This chapter is also just an introductory chapter and is pretty boring and sucks as well. The next chapter will be far more interesting though, I promise. Also, in the last chapter I said this story takes place when they are in the 9th grade. But after watching the movie, I realized they were only in about 6th grade when the movie took place. So this story will take place in 8th grade. Bertrum is still gone.

Jacob's Little Sister, thank's for the review! I did as you suggested and changed the summery. Hope it's better. I'm not good at summeries at all. haha

Hope ya'll enjoy the story!

Chapter 2: New Town, New House, New Identity,

Dad had been right. The "city" we moved into really was just a small town. We drove past the small middle school that I would be atteneding Monday, then a public pool, and finally Vincent's Drug Store. Once we reached the store, we turned down a road and passed house after house after house. I could already feel myself getting clausterphobic. I had never seen so many house so close together.

Dad pulled into a bright yellow house with a "sold" sign in the front yard. I groaned quietly. I never could stand bright colors and this house was the brightest I had ever seen. Dad shut the engine down, but we just sat there for a moment, studying the house.

"You sure you want to do this, Robyn?" he asked, refering to my massquerade. "There's still time to back out."

"I'm sure." I answered quickly. No way was I going to give up my new found freedom so soon. "It'll be fine, Dad. Really." I smiled.

He smiled back.

"All right. Let's get unpacking then."

"Bet I can get done faster then you!" I laughed as I jumped out of the truck.

"You're on!"

We spent the rest of the day running from the truck to the house and back again. I won the race easy having less stuff to bring in. I started to help with the rest of the things, but dad told me to go ahead and start unpacking my things.

"Just pick a room you like." he said from behind two big boxes. "There's two downstairs and two upstairs."

"I'll be upstairs!" I announced.

I walked in the front door and grabbed one of my boxes. Walking through the living room, I noticed three doors going down a small hallway.

'Two bedrooms and a bathroom.' I guessed correctly.

The stairs were directly in front of hte front door, but I decided to explore downstairs first. Only other thing down there was the kitchen and dining room, so I hurried up the stairs. One room was at the far end of the hallway, and the other right in front of the stairs. There was a bathroom right in the middle of the two. One other room-a study I suppose- was also upstairs.

The room closest to the stairs was a bright pink, so I shut the door and walked to the other room which, luckily, was a dark blue. It was a medium sized room with a bed, nightstand, dresser, closet, and a desk and chair. A window was between the bed and table and gave me a view of a small backyard with a fence.I studied the furniture and smiled when I saw that it was mine from our old house.

"So that's the surprise Dad was talking about." I said aloud, remembering how Dad had said there was a surprise in an upstairs room.

I placed the box on the floor and hurried back down the stairs to get the rest of my things. I was done fairly quickly, but before unpacking I went back outside to talk to Dad who was bringing the last box inside.

"When did you send the furniture over?" I asked him as I took the box from him.

"The day we left." he smiled. "That's why we stopped over night. So the movers could move all the furniture in. Do you like your room?"

"I love it!" I smiled back and hugged him. "My favorite color!"

"Well you better get unpacking and cover the walls with all your posters." he laughed, knowing I couldn't stand blank walls. "Otherwise you'll go crazy tonight."

"Thanks Dad." I smiled and hurried back upstairs.

It didn't take me long to unpack. Three boxes held nothing but posters, pictures, and a couple of dream catchers to hang on the walls. I pushed those three to the side and started unpacking my clothes. Jeans, T-shirts, long and short-sleeved jersey's, two bathing suits, underwear, socks, and several baseball caps were all I owned. I quickly placed the jeans, T-shirts, underwear and bathing suits in the dresser. The jersey's I hung in the closet. I laughed when I realized I had an extra drawer in the dresser, so I placed the five caps in the extra drawer.

I moved the clothing box out of the way and opened one of the two remaining boxes. My baseball card collection and several trophies all went on top of the dresser. On the table I placed my journal, a notebook, a couple pens and pencils, and a few books. The nightstand would hold my lamp, a few more books, a clock, and the picture of me as a baby with my mom and dad.

I smiled softly as I looked at the picture.

"Why did you leave, Mom?" I asked the picture quietly.

Receiving no answer, I placed the picture back down and started to decorate the walls with baseball posters and pictures of me and Dad back home. Within an hour, I had the walls covered and went back downstairs to help Dad.

I was surprised to see that night had already fallen. Looking around, I spotted Dad in the kitchen, unpacking kitchen supplies at the same time as cooking supper.

"Need any help?" I asked as I walked in.

Dad jumped and I laughed when I realized I had scared him.

"Don't do that!" he exclaimed, being overdramatic and holding his heart. "You gave me a heart attack!"

I laughed and started helping him unpack. We went to bed early that night and spent the next day finishing unpacking. It didn't take us as long as I though it would, and there was still a few hours of daylight left.

"I'm gonna go walk around town, Dad!" I shouted as I walked out the door.

"Be back in an hour." He yelled back. "We're having burgers for supper!"

"I'll be back!"

I spent the next hour walking around town. I only lived a few blocks from the school, about a twenty minute walk, so I decided that when school started tomorrow I would walk. It was warm out, so I wasn't surprised to see a few people still at the pool. Realizing my hour was about up, I started back home. When I passed Vincent's Drug Store, I noticed an entrance to a sandlot. I could hear the sound of a baseball game, so I quietly walked over and peeked inside.

I instantly liked the place. It was rundown, but it looked like a good baseball field. I noticed that there were two sets of boys playing a game. Nine of the boys were dressed in neat uniforms with the word "Tigers" on them. The other boys-there were only eight I noticed-wore jeans and T-shirts. Obviously this sandlot was theirs as they didn't look like a team.

But boy did they play like one! Even with one player less, they were good. But that one player made up for a lot, I noticed, when the game ended and the Tigers won, though it was only by one point I heard one of the sandlot boys yell. Triumphantly, the Tigers got on their bikes and started riding toward the entrance. Not wanting to be seen, I quickly hide behind a bush and waited for the laughing boys to move on.

I frowned when I saw that they were all rich and snobby. I overheard them cursing the boys in the sandlot and making fun of them. It only took me this one meeting to know I wouldn't like any of them.

From behind me, I heard the other boys starting to exit the sandlot, so I quickly made my escape. I started walking down the road to my house. I didn't walk very fast as I was looking around and studying the neighborhood. I didn't even realize how close the sandlot boys were.

"Hey boy!" I hear someone shout from behind me. "Hey!"

I stopped and turned around. A couple yards behind me stood three of the eight boys I had seen be beat. The one who had yelled at me-a short, chubby, freckled-redhead-spoke up again.

"You new?"

"No." I replied sarcastically. "I've lived here my whole life."

"Then how come..." the boy started.

"Yes, I'm new." I inturrupted. "Names Robin McCallister."

By then the boys had walked up to me. The boy to the left of Red was short with dirty-blonde hair and sunburned skin. He wore a button up T-shirt with khaki pants. The other boy was tall, probably about 5 foot 8-with dark, tanned skin and black hair. He looked Latin American to me. Not that I cared.

"I'm Benny Rodriguez." the tall boy replied, holding his hand out. When I shook his hand, he introduced the other two. "This is Scotty Smalls." He pointed toward the small boy who said a cheery "Hi." I nodded in greeting. "And Hamilton Porter. We call him Ham."

The redhead spit to the side in greeting. Again I nodded.

"Nice to meet you." I said.

"Where you from?" Smalls asked. "You sound weird."

"Gee, thanks." I rolled my eyes. "I just moved here from Texas."

"Neat." Smalls chirped. "You starting school tomorrow?"

"Unfortunatly." I replied. "Never have liked school."

"Amen to that!" Ham exclaimed. "School sucks!"

Rodriguez simply nodded in agreement.

"I gotta be goin'." I announced, noticing that I was at least fifteen minutes late. "See ya tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya." the three boys replied.

I turned around and started walking. I heard Rordriguez and Smalls say by to Ham and start walking behind me. I reached my house quickly and walked inside.

"Dad! I'm home!" I yelled, noticing as I shut the door that Smalls lived a few doors down from me and Rodriguez on the other side of the road.

"You're late." he shouted back. "The burgers are gettin' cold!"

I hurried in and we ate quickly.

"So who were those boys?" Dad asked with his mouth full.

"Just some boys I met on the road." I replied. "I found a sandlot. They were playin' a little league team. They were real good."

"Well maybe they'll let you play with them." Dad said.

I didn't reply and went on eating. That night, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, thinking about the day. I wasn't ready for school the next day, that I was sure of. Could I really pull this off? What if someone realized I'm a girl? I was still worrying when I finally fell asleep.