B E N N Y - JUNE 16, 1962

"Anyway, Scott, that's Timmy and Tommy Timmons." Benny said to Scott, starting to introduce the gang.

"Mike 'Squints' Palledorous."

"Alan McClellan-we call him Yeah Yeah."

"Bertram Grover Weeks."

"Kenny DeNunez and Hamilton Porter. We call him Ham. Guys, this is—"

Benny stopped talking when a familiar blonde started walking towards him.

Her again; The Mystery Girl.

Her hair was still straight but let loose, so her hair was flying behind her as she walked. The sun made her face shine and right then Benny realized she had sparkling blue eyes.

"Um, I'm Scott Smalls?" A fuzzy voice said in the background as Benny admired the girl in front of him.

God, I wished I knew her name, He thought.

Mystery Girl passed all of the boys and turned right and out of sight, going through the way they all used to go to the sandlot.

Benny shook his head and mentally slapped himself.

"Anyways, yeah, um, well, Scott's gonna play with us 'cause he makes nine." He stuttered, turning back to the boys. "So now we've got a whole team. We're wasting time. Let's go to the sandlot."

"He was swoonin' over her again!" Yeah-Yeah chuckled behind Benny as they started walking to The Sandlot. That made him want to turn around and snap at him, but he ignored him.

⚾

"Why'd you bring him Benny?" Bertram asked moments later as they were walking to the worn out and dusty baseball diamond.

"'Cause there's eight of us, and he makes nine." Benny answered.

"Yeah, yeah, so would my sister but I didn't bring her." Yeah-Yeah piped in.

"With nine guys we've got a whole team, Yeah-Yeah." Benny kept saying.

"No. With Elswenger we had a whole team. Elswenger could catch." Ham muttered.

"And throw." Bertram added.

"Come on, Benny, man. He ain't game." DeNunez said.

Benny shook his head and tried ignoring them. He did, but his mind went straight to Mystery Girl. She was sitting on her usual spot on the fence, tucking stray pieces of her shiny blonde hair behind her ears and swinging her bare legs back and forth. Questions and insults to Scott were kept thrown around and Benny was being drifted elsewhere, imagining everything what could happen if he just walked up to her and asked for her name...

"Come on, Benny, man. The kid is an L7 weenie!" Squints exclaimed, bringing Benny back to reality as he made a sign with his fingers.

"Yeah, yeah, Oscar Mayer! Foot-long! Dodger dog! A weenie!" Yeah-Yeah almost screamed and Benny knew he did so that that Smalls would hear. Benny turned around to look at him and he had his head down in embarrassment, but Mystery Girl was walking toward him.

M Y S T E R Y

She felt her eyebrows point down in a glare at the boys. They had just thrown insults at the little kid, who had got hit in the head with a baseball yesterday and to her, that was just messed up.

She jumped down from the fence and sped-walked to the kid. He had his head down so she knew he wasn't going to see her. She tapped his shoulder with her finger.

He turned around to her and his eyes widened.

"Hey, you're the one I saw sitting on the fence yesterday!" He pointed out.

"Yeah, um, I came because I heard what those boys were saying about you. Don't listen to them, they're bozos. I bet you're gonna do great when you start playing with them, okay?" She placed her hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes with her own.

He nodded rapidly.

B E N N Y

"What are you laughing at Yeah-Yeah? You run like a duck." Benny snapped loudly, making sure Scott heard. Well because Mystery Girl was comforting Scott when he was supposed to and Scott was talking to her. Benny wanted to be the first one to talk to her! Not some newbie!

"Okay, okay, but I'm-I'm—"

"Part of the game right?" Benny asked sharply, interrupting Yeah-Yeah.

"Mmm, yeah." He responded.

"Then how come he don't get to be?"

"'Cause he's a geek man." Bertram answered.

"He can't catch."

"Man, base up you blockheads." Benny snapped, ending the conversation. He whipped around and walked towards Scott and Mystery Girl. Mystery Girl noticed him, then turned around walking away which made Benny frown.

M Y S T E R Y

"Hey, Smalls, throw it to second." Benny yelled at Scott. Based on what the boys kept yelling, and what they've always yelled since she started watching them play, she recognized the tall one of the group as Benny. She still needed to learn everyone else's names.

"Okay." Scott called back.

Benny hit the ball at full force to Scott. He placed his arm up and kept stepping backwards, trying to see if he could catch the ball. But he didn't. Instead he fell on his butt, and the ball went flying over him and to the fence right below where she was sitting.

After that, she heard the growling of a dog. She looked back to where the growling came from and saw nothing. Just an empty backyard full of dirt and junk.

She shook her head and put her attention back to the game. Scott went to the ball and ran back to the field with it. He went into position to throw the ball but then he started jogging to where the others were. Scott reached the pitcher, who was a dark skinned kid, and placed the ball on his glove. Then he ran back to left center.

Benny shook his head and started running to Scott. When Benny reached him, he started explaining how he had to throw like if he was throwing a newspaper.

"How do I catch it?" Scott asked after Benny's explanation.

"Just stand there, and stick your glove out in the air. I'll take care of it." Benny responded.

Benny hit the ball to Scott again, and this time he catched it. She cheered and clapped and the attention from all the boys went to her. Her whole face warmed up so she looked down and started twisting the frayed ends of her old shorts between her fingers. She then looked up to see the boys talking to each other and sighed.

All of a sudden, there was growling again. The fence started to shake and rattle. It rattled so hard that she lost her balance and fell forward.

"Ow!" She exclaimed as her knees and the palms of her hands collided with the sand. Scott snapped his head towards her and ran to her.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." She stood up and started sliding her hands up and down her legs, dusting herself off.

"What's your name?"

"Just call me Sam. Everyone does." Sam smiled and footsteps were heard behind her. "Anyways, I gotta run. Please don't tell anyone my name. Promise?"

He nodded while shouts were heard.

"Smalls!"

"Scott!"

"Come on! What are ya doing!?"

Sam smiled again, the walked off and out of The Sandlot.