First Crush (Sandlot)

Part 13

Maya

Maya walked up to the old house the housed the Beast and rang the doorbell. Her determination outshined any fear in the back of her mind.

"Whose there?" A cracked burly voice came from behind the door.

"Maya, I am just a girl. Can I come in?" Maya spoke firmly to the closed door.

A few moments later the door creaked open and an old man opened up wearing black glasses and has a cane.

"What may I do for you?" He said and cracked a gentle smile.

"I need to ask you for a favor." She said feeling a little bit more relaxed.

"Well of course come on in." he smiled again and rubbed his faint grey beard. Maya followed him through the house and into what she assumed was just a room full of random knick-knacks .

"Listen my friends and I have lost all of our balls over the fence and we need them back. Real bad." Maya proceeded.

"Really? Well I can do just that. Give me a second to convince my dog Hercules." He chuckled and headed towards the backyard. Maya waited in the room and gazed at the walls.

Pictures of the 1927 Yankees team were everywhere. Signed at that.

"Wow." Maya thought out loud and headed over to a shelf that had a signed Babe Ruth baseball along with the rest of the team. Maya felt like she was holding something worth more than her own life.

"I got your balls here. Do you like my room?" He said feeling his way into the space.

"Thank you so much."  Maya said taking the bin of at least 40 baseballs.

"This is amazing. How did you get this?" Maya said holidng out the signed baseball.

He reached his hand out and Maya gave him the ball and he smiled nostalgically.

"Baseball was life! And I was good at it ... real good." He continued, "That was until I was hit with a stray pitch in my eye that ended my career. I'm partially blind ya know?"

"That's terrible! But Babe Ruth was your friend?" Maya said astonished.

"Yea, I knew George. I knew him real well." He smiled.

"How about your friends have you made any good connections?" He said referring to my bucket of baseballs, he kicked it twice with his cane.

"Only the best, but you would have to ask them." Maya shrugged thinking about today's argument.

"You can never strike out with true friends. Maya right? It was good to see you and get some excitement in this old house of mine. Feel free to stop bye anytime. And feel free to keep my ball. I don't need it." He said handing her the signed ball sending her off.

Maya was a little surprised at how fast their conversations ended but she just took the bucket of baseballs and the signed on in her other hand and made her way back to the sandlot.

She wasn't sure what to expect when she returned but with no game going on they were probably at each other's throats. She hoped returning with the game balls and telling them not to worry about any beast any more would cure things. She even had a special gift for them if that alone wasn't enough. She couldn't wait to hand over the signed baseball.

Benny

"Where did Maya go?" Squints asked as I returned to the lot reluctantly.

"I'm not sure." I mumbled.

"Squints! We said we weren't talking to that slime licker anymore." Ham growled.

"Guys, I'm just confused and want my girlfriend right now. Help me out." Benny groaned.

"Benny. Decide. Are you gunna stay with us?" Smalls asked.

"Of course. You are my guys. To be honest Maya told me that we are going to keep things exactly the same. So that's how they are going to be." Benny said sarcastically and reluctantly but hoped he acted enough so that the boys would believe him.

"That's great to hear." Maya said and dropped a bucket down and smirked confidently. Benny couldn't help but smile at her appearance.

"I got our balls back." She said and tossed one of the balls out of the bin to me.

"How? D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-did you face the beast?!" Yeah,yeah said with a petrified look on his face.

All the boys had their mouths gaped open and Maya looked at them with the same cocky smirk.

"Sure did. All 48 pounds of it. Guys, there was no beast. Just a friendly dog and an even friendlier owner." She spoke.

"So we can play for the rest of the summer with this! Thanks Maya! I may have underestimated you." Ham said snatching one of the baseballs out of the bin.

"I can't believe you did that!" Benny said and spun her around in a huge hug.

"Thanks." She smiled and blushed still in Benny's arms. The boys were all still staring and Maya broke away from Benny. That led to Benny's face dropping as he felt her feeling uncomfortable but shook it off. This was what Maya wanted.

"Ready to play?" She asked grabbing her glove.

"Yep! Base up you blockheads." Benny said.

<Baseball game was played and it wa fun Maya's plan was working>

"So Maya want to come over to my house tonight? We can't play baseball in the dark so none of the boys will get upset." Bennys whispered to Maya as everyone was drinking orange cream soda in the shade.

"I don't know. I have been spending a lot of time out. My dad might get upset." She said.

'What about tomorrow night?" Benny urged.

"Hanging out here is fine for me." She smiled at Benny. Honestly her curfew is sundown and felt bad admitting it to him.

"Well what night can you? I can come to your place." He said and kissed Maya's cheek as her face heated up. She picked up some sand and playfully threw it at him to tell him to knock it off.

Benny just rolled his eyes because he was honestly upset; he felt unwanted.

Maya kept eyeing her bag knowing there was the signed baseball in there and she was just waiting to give it to him.

It's getting harder to find the right time because of how things are going between them.