Elle pitched the ball at Ham as fast as she could, winding up faster and faster. She let go and the ball flew at Ham, who blinked.

The blink may have seemed insignificant to a regular, uneducated-about-baseball Joe, but Benny wasn't a regular, uneducated-about-baseball Joe.

So when that blink made the Sandlotters lose against the Sure Hit Girls, Benny (unfortunatley for Ham), knew exactly who to blame.

Benny tore off his baseball cap and marched over to Ham.

"You know I loved you man, but seriously! You could have hit that!" said Benny angrily.

Ham threw his hands in the air. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't think she would be that good. She's a girl, for Bazooka Bubble Gum's sake!"

Benny groaned. "How many times do we have to tell you? Don't be cocky! Especially with the Sure Hits. Yeah, they're girls, but by now I would have figured that you knew how good they were!"

Elle grinned. "Who cares? We won!" she whooped, abandoning her usual feminist speech. All the girls high fived each other.

"Who cares, we won," mimicked Ham, doing a little jig.

Elle stuck her tongue out. "You seriously need to get a girlfriend, Ham," she said amusedly, rolling her eyes.

Ham raised his eyebrows at her.

Exactly what she said dawned on Elle. "Um, EW!" she yelled, making a face. Lily and Petra laughed.

Benny smiled. "And maybe you need a boyfriend, Elle."

The Sandlotters all laughed, not understanding exactly what Benny was getting to.

*******************************************************************

After a few hours, the Sure Hits convinced the guys (Okay, Benny) that they should go to Cherry's for lunch.

"I don't see how this is going to help our baseball," grumbled Benny, throwing his other leg over his bike.

"You need to lighten up, Benny," said Elle cheerfully (she was still basking in the success of beating the boys). She sat on his handle bars. "But in the meantime, pedal."

Benny grinned. "Why my bike, Elle? Want to show something off to me?" he asked slyly.

Elle laughed. "In your dreams, Jet. Excuse me, not even there. That would be an insult to my dream self's judgment."

Benny laughed. "If you say so, Samuels."

The gang all made it to Cherry's pretty quickly.

Even for the sixties, the Sandlotters and the Sure Hits made a pretty funny sight.

With Petra, in a flower-patterned sun dress and wool cardigan (her mother was very old fashioned, and Petra was very girly), Ham, in a stained T-shirt, the rest of the boys wearing various team caps and styles of jeans, Lily in a over-sized tie-died top whom had had its sleeves ripped off of, and Elle, her dirty blonde waves loose and wearing a black tank top and jeans, swinging a messenger bag that she had attached Beatles pins on to.

They all sat down at the counter together and waited while the frail waitress shuffled over to get their orders. All of them ordered Coca Cola's and hamburgers, except for Elle who called out: "A diet coke, fries, a shake, and a cheeseburger."

Squints took a swing from his coke bottle. "Sure you should be eating that much, Elle?"

Elle scowled. "I don't like what your implying, Four Eyes."

Squints snorted. "'Cause I haven't heard that one before."

They all shoveled down their food quickly, talking about baseball, the fourth of July game, and school.

When they finished, Benny quickly put down some money for Elle's share.

"What's this?" said Elle accusingly, waving the five dollar bill in the air, pinching it with two fingers, like it would give her germs.

"I'm paying for you," said Benny slowly.

Elle frowned. "No one is paying for anyone. I am a girl, not a homeless person. And it's not like we are on a date."

Benny turned red, but luckily Elle didn't notice. She turned around to Lily to get her to back her up, but Lily was giggling with a beaming Smalls, who had already payed for Lily.

"Lils!" said Elle in disgust. "What happened to the whole 'don't let the men keep you down' speech?"

Lily, blushing, shrugged. "I think it's sweet Elle. Play nice."

Elle sighed deeply.

Benny raised an eyebrow. "Some people think it is considerate."

"Bite me," said Elle dully.

"Gladly," grinned Benny.

Elle turned pink.

Kenny, who threw in Petra's share, raised an eyebrow at Benny when Elle wasn't looking.

"Elle?" he mouthed.

Benny's face flushed, and he nodded.

"Nice," he grinned.