Innocence|Benny Rodriguez

The Great Bambino

"Oh!" Everyone exclaimed in realization.

"Who's that?" Scotty wondered.  Jackie smacked Scotty on the back of the head, shaming him for asking such a question.  Everyone stood up from their sitting position, standing in a straight line.  Benny looked away from Scotty out of embarrassment.

"What?" Ham asked, "What did he say?"

"What, were you born in a barn, man?" Bertram asked, placing his arm on Ham's shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, what planet are you from?" Yeah-Yeah said, smacking his gum obnoxiously.  Scotty didn't respond, looking at Benny for help.  Benny continued to look away, not wanting to get involved.

"You never heard of the Sultan of Swat?" Squints said, also chewing his gum loudly.

"The Titan of Terror?" Kenny said.

"The Colossus of Clout?" Timmy said, also wearing a Yankee hat.

"The Colossus of Clout!" Tommy repeated.

"The King of Crash, man," Benny said to Scotty, looking to Jackie for help.

"Just lie," Jackie whispered in his ear, not wanting him to embarrass himself.  Scotty seemed to take Jackie's advice, wanting a chance to make friends.

"Oh, yeah, the Great Bambino.  Of course.  I thought you said, "the Great Bambi."" Scotty lied, which somehow everyone believed.  Well, Jackie and Benny knew he was lying.  But as long as the others believed it, who cared?

"That wimpy deer?" Ham asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, I guess.  Sorry." Scotty shrugged, fixing his abnormally large hat.  He had to be careful with his choice of words, not wanting to make any more mistakes.  Ham looked at Kenny with a look of despair for Scotty, Kenny only shrugged.

"Benny, why don't you introduce Scotty to the group?" Jackie leaned over Scotty to look at Benny with a pleading look.  Benny understood right away, not wanting the situation to get any worse.

"Anyway, Scott, that's Timmy and Tommy Timmons."  Benny pointed to the brothers on the left.  Timmy and Tommy both spit onto the ground.  Jackie had a soft spot for the brothers.  Tommy always repeated everything Timmy said, not ever saying his own words.  For some reason, Timmy didn't care too much, which Jackie didn't understand.  If she had a sibling that repeated everything she said, she'd lose her mind.  It was beyond Jackie how Timmy didn't wanna smack Tommy.

"Mike "Squints" Palledorous." Benny continued.  Squints took off his glasses, spitting a big chunk of saliva on the ground.  His hat was on backward, he tended to do that a lot.  Squints look up at Jackie and gave her a wink, putting his glasses back on.  He accidentally stabbed himself in the eye while trying to put them on, smiling in embarrassment that Jackie was watching.  She felt most comfortable around him, being able to tell him and anything without judgment, for the most part.

"Alan McClellan.  We call him Yeah-Yeah." Benny introduced next.  Yeah-Yeah spat onto the ground, Squints snickering next to him.  Yeah-Yeah seemed like a kid that was able to handle himself.  He looked like the type who doesn't care about what others think of him, but Jackie knew that was false.  Yeah-Yeah would tell Jackie any time someone would hurt his feelings, which happened to be a lot of times.  He was a sensitive kid, which Jackie didn't mind.

"Bertram Grover Weeks," Benny said, Bertram spat.  Bertram looked like he was the oldest, given how tall he was.  Benny and Jackie were both older than him by a few months.  Bertram was the most distant from Jackie, but they were still good friends.  He actually didn't need glasses up until a month prior, his eyesight suddenly becoming very bad.  Bertram also didn't say much, being one of the quietest members of the group.  At least he wasn't loud and annoying.

"Kenny DeNunez." Kenny spat onto the ground.  Kenny was probably the nicest of the group.  If there ever was a fight, he'd be the second to break it up, Benny being the first.  He was always the pitcher when they played baseball, Jackie had never seen him play in the outfield.  He was pretty good at pitching though, so it made sense that he would always pitch.  Kenny is also one of the oldest, being close to Bertram's age.  Jackie didn't know why everyone looked so much older than her, she felt like a midget and gets told she is by lots of people all the time.

"And Hamilton Porter." Benny finished, "We call him Ham." Ham Spat onto the ground lastly.  Ham was definitely the funny one.  He always knew how to make others laugh.  The thing was, he doesn't try to make people laugh on purpose, he just does it without even trying.  As a reward for being so hilarious, Jackie let him keep her Yankee hat.  He always wanted one after seeing Timmy's Yankee hat.  The only problem with Ham was he was very blunt.  He doesn't realize how rude his words can be sometimes.  In a way though, that's what made him so funny.

"Guys, this is Scott Smalls." Benny pointed to the boy next to him who was processing all the information he had just been told. 

"Hi." Scotty waved, expecting the boys to reply back.  All the boys didn't say anything, they either look the other way or spat onto the ground. 

"Don't be jerks, guys," Jackie warned, placing a hand on Scotty's back for comfort.  He was already awkward enough for the poor boy.  Jackie was good at scaring the boys or intimidating them.  One threat, and everyone's silent.  She could see the apologetic faces they all had, but still, no one said anything to Scotty or even batted him an eye.

"Yeah, um, well, he's gonna play with us 'cause he makes ten.  So, now we've got a whole team.  We're wasting time.  Let's go to the sandlot." Benny said, nudging Scotty and making his way to the sandlot.  Jackie was afraid to hear everyone's protests, but everyone was too busy complaining to Benny about how early in the morning it was.

"Benny, it's 9:00 in the morning," Bertram said, pushing Scotty out of his way.  He knocked into Jackie who caught him before he could fall, once again.  The kid was lighter than a feather, not a good sign for the future.  Ham bent over and picked up the baseball bat that Squints left on the ground and follow Bertram.  Kenny glared at Scotty as he passed him, the rest of the boys just ignoring Scotty.

"Did I do something?" Scotty wondered, looking to Jackie.

"No, you didn't.  They're just idiots." Jackie sighed, walking to catch up with Kenny.  Scotty followed behind slowly, not wanting to annoy anyone further.  Jackie felt bad that everyone was being so rude to him, but she wasn't surprised.  It was quite expected that they weren't gonna want him on the team.  She just hoped Scotty wouldn't embarrass himself any more then he already did.