Third Base *under editing* *new chapters coming*

Chapter 2 (edited)

"Oh, yeah, the Great Bambino." Scott acted like he had just gotten it now, "Of course. I thought you said 'the Great Bambi.'"

I shook my head, knowing that he was lying. It was so obvious.

Ham's eyes widened, "That wimpy deer?"

"Yeah. I guess." Scott responded, "Sorry."

I jumped in at that, "Uhm, for your information, Hamilton. Bambi is not wimpy, he won a fight against Ronno. Now when was the last time you won a fight, huh?"

Ham gave me an offended and waning look to shut me up. "I won fights!"

Squints let out a laugh, "Try never."

"Shut up!" Ham pushed him as well.

Benny decided to change the subject for everyone's sake, "Anyway, Scott, that's Timmy and Tommy Timmons, Mike "Squints" Palledorous, Alan McClellan, we call him Yeah-Yeah, Riele Horner, but you can just say Rie, Bertram Grover Weeks, Kenny DeNunez and Hamilton Porter. We call him Ham." he introduced us.

The boys spit after their name was called, making me crinkle my nose in disgust. When Benny introduced me, I just smiled at Scott and acknowledged, "Hi, Scotty."

Scott returned the smile gratefully. At least two people were being nice to him. But when he spotted Yeah-Yeah's death glare, his smile quickly vanished from his face.

I nudged Yeah-Yeah in the side, "Be nice." He huffed.

Benny just continued talking, "Guys, this is Scott Smalls."

"Hi." Scott said.

I smiled at him while Squints spit again.

When nobody else said anything, Benny continued, "Yeah, um, well, he's gonna play with us 'cause he makes ten."

"Now we've got an extra. We're wasting time. Let's go to the sandlot." he finished his ramble.

All of us started complaining, "Benny, it's 9:00 in the morning."

But we followed him to the sandlot anyway.

The boys were still discussing when we arrived at the sandlot, "Why'd you bring him, Benny?" Bertram asked.

"'Cause there's nine of us, and he makes ten." Benny said like it was a valid reason.

We all knew it wasn't but I didn't mind. The boys did though.

"Yeah, yeah, so would my sister, but I didn't bring her." Yeah-Yeah pushed forward. Him, Squints and I had been walking behind the others like we almost always did.

"With ten guys we've got a whole team, Yeah-Yeah." Benny argued.

Yeah-Yeah snapped back, "We have that with nine."

"No. With Elswenger we had a whole team." Ham jumped in, "Elswenger could catch."

"And throw." Bertram added.

"Come on, Benny man." Kenny tried again, "He ain't game. You saw the way he threw."

"Yeah. You already fill up all the empty positions since Elswenger moved to Arizona." Yeah-Yeah explained. He definitely didn't want Scott on the team, and he definitely wanted him as far away from me as possible.

"Right. And now I get to rotate between nine players instead of eight. I need the practice, guys." Benny argued again.

"You're the best on the team. You don't need any practice." Squints interjected.

Yeah-Yeah backed him up, "No, you don't."

"You're the best, man. Come on, Benny, man." Kenny tried again.