June 10, 2021

"Ella!" I heard my dad yell. "Come downstairs, Gran and I have a surprise for you!"

It was 7:15

I quickly ran down the stairs to see my dad holding an Amazon box.

"What is this?" I asked confusedly.

"Just a little something for working so hard up at the Bakery." Gran said taking the box and walking towards me.

When she handed me the box, I walked over to sit on the couch and open it. My dad handed me a pair of scissors and I quickly ripped it open to see a blue Polaroid camera and three packets of film.

"No you didn't." I said looking over at the two of them in shock.

"Oh yeah we did!" Dad said holding out his hand for Gran to high five.

I stood up and engulfed both of them in a big group hug.

"Thank you"

"Of course pumpkin."

30 minutes passed by when I realized I should head over to the sandlot. I ran upstairs and put my hair in a ponytail.

I was wearing black Nike shorts with a short-sleeved blue shirt. I slipped on my favorite running shoes then instead of just putting everything in my pockets I grabbed a black drawstring backpack and put my glove, an extra ball, my phone, and my new Polaroid in it.

Since I didn't work at the Bakery today I could get to the sandlot a lot earlier and just throw the ball with Benny, because he always gets there early.

I raced back downstairs and was about to walk out the door when my phone started buzzing in my bag.

I walked out onto the porch so Gran and Dad wouldn't hear, then sat down on the steps so I could answer it.

It was Jake. The last person I wanted to talk to, mostly because we were still in a fight, but also because he's been acting like an ass ever since I left Texas. I answered the call anyway just to see what he wanted.

"Hey..."

"What do you want Jake?" I said with a furious expression on my face as if he could see it. "I already told you I'm done arguing."

"I know, I know. That's why I called." He said trying to get me to calm down. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being such a dick to you. I was just jealous that you were hanging around all those guys."

"Yeah no shit." I rolled my eyes.

I saw Benny walk out of his front door and his eyes automatically landed on me. I was not longer paying attention to what Jake was saying at all until I heard: "Hello? Ella? Are you even listening to me?"

"Yes, I'm listening to you." I said still watching Benny jog over to me.

"Hey Ella!" Benny said sitting next to me on the steps.

"Who is that?" Jake said. He sounded like he was either mad or sad, I couldn't tell over the phone.

"Calm down. It's just Benny, we were about to go play baseball." I said giving Benny a look that screamed 'help me'.

"I got this." Benny said while grabbing the phone and putting it on speaker so we could both hear.

"Hello, Jacob." He said in a sophisticated manner, it was almost funny.

"Haha, real funny Benny. Give my girlfriend her phone back." Jake said. I could just tell he was about to break.

He had these moments where he got really angry and I had to calm him down. He got into fights a lot, mostly with guys who catcalled me or were, so he says, "checking me out".

"It's on speakerphone bud. No need to be rude." Benny said then turned to me with a really funny look on his face.

"Can I just talk to Ella... you know... alone?"

"Whatever you have to say to me, you can say to Benny." I said getting defensive.

"Fine. I know your birthday is coming up and I felt bad for being so rude and-"

Before he could finish Benny cut him off "You mean extremely toxic and clingy..."

I tried to hold in my laughter so Jake wouldn't hear it, then took a deep breath so I could say: "it's okay Benny, just let him finish."

"Well what I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted was, I'm coming to California... in a week."

"Seriously?" I said with a little bit of excitement.

Benny on the other hand did not look happy at all.

"Yes seriously! I wanted to give you your gift personally. You're really gonna like it!" Jake said, his mood lightening.

Benny just stayed quiet. I could tell something was up but I was too excited to ask.

"I can't wait! Thank you." I said

"Of course!"

"I'll call you later, I'm going to play baseball."

"Alright, have fun." He said then hung up.

Benny just stared at me.

"What?" I asked, my smile slowly fading.

"You didn't tell me your birthday was coming up. I'm offended." He said crossing his arms looking in the opposite direction like a two-year-old.

"Don't take it personally. I don't really like my birthday so I don't tell people."

"Why not?" He finally looked back at me "you get presents."

"Ever since my mom died, it's just not the same." I said looking down at my shoes.

"I'm so sorry... I didn't know."

"Don't be. She's in a better place now."

We sat in silence for a moment then Benny realized I had a backpack with me.

"What's in the bag?" he asked, leaning back to look at it.

I smiled and handed it to him so he could look. The first thing he did was pull out the polaroid.

"Oo! Take a picture of me!" he said handing me the camera.

"Okay?" I said laughing confusedly.

He turned the hat he was wearing to the side, barely puckered his lips and squinted his eyes then held up a peace sign. I smiled and shook my head.

"3, 2, 1."

After I took the picture, he watched in awe as the small piece of film printed from the hole on the top of the camera.

"Wheres the picture?" he said looking at it in disappointment.

"You have to wait for it to dry." I said still laughing at him.

"Take another one," he said setting the picture down on the ground "but you get in this one too."

He scooched over to where our shoulders were touching and I held the camera out, pointed towards us. Before I took the picture I turned to face him so I could fix his hat, which was still turned to the side. When I started reaching for the hat he turned to face me too, our eyes met. I turned the blue, LA Dodgers hat to the front then said "there." and smiled. Benny was just staring at me. His eyes were a little wider than normal and a cute smile formed across his lips.

I broke eye contact when I turned back to how I was sitting before, grabbed the Polaroid from beside me and held it out in front of us again. He turned as well, making our shoulders meet again.

Right as I took the picture I felt his arm reach up, most likely to make bunny ears behind my head. I laughed as I snapped the photo then lowered the camera to wait for the film to come out.

He picked up the picture of him that he had set on the ground and smirked.

"I look sexy." He said showing me the picture with a smirk on his face.

"Good, that's going on my wall." I said giving him a soft smile and taking the picture from his hands.

I put the picture of him in my bag then grabbed the other one to shake it so it would dry faster. Once it did I smiled.

"Let me see." He said leaning over my shoulder a little bit looking at it. He smiled and said, "Can I keep that one?"

"Sure." I said handing it to him.

After I put everything back in my bag we got up and started heading to The Sandlot.

Smalls caught up to us about halfway there because we were walking really slow, making jokes and laughing at things that weren't even funny.

The three of us were still the first ones there though. I think the rest of the boys stopped by the drug store to get that big league chew gum. I didn't like it, but the rest of the guys thought it was the best thing ever.

Instead of playing while we waited, the three of us just sat down on the bench and continued to joke around.

The rest of the boys got there 10 minutes after we did.

We were all setting our stuff down when Benny took the Picture out of his pocket to put in his phone case so he wouldn't lose it.

"What's that?" DeNunez asked looking over at the picture.

"A picture Ella took of us earlier. She let me keep it." He said putting it in his phone case.

DeNunez just stood there and looked at Benny with a smirk on his face.

"Dude, no. Don't even say it." Benny said shaking his head.

"I wasn't gonna say anything..." DeNunez said sticking both hands in the air.

"Good." Benny said setting his phone down on the bench.

DeNunez still stood there staring at him. "You like her don't you?"

"Oh my gosh." Benny said rolling his eyes and picking up his bat. "Let's just go play man."

"You didn't say no..." said DeNunez nudging Bennys shoulder.

Benny playfully shoved him then they both walked out of the dugout.

I know I shouldn't have listened to their conversation so I acted like I didn't hear it.

Did Benny like me? I mean we've only known each other for a week, really. Even if he did he knows I'm with Jake.

Like always, we played for about two hours before taking our first break. I played first base and I bat a lot. I played really well because I was in a good mood due to the news I got from Jake earlier.

As I was grabbing a soda from the cooler Yeah Yeah came up to me and said "You're in a really good mood today... should we be scared?"

"No." I laughed "I'm just having a good day."

Ham joined in the conversation and said "Yeah, you even laughed at the comments I was making while you were up to bat. Normally you tell me to shove it."

"Am I not allowed to be in a good mood anymore?" I said sarcastically then took a sip of soda.

"We just wanna know why." Squints said, looking at me with a smile, along with the rest of the boys who were not in the conversation too.

Benny walked up and nudged my shoulder while saying "Maybe it's because her little boyfriend is coming in town next week."

"You mean that fart sniffer from the other day?" Ham said, with a blank expression on his face.

"Oh come on, he's not that bad," I said rolling my eyes. "He's actually really sweet once you get to know him."

"I find that hard to believe." Bertram said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"I won't be bringing him around here if that makes you guys feel better. Plus, he's coming with his parents for the weekend, that's it."

"No, we wanna meet him in person." Benny said now sitting on the bench looking up at me with a mischievous smirk on his face.

"We do?" Smalls asked Benny.

"Yes. We do." Benny said matter of factly.

"Thank you." I said relieved.

"What's he coming here for anyway?" DeNunez asked.

"He's coming for Ella's birthday, which is next week." Benny said.

"Your birthday?" Tommy said with a surprised look on his face.

"Your birthday?" Timmy copied, which earned him a smack on the neck from his brother.

"Yeah, she wasn't gonna tell us." Benny said with the same hurt face as earlier. "I had to find out myself."

"I already told you, I don't like my birthday. It's not the same without my mom around."

The dugout went quiet for a moment as I plopped down on the bench next to Benny.

He put his arm around me which scared me for a moment, but then I got used to it. "We can fix that." He said smiling.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll throw you an amazing party!" Said yeah yeah excitedly.

"Whatever you say." I said removing Bennys arm from around me.

He looked upset that I did that but I knew Jake wouldn't have liked it.

After we all rested and the boys chugged their sodas, we went back to playing except I wasn't as energetic this time. Don't get me wrong, I still dominated on the field. I even got Benny out once, but now I was thinking about my mom and how she wouldn't be there on my 15th birthday.

I've gone through 9 years of birthdays and none of them ever felt as good as the ones when she was there. Maybe this one would be different because I'll have all the boys with me.

After hours of playing and taking breaks to catch our breath and grab a soda or water, we all decided to call it a day.

As we were all about to leave I gasped which scared Benny for some reason.

"What's wrong?" He asked with a concerned look on his face.

"I should get a Polaroid picture of all of us together!" I said in excitement.

"Oh yeah! That's a good idea." Benny said relieved that nothing bad happened.

"Hey guys!" I yelled which made all of them turn and look in my direction. "Let's take a group photo for my picture wall."

They all got excited and huddled in a group. Squints, Yeah Yeah, Timmy and Tommy were standing in the very back on the bench, Ham, DeNunez, and Bertram were in the middle row, and Benny and I were in the front. Since Benny was way taller than me and had longer arms, I let him take the photo so no one would get left out. They all smiled until they heard the "click" and saw the flash.

They watched in awe just like Benny did when they saw the picture emerge from the camera, but as I suspected, were upset when it didn't come out immediately.

"We have to wait for it to dry." Benny said. I could tell he felt smart because he knew how to use it now.

The boys in the back hopped off the bench and they all huddled around me as the picture finally came out.

"It's perfect!" I said with a smile.

The boys all agreed with me and decided that they all wanted one for themselves. I ended up using the rest of my film in the camera, but I didn't mind because I had more at home.

We all grabbed our stuff again and then headed home.

When I got to my room after eating dinner, I set the pictures down on the nightstand next to my bed, then took a shower and went to bed.

Besides thinking about my mom and my birthday, it was a pretty good day.