SUMMER 62' [ON-GOING]

[ Chapter Five ]

• THE SANDLOT •

It was hot, you could definitely feel Summer starting to set in. Personally, I was more of a Fall type of person, but I didn't mind the heat so much.

It was the end of the school day and I headed home, following the same path I took in the morning. This time, I took more notice of the beautifully trimmed hedges infront of a lot of the houses, and a hedge archway which revealed the rest of the concrete path. While taking in the green scenery, a boy ran past me, vaguely brushing past my shoulder.

"Benny, wait up!" He called, his hat nearly flying off his head as he flew down the path. It was Scotty Smalls, the boy who was at the school grounds earlier that day.

He had caught up with Benny, who I had no idea was walking a few metres up ahead. He held his baseball bat in one hand and proceeded to secure his Dodgers cap on his head with the other. He turned back when he heard Scotty's voice, but I don't think he saw me trailing behind them.

"We need to hurry and get to the sandlot," Benny informed and the two of them jogged off.

I followed them. I knew it was wrong, but if they were playing baseball, I wanted to witness them in action... maybe they'd even let me play with them? I tried not to get my hopes up though.

There was about 9 boys and I recognised most of them from class, although I only really knew Ham, Alan and Squints.

I managed to sneak into the Sandlot and behind the same bush that I had hidden behind previously. I peeked out from the side and watched the boys take their positions, although, I had lost sight of Benny.

All of a sudden, I heard a boy's voice behind me. It was Benny. "What are you doing?" He asked and I wanted to crawl into a corner and cry. I had been caught once again.

I tried hard to keep my calm as I stood up from my crouched position. I folded my arms against my chest. "I was looking for my dog, what did you think I was doing?" I avoided meeting his eye.

He scoffed. "You were looking for your dog yesterday too right? Behind this same bush?" Well shit, at that point I had lost count of the amount of times I had embarrassed myself infront of Benny. He had seen me yesterday when I thought he hadn't, watching him bat alone for a bit before meeting his friends.

Benny got his answer when I failed to respond to him. He continued. "Look Stiff, not to be rude or anything, but we have a game now and there's only a few hours until dark, so you'd best head off. Or you can watch from the sidelines but we really gotta get started."

Benny started walking away but I was fuming. He was still brushing me off, underestimating me, treating me like some fragile thing that could break at anytime. I stormed after him and my presence became known to the rest of the boys at the sandlot. "I want to play!" I called.

The other boys exchanged looks. "Hey it's... Esme!?" Ham informed, in a state of confusion and surprise.

Benny turned to me and smirked. The smirk most girls would have fallen for by now, but it only made me want to prove myself even more. "You?" He questioned, eyeing me from head to toe and shaking his head. "You couldn't hit a beach ball even if you tried. And besides Stiff, we don't play with girls." He brushed me off once again and began walking away.

The other boys stared at us; confused, whispering amongst themselves. I guess none of them have ever seen a girl at the Sandlot, let alone a girl wanting to play baseball.