The Dog Sitter

Chapter 16: It's finally over...

"Wow, he is great at baseball." Kimberly suddenly told me. "Yeah, my dad taught both of us to play, including Jack, Wendy, and Will." I said, admiring Benny. "Who is Will?" She asked. "My dad didn't tell you?" I asked. "Nope." She responded. "Figures, he never liked to talk about him anyways." I said, turning my head back to Benny's direction. "Well, what happened, if that's ok with you?" She asked, nervously. "Uh, he died a few years back, cancer." I said, still staring at Benny. I didn't want to make it awkward by looking her in the eyes, but it cleraly still was. "Im so sorry." She said, laying her soft hands onto my shoulder. "Don't be, it's not your fault." I said. "So, I saw you and Benny hitting it off." I said with a smirk, breaking the awkward silence. "I mean, we were just talking." She responded. "About?" I asked. "Just our lives and stuff, and you." She said. "Me?" I asked, as if she wasn't talking to me. "Yeah, he would not shut up about how good of a baseball player you are and how beau-" She stopped mid sentence. "How what?" I asked, eager to know what she was about to say. "Oh, there is a b-b- bee! Yes, there is a bee!" She said. I could tell she was lying. I rolled my eyes, turning back to Benny's direction. He ran over to me, sweat dripping. "You did good out there." I said with a smile. He smiled back. "Why thank you Ms. Darla." He said sitting in between me and Kimberly. I smiled even harder. At that point I didn't know if I liked Benny or not. 

"Well, I gotta go feed Hercules before Mr. Mertle comes home today, Kimberly you wanna come?" I asked. I was starting to like Kimberly, but not a whole lot, just a little. "Ok." Benny said with a smile. "Who is Hercules?" Kimberly asked as we walked to Mr. Mertle's house. "The dog im dog sitting for the summer. That's how I met the boys, of course I knew Benny way before that." I said, unlocking the door and walking inside. "Oh." She said awkwardly. "Now gonna warn you, Hercules is a really big dog." I said. "I'm sure it's fine." She said. "They call him the beast." I said, dead serious. "She just smirked. "How big could he be?" She asked. I shrugged, opening the door to the backyard. She walked down the steps, stopping dead in her tracks. Next thing I know there is a piercing scream ringing in my ears. She backs up towards me, scared. I cover her mouth with my hand. Hercule's ears shot up in alert. We moved out of the way as Hercules was startled, running throughout the whole house. "Look what you did!" I whisper screamed at her, finally taking my hand off her mouth. Kimberly stood right there as I chased Hercules throughout the entire house.  Somehow, Hercules managed to open the front door, running away, again.

I ran into the sandlot, frantically. "Hercules, run, gone." I said, resting my hans on my knees out of breath. "Oh no..." Benny said, somehow understanding the sequence of words that just came from my mouth. "Huh?" Kenny asked. "Hercules ran away again." Benny said, still staring at me frazzled. "Well what are we waiting for?" Bertram asked. We all ran out of the sandlot, like I wasn't already out of breath enough. As we were running, I passed Jack and his friend, Josh, playing catch in the front yard. When I was younger I had a crush on Josh. He had light brown hair with hazel eyes, just like me. "Hey Jack, hey Josh." I said, out of breath. "Have you two seen Hercules?" I asked. "You lost him again Darla?!" Jack asked, annoyed. "Yeah." I said softly, scratching the back of my neck. "Were assuming you didn't see him, so were gonna go." Benny said grabbing my arm away from Jack and Josh. At that point, all of us were split up all over town looking for him. Squints and yeah yeah, Kenny and Bertram, Smalls and Ham, Timmy and Tommy, and Benny and I, sll in different parts of the small town we lived in. Me and Benny walked into the park, completely unmotivated. "Why does this always happen to me?" I whined, throwing my hands in the hair and plopping down onto a bench, slouching while crossing my arms. "This totally blows." Benny said, copying the same thing I did. "Tell me about it." I said. "As soon as everything was finally going right in my life again, this happens." I complained. "I'm sure we'll find him. After all, we do make a pretty good team." He said, sitting up. "Yeah, your right, we do make a good team." I said, sitting up as well. We looked into each other's eyes, and it wasn't awkward this time. That's when I knew- Hercules jumped on me. "Woah there buddy." I said laughing as he licked my face. Benny just smiled at me. We walked Hercules back home, not even bothering to tell the other boys we found him. As we were walking, we noticed a bright, yellow taxi pull into Mr. Mertle's driveway. We walked over to the house to see Mr. Mertle grabbing his luggage from the trunk. He waved to the taxi as it drove off. "Hey Mr. Mertle." I said. He jumped, startled. "Hello Darla!" He exclaimed. "I hope you don't mind but I was taking Hercules for a walk." I lied. "That's no problem, he needs to get out more." He said with a smile. 

Hercules ran up to Mr. Mertle and he started patting Hercules as Hercules's tail would not stop wagging. Kimberly stumbled into the front yard. "Kimberly? What are you still doing here?" I asked. "Long story, don't wanna talk about it" She said "Oh ok-" "I tried to get out of the backyard through the doggy door but I got stuck and I tried to get into the house but then the door was shut and somehow locked. I found a was onto the roof and jumped down into some part of the yard and then I found you guys." She said, cutting me off. "Dang." Benny said. "Anyways, thanks for taking care of good old Hercules while I was gone." Mr. Mertle said with a warm smile. "No problem." I said. Me and Benny walked back to the sandlot, Kimberly stumbling behind. "Ow, ow, ow." I heard her whisper as she tried to pull a small branch out of her hair. "Would you mind helping me?" Kimberly asked. I tried to pull it out, but it was really stuck in there. Benny's hand went over mine as we pulled out the branch combining or strength. "Thanks." She said, still stumbling behind us. "We should probably find the boys." Benny said. "Oh no no no, I'm going home, I've had enough for the day." Kimberly said. "Ok?" I questioned as she stormed past us. As soon as she turned the corner, me and Benny busted out laughing. "Finally, we found you love birds." Kenny said from behind us, with the rest of the boys. I rolled my eyes, now used to his comments. "Hey guys." Benny said. "We brought Hercules home by the way." I said. "Good, now we don't have to deal with him anymore." Ham said relieved. "You mean I won't have to deal with him anymore." I said. He just rolled his eyes. "I say this calls for a campout!" Squints yelled. They all cheered except me. Benny told them about campout....