?" I asked him softly.

"They're still at the sandlot," he told me.

"You brought me back here by yourself?" I asked, turning my gaze to him.

He turned his attention to his book, but his red cheeks didn't go unnoticed by me, "mhm," he mumbled.

"Thanks," I smiled at him, and soon I found myself falling asleep again.