"Alan McClennan, do you take Caroline Nichols to be your loftily wedded wife? To have and to hold till death do you part?"

"Yeah, yeah! I do!"

"Caroline Nichols, do you take Alan McClennan to be your loftily wedded husband? To have and to hold till death do you part?"

"Uh…"

* beep * beep * beep *

"Huh!" Alan "Yeah-Yeah" McClennan woke up to the sound of his alarm clock blaring with the most annoying beeps. Had he been dreaming about Caroline? More or less…marrying her? And was it just he, or did Caroline not even say 'I do'?

Caroline Nichols was "the girl". And by that, it means she's the one girl in the Sandlot group. She was beautiful. Or so… Yeah-Yeah thought she was. (Not that anyone else thought she wasn't) She was just one of those girls that didn't have to try to be amazing, according to Yeah-Yeah. Every day he found another reason to think the best of her. Whether it was her telling him that his shoe was untied and he would trip and break his face if he didn't fix it, or when she climbed over the fence to retrieve the baseballs from Mr. Myrtle's yard without the dog, Hercules, freaking out.

Yeah-Yeah sighed. The dream was just another sign. There were three signs. The first one was that when Caroline moved to their neighborhood exactly three years previous, Yeah-Yeah was the first friend she had made. He accidentally bumped into her when she was taking a walk and not paying attention. They started walking together and then bam! They were best friends.

The second sign was that last year, the asshole Scott Phillips, had tried to pull the moves on Caroline. He wouldn't leave her alone. When he finally asked her why she kept saying no, she said she had a boyfriend. When he asked whom, she said it was Yeah-Yeah. Now every time Phillips comes around the sandlot or sees Yeah-Yeah and Caroline together, they pretend like they're a couple. Yeah-Yeah never questioned Caroline on why she picked him to be the fake boyfriend. He just went along with it.

And the third and final sign: the wedding dream. Yeah-Yeah could remember his older brother, Jon, talking to his friend about Sandy Halladay, a girl Jon was in love with.

"I tell you, the one of the most significant signs of love is 'the wedding dream'. Once you dream you're marrying the girl, it's destined to be!" Jon had said. His friend, Dean, shook his head.

"You're crazy."

Yeah-Yeah shook his head. 'It's not crazy.' He though. 'Yeah, yeah! It's the third and final sign.' And today was the last day of school before summer vacation. They would be entering high school this coming school year. Something needed to be done. Yeah-Yeah just didn't know what.

"Caroline…I've always wanted to say this to you. I…"

"Yes, Yeah-Yeah?"

"I…"

"What is it?"

* beep * beep * beep *

Caroline sat up in her bed. She was confused. Her dreams never meant anything to her…but this one…she couldn't quite figure it out. It seemed that Yeah-Yeah had to tell her something. She didn't know why, but she actually believed in her dream. What could he possibly need to tell her? It couldn't be that he liked her. Caroline had been wishing on that ever since she bumped into him the day she moved to the neighborhood three years ago.

It was the last day of school. The last day she would be in junior high as a student. She grinned. Today was going to be excellent! A half-day of school and then off to the sandlot to relax and soak up the sun while her boys enjoyed themselves with the first baseball game of the season.

It was going to be a summer of surprises. She would do bigger things. Possibly play her first real game of baseball with the guys. Get closer with the guys she wasn't that close with like Timmy and Kenny. Maybe she would even tell Yeah-Yeah about her crazy dream and possibly her feelings for him. She shook her head, honey waves of hair bobbed in her face. She couldn't tell Yeah-Yeah. He was her best friend and losing that friendship would be devastating. She got out of her bed and walked to her bureau. She stared in the mirror.

Caroline Danielle Nichols. Almond shaped, olive colored eyes. Long, light brown eyelashes. Waist-length, honey colored waves. She smiled at herself, revealing her braced face. The one thing she hated about herself.

"Don't worry, next week they'll be off!" she assured herself.

She looked at the time: 7:30. She needed to get a move on. The last day of school, and then the start of summer. How much better could this day get?