The Jet (A Sandlot Story) Benny Rodriguez

Chapter 16

After lunch was over you had a few classes, one of which was with that girl Susie the others were mentioning earlier.

You didn't dare talk to her, you feared you might stutter, or say something stupid. You had a habit of doing that lately. You just observed her from a distance, seeing as her near flawless face was framed with her long cascading red hair. She looked like a movie star, probably why she was in so many catalogs.

You immediately felt self-conscious about your looks as soon as you saw her. She was everything you weren't, and you couldn't help but feel as if you weren't good enough for Benny anymore. He was an angel, and deserved a pretty girl like Susie, not a girl that wore her dad's old baseball shirts and hats. He deserved a girl that could walk a runway, not the infield.

You kept on with the rest of your day, surrounded by girls that were better than you in every way. It didn't help that you were practically dumb when it came to topics such as dress shops, makeup boutiques, beauty parlors and other things like that. You only ever shopped at the sports warehouse stores, and usually, you wouldn't even go. You'd just let your mom pick something up for you.

When it got to the end of the school day, you found Benny waiting for you by the main entrance doors. He was just standing there, hands folded behind his back, and rocking back and forth on his feet.

You felt so much better just seeing him standing there, and made a beeline straight to him.

"Hey angel." You said, coming from behind him. He smiled and turned around, taking you in his arms tightly.

"Hey, my love, how were your classes?"

"They were fine, I'm pretty sure I got everything, but I did doze off a few times, so we'll see." You joked around, trying to cheer yourself up by making Benny laugh, which he did.

"You'll be fine, you're the smartest person I know." He said, making your eyes light up with a smile.

You both then walked out of the school and started on your way home.

When you got there, Benny dropped you off at your house, before returning to his own.

There was something on your mind that night, and you couldn't stop thinking about it. It was a plan on how to make yourself pretty enough to fit in with every other girl at the school. If you could do that, then at least you wouldn't feel so bad about Benny not having a good-looking girlfriend.

Before you went to bed that night, you laid out an old dress your mom bought you, but you only wore once, the day your mom and Mikey took you out to lunch. You were also going to try and do your hair nice tomorrow.

Maybe, just maybe, you could prove to those other girls that you deserved Benny as your boyfriend.

-

You woke up early the next morning with a determined attitude. Even though you hated what you were about to do, there was no doubt in your mind you were going to do it and do it well.

You took a shower before doing anything else, trying to wake yourself up a bit faster. You would normally never even think of getting up this early, but it was gonna be hard enough to get yourself together this morning so you figured you could use the head start. You let your hair dry before plugging in a curling iron. You'd never used it before, but it was just a curling iron so how hard could it be?

You started to roll your hair around it, but you burned your hand immediately.

"Shit." You murmured, sticking your now burnt finger into your mouth to sooth the red spot.

You huffed out a sigh, looking yourself in the mirror. "Let's try this again." You said to yourself, carefully taking the end of your hair and wrapping it around the skinny piece of hot metal.