baseball boy
𐬿 𐮚 ミ☆ ★彡 𐮚 𐬿
THE NIGHT BEFORE WAS UNBEARABLE FOR SCARLETT RAE, the girl hyperventilating and sobbing until the early hours of the morning. The time spent reminiscing her earlier years when she was younger and her father were still alive, when life was more simple and better. She couldn't fathom how different it was now, so dull and empty when the crinkled photographs proved the exact opposite, bright and happy, when she was just a little girl learning about the world she was growing up in. But now it felt like she had grown up too fast, tainted from the reality, despising the direction life had taken her and her family.
By the time the sun had risen above the horizon, the redheaded teen was still slumped over her bed, buried under the fluffy covers that she had begged for months ago, wearing the same outfit from the night before. Helen lightly knocked on her door and entered into the room without waiting for a response, knowing that Scarlett was most likely still sleeping. The mothers heart strings tugged at the sight of crunched photos on her daughters floor beside the window, already knowing who were standing in those photos.
Helen Brasstin (née Porter) had heard the crying all night long, as everyone in the household did, but no one dared to try and comfort the girl in her hysterical state. Scarlett was hard to tame, as she never had to be when Niko encouraged her to be wild and free. Nikolas Porter was one to let his daughter step on his toes, but Helen was not and it irked her that she allowed her Scarlett to grow into one who didn't take orders from anyone, not even herself.
Sitting down at the edge of her daughters bed, the woman swept a soft finger along the girls cheek, parting hair that fell in front of her face as she slept.
She sighed before gently shaking her exposed shoulder, "Coccinella, it's past twelve o'clock, you need to get up." Helen spoke with a soothing voice, she couldn't help but feel the guilt clawing at her throat from the events that happened the night before.
Scarlett groaned, her face slightly peeking out from under the covers as her red hair freely sprawled around her. She pouted, feeling the heaviness weighing down her eyelids, "I don't wanna, I'm too tired."
Helen let out an airy laugh, "You have to start the day sometime, go outside and hang out with your friends! How late did you stay up last night?" She already knew the answer to that, hearing her daughters cries kept her up, haunting her.
"I don't remember." Scarlett shrugged as she sat up, her bed head falling down over her eyes as her mother gently swooped it away and out of her face.
Helen noticed the red and puffy eyes, the clothes from last night still on her back and tear stains littering along the tank top but she thought it to be wise to not pester her about it, she already knew the troubles of Scarlett and the girl had shut her out of her emotions since she remarried. Helen couldn't blame her daughter or her sons for any of their displeased feelings, they deserved to have them but unfortunately, she had moved on, not wanting to hold onto the past and have it weigh her down, she wasn't the type of person to dwell on her sorrows for long.
"How about you take a shower and I'll make you brunch, how does that sound?" Helen offered, smiling brightly. Scarlett nodded, the mother grinned at her daughter before kissing the top of her head and heading out of her room, descending to the kitchen to begin something that Scarlett would like.
Scarlett was grateful for her mother, even if she never expressed her true feelings out loud. The rough past between the two never deterred her love for her mother, the girl held an appreciation toward the sacrifices that the woman had to make just to keep food on the table for her and her brothers when she was just a single mother trying to scrape by.
Scarlett rose from her bed, stretching out her long limbs before moving over to her dresser, collecting a new pair of undergarments and a thin white floral dress. She went off to the bathroom and took a decent timed shower, soaking up the warmth from the water, something that she didn't have the joy of having at the boarding school, most of the warm water turned cold by the time she showered.
After finishing with her shower and dressing for the day, Scarlett munched on a delighted waffle as her mother stood at the sink, washing previous dishes from the boys that already had breakfast and were out enjoying their days. Ham was with his friends, most likely playing baseball, Davide ventured off to work for overtime while Tyler went over to one of his friends houses for a birthday party.
Eventually the girl scarfed down her entire breakfast before she placed her clean plate into the sink, "Thank you for breakfast momma, it was delicious," One thing that she had learned from The California Boarding School for Troubled Girls was that it was polite to always thank the chef, it'd deem useless to not use the manners forced upon her, knowing it would please her mother.
The vindication claiming it's place as she watched Helen beam, looking proud of her, "You're welcome sweetheart. Have any plans for the day?"
The girl shrugged, "Not really, I think I might read in the garden."
"You're free to do so bug, but I do have one thing I want to talk to you about before I leave, I need to grab some groceries," Scarlett internally groaned, hoping that her next words weren't what she was thinking, "About last night," Unfortunately, she was right, "Scarlett, this isn't you-"
"Then what am I like, mom?" She grilled.
"Not this! This is not my daughter, you used to be so happy and full of life, you had the weight of the world off of your shoulders and you were so carefree! I-I can't even begin to think what could of happened to my little girl for her to have grown this shell," Helen broke down, not being able to hold back any longer as teardrops rolled their way down her cheeks, desperately searching into her daughters identical green eyes for an answer, anything.
"I want the best for you, but I can't help you if you continue to shut everybody out," Helen grabbed ahold of Scarlett's hand, comfort radiating from her soft hands, "You can't take your anger and frustration towards the world or even towards me out on Davide anymore, enough is enough Scarlett Rae. I know he's not you're dad, he's not Niko and he won't ever be but he's trying his best for you and I hope one day that you see how much your stepfather loves you."
Scarlett let the words skin in as her mind filled with utter chaos, not wanting to accept the man as her stepfather but she knew that Helen was right, he loved her like his own daughter. No matter how she treated the man, Davide pushed past it and continued to root for her, wanting nothing but for her to succeed. Even if she hated to admit it, Davide was a good man even if he had a loose temper that was mostly because of her anyway.
"I'll be here whenever you're ready to talk to me about anything, does that sound alright bug?" Scarlett kept quiet but nodded, her mother gave her a warm smile before leaving the kitchen, grabbing her belongings as she made her way to the front entrance, "Be back in a bit!" And with that, the Brasstin/Porter house stilled.
Scarlett tried to not let the words affect her too much, she couldn't help but agree with everything that Helen had said. She did push people away, she never talked about her feelings or thoughts openly, she used to be judicious but now she was careless. Anything could happen at any minute and unfortunately for Scarlett, she had to learn that at a young age and she guessed that's why she's grown a cocoon to protect herself. She didn't want to get close to people just for them to leave her, no that wasn't how it worked for her and that's why she hurt them. She used boys to their advantage, got them attached and hooked on her before she was off onto the next, leaving them high and dry in the dust.
Shaking the thought off, she grabbed a magazine and stepped out of the glass sliding doors that led into the backyard, wanting to get her mind off of everything. The tall wet grass sunk under her bare feet as she walked further into her comfort place, loving the feeling of the warm sun against her skin until a nearby sprinkler sprayed itself at her making her squeal.
The girl couldn't help but laugh, dancing along the cold water before she took a seat, sprawling out on her stomach and pulling out the magazine to dig her face into, she didn't mind the water soaking into her clothes as it kept her cool under the blazing sun. Humming a familiar tune, her free toes dug into the moist dirt as her focus stayed on the pages beneath her, her body shielding the glossed paper from most of the water that spritzed over the green grass that tickled against her tanned skin.
The sound of pubescent boys and her mother filled her home, but she didn't pay much attention to it, her eyes stayed skimming along the pages in between her fingers.
"Benny, can you go get the bat? It's in the backyard!" She heard her little brother yell from inside before a different boy responded, footsteps growing louder until they abruptly stopped.
"Woah," The boy breathed out, taken aback by the random girl that was laid out in his best friends backyard, he definitely wasn't expecting to see something like this.
The girl glanced up from her magazine, seeing a tall tan boy gawking at her as if she were a goddess. She smiled at him, showing off her metal retainer. Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez couldn't help but become completely captivated, his heart hammering inside his chest as his brown eyes trailed up and down her exposed figure, he was addicted, he needed more. He didn't have any doubt in his mind that she was the most beautiful thing in the entire world, he could stare at her for hours and never grow tired of the view of her, she truly was a sight for sore eyes.
"Benny!" Ham's voice brought the poor boy out of his daydream before he shook his head, avoiding the girl who watched him with interest and grabbed the bat he was sent out to retrieve, heading back into the house not giving the girl another glance as he hurriedly passed her.
There would have been consequences if he did, Benny knew that he wouldn't be able to deter without becoming starstruck again.
𐬿 𐮚 ミ★ ☆彡 𐮚 𐬿
"Who was that girl in your backyard?" Benny questioned the Porter boy as soon as they walked out of Ham's house and headed back to The Sandlot. He couldn't keep his mind off of her, he was intrigued by her.
"Girl? What girl?" Mike 'Squints' asked, confused.
"Oh, that's Scarlett," Ham simply replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Is she your cousin or somethin'?" Timmy interrogated.
"Is she your cousin or somethin'?" Tommy repeated.
"Ham, you have a girl living in your house, and you never bothered to tell us?" Bertram grilled, his face scrunching together in distaste.
The temperature rose in Ham's body, feeling super frustrated with his friends, "She's my sister, you dimwits!" Ham defended, annoyed. Out of all of the years the boys had knew their chubby friend, he never once brought up or mentioned anything about having a sister, probably for a good reason.
"When in the hell did you get a sister?" Kenny quizzed.
"Yeah yeah! Did she land from outer space, like Jupiter?" Alan 'Yeah-yeah' moked.
The freckled boy huffed, rolling his blue eyes, "No, you guys just never met her before nor have I ever even told you about her. She goes to this boarding school for 'misbehaving young ladies' so she's gone for most of the year, but she gets to come home for break, only sometimes though," Ham explained, appearing slightly upset that he didn't get to see his sister as much as he'd hope too.
Benny's eyebrow rose, " 'School for misbehaving girls', what'd she do to get into that?" He asked, slightly interested.
"Why ya askin'? You have a crush on my sister or somethin', huh Benny man?" Ham called out, teasing Benny.
All of the other boys made kissing noises, poking at their tall tan friend, "Oh, I love you Scarlett, will you marry me?"
"Shut up, pendejos." Benny mumbled, his face burning hot.
They turned into The Sandlot while all of the boys continued pulling on Benny's leg, finding it funny when his face turned beet red and the boy stayed silent the whole walk to the field, they knew that they were right. Ham wasn't sure what to make of the situation, he could tell the Benny had grown some type of interest for his sister for him to be acting like this. But Ham didn't want to see his friend get hurt, no, it wouldn't happen. He couldn't help but wonder, would his sister become a better person or stay reckless?
Hamilton Nikolas Porter wasn't naive, he knew what Scarlett did to other people, boys around their ages. Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez had taken the title as his best friend, his father once doing the same with Benny's father. He held a special place for the Rodriguez kid in his heart, though he wouldn't ever confess it out loud, talking about your feelings was a girly thing to do, he thought to himself.
"Base up, you blockheads!" Benny bellowed, his face still dark red from blushing. The boys cackled, tussling around before taking their positions on the field, never giving their pitcher friend any peace for the rest of the day.
𐬿 𐮚 ミ☆ ★彡 𐮚 𐬿
"That's thrilling, do you think he's cute?!" Allison Paige Wilson freaked after hearing about Scarlett seeing the one and only Benjamin Rodriguez in her own backyard today. Other girls their age would've died to be in Scarlett's position, she held an upper hand of control over the ball game, not that the redhead knew that yet.
Since Ally attended the San Fernando Valley public school with her childhood buddy's brother and his friends, she's found that almost every single girl at her school was head over heels for the baseball boy, most of her classmates waxing lyrical material about Benny, wanting him for themselves. The small blonde didn't hold the same fascination for the Rodriguez boy that her peers did, he was a grade over and did nothing but play baseball while staining his clothes and filth and dirt weren't ever her thing.
"I wouldn't have said anything if I hadn't," Scarlett pointed out, resting on Ally's porch swing, her head laid in the girls lap. She couldn't get the boy out of her mind for the rest of the day, it was like an annoying fly that buzzed around your ear, reminding you that it's still there and alive, "Do you think he's seeing someone?"
Ally pondered for a minute, her dainty fingers finding their way in her friends loose hair, "I'm not sure, he's quite the catch for a lot of girls around here. But he's always playing baseball with your brother and his friends, I don't think he'd have time for something like that," The blonde answered truthfully, often when she'd ride her bike around the town, she'd always see the boys together, "Why don't you ask Hammy?" She proposed.
"Like I'd ask my little brother if his bestie is single? Yeah, no thanks," The redhead derided, she would never go to her brothers for boy advice, it didn't feel right to her for them to know what she'd do in her free time.
Their other friend, Jessica, could be seen from down the sidewalk, pacing her way to their friends front porch where the other girls were perched. She sent them a wave, the two returning the action. Once the brunette stepped up to the groaning wooden porch, Ally shot up from the swing bench and tackled her other friend in a bear hug, the same hug she shared with Scarlett earlier.
"I missed you so much, Jess!" Ally clutched onto the girl as Jessica patted her back awkwardly, not really the one to show any type affection.
"Yeah, I missed you too Als, but you don't have to squeeze me to death," Jessica wheezed, letting out a breath as Ally released her from her grip.
"Sorry," The small girl apologized sheepishly, tucking a chunk of her blonde hair behind her pierced ear. The two girls wandered their way towards the porch swing where Scarlett stayed seated, watching the two of them interact.
"Hey," Jessica greeted Scarlett who simply nodded back, continuing to suck on one of her red lollipops that she got from her big brother.
The three best friends rocked on the bench in silence, sitting shoulder to shoulder as a small breeze ran up to them in warm stale summer air.
Scarlett pulled the sucker from her mouth, "Jessie, I think I might have a new boy toy for the summer," At that, her friend's attention whipped towards the red haired young woman.
Before Jessica could doubt her, Ally had to put her two cents in, "Boy toy? Please tell me you're not going to treat him like all of those other boys you strung around. What is it with you and breaking hearts?" Ally pestered, not liking where this was going.
"Me? Breaking hearts? I could never!" She dramatically gasped.
"I'm serious Scarlett, he's your brothers best friend!" Ally reminded.
"Like that'll stop me-"
"Scarlett Rae Porter," The redhead eyes turned into slits at the use of her assigned name, "You're not going to do this again, we won't let you. This isn't you."
Scarlett groaned, "Why does everyone keep telling me that?"
"What's he like?" Jessica asked, trying to avert the conversation.
"Tall, tan, brown hair and eyes, the most kissable lips that you could ever imagine dreaming of," Scarlett bit her lip, "Hm, he also had a layer of sweat and dirt that made him glow, god, why am I like this?"
"He must be one of those hardcore baseball boys I've been hearing about?" Jessica questioned, plopping her leg onto Ally's lap before the blonde grabbed it tenderly.
Ally nodded, knowing almost everything about The Sandlots tightly knit friend group as she shared classes with most of them and would occasionally watch them from afar at their daily games that they played during school, "He is. All those pupils do is play ball. I'd say they're pretty good, they beat almost everyone," She paused, her eyes glazing over as something popped in mind, "They never keep count of their wins though which I find strange, it's always bat and ball with those boys. I don't get it personally, it's so time consuming."
"Hm," Jessica hummed, taking in the information her friend had just laid out to her, "Does he have a girlfriend?"
Ally shook her head, "Not that I know of, all of the girls always talk about him but I don't think he's really interested in anyone at school."
Scarlett smirked, pressing her back onto the swing as her mind consumed of the boy, knowing that she could get him in no time with the way he was gawking at her earlier, she tended to have that affect on people.
Jessica scoffed, noticing the smugness on Scarlett's face, "What? Think you can get your mittens on him?"
"You think I can't?" Scarlett retorted, a scowl coming over her face.
The brunette shrugged, "I don't know, he seems to have a bunch of girls falling at his feet," She slid her leg off of Ally, sitting up straight to converse with the redhead.
"So? What makes you think that I can't have him falling at mine?" Scarlett disputed, she didn't know why her friend was all of the sudden doubting her actions now, it's not like this wasn't done before.
"You shouldn't keep leading people on like this, you do it every time we come back home," Jessica stated, the air grew thick and Ally got antsy when the girls glared at each other as words were continued to be thrown back and forth.
"Not like you don't do the same thing!" Scarlett stood from the swing, her hands clenching into fists as her lollipop was long forgotten about.
Jessica rolled her eyes, scoffing at the redhead, "Whatever," She arose from beside her friends, shoving her shoulder into Scarlett's as she made her way off of the porch, striding her way home.
"Yeah that's right, run off like you always do when you're told the truth, you bitch!" Scarlett hollered, but she was ignored leaving her to huff and start trudging to her own home, leaving Ally stunned in silence that this all happened in the span of minutes.
✃------------------------------------------------
Translations:
"Coccinella" - "ladybug"
"Pendejos" - "assholes"
a/n:
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Word count: 3619
ILYSM🤍
edited & revisited: 10/24/2022 & 12/29/2023