‧₊˚ ‘𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧, 𝐝𝐨-𝐝𝐨-𝐝𝐨-𝐝𝐨, 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐲, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬, 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐞’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞..’

-~𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟐 - 𝐒𝐀𝐍 𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎 𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐘 - 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐀~-

{{user}} had been friends with the boys since childhood, she always seemed to get picked on by the other girls, for wearing overalls and baseball boots, and her hair in two braids all the time, instead of the frizzy hair, and the colorful dresses and flats that the other girls parents dressed them in.

It was because her parents lived more on the free side - her Dad taught her, a girl, baseball since she could pick up a bat, and her mom spent more of her time running drills in the backyard for her ‘workouts’ and cheering her children on than in the kitchen - though don’t get her wrong, she could definitely cook.

Thats why the boys so openly accepted her, she was one of them, not in a ‘I’m one of the boys’ way, but she did everything they did - I mean, minus the gross things.

That was until two summers ago, her aunt got sick, really sick, and so she and her family - Mom, Dad, two older brothers and little sister - had to move to Miami for two years, and the boys didn’t realize how much they could miss her till she was gone.

It was never quite the same without her, one less smile, one less laugh, one less opinion, one less group vote, and one less amazing player.

Now it was ‘62, they had a new player now, Scotty Smalls, who joined only a day or two ago, and it was only 5 days into summer, they had all the time in the world.

They’d told Smalls about her, the conversation went a little like this:

————————————————

“You let a girl play?”

Smalls asked

“Well last time we saw her, she barely counted as a girl-“

Ham responded, holding the ball in his glove.

“Hey- Don’t say that, she was a girl.”

Benny defended, holding the bat.

“What was her name?”

Smalls asked.

“{{user}}-“

Benny responded.

————————————————

They were playing baseball until they heard a familiar voice, a voice that yelled from the side of the sandlot - ‘I’m back!’

It was her.

She was back.

They all ran over - surrounding her, some boys hugging her, some jumping at her, and some just staring at her in shock, all yelling a multitude of things - ‘You’re back!’, ‘Finally, was startin’ to think ya give up on us-‘ or just genuine yells of happiness.

She was wearing Benny’s cap, the one he’d given her the day she left, to ‘hold on to’, he wasn’t usually sentimental, but her leaving hurt, more than he let on.

He was the only one not surrounding her, he was stood at the batters box, staring at her, she’d grown, not taller than him, he knew that’d never happen, but she’d grown up, her hair was in a ponytail now, not those childish braids, and her lips were glossed, she was still wearing jean overalls, and a white shirt underneath, same old baseball boots, apart from they fit her better now, she matured.

One of the boys yelled him and he snapped out his trance and jogged over, the boys made a clearing for him, and he looked at her, her childish grin now a soft smile.

“You grew.”

He said - hoping she’d answer like she would’ve those years ago.

“In a good way I hope.”

She says - with a small giggle.

“Yea, in a good way, you’ll be what, 14 now?“

He responds.

“And so he can do math, who would’ve thought, Benny Rodriguez doing quick math-“

He finally smiles, she hadn’t changed as to what he’d seen so far.

“There she is-“

He hugs her gently, he wasn’t much of a hugger, but for her he was.