Author's Note: SHA-WING! CHAPTER 3 IS HERE! XD

Disclaimer: I own...an epic ear ring, literally. You loop it around the cartilage part of your ear. :D

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It was six in the evening when we all split up and went our separate ways for the rest of the day. By the time we'd all stopped playing, I'd 1. met everyone on the team, excluding DeNunez (the others were Hamilton 'Ham' Porter, Michael 'Squints' Palledorous, Bertram Weeks, Timmy and Tommy 'Repeat' Timmons, and Alan 'Yeah Yeah' McClennan); 2. ripped a few fastballs past Benny; and 3. managed to throw my left arm out of it's damn socket, or at least it felt like I had. I was complaining about it for the entire walk back to our neighborhood with Smalls and Benny.

"Son-of-a-bitch, how the hell does your other pitcher deal with the soreness after he plays?" I crabbed as we walked down the street, me holding my shoulder in something close to a death-grip.

"I wouldn't know," Smalls said. "I've never pitched before."

"You're a whole lotta help, Smalls." I rubbed my shoulder, and looked over at Benny. "How 'bout you? You have any tips or suggestions, Benny?"

"I wouldn't know, either." He shrugged. "Sorry, Shane." Benny absent-mindedly started swinging his baseball bat back and forth with his right hand as we continued to walk down the street. "Actually, this may or may not help out your shoulder, I don't really know, but try using a little heat therapy on it."

Smalls nodded in agreement. "Yeah, my mom says that a hot shower is really good for getting rid of soreness."

"That usually only works for muscle soreness," I half-frowned.

"No, trust me, it works for the other stuff. I know from experience."

I shot Smalls an are-you-serious? look. "What the hell did you do?"

"Ah, I was dumb enough to help a kid from my old school bring his bass drums over for a marching band thing. I couldn't feel my shoulders the next day, they were so sore."

I stuck my tongue out at Smalls. "Way to go, genius," I congratulated him teasingly.

"Whatever. Give it a shot." Smalls broke away from me and Benny when we were in our area of the neighborhood, and headed for his pepto-pink house with as much energy as a kid with a sugar high. "I'll catch you guys later!"

"Eight o' clock at the sandlot tomorrow, Smalls!" Benny yelled out to him just as he went through the doorframe and disappeared for the night.

Once Smalls was gone, Benny turned to me with a smirk on his face. "So Shane, what did you think?"

"Of the sandlot?"

Benny nodded silently, and patiently waited for me to say something.

"I thought it was awesome," I chirped. "I've seriously never seen anything as badass as that field." I paused for a brief moment. "Oh, and as far as the game goes, I had a blast. Thanks a lot for the pitching opportunity."

"Anytime."

By now, the sun had started to dip behind the trees, and the moon was becoming more and more visible with each passing minute. Benny and I were also in front of our houses, staring at each other like we were the only ones that existed in the world. Well, until the porch lights at my house went on, and mom sauntered outside with her hands on her hips. Then, it was back to being in the real world with all these other people.

She pursed her lips. "You were having some fun with your new neighborhood, huh Shane?"

"You could say that."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she asked in a tone that moms use when they think their kids have been up to no good. She looked at me from head to toe, one thin dirt-blonde eyebrow rising higher as she took in the redness in my face and the thick coat of dust covering my shoes. "What in the hell were you doing?"

"Playing some baseball," I said.

"You were playing baseball. Okay...what position?"

"Pitcher."

Mom's gray eyes bulged slightly. "Pitcher? You were actually pitching, Shane?"

I nodded sheepishly. "Yeah. I was pitching, ma."

"Jesus, I didn't even know you could do that."

"Neither did most of the guys," Benny suddenly piped in after nearly two minutes of being quiet and listening to me and mom. "They thought that Shane couldn't pitch to save her life. Then she got on the mound and started whipping all these different throws at us. It was freakin' amazing."

Mom's head practically pulled off a 180 as soon as Benny had spoken. Her eyes immediately widened at the sight of him. "Shane, who's this?" she asked in a whisper-like voice.

"This is Benny Rodriguez, ma. He lives next door to us." I looked from mom to Benny, and pointed to her. "Benny, this would be my mom."

Names were exchanged quickly, then it was back to the previous topic of today's baseball game at the sandlot. Mom held her chin as she asked Benny all these questions about how we played, giving her this ponderous look. To be honest, I think the whole chin-holding thing was her way of showing that she wasn't sure whether to believe what she was being told or not. I hoped that she believed what she was hearing. She'd better believe it, otherwise I was going to have to prove to her that I could, in fact, throw baseballs like a pro...I was SO not in the mood to do that at the moment.

"So, how exactly did Shane start pitching for your team?" mom asked at one point in the conversation.

"Well, our other pitcher, Kenny DeNunez, got sick, so he couldn't show up to play. At first, I got one of the other kids in our group to pitch for us, but he kinda' messed up his arm on the first pitch. After that, nobody else wanted to throw the ball, so I asked Shane if she could throw decently, and she said she could. From then on...well, you get the basic idea of what happened afterwards," Benny explained. "All I'm gonna say is that Shane's a GOD with a baseball. She's the best chick pitcher I've ever seen."

I blushed when Benny said I was the best pitcher he'd ever seen. Thankfully, the bigass flush on my face covered up the blush. I would've been mortified if he'd seen that.

"Alright, I gotta go. Nice meeting you, Mrs. Feldbar." He waved to us before he went inside his house. "See ya tomorrow, Shane."

I suddenly remembered the mitt I was holding in my right hand. "Benny!" I shouted.

He poked his head out the front door. I held up the mitt for him to see.

"Your mitt!"

He shook his head. "Nah, keep it. You need it more than I do."

I grinned at this. "Thanks a lot, Benny!"

"No prob. See ya later." Then, he disappeared back inside.

As soon as he was gone, mom and I headed back inside. She gave me this sly, impish look as she shut the door and walked into the kitchen. I instantly had a bad feeling about what she was gonna say or do now.

"So...your friend there, Benny...what do you think of him?" she asked me as she removed take-out cartons from one of three plastic bags on the kitchen counter.

"He's a really nice guy. I know that it doesn't sound right for me to be saying this, considering we just moved here yesterday, but I really like him. Benny's a good kid."

Mom took out two plates and some silverware, and placed them on the table. "Is that all you have to say, Shane?"

"What the frick is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I assumed that you'd have more to say...I'm sorta' surprised that you haven't said anything about his looks-"

"MA!" I squawked.

Mom just shrugged like she'd done nothing wrong. "What? He's a good-lookin' boy."

"I JUST MET HIM!"

"So? You are allowed to think he's cute." She smirked at me before she dumped sesame chicken and stir-fried string beans on our plates. "C'mon Shane, admit it. That's reasonable, no?"

"You are EVIL," I said through my teeth.

"I'm your mother," she laughed. "I'm supposed to embarrass you."

I sat down at the table, and started shoveling sesame chicken into my mouth hungrily (What? The last thing I ate was a bowl of Cocoa Puffs early in the morning). "Yeah, well thank god you never do that sorta' thing out in public. I swear, if you ever embarrassed me out in public, I'd probably slap some duct tape on you the moment we got home." I swallowed the last of the Chinese food on my plate, then placed it in the sink before heading off to ease the soreness in my left arm. "I'm gonna go shower, 'kay?"

"Don't use up all the hot water."

I went to my room, which was now almost-boxless and organized (thank ya, ma!), and grabbed some sweats and a tank top to change into after I showered. Then, I turned on the water in the bathroom, and stepped in the shower, sighing happily as the water splashed against my back. I rolled my shoulder, and found that the water was easing away the soreness and aching pain from whipping around baseballs all day. Smalls was right; hot showers really did work for getting rid of soreness. I was gonna have to thank him for that tomorrow.

After about seven minutes, I figured I was pruny enough, so I got out, dried off, and changed into the sweats and white tank top with little blue skulls peppering it. Then, I went straight to my room, and cued up the XBOX360 and little flat-screen mom had set up in the far corner. Yes, I'm a chick gamer. GET OVER IT.

I'd popped in Modern Warfare 2 and sat down in my gaming chair, when I saw something move by one of the windows of Benny's house - the one that was directly across from my window. I stood up, threw open the window, and stuck my head outside into the cool night air.

The other window was wide open, and it revealed the slightly messy insides of somebody's bedroom. I spent nearly a minute trying to figure out whose room it was before my eyes fell on the posters adorning the walls. They were all ginormous pictures of baseball players, some current, others old-timers. Most of the posters featured Babe Ruth standing over home plate, hands gripping a Louisville Slugger bat tightly, face scrunched up in concentration.

With a muffled squeak, I realized my room was sitting directly across from Benny's. I also realized that either one of us could slip out our window and through the other's whenever we damn well felt like it. My skin was growing hot as all these details slammed head-first into me like a mag-lev.

I am literally right next to Benny. Holy crap.

A split-second after that thought passed through my head, Benny walked into his room, wearing nothing but a pair of plaid flannel pants. It took every ounce of self-control I had to keep me from squealing like a full-blown girly-girl at the sight of a shirtless Benny Rodriguez.

Oh, good lord!

I had no idea that I'd been leaning out my window to get a closer look at Benny (and his abs), until I fell outside with a cry of "Shit!" I practically did a somersault, and landed on my back pretty frickin' hard. "Ow," I grimaced loudly.

That was enough to grab Benny's attention. He poked his head out through the window, and looked down at me with a question mark expression. I, trying my best to feign casualness, grinned. "Hi."

Benny bit his lip. "Hi." He quickly grabbed something off to the side, and pulled it over his head - a thin wife beater that accentuated the muscles in his abdomen. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I figured out that your room's directly across from mine, and...I got curious. I leaned outta my window as far as I could go so I could get a glimpse of inside, and...well, you already know the rest."

Benny suddenly started laughing so hard that he was gasping for air in a matter of seconds. "That just totally made my day!"

I sprang up. "Glad it did." I bent over backwards until I heard my spine crack. "Oh man, that feels good."

"I'm not asking any questions." He motioned inside his room. "Come in."

Mental me had a complete spaz attack; this was the sort of thing that only happened in my dreams, or, at least it only happened that way before. I gladly pulled myself through Benny's bedroom window, and landed on the hardwood floor with a low thud. As soon as I was in, I leaned back against the wall, while Benny lay down on his bed with his hands behind his head.

"So how's the shoulder doing?"

"It's actually doing pretty good right now." I rolled my left shoulder as proof. "Smalls was right about the whole hot shower thing."

"The kid's a brain, whaddaya expect?"

I nodded, then silently panned the room. Benny's room pretty much mirrored mine in layout and appearance, with the only difference being the poster subjects; while his posters all had people like Babe Ruth and the dread Manny Ramirez and a bunch of other baseball players, the stuff I was gonna tack up sooner or later on my walls had guys like Alex Ovechkin, Bobby Orr, Sidney Crosby (whom my dog is named after), and Zdeno Chara either in action or standing over a hockey puck with an I'm-gonna-kick-your-ass look on their faces. Other than that, mine and Benny's rooms looked like a twinset.

"Sooo...what were you doing before I came along?" I asked in an attempt to get another conversation going.

Benny shrugged. "Eh, I was just sitting around, doing a whole lotta nothing, really." He groaned. "I'm so damn bored right now! I seriously have nothing to do!"

I suddenly remembered that I'd left the TV and XBOX on in my room when I cartwheeled out my window. My mouth stretched into a grin as I realized that inviting Benny over to play a little Call of Duty was probably the best idea to pop into my head all night. "You play XBOX, Rodriguez?"

"Yeah."

"Well, you feel like playing some MW2 right now? It'll spare you from having to deal with the boredom."

Benny's face lit up, and he now looked like a little kid that had been turned loose in a candy shop. "Are you kidding? I'd freakin' love to!" he exclaimed as he rolled off his bed.

Woo yeah! Point for Shane!

I slid out through the window, and Benny followed suit. Then, we passed through my window, and into my room, where we found Crosby lying on my bed with a glum sheen in his big eyes. As soon as my feet hit the floor though, Crosby leapt off the bed, and stood in front of me, his bushy tail wagging exstatically at the sight of me.

"Someone's happy to see you," Benny said once he'd slid through my window.

I half-smiled. "This would be Crosby. He's a big ole' dumbass of a dog, but I love him." I scratched the dog in between his ears. "You can pet him, if you want."

"Does he bite?"

"Nah, Crosby's too big of a softie to bite anyone. He may be named after one of the most kick-ass Canadian hockey players in the NHL, but he doesn't act like a kick-ass dog." I chuckled. "I actually think that his name shoulda' been Benji or something cute like that."

"Oh well." Benny reached out, and rubbed Crosby on the back gently. Crosby, like the dumb, lovable husky he was, wagged his tail and chuffed happily. "Crosby still works."

I smiled faintly. "Yeah, it does...so, you ready for some COD-MOD?" I asked Benny smugly.

Benny wordlessly plucked out a controller from under the TV, and cued it up with a cocky look on his face. "Get ready for an ass-whoopin', Feldbar."

"You wish. You're going down like free beer at a frat party, Rodriguez," I shot back.

The game started up, and we proceeded to run around on Rust with MP5's, Akimbos, and Thumpers until we ran into each other; when that happened, all hell broke loose as we tried to take each other down. Like I always did when I played Modern Warfare with a buddy, I fared better than Benny in most of the fights. He was able to get me at times, and when he did take me down with his Akimbo, the kid practically danced where he was sitting, he was so jazzed.

I play-scowled at Benny when he'd killed me enough times to earn himself a Pave-low. "Damn kid, you're quick."

"Surprised?" Benny grinned as his Pave-low gunned down my guy.

"Not really." I shot him a couple times, and finally racked up enough kills to earn myself an AC-130. I snickered as I let loose the spooky, and watched as it peppered Benny's guy with bullets or blew his ass to kingdom come with a howitzer round or two.

"Aw, damn you and your AC-130, Shane."

"Hey, this is payback for unleashing your Pave-low on me."

"You shot it down before I even had the chance to have some fun with it!" Benny argued as he tried - and failed - to dodge the bullets and howitzer rounds raining down on him.

"Duh, what else was I gonna do, roll over and let you play TV commando?" I shook my head. "Not a chance, Benny." I had enough kills to call in a Harrier strike, so I did. Within a second, Benny's guy was mercilessly blown to hell, and then the round ended, me with 500 round points and Benny with 350 round points.

I looked at Benny gleefully. "See? Told ya so. You DID go down like free beer at a frat party."

Benny stuck his tongue out at me. "I did this time, but I won't the next." He then proceeded to knee me in the back until I turned around and smacked him. In return, he dove down, and put me in a headlock before my brain even had time to register what was going on.

"Hey! I hope ya know that the whole you going down like beer at a frat party thing is still out there!" I said as I struggled to wrench myself away from Benny's sort-of possessive hold.

I felt his biceps tense up as he tightened the headlock. "Please. There's no way you're gonna get out of this sucker, Feldbar." Benny then repositioned himself, and stooped his body over mine so I couldn't try anything funny and break free from him.

Alright, I'll be honest with everyone - I didn't mind the fact that I was in a headlock. Actually, I liked that a kid like Benny Rodriguez had put on the moves and totally immobilized me. Having his body hunched over mine was a comforting feeling; it's weird to say, yes, but I really did like it. Being close to Benny or Benny being close to me, whatever way you pick to look at it, made me feel at ease and relaxed, which I doubt is normal to feel a day after moving to a new state and neighborhood, but whatever. I felt happy and comfortable with Benny in the room at the moment.

"Aha! Shane's given up finally!" Benny cheered before he relaxed his hold on me.

Ooh Benny, not a smart move.

I seized my moment; I stepped behind Benny, and kicked his legs out from underneath, hoping he'd let go and let me put him in a headlock. Sadly though, things didn't play out the way I'd pictured in my head. My feet slipped on the floor and flew out in front of me as I kicked out Benny's legs, and we both went down. My back slammed against the floor as Benny fell on me with a muffled "Oomph!"

I immediately started flailing my arms and tried to unpin myself from under Benny. "Benny! Benny! Can't breathe!" I gasped with difficulty.

"Oh Jesus! Sorry!" He rolled off and to the left, then crouched beside me. "You okay Shane?"

"No," I groaned. "I didn't plan for that to happen."

"What, the headlock fail, or getting the wind knocked outta you?"

"Both." I slowly sat up, wincing sharply at the pain radiating from my back and chest. Not for nothing, but having Benny fall on top of me like that was like somebody drop a one hundred-pound cinderblock on my chest cavity. Yeah, it hurt THAT bad.

"GOD, that sucked."

"You get used to it after a while." Benny held his hand out to help me up, and I gladly took it. "Trust me on that."

"Yeah, I'll assume that you know what you're talking about," I smiled slightly.

All of a sudden, there was somebody knocking on my door. My heart started pounding when I realized it was my mom. I panicked.

"My ma's gonna come in any second now! You gotta go, Benny!" I hissed frantically as I started pushing him towards my open window.

"Shane? Can I come in?" I heard mom ask on the other side of my door.

"Just a sec!" I quickly shoved Benny through my window. "Just go! I'll see you tomorrow at the sandlot!"

Benny nodded as he ran across to his window, and slid through. "Eight o' clock!" he stage-whispered to me. "See you later, Shane!"

I waved, shut my window, and turned off the XBOX and TV. Then, I took a breath, and opened the door to mom, who was in a pair of Donnelly's boxers, a white t-shirt, and her favorite fuzzy white bathrobe over it.

She smiled at me tiredly. "Hey honey, how are you?"

"Decent." I tilted my head to the side. "You going to bed?"

"Yeah...need to get some rest before I go to work tomorrow."

"All right, well g'night then," I said awkwardly.

Mom reached out and kissed me on the forehead. "Good night Shane, see you in the morning." Then, she padded off to her room, Crosby tailgating it behind her.

As soon as mom was gone, I shut off the lights in my room, and flopped on my bed tiredly. I looked at the alarm clock sitting on the stand beside my bed - 11 PM, it read. I groaned sleepily, and shut my eyes. For the rest of the night, I dreamed of Pave-lows, baseball, and Benny.

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FINISHED! :D ENJOY GUYS, AND STAY POSTED FOR CHAPTER 4! :D :D :D