1980's / mattia polibio

.04

I was surprised to say the least. I thought he was joking when he said he wanted to hang out. I haven't heard anyone say they, actually wanted to hang out with me, in a while. I silently pondered the thought. This year might be different, maybe making friends was the way to go.

I was hesitant for a second but blurted out," I'll be down in a sec."

I shut my curtains and stood in the same position for a sec, shocked. Pushing out of my daze, I kept my same outfit on but put on a little chapstick. I started to panic because I never really tried to make friends my last one lied to me. I waited about 2 minutes to think and then opened my front door. There stood 7 boys. I felt really nervous and my face started to turn a slight shade of red. After 10 seconds of just waiting there i closed my door and the latino came up to me. "Im Alejandro, you can call me alex or Ale. Come meet my group."

I walked with him while he had his hand on the back of my shoulder. "This is Alvaro." He pointed to a short, adorable kid.

"Hey lil mama." I giggled at his comment.

"This is Robert and Roshaun."

"Sup" they both said in unison.

"This is Kairi."

"Hey nice to meet you" he spoke.

"you as well" i responded.

"And this is Mattia" Alejandro concluded. He looked at me and nodded his head as a way to say hi.

"I'm Natalia. Natalia Smalls."

They smiled as a way of showing their acceptance. "We're gonna head to the sandlot if you wanna follow along."

"the sandlot?"

"Oh we go there almost everyday it's a secret baseball field that we and some other kids only know about."

That's the place that I saw in the gate.

"I mean sure, I haven't played ball in a while but I'll try."

"So you've played before, that's great let's start walking."

We all walked along the sidewalk, some in the street. I was in between Alejandro and Alvaro. Alvaro started to talk," So why did you move to this small town?"

"My dad has job offers all the time so we move constantly. I guess one of his jobs are here."

"Well hopefully you don't have to move anytime soon you seem like you'll be a great friend."

"Thanks" i said referring to alvaros "you'll be a great friend" comment. We walked a bit more, conversations popping up here and there, until we arrived at the small hole in the gate. We entered a turned a corner to see the big baseball field.

"I'll get bat first Natalia you can go in right field" said Alex.

I did as told and was tossed a glove. Ale was starting down the pitcher, Roshaun, waiting for a ball. The ball was thrown and hit, into left field. Alejandro ran to second base and slid when he got there. I observed their play and realized something. It's like it wasn't competitive at all, it was just a long game that they enjoyed playing.

People switched off at bat until they called for me to go up. I walked up to the plate and picked up the bat.

Mattia yelled out to everyone ,"scoot up easy ball."

I scoffed at his comment and rolled my eyes, focusing on the ball. The first ball was thrown and I let it go not even thinking about hitting it. I did that with all the first time throws.

"Strike" I heard the catcher yell.

I ignored it, once again putting all my attention into the ball that was about to be thrown. Roshuan then threw the second ball. I watched it come towards me in what felt like slow motion. I hit it, pretty hard, it was chipped all the way to right field behind every single boy. They watched in awe as it nearly went over the back fence. They were so surprised, they didn't see me running through all the bases.

Mattia then yelled, "what are you guys doing get the ball."

By the time they gathered the ball I was walking over home base. Everyone started cheering except Mattia. He just scoffed.

Alex ran over to me and gave me a big hug. So did all the other boys except, you guessed it, Mattia. He just walked into the dugout.
"That was amazing Natalia you're definitely going to be playing with us" Alejandro exclaimed. I just smiled and hugged everyone back. It honestly felt great to begin to have friends for once or just be accepted by people. I just don't want to think of a day I'll eventually grow close and leave them.