Chapter two

In the morning, I walked to Scotty's place and asked if he would like me to walk with him to school.

"Why don't I drop both of you off?" his mother asked.

" Thank you, ma'am," I said in a very lady-like way. You see, I can be lady-like, but only when I want to be, which is when I am around grown-ups.

We got into her car and she drove us to the school. I said thank you and we walked to our class room. I saw two seats near the Sandlot gang; I pointed them out to Scotty who shook his head. I rolled my eyes and pulled him to the seats. I sat next to Benny and Scotty sat next to me. I felt eyes on me, and I turned to the left. Benny was staring at me again. I smiled and winked at him, making him blush.

I turned back to the front and smiled slightly. Man it is easy to make boys blush, I thought. The teacher came in and said good morning to us.

"Good Morning, Mrs. White," we all said together. She started writing on the board making most people groan. I quickly read it and smirked.

"Today in math class, we will be doing triangles," Mrs. White explained. "Does anyone know the name of this triangle and the name of the angle?" Mrs. White put up a triangle. My hand shot up before anyone else could even blink.

"Yes?" she asked.

"It's an isosceles triangle and an acute angle," I answered.

"Good, that is right. Have you done triangles?" she asked.

"Yes, back in Tokyo we were up to fractions, decimals, and percents," I explained. I heard a sneeze that had "nerd" in it. I looked around to see some guy in a baseball uniform laughing. I did a sarcastic laugh, then glared at him.

"Oh, I see, I'm a nerd because I actually care to learn," I spat. "I get it. But you're cool because you've never bothered to try." I heard a few snickers, and smirked, pleased with myself.

"That's enough," Mrs. White called. "There will be no teasing in this classroom."

I turned to face Mrs. White and smiled sweetly.

"Sorry ma'am," I said in a lady-like voice. "It will not happen again." She nodded.

"Good. Okay class I am going to hand out a worksheet on triangles to see what you know about them." I tuned out the teacher and everyone else while I looked down at the paper. It was the same one I did in Tokyo. This is going to be easy, I thought.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Soon it was time to go home, and Scotty's mum picked us up.

"Is it okay if I take your son to a place to play some baseball?" I asked.

"Sure," she answered. "I am so glad that Scotty has made a friend." We got to his house soon and I went to grab my mitt and a spare one for Scotty.

"Here," I said passing the other mitt to him. "Let's go."

We ran to through the town and to the sandlot. We stopped by the dugout and watched them for a while.

"Wow, they are really good," I muttered.

"Yeah," Scotty agreed. The guy at the pitcher's mound turned and saw us.

"Hey look! It's the guy who can't throw and the nerd," he laughed making all the other boys laugh. Benny just shook his head.

"What you talking about? Scotty can throw and catch," I yelled as I walked up to him. Scotty followed close behind.

"Yeah, from what we saw yesterday, I am sure he can catch," a kid with big black glasses laughed. "Here." He threw the ball at Scotty, who brought up his mitt and caught it. He threw it back to the pitcher.

"Told you," I said, smirking. I thought for a moment. "If I hit three balls pitched by you, he can play." I said pointing to the pitcher.

"Please, a girl? What can you do?" The kid with the black glasses asked.

"Oh, you'll be surprised," I said walking up to Benny and taking his bat. "What's the matter? Scared that your pride might be broken?" The pitcher glared.

"Bring it," he said.

"Happily." I took my spot at the batter's base and tuned out the stopper, who was trying to distract me. The pitcher pitched the ball and I swung. I hit it straight back to the pitcher.

"How's your pride feeling?" I asked as he stared at the ball. He shook his head and pitched the next two balls, which I hit straight back to him. I walked to Scotty with my back to them and took off my jumper, showing them my baseball shirt.

"You can play now," I smiled at him.

"Wait…. you play baseball?" Benny asked. I turned around and smirked.

"Back in Tokyo, my team was the best, and it was an all girls team, too," I explained. "Why don't you think that girls can play?"

"Well, at first I didn't think so. But now that I've met you, I believe that girls can play," Benny said. "I'm Benny, that's Squints, Yeah-Yeah, Ham, Bertram, Timmy, Tommy and Kenny."

"I'm Annabelle and that's Scotty," I said pointing to Scotty. Benny nodded and smiled. He told the others to get back to their positions and then he turned to us and thought for a moment.

"Smalls, you can have left center, and Belle, you can pitch a few to me," Benny said. Kenny passed the ball to me and I caught it with a smirk. I took my place on the pitcher's and mound and pitched one to Benny. He hit straight to Smalls who took a few steps backwards and caught it. He threw it into second; Bertram threw it back to me.

"Okay, Benny, this one you are not going to hit," I promised. I pitched my famous curved balls and Benny swung and to my surprise he hit it. It went flying into the left field.

"You were saying?" he asked. I turned around and blinked at him.

"Okay, you are the first person who has ever hit that…Wow, you're reallu good," I explained. "Nice hit, I guess my friends were wrong people can hit my curved balls." I shook my head before pitching him another curved ball.

We played baseball until it nearly got dark. I then remembered that we don't have school again until the end of summer.

Ham, Smalls, Benny and I all walked back to our house. Ham left us when we got to the end of the street. Smalls turned to me.

"Thanks, Belle. Here's you mitt," he said. I shook my head.

"Keep it," I replied smiling. He started to walk towards his house when Benny called after him. Benny ran up to him and talked to him for a few minutes before giving him a hat. I shook my head and walked to my house.

"See ya later Belle," Benny called as he walked past my house.

"Yeah, see ya tomorrow," I called back entering my house. Mom was in the kitchen, where she was standing over the stove, making dinner.

"What'cha makin'?" I asked her, taking off my baseball hat and setting it down on the breakfast bar. I sat on one of the stools, shaking my hair out of its ponytail.

"Potato Salad," she said, and my mouth watered. I was too pre-occupied with baseball to realize I was hungry. "The family across the street, the Rodriguez's, invited us over for dinner."

We left an hour later, after I showered, changed, and ran a brush through my hair. It looked border-line cute, which is odd, seeing as it's usually up in a low ponytail that I hid under my baseball cap.

"You are too kind," my mother kept on saying as we entered their house, and chatted with them a bit. It occurred to me that it was odd that Ryan wasn't there, but I just ignored it. Ryan not being there was fine with me.

"Don't worry about it, I always like to meet Benny's new friends, and I must say that you are one beautiful young girl," Benny's mother said, making me blush.

"Thank you, ma'am," I said, smiling at her.

"Please call me Alice," she said.

"Okay," I smiled. "Would you like any help?"

"No, you are a guest," Alice replied. She went to get the dinner with my mother; Benny's dad went to his office for a little while, leaving me alone with Benny. I tried not to look at his face, but I failed. I kept on taking peeks at him, but whenever his head started to turn, I would look away quickly. Thankfully, the parents came back and I sighed slightly.

Having dinner with Benny's family was fun. We played a few games, and then we left. When we got back to our house my mother turned to me and smiled.

"So, did you have a good time?" I nodded, smiling. A huge yawn then over-came me and I started to walk towards the stairs.

"Night mom," I said, as my mom said a quiet good night. I got to my room and fell onto my bed.