ARABELLA ⇢ BENNY RODRIGUEZ

five

The next day, Arabella told Rose and Susie she was busy and couldn't hang out with them today, and to her surprise, they said it's totally fine.

When Arabella first arrived, wearing Benny's baseball cap, he ran up to her and hugged her. Soon enough, she was bombarded by the rest of the boys, all apologising for the way they acted.

Arabella accepted their apology, but made sure that she made things clear when she said that if they make one more sexist remark, she's not coming back.

She was currently in third base (I'm not very good with baseball stuff sorry, I'm English leave me alone) waiting for Squints to run and grab the ball Benny had just hit.

Squints threw the ball as far as he could. Arabella held out her glove and caught the ball as Benny was making his way towards third base. She quickly threw it to Ham, catching Benny out. "PICKLE!" He yelled.

Ham threw the ball back to Arabella as Benny frantically began to run towards her. The minute the ball left his hand, Benny began to run back to Ham, but Arabella had already caught the ball and was about to throw it back to Ham.

She couldn't help but laugh at the fact that they were basically playing 'piggy in the middle'.

Instead, Kenny was stood in Ham's place and caught the ball. He took a few steps forward to through the ball back to Arabella, which gave Benny the advantage, and he made it back home.

Arabella threw the ball back to Ham, but he dropped the minute after he caught it in his glove. "Dammit, Benny!"

Arabella laughed and applauded Benny. "I honestly don't know how you do it."
Benny smirked and ran over to Arabella, patting her back. "What can I say?"

"Oh no!" Squints groaned, drawing the group's attention towards him.
Arabella furrowed her brows at the group of boys riding towards them. "Who're they?"

"Phillips." Benny grumbled, picking up the bat and grabbing Arabella's arm with his spare hand. "He's not like us. Whatever he says about you, just ignore him, okay? We can handle him."

Arabella scoffed as she was practically being forced to follow her group. "I don't need you guys to handle him - I can do that myself."

The two groups, stopped once they'd reached one another and Arabella immediately caught on to the fact that they clearly didn't like each other.

The boys got off their bikes and Benny took a small step in front of Arabella. She rolled her eyes and pulled her arm out of his grip and took a step forward too - she could handle this just as well as the rest of them could.

"It's easy when you play with a bunch of rejects, a fat kid and a girl, Rodriguez." The boy stood in front of the rest of his friends said; Arabella was guessing this was Phillips.

Arabella took another step forward once he emphasised the word 'girl', but Benny held her back.
"Shut your mouth, Phillips!" Benny yelled, pointing his bat at him.
"What'd you say crap-face?!" Ham spat.
"Yeah, I'd like to hear it again." Arabella growled.

"You shouldn't even be allowed to touch a baseball, Porter! Except for Rodriguez, you're all insult to the game." Phillips replied, before eyeing Arabella. "You however, may be an exception."

Arabella scoffed. "So first you think that I'm unable to play baseball because I'm a girl, and then you look at me like that? No way!"
Benny grabbed her arm and kept a firm grip on it. "Don't, Arabella. He's just winding you up." He whispered, before turning to Phillips. "Speak to her again like that and you're dead!"

"Come on! We'll take you on right here, right now!" Ham yelled, earning cheers and nods of agreement from his group.

Phillips scoffed. "We play on a real diamond, Porter. You ain't good enough to lick the dirt off our cleats!"
"Watch it, jerk!" Ham threatened.
"Shut up, idiot!"

Arabella watched as the two threw insults at one another that were so pathetic she almost wanted to step in and ask them why they were acting like kindergarteners, but the strong grip Benny still had on her arm was preventing her from doing so.

There was one insult that Phillip made, however, that made Arabella go completely mad.
"You play ball like a girl!"

This built enough anger and strength up inside Arabella, so that she could rip her arm out of Benny's grip and stride up towards Phillip.

"What the hell did you just say?!" She almost screamed.
Phillips confidently tutted his head as Benny came up behind her.
"You heard me." He whispered. "Tomorrow. Noon. At our field. I hope to see you there."

Arabella felt Benny touch her arm again, but she pulled it away and looked at her arm, which had red hands marks on it.
To Arabella's surprise Benny's hand moved from her arm to her hand.

Arabella's eyes, that were piercing through Phillip's skull as he rode off, were drawn away from him, and down to their entwined hands.

"Uh, sorry," Benny stammered, quickly pulling it away and taking a step back. "Are you okay?"
Arabella shook her head. "No. We're gonna beat those dicks and I'm gonna show them that girls can play baseball."

"You told him, Arabella!" Ham called out.
"Yeah, my sister is the best!" Smalls grinned as the group of boys ran up to Benny and Arabella.

She laughed. "Okay, okay. I do have to admit, I did feel pretty badass speaking to him like that."
"Hell yeah you were!" Benny grinned, patting her on the back.

Benny then clapped his hands together. "Now come on, let's play ball!"