Chapter 2: A Competition

I watched as the boys lifted their heads up and quickly stopped speaking. Some of them scratched their heads and another one spit onto the ground.

I rolled my eyes. Ugh, boys. "Can someone answer my question?"

The boys all looked at the tallest in the group, a Hispanic boy who wore a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap. He glanced at all of them and stepped forward. "Yeah, that's our ball. Hand it over." He said coolly.

I tossed it over to them underhand and they all chuckled a bit. "What?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"You wouldn't get it, you don't play baseball." The fat one said.

I looked at them in disgust. "You can't just say that!"

"Can too! You just threw it underhand! It's so…" He made a thinking face and the other boys laughed. "Girly."

"Oh, so telling someone they play like a girl is an insult?" I narrowed my eyes at them.

The Dodgers boy spoke over them. "Hey, hey, let's give her a chance."

"But Benny, we don't want to play with a girl."

"Yeah, did you see her throw that ball?"

I dropped my hands to my side. "Bring it on! I love showing people up!"

The boys all made their own remarks about how I was 'terrifying' and pretended to cry because they were so afraid, and then they all patted each other on the back as they died from laughter.

I made my way over to the plate and grabbed the nearest bat. I fixed my stance and waited for the boys to set themselves up. In my head all I could think was how over my head I was. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I'm going through all of this trouble just to prove to a bunch of boys how tough I was.

"Ready?" The pitcher yelled.

I looked around and saw as the Dodgers boy was leaning against the dugout, ready to watch me swing.

The fat boy kneeled behind me and readied his glove. "Sweetheart, he's talking to you."

I turned my head to the pitcher and nodded. He took a second to look at me, and then readied his arm. He winded up and pitched overhand. The ball was thrown so quickly that I forgot to swing. The fat boy reached his glove out and caught the ball.

"You're supposed to swing at the ball, ya know?" He said as he threw it back to the pitcher. I ignored his comment and readied my bat again.

Another pitch was thrown, and this time I swung. I looked around to see where the ball had been thrown, and I couldn't make it out where it went.

The pitcher laughed as he got the ball thrown back to him from the fat boy. I didn't even touch the ball, I swung too early.

I sighed and let go of the bat. "This isn't even my sport."

"Then what is your sport, sweetheart?" The fat boy stood up.

I smirked. "I run."

The boys tried to hide their smiling faces. They looked over at the Dodgers boy.

"Benny is the fastest one here. He could beat you any day, anytime, anywhere."

He looked over at me and then walked towards me. By then all the boys were surrounding us, listening intently to what Benny had to say.

I glared at him. To my surprise, he stuck his hand out. "I'm Benny Rodriguez."

I looked from his face to his hand and forced myself to shake it. "Rachel Barclay."

"Race! Race! Race!" The boys chanted.

He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Well, are you going to challenge me to a race or not? Or are you just lying again and you can't even jog without getting tired."

I scrunched my nose. "Game on!"

"What the hell is this?" A voice said out of nowhere.

We all turned our attention to the newcomer; Chelsea. Her hands were on her hips as she marched across the field and over to us. She glared at me. "What are you doing hanging out with them? I told you to stay put!"

The boys were all taken aback, even Benny.

"I wasn't going to bore myself and wait an hour for you outside by myself. Plus, I had to return something."

"Alright, well you did it so let's get out of here." Chelsea grabbed my arm before the fat boy stepped in front of her.

"Hey Chelsea Lowell." He sung.

She was visibly annoyed. "Hammy, beat it."

"Oh he does." One of the kids joked. Ham shot them a look.

"Do you know how to play baseball?"

"No, I don't." She tried to step around him, but he blocked her.

"You and your friend should come by more often. I can teach you."

"So can I!" Followed another boy, then others.

"She's not my friend. She's my soon to be step-sister." I said.

Ham looked at Benny and the latter sighed. "Chelsea, we'd like to invite you to a racing competition we're having."

"Don't care." She dragged me away.

"No it's important!" I shouted at her.

Chelsea stared at me. "You're racing Benny?"

I nodded and smiled. She tried to stop herself from laughing. "You're going to lose."

"So you're going?"

"I want to watch him kick your butt."

"So it's settled then?" Ham intervened.

Chelsea and I nodded in unison. "What time?"

"Tomorrow, noon, bring your game."