The Girl That Made Baseball

15

That night, Jess ate dinner in her room. Benny tried to come by, but that went south.

There was a knock on the door, and Reagan opened it.

"Jess, Benny's here!" Reagan yelled up stairs

"Tell him I'm not here!" Jess yelled back

"She's not here... Sorry Benny" Reagan said

"Thanks, Reagan" Benny hung his head "give this to her, for me?" Benny held out her hat

"Sure" Reagan took the hat from the boy and lightly shut the door

Benny hung his head as he walked home, and Jess watched as he walked down her driveway

"Here" Reagan said softly, tossing the hat on the girls bed

"Thanks, Reagan" Jess said quietly and lightly, looking at the hat

Reagan shut the door and went down stairs quietly.

Jess looked at the hat, and then took it in her hands and ran her fingers over the letters. Memories of when Benny gave her the hat flooded her mind.

It was on Christmas. Benny had said he wanted a new baseball cap, as had Jess, so the two decided there'd get each other baseball caps. When they opened each other's presents, they realized they got each other the same hat, and laughed about it for hours. Since then, neither of them hardly ever took it off.

Jess knee the sandlot team would win the next day. She wasn't stupid. The tigers played to play. The sandlot team played for life. The tigers just showed up to a field every now and then and swung a bat, where as the sandlot team showed up to a diamond everyday and played until they were to tired to play anymore.

Jess knew with or without her, the sandlot team would win. Hell, even if they didn't even have Benny, they'd win, solely because they played everyday with everything they had.

The next morning, Jess woke up to a knock on her window. She knew exactly who it was.

"C'mon, Jess... I know you're in there" Benny said

"My lord. You really don't give up... Do you?" Jess said as she opened the window

"Not when it's you we're talking about. Just listen. I really think you should play today. I think-" Benny started

"I'm not going to play... Benny. I'm just not" Jess said

"But imagine how good we'd do with you-"

"Doesn't matter. Maybe you should have thought about that before you made a bet on me. Tell Smalls I said good luck" That was all Jess said before closing the window.

Benny mentally punched himself for not telling her what he wanted to. For not telling her that even if they lost, Benny would do everything in his power to make sure no one ever got to Jess.

Benny climbed down the gutter and walked to the Tigers diamond.

Jess then decided she'd go to the game. Just the end, just to look how everyone was doing.

She put on her usual outfit of a white tank top, a thin dark blue button up over it, and a pair of old sneakers she had.

She put her thick black hair into a ponytail, putting on her Dodgers hat and pulling her hair through the loop.

The clock on her wall read 12:30. The game would be ending very soon after she got there.

She walked all the way to the Tigers field, going to the very back of the field, just like Smalls had the first time he ever went to the sandlot.

It was the end of the game. Benny was up to bat. He got a nice homer, all the way past the fence, and ran home, smiling and yelling.

"Guess you get our diamond" Philips threw his hat to the ground

"We don't want your diamond, Philips. We want you to leave us alone. Jess do that to your uh... face?" Benny pointed to Philips nose

"Packs a punch. A deals a deal" Philips said

Benny's eyes wandered to the back of he field, where he was a figure with piercing blue eyes and jet black hair pulled into a Dodgers hat.

The figure nodded and walked off the field, Benny still watching.

Benny knew who it was, and all he did was frown at the ground. Had she been here this entire time?

The entire team walked on air as they left the Tigers field.

"You guys go ahead, I gotta sort some stuff out" Benny said, peeling off of the rest of the boys path.

They all nodded and walked to the sandlot, Benny walking to Jess' house.

Before Benny could ever knock on the door, Jess opened it.

"What, Benny?" Jess asked

"Can you talk a bit?" Benny asked, tilting his head

Jess turned around and scanned the living room behind her before walking out the door and closing it behind her. She sat on the steps of her porch and looked out into the street.

"We uh... We won. But I guess you saw that" Benny said

"Yeah. I knew you would" Jess sighed

"Wait, really? How?" Benny asked

"Oh c'mon, Benny. Anyone could realize it. You guys..." Jess didn't finish what she was gonna say

"Uh... We're gonna go to the fair... You should come" Benny said

"I'm gonna skip out, this time" Jess sighed

"Come on. You know you want to. We can get a funnel cake and go on the ferris wheel. It'll be fun" Benny said

"Are you sorry?" Jess asked

"The only reason I shook his hand wan because... I don't know... I thought I was taking one for the team" Benny said

"Doesn't matter now. 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺?" Jess asked

"Yeah. I'm real sorry." Benny said

"That's all I wanted to hear. I'll go, if you want" Jess smiled

"Yes. Please yes" Benny said, pressing his palms together

"Okay" Jess laughed and opened the door to yell in the house that she was leaving.

The two went to the sandlot and met the rest of the team.

"Well? Let's go to the fair!" Jess said, and everyone ran to the fair grounds.