ARABELLA ⇢ BENNY RODRIGUEZ

ten

"Scotty, Arabella, I'll be back in an hour I'm taking your dad to the airport." Their mom told them.

"Oh, okay." Scotty said, looking at the floor.
"Honey, are you alright? You look kinda pale." Their mom asked, pressing her hand against her son's forehead.

Arabella scoffed, remembering the look on his face after he vomited everywhere.
"And Arabella, dear, you're looking very lively for once. Did something happen to you both at the carnival last night?"

Scotty was about to answer, but Arabella quickly stopped him. "No, nothing happened, mom. Don't worry about it."

Arabella's mom nodded and smiled. "Oh, well, alright."
"Hey, dad? Where are you going anyways?" Arabella asked her dad as he finished packing his stuff into the boot.
"Chicago. In business for a week." He replied, putting his hands on his hips.

"Take care of things for me." Their dad grinned at his step-children.
Scotty and Arabella nodded. "Okay."

"Be good." He said as he opened the car do.
"We will." Arabella sighed, getting a little fed up of him treating them like children.
He gave them a nod before hopping into the car.

***

A couple of days after we all got over acting like big-shots, we swore off the hard stuff forever and just stuck to bazooka. The boys and weren't surprised that Benny and Arabella had been inseparable ever since that night.
But the day we all got back together for some baseball, was the day I got us into the biggest pickle of all time.

The group waited patiently as Benny stepped up to bat and Kenny took his stance.
Arabella watched her boyfriend as he took a practice swing, before winking at her, making her chuckle.

Kenny threw the ball and Benny hit it - a bunch of dust appeared as the bat connected with the ball, and it went flying.

Arabella lost the ball as it was moving through the air, but saw her brother's expression once he only caught a ball of string in his hand.

"Oh, man!" Bertram exclaimed, pointing at other remainder of the baseball on the grass beside Kenny.

The group crowded around the skin of the baseball.
"Bitchin'!"
"Nah, it ain't!" Benny groaned.
"C'mon, Benny, man! Maybe two or three guys in history have busted the guts out of a ball!" Yeah-Yeah told him.
"All it means is that we can't play no more! It's only 12 o'clock and I just ruined the whole day for us!"
"No you didn't! That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen before." Arabella told her boyfriend.

Benny gave her a soft smile before looking back down at the ball. "Anyone got any money?"
The boys shook their heads.
"Then it ain't okay, because we can't play no more." Benny complained.

"I think I might have some lying around." Arabella said.
"Yeah, I think I might have a ball, actually." Scotty added.
His friends stared at him. "Go get it!" They all yelled, pushing him away.

Benny turned to his girlfriend and took his hand in hers. "Make sure you keep that money around. You could be hitting a home run any day." He grinned.
Arabella laughed and kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Benny."

***

"I got it! I got it!" Scotty cheered. "Right here, guys, I got the ball!" He ran up to his friends and Benny grinned.
"Bitchin'! Your ball, your ups!" He said, passing him the baseball bat.
"Okay!" Scotty smiled.