Sadie curled into herself behind the dugout. The tears burned as they rolled down her cheeks. In the distance, she could hear her mom fighting once again with the coach. The rest of the team had already left, leaving Sadie by herself as her mom fought for her to stay on the team. She just didn't get it! It wasn't about winning or losing, Sadie thought that maybe if she played softball she could make a couple friends. So much for that. A shadow scuffled in front of her.

"Hey! Are you guys almost done yet, I wanna use the field." Sadie glances up at the person in front of her. A young boy glared down at her. He looked about a year or two younger than her with curly, shoulder length hair and a few missing teeth. "Well?" he pressed "are you guys moving or not?" Sadie let out a small whimper and began to unfurl. As she struggled up she lost her footing and lurched forward to the boy. He let out a yelp and attempted to catch her, leaving the both of them sprawled on the ground.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry." Sadie attempted to help him up.

"I don't need your help." He slapped away her hand and brushed himself off. "Just what I needed, stupid girls…" the boy grumbled under his breath as he got to his feet.

"I..I didn't...I didn't mean to…" She stammered on.

"I didn't mean tooo," He mocked "save it, it's already done" For the first time the boy looked her square in the face. Seeing her tear streaked face he flinched back. "I… I didn't mean to make you cry. It's not that big a deal see I'm fine," he gestured at himself. Sadie let out a small chuckle and rubbed her arm.

" No uh, I wasn't crying about that…" she trailed off. "It's just that I kinda got kicked off the team and well…" He looked startled. Red crept into his face and he sheepishly kicked the ground.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," he muttered.

"Uh, I didn't hear what you said." The boy looked her straight in the eye and sighed.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," he repeated louder this time. "I didn't realize that you were in the middle of something like that I was being a jerk."

"My names Sadie," she stuck out her hand. He looked taken aback but took her hand.

"Lars. So… I, uh"

"SADIE, HONEY IT'S TIME TO GO!" Sadie looked over her shoulder and saw her mom waving at her.

"Hey do you live around here?" she asked.

"Yeah… I do."

"Great! See you around Lars!" Sadie raced off towards her mom leaving the boy staring at her aghast.

"Who's your new friend sweetheart?" Barb asked. Sadie smiled and told her his name. Lars huh, what an odd name.