All because of baseball

Chapter 7

     The next day I was walking to the sandlot with Phillips and his gang. As soon as we were on the field, me and Phillips held hands. This was our plan.
   The sandlot boys spot us and drop what's in there hands. They walk towards us slowly. Mackenzie is with them. Benny gets in Phillips's face.
    "Dude, So I have to beat you up again so you can learn your lesson?" He says getting mad. Then Benny spots me holding Phillips's hand. His eyes went wide and he looked up at me.
    "no no no no no, you didn't dare! You know he's our enemy!" He says in disbelief and there was some hurt in his voice. "No, he's your enemy." I say and point a finger to his chest. Benny keeps shaking his head and steps back. "Bro, Sam think about this. Phillips is the meanest person in the town. You know what they say, if you hang with bad people, you can do bad things. They're a bad influence on you." Says DeNunez. He's trying to convince me to not be friends with Phillips. Well I have no other friends to hang out with so, not gonna happen.
    "Any way we're not here to talk about Sam's decisions, were here to finish business, Rodriguez." He starts. "Let's play a game of baseball. If I win then I get to take the sandlot. And if you win, you get to keep it." With out taking his eyes off me, Benny answered Phillips. "Oh that'll be easy. We kick your butt all the time." Phillips laughs. "Oh but you forgot one thing Rodriguez. We have one of your star Players." He gestures to me. I smirk at the sandlot boys. There eyes get wide.
     "Your not gonna play. Are you?" Asks Timmy. "I sure am. And your gonna get your little butt kicked." I say. I feel bad about being kinda mean to him because he was always so nice. Plus he's two years younger than all of us. He was going into 6th grade while we were going into 8th.
     Benny then hesitates before shaking Phillips's hand. For a second I thought that he wouldn't make the deal. But after a while he cautiously shakes Phillips's hand. Phillips grins mischievously.
   "A'right than. Sandlot, tomorrow at 8." And with that Phillips and his friends start walking away. I stand there for two more seconds looking at my old friends. They all have a betrayed look on there faces and I can't stand to look any of them in the eyes. Benny's eyes look so hurt. He then tore his gaze from me, turned around and walked away. I sighed and  walk away with Phillips.
      The next morning, I was so nervous for the game. My stomach was twisting and I felt nauseous. I got dressed. Today I was going for an all red theme. I had red high waist shorts on, with a white tank top tucked in them. Then I had on a red flannel and red high top converses. Then I tied a red bandanna around my wrist and on my head and left my hair down. I grabbed my glove and rushed out the door. I walked to the sandlot with Phillips and his-er our team. We arrived at the sandlot to see that the Boys were all practicing on the field. Mackenzie was sitting in the dugout, watching. As we approach them, they stop playing.
    "Ready to play Rodriguez?" Says one of the boys on Phillips's team. Benny's eyes flicker to me for a second but then he looks at Phillips. "Ready as I'll ever be." He says in a flat voice. "K then let's play." I speak up and push past Benny and the sandlot boys and made my way to the home plate. I was batting first. Today, Ham was gong to be the catcher and Benny was in outfield. I lock eyes with DeNunez as he pitches the ball.
     This was his heater. I swing and miss. I hear bunch of "oooooo"'s from people. I look at Phillips and he nods his head. "Come on Sam you got this!" He yells. As DeNunez pitches again, I take a deep breath and swing. I hit the ball to the out field and I make it to third. Phew.
    The game went on for a while until we were at the last play. Benny hits the ball really far into the out field and flies from base to base. If Benny makes it home safely, they win. I'm the catcher and Phillips throws the ball to me. I watch as Benny runs towards home and just at the last second, I tag him right before he touches the plate.
    "Out!" I yell and my whole team starts cheering and rushes towards me. They all tackle each other. I watch Benny stand up brushing dirt off his legs. His expression his unbearable. He looks defeated. I look around at all the other boys on the other team and a small tear falls from little Timmy's face. DeNunez's face is expressionless. He usually keeps his emotions inside.
    I all of a sudden feel terrible. I know how much the sandlot meant to them. It was their home. The place that they go to every day. And they've been here for so long, no one can remember the first time they came to the sandlot. Then I do something unexpected. I walked over to Benny and hugged him. He smells pretty good even though he just played a game of baseball for 2 hours. I pull away and look down, avoiding his eyes.
      "Sorry." I mutter. And walk away,back towards my team. Phillips congratulates me then walks over to the sandlot boys. Well the ex-sandlot boys.
    "So I guess we win, Rodriguez. This place is ours now so scram!" He says in a really mean tone. Benny doesn't say anything back to him. He just walks past us to the dugout and the rest of his team follows. I watch them as the get their stuff out the dugout. Some of them touch the side of the dugout before trudging away. Forever.
     The next morning, I wasn't rushing to get to the sandlot. I got dressed and slowly walked out the door to the sandlot. As I walk in I don't see Benny, DeNunez, and the rest of their team. I see Phillips and my new team. I set my stuff down in the dugout and walk to my spot as short stop.
    As we start to play, I realize that this isn't right. None of this is right. I hear people calling my name because I'm just standing there and the ball is at my feet. I shake my head. This isn't right, I thought again. All of this is so wrong and finally I can't take it anymore.
    I run off the field and I can hear the team calling me to come back but I don't. I sprint away from the sandlot, to DeNunez's house. I knock on the door and a women that looks my mom's age, answers the door.
     "Is deNu- I mean, Kenny here?" I ask. The lady smiles.
    "Yes he's in his room. Come in." She says waving me inside. I walk in and she points me to the stairs. I walk up the stairs and enter the first room on the right.
   I step in to see that DeNunez and the rest of the ex-sandlot boys were sitting in there playing some game on the PlayStation. Benny was laying on his back up side down hanging off the bed with a controller in his hand. DeNunez was sitting in a spinny chair focusing on the game. The rest of the boys were cheering them on.
    "Come on DeNunez! Win!" Yells squints. "Benny kick his butt." Says ham. None of them notice me leaning in the doorway yet. For some reason, I don't want them to notice me.
   They were going to kill me when they see me. But I needed to make things right. All of a sudden. Benny's eyes found me and he froze. "Yes!! I won!" Yells DeNunez. None of the other boys noticed me yet. They were all cheering except for Benny. He was still frozen. "Benny?! What are you doing?" Asks DeNunez He follows Benny's eyes to me. Then he froze. One by one each of the boys notice me.
      "What are you doing here?" Asks Ham. My face turns red as they all stare at me.
    "I-I just wanna T-talk to you guys." I stutter. The boys all give me sour looks. Except Benny. "Then talk." He says. I walk over to the bed and sit down. All the boys look at me. Benny sits up. I figet with the bottom of my shirt as I talk.
   "Being there at the sandlot without you guys just doesn't seem right. I feels wrong. And I know I was wrong about joining Phillips and taking your guy's field." I explain.
    "Yeah well you should have thought about that before you made that dumb decision." Bertram scoffs.
    "I know, I know. But I have an idea." I say standing up.
    "An idea to get your sandlot back. For good." Th boys stare at me waiting for me to explain. "You should challenge them again. But this time I won't be on their team."
   "If you think that we'll just take you back on our team, then your crazy." Says yeah-yeah. I shake my head quickly.
       "No! No, of course not. I wasn't expecting you to. I'll be watching. But I'm sure you guys will win this time." I say quickly.
     "How do you know that?" DeNunez speaks up. I look at him.
     "Because, with out me, Phillips's team is trash. They won by one point and that's only because I got Benny out at the last second. If I hadn't been there y'all would've won. So what do you say?" I look around at the boys.
   "I say we get our damn field back." Benny finally says something.
   "Yeah!" Said all the boys and they rush out the door. Benny pulls my arm. "Thanks Sam." He smiles. 
    "Anytime, Rodriguez." I elbow him. As we walk over to the sandlot, the boys can't stop talking. I still feel out of place even though Benny was talking to me now. None of the other boys were. DeNunez said a couple things to me, but he mostly kept to himself. We walk on the field and Phillips's team stare at us.
     "We're here for a rematch. To get our field back." Says benny. Phillips's face turns sour. "No! We got our field and that's all we want!" He says. Benny crosses his arms as Phillips starts to turn back around.
    "What, are you scared or something, Phillips?" Yells Benny. Phillips turns back around and glares at him.
     "No! You know what? I'll take that rematch and I'll win again!" He says. So everyone takes their places on the field and I walk over to the dugout and watch. The game went one for a couple hours and the sandlot boys were doing pretty good.
    We ended up winning and got the sandlot back. Everyone felt good that night and bathe boys were talking to me again. Went we decided to head home, Benny put his arm around me and DeNunez's shoulders. They were my bests friends. Squints looked back at us.
    "Ooo Benny and Sa-" I cut him off. "Shut up squints!" I joke. My face turns red. Benny just shakes his head and laughs. DeNunez frowns for a second but then recovers when he sees he looking at him. Hmmm. What was that a bout?  We all said our good byes and I went home. Sleep came easily for me that night.