BENNY POV

There was definitely some kind of secret going on with the guys. One that I had absolutely no part in, and the worst part about it was that these guys couldn't keep a secret to save their life and somehow they were keeping one from me?

"Stop it!" I finally snapped at them. They had been crowded around the dugout for ten minutes claiming that they were coming up with some kind of play to get me out. "Can you idiots get on the field?"

"Give us a minute!" Ham yelled back.

"Will you tell me what the hell is going on? Cause I know that you guys aren't talking about a baseball play."

"You don't know that for sure." I rolled my eyes at them and dropped the bat in my hands. It was closing in on one o'clock and I was getting extremely annoyed, I hadn't been hitting the ball again and instead of allowing me to practice and attempt to get my groove back they were crowded in the dugout and refused to let me near them.

"FINE!" Squints yelled out before stomping onto the field.

"Finally." I picked the bat back up and waited for Tommy to take the mound. He had kind of become our new pitcher. He wasn't nearly as good as sunshine but he could get it over the plate which was just fine with us.

I did hit the ball, but it only dribbled down the third base line before rolling foul, it was then that I noticed someone walking onto the field, he wasn't in a suit but he was dressed decently well.

"Whose that?"

"Who cares?" Was Yeah yeah's response, his response was really quick, I stared at the man as he walked towards us along the fence, he was carrying a clip board and had on shiny black shoes.

"I care." I said back.

Ham hit me in the leg with his glove. "Come on Benny just bat." I watched as he walked around the field, and came to a stop at our dugout, taking a seat.

"Hey." I called to him.

"Benny don't-"

I ignored Ham again and called out to the guy again. "Hey! What the hell are you doing?"

The guy looked up from his clip board and raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking to me son?"

"Uh yeah." I scoffed. "Unless you're wearing a baseball uniform and come from a low income home, which I assume you don't by the looks of you, you're not allowed on the field."

"Benny shut up!" Tommy hissed at me.

"What are you doing here?"

"He's my uncle." Yeah yeah's voice blurted out, from shortstop. "He's here to watch me play but he has work to do so he has a clip board."

I looked at the man who looked even more confused than he had. "Who are you?" He asked Yeah yeah who waived him off. "Did Toni not tell you all about today?"

My heart skipped a beat at the sound of her name. "You know Toni?"

"Not officially-"

"We have a game to play uncle. . . . Joe. So if you don't mind, we're gonna finish it!" I shot a look at yeah yeah, he was grinning an odd smile and looked all anxious and sweaty. Something that happened when he was talking to a girl, and when he was lying.

"What the hell is going on?" I demanded dropping the bat once again.

"Nothing! We're gonna play a game!" Squints yelled from his spot in centre field.

I looked around at the guys then back at the man sitting in the dugout. "Okay who the heck is this guy?"

"He's my-"

"He's not your uncle Yeah Yeah, I'm not stupid. Hey, who the heck are you?"

"Okay." The man stood up sliding his pen on the clipboard obviously annoyed and fed up with our yelling, not only at each other, but at him. "Obviously there has been some kind of mistake so, I am just going to go. Sorry to have interrupted your-"

"NO YOU CAN'T LEAVE!" A new voice had joined the conversation, and I was ready to burst into tears if some kind of cruel joke was being played on me.

Standing only a few meters away from the infield was Sunshine.

"Toni?" Ham asked in bewilderment, everyone else seemed frozen and confused, but my feet seemed to move on their own as I practically sprinted towards her and swooped her up in my arms crushing her in my grip and spinning her around.

"Oh my god, you're actually here." I breathed into her neck as I put her down.

"Benny." She whispered grasping my head in her hands as she pulled away. "I love you but you have to pretend that we are only friends for a few minutes okay?" The words had barely left her mouth before she was marching opened armed to the rest of the boys who were now waiting patiently on the side.

"SUNSHINE!" The screamed together pulling her into a tight group hug.

I watched, completely dumbfounded as she embraced the boys and then promptly ran over to the man who was still standing in our dugout.

"I'm really sorry-"

"Toni did you not tell them that I was coming?"

She looked back at us then back to him. "No, I told them, it was just that one of them wasn't told. He gets nervous, so they thought that if they told him he might not perform as well."

The man sighed. "Toni, I don't like my time being wasted."

"It's not-"

"Toni, I know about the nerves people get. Which is why I watched these boys play for a half hour before I came and sat down. I'm sorry to say that I wasn't impressed."

I seemed to all click together. He was a scout, Toni had sent a scout to from the school she was helping with to come see us and all the guys knew about it.

Part of me wanted to yell at them, but a larger part of me was feeling the same embarrassment as when we had lost to Phillip's team in front of the scout.

Obviously he had seen me strike out, again, and again, and again.

"It's because he doesn't have a decent pitcher out here." Toni was making stuff up, saying whatever she had to in order to get the scout to stay but I wasn't so sure I wanted him to.

"Toni-"

"Three pitches. Let him hit. If he doesn't hit it, then you can leave."

"I can't take someone who can only hit a forty an hour pitch Toni."

"He's not gonna hit off forty miles an hour. Three pitches, that's all I'm asking you for okay?"

The scout looked at me, obviously still annoyed with the way I had spoken to him earlier, but he obviously knew who Toni was, and if anyone knew Toni, they would know she was one stubborn girl.

"Okay."

Toni didn't miss a beat as she pouched past him to grab an extra kit from the dugout, and rushed towards the mound.

"Base up!" She snapped at the boys who scrambled like ants under a magnifying glass. Her eyes stopped on me eyebrow raised, "Grab your bat Rodriguez. You have three pitches."

It was suddenly like Sunshine had never left. I had visited her, and it had been weird and hurtful to see her, but standing on the sandlot, glove in one hand and a ball in the other, it was like she never left.

I smiled, not about to waste the opportunity to play ball with her again for anything.

"Alright Benny! Lets see it!" Squints yelled from the field. I took my stance at the plate, and looked back at the scout who was watching intensely, I looked at Toni, the one who had brought him here, the one that had somehow made her way here just to make sure it all went to plan.

I looked back at the scout and gave him a smile before pointing to the sky above left field with the bat. "Left field." I told him.

Sunshine waited for me to get into stance, she then wound up and let fly one of fastest balls anyone had ever seen.

I don't even remember swinging, all I remember is the crack that bat made as it hit the ball well over the fence in left field.

It was the greatest feeling in the world.

"Yeah!" Ham screamed, tearing off his mask to watch the ball fly and and smack right into Mr Myrtles old house.

I smiled, my confidence came flooding back to me as Sunshine picked up another ball. The scout looked impressed but not sold yet, so I pointed my bat to right field. "Right Field." I told him.

Again, the ball sailed over the fence of right field.

"Centre field."

This time when I hit the ball, it felt different, it was one of the best swings I had ever executed, and this time no one knew where the ball landed, all we knew was that it landed well over the fence and possibly into the street.

The boys were cheering, jumping up and down, throwing gloves and hats in celebration and the scout only scribbled down something in his book.

Sunshine made his way over to him, and I followed after her.

"So, what'd you think?" She asked.

The scout looked at me then back at her. "You can pitch."

"That's what you have to say?"

"O'Niall know that?"

"What about Benny?"

There was a silence as he seemed to think about it. "Well the kid can play Toni, do you really think I'm going to pass him up after that?"

Toni let out a sound I had never heard her utter before, it reminded me of the sound a few of the girls made when they were asked to prom.

She launched herself into my arms hugging me tight. "So he's invited to tryouts?"

"He is. You think you can make it there for the next one?"

"I'll make sure he does."

The scout laughed. "Thanks Toni but I was actually talking to, Benny right?"

I nodded. "Yes sir, and I'm really sorry about-"

"Forget it. As for the rest of the team, I can offer then to come as well, it'll just take some-"

"No we're good!" Yeah yeah scared the shit out of me, I didn't realize he was right behind me. "No offence but we all have other things to do."

The scout didn't stay long after that, he took my name, a few details, my number and then he was gone.

"Did I just get scouted?"

"Yes!" Toni jumped into my arms again, giving me the kiss I had been craving since I saw her.

SUNSHINE POV

"Okay we need an explanation." Squints said, actually pulling me by my ponytail off of Benny. "How the hell did you get here?"

"I uh, I took Clara's car."

"You what?"

Benny tugged on my arm to get my attention. "You don't have a licence."

"You don't need one to drive a car."

"Yes you do."

"Not if you don't get caught."

"SUNSHINE THE BADASS! I am finally rubbing off on you." Ham clamped me on the shoulder, grinning like a fool.

The two who didn't look impressed were the ones that I expected. Benny, and Smalls, it wasn't surprising because the last time Smalls did something remotely bad was when he took his step-dad's baseball and Benny just didn't like me being reckless anyways.

"I didn't get caught." I reminded him. "Look I don't want to spend the time I have with you being lectured, alright?"

I knew Benny would have something to say to me later on, but for now he agreed.

The day was spent as it always was, playing baseball together, like nothing had changed.

"You're positive your parent's aren't coming home." I clarified with Benny for about the tenth time in two hours. I was tangled in his sheet, naked, and about one loud noise away from jumping from the bed and getting dressed.

Benny was holding one of the sheets around his waist as he walked around the room looking for his boxers that had been flung across the room somewhere.

"They're at my aunt and uncles, they'll probably only be home around midnight."

"Probably?"

"Sunshine, it's 6 o'clock and they left an hour ago, relax." Having sex in Benny's house almost felt like the ultimate betrayal. Benny's parent's had trusted us with while we were growing up to not fool around, I guess that they assumed that we were already intimate since they stopped demanding the door be open when Benny turned seventeen, but it still felt weird.

Benny managed to find his boxers behind the dresser and quickly slipped them on, we were going to meet the guys in a few minutes, and I was not looking forward to it, considering they all knew what we were going when Benny said "We just want to catch up."

"Start getting dressed, we're supposed to be at the movies in ten minutes.'

"Do we have to?" I asked. Benny ignored me and threw me my shirt. "You know that they're going to tease us relentlessly, and besides, Ham can't sit through a movie and Tommy is always narrating what he thinks is about to happen." I started to get dressed, not really wanting to leave the warmth of the bed but knowing I had to.

"A two hour movie isn't going to be that bad. If it comes down to it, we'll just get kicked out again."

I rolled my eyes at that statement, but finished getting dressed anyways. We were the least favourite people to have around the theatre, as kids we were constantly getting kicked out for a variety of things, and had even been banned for a year from ages thirteen to fourteen but the ban was lifted when the movie theatre went under new management.

There was suddenly a banging at the door, an urgent and rather annoying banging that told us that something was not okay.

"I swear if that is Yeah yeah hiding from another date that went wrong." Benny snapped heading for the door.

"Wait what? You need to tell me about that later!" I called as I rushed after him, attempting to put my hair back in a decent ponytail.

It was Yeah yeah at the door but he wasn't alone, it was the whole gang and they looked worried. "We need to go."

"What?" Squints snatched my arm and pulled me out the door.

"We'll explain later, but we need to go now."

I let them pull me to the end of the driveway before stopping and pulling out of his grip. "Okay you need to tell me what's going on." The guys tended to overreact to everything, their emergencies varied from a pigeon eating ice-cream on the road to someone coming to bomb the house, so I really wanted to know what I was rushing for.

"We don't have time to explain!" Ham snapped.

I didn't even get to ask again when I head a sound that made my blood run cold. WHOOP WHOOP

"Dammnit!" Squints snapped looking down the street. It was a cop car, three cop cars to be exact, lights flashing coming down the street.

"What the hell did you guys do?" Benny demanded storming down the driveway.

"Nothing!"

I wasn't convinced, that it was nothing, but if they didn't want to tell me then I was going to have to wait a see what the police had to say.

The car stopped in front of us, blocking us in the driveway and creating a panic between all the guys.

It happened to be Yeah Yeah's dad who stepped out from the cars first. He looked pained to do what he had to do and thats when I knew that they had screwed up and he was about to arrest his own son.

"Toni. You're going to have to come with us."

I stared at him with wide and confused eyes. "What?"

"Toni you have to come with us okay?" Benny stepped in front of me.

"What's going on?'

Another officer, one which I did not recognize came and stood next to officer McClennan, "You have to cuff her." He whispered loudly, but he waived him off.

"There's no need for that."

"What's going on!?" Benny snapped again.

"Toni, is this Clara's car?" He gestured to the car that was parked behind Benny's truck. I nodded. "It was reported stolen, by you about two days ago."

"I told Clara I was going to take the car." I argued.

"But you took it without her permission, that's grand theft auto." I couldn't believes what I was hearing, when I left two days ago to come to the Valley, I had told Clara that I was taking the car, something that she wasn't happy about but she did give me the keys. She never verbally told me I could take the car but the keys were handed to me. "And you don't have a license. I'm sorry but we have to take you in."

I couldn't believe it, I had spent years being both abused and neglected by Clara and my father. I had been hit, ignored, yelled at, and verbally bullied by them.

Yet I ended up being the one who got arrested.

Authors Note: So I just suddenly realized, that I have been spelling Yeah Yeah's last name wrong this entire time. . . . . that's embarrassing LOL.

I will be fixing that in the preceding future, sorry if anyone noticed and it was driving you insane!

Hope you're all having a good week and have an even better weekend. The colleges in Ontario are all on strike, now going into its 5th week, the longest strike ever to happen here so I hope if any of you are experiencing it, that it gets resolved soon and you're not too badly affected by it.

Happy reading!